Paul Watson’s notes on ongoing artwork, giving an insight into the creative process.
I’ve just got back from this week’s letterpress workshop where I managed to print some proofs (photo below) of the title and half-title pages of the Book of the Erinyes. These two pages will make up the first signature of the book. The signatures only consist of 2 sheets (8 pages in total,…
As the pace has started to pick up on the Book of the Erinyes project I decided it was time to get some much-needed bookbinding practice. I’d sewn together a collection of blank signatures a week-or-so ago and tipped on the endpapers, but I was feeling somewhat nervous about the case binding. Today…
Last year I did an evening course in Letterpress Printing at the Brighton Independent Printmaking centre. Last week Les Ellis, the course tutor, invited me back for a 4-evening follow-on course where I could work on my own project, but with Les Ellis and colleague John Packer on hand to refresh…
Just got back from seeing Romilly Saumarez Smith: Bookbindings for Eileen Hogan at the V&A. It’s a small exhibition, just outside the National Art Library, but it’s definitely worth a visit. Obviously I was on the look-out for inspiration for binding the Book of the Erinyes, and Romilly Saumarez…
I’m lucky to be on a work trip to New York at the moment, and this morning—my bodyclock still working on UK time, and the rain pouring down—I managed to grab some time to visit the Morgan Library and Museum on Madison Avenue, not far from my hotel. The Morgan began as the private library…
A couple of weeks ago I did the first set of “official” photographs with Dawn (who is modelling in the role of Tisiphone). Despite some problems with my camera (serves me right for being lazy and relying on the auto-focus when I was shooting in low light!) I managed to get some great photos,…
Inspiration #1: The following passage from a wonderful book by Gene Wolfe called The Shadow of the Torturer where the protagonist Severian is listening to the reminiscences of the old blind Librarian, Master Ultan. I first read this book when I was 14, back in 1984. I’ve probably re-read it 20…
A very quick post to say that you can follow the progress of this project (and of my other projects) by following me on Twitter. Just go to twitter.com/lazcorp and click ‘follow’.…
My friend Michael Kemp just pointed me at an interpretation of the Furies that I hadn’t seen before — Slavko Vorkapić’s excellent montage sequence for the 1934 film Crime Without Passion (written and directed by Charles MacArthur & Ben Hecht). Slavko Vorkapić (1894–1976) was a Serbian-American…
The unplanned suspension of work on the Book of the Erinyes over the past couple of months (due in no small part to moving house) has proved serendipitous — I’ve been thinking a lot about the planned artwork, and each idea is now wrapped in an abundance of layers. As well as allowing me to…