Two Cans are Better than None!

Hello all existing and potential "Tou-cans" :) - sorry - had to write it at least once!,

I am so excited about starting a new collaboration and the time frame will fit in perfectly with our move to Toowoomba. I plan to set up a new studio and get stuck into the many creative ideas floating around in my head that I can't do anything with as all my art gear is packed away ready for the move.

Two Cans & a Piece of String is a great concept - at first I couldn't quite decide if I could go there or not. After finally finishing the painting, cleaning & decluttering of our house to put on the market I realised that a new creative challenge is just what I need.

I have some ideas in my head - will keep them to myself for now until we get closer to starting - but they include paper, metal - maybe glass, the alphabet in another language and obviously some string. I am going to step away from the conventional postal arrangements we have had with previous collaborations and basically I am ready to go! I could actually get started - if only I had my art gear on hand!

Tracey - the blog is great - you have done a great job as usual. Peta - I look forward to your fabulous leadership - are you taking on that role again?? Existing and future collaboration participants - I look forward to yet another creative journey with you and sharing ideas and creating new friends. I look forward to new blogs and especially photos as time goes on.

Your friend in "Creative Withdrawal Mode" - Olley

Peta Kicks Off Discussion About The Next Collaboration

This...from Peta, begins our 'conversation' about the next collaboration:

What a wonderful weekend!!!

It’s hard to believe that this time last weekend we were dancing up a storm at Ferns!!!

The weekend was a most fantastical time! The books were.....amazing and awe inspiring......our Chinese Whispers game did not disappoint us....the visual game was just as interesting as any verbal Chinese whispers that I’ve ever played!! The time could have only been improved by the presence of our three missing artists!!

My heartfelt thankyou goes to each and every one of you, present or not, for being such wonderful, inspiring, creative, amazing people!! I have enjoyed every minute of the creative ride that we have shared together, albeit it in a shroud of secrecy, over the past 20 or so months....wow it was a long collaboration wasn’t it?

It was worth the wait though wasn’t it? to see those books being unveiled and to learn the originating artist’s themes. To actually be able to see how and when each whisperer recounted the ‘story’ complete with our own slant and interpretation was indeed insightful!

Once again thank you for all you each did towards making the weekend a wonderful culmination to our Whispers collaboration!!

Now for the next collaboration........

Of course we needed a lot more time to be able to throw around ideas and nut out a new idea....however in our usual enthusiastic manner we did manage to make a healthy start! I will try to capture our thinking around the next adventure, this way we can continue throwing ideas around......Olley, JacQ and Lindesay I hope this helps you all to come up to speed and to also contribute to the discussion.....

The ideas we came up with were:

v To not have a secret theme! We all agreed that what we love about collaborating is the ‘conversations’, the sharing of ideas, thoughts, techniques etc We value the relationships we have with each other through the discussions, questions, comments that we can make either face to face, email, through the blog, snail mail etc (more about this below)

· We all like the rounds being one month, it seems to help us to stay focused, as well as gives us enough time to complete the work without getting too stressed! It helps those artists who need a deadline! On this point some artists were aware that they fell behind sometimes...we all agreed that there are times that this can occur, (with any of us), and that these delays were unavoidable....here’s the idea we came up with in order to keep all the books flowing if delays occur:

“If an artist is unable to complete their double page spread in the designated time frame then they will be expected to record the theme of that book, the size of the double page spread and any other information they feel is necessary for them to complete the pages without the book in their possession (eg photocopy of their chosen double page spread if it contains images/text that they wish to incorporate into their work, photocopy of the sign in page etc). After completing the above the artist posts the book to whomever they usually post to at the usual time at the end of the round, minus their work. It is then the responsibility of the artist to complete the pages and post them to the OA for attachment into the book as soon as is practically possible. This guideline is in place to assist with keeping all the books flowing around. “

v The blog is a great idea! It wasn’t used as much with the Chinese Whispers collaboration, probably because of the ‘secrecy’. However we all felt that it was well used with the Altered Book Collaboration and would be well used again for the next collaboration.

v We also all liked the freedom of being able to create our own individual book format, whether it was already bound at the start or remained unbound until the completion was completely acceptable, in fact the surprise of seeing how each artist decided to bind their book was another lovely aspect of this collaboration!

v Once we defined the above aspects we moved onto discussion ideas for a concept to give the collaboration some common ground...the idea of ‘communication’ was tossed around, (we all agreed that communication is a most important aspect for a collaboration), we brainstormed a number of ways in which we communicate; one on one – verbal, body language, emotions, sign language, touch, facial expressions etc...we discussed the idea that whatever we each came up with for our individual theme we would need to tie it back to the concept of ‘communication’.........we left our discussion here as we realised our time was growing short for the packing up process.......

Later on.........a few of us resumed the conversation back at Toad Hall, it seems we had each been thinking and talking further during our drive, we had each come up with further ways of communication, eg letters, telegrams, emails...then we hit on it...or at least we think it was IT.....the concept is communication, the overall title of the collaboration could be:

“Two tin cans and a piece of string”

Which I see as the ‘intention to communicate’, with whatever method is chosen!! We have all tried the ‘two tin cans and a piece of string’ method and of course it works so long as the two people involved are in close enough proximity to each other!!!! but the ‘intent’ is there........

so what do you all think???????????? Comments, further discussion, other ideas please!!!!!

love Peta xxxx

The Beginnings of "Two Tin Cans and a Piece Of String"

It started out as the Chinese Whispers Collaboration....

We all converged at Fern's Hideaway in Byfield, had a great weekend...as evidenced by our happy family snap (Nanette is hidden right down the back, and Tamara is half obscured...sorry girls!)

We shared our books..... 

and great company!

And knew we had to do it all again.

So...here is the new collaborative blog. A place for us to explore the nuances of  "Two Tin Cans and a Piece Of String"; to fine tune the details, and continue to share our individual and collective artistic journeys.

Look forward to catching up with everyone!