HEATHER ELIZA WALKER
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29 December: A shining star for 2021!

29/12/2020

 
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It's mid-festive season already, and the New Year is approaching fast. So far Christmas has been a five-day pyjama party for me, hurrah! I wonder if I can make it last a whole week? Probably. I'm not proud, and quite happy to answer the door and take in grocery deliveries wearing PJs.

It is a very peculiar time. Everyone here took the Bank Holiday in lieu of Sunday's Boxing Day very seriously, and it was so quiet here, aided by the weather which was dark, windy, freezing and brought ice and snow overnight. This morning the back garden was so snowy and icy the dog slipped down a gap by the fence and had to be rescued - no harm done, except she was very cold and I had to wash her jumper and dry it on the radiator. That's the level of excitement here, and I'm happy for it to be that way!

Can anyone imagine what Hogmanay in lockdown will be like? I'm curious to see what will happen. I'm afraid I'm rather boring, preferring a quiet night in with Jools Holland's Hootenanny (if I manage to stay up that late) and a glass of fizz to any amount of partying, so probably not so different here ...
Anyway, I hope you are finding something to make you happy and rejoice even if your plans were spoiled, and I wish you all a very happy 2021.

20 December: Time Flies

20/12/2020

 
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It's impossible to say why I have run out of time so much that I didn't get around to a journal entry this week. We are only having a quiet Christmas, so I thought there would be nothing to do! - but never mind, I have been collecting ideas for how to move out of being stuck and will start posting again regularly in the New Year.
In the mean time, here is a picture of one of my favourite Christmas decorations - a phone box, which seems appropriate as a reminder of the way most of us are all going to stay in touch over the festive season this year. It will be FaceTime and Zooms all across the land! I hope that you have a fun-filled holiday even if it isn't what you hoped Santa would bring, and that you make all the best of it.

13 December: Getting stuck

13/12/2020

 
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Ugh, getting stuck. Who loves that feeling. There are ghastly times when work hides behind a curtain while fire-fighting and just struggling with being alive is all you can do; it happens, and that’s okay. It takes time to heal and it’ll fade into the background. But what about those other times, when everything is apparently fine and hunky-dory - but the bogeyman comes to visit. He settles into your brain like a bleak, growly fog just when art should be proliferating, and all your efforts get scrunched up and hurled into the bin.
Take heart, that can be a project in itself.

Images, clockwise from top left:
Latifa Echakhch Globus (b) 2007
Martin Creed Work No.88 1995
Ívar Valgardsson Watercolour 2011
John Chamberlain Penthouse #50 1969

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4 December: My notebooks

4/12/2020

 
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It’s time to talk about ... Notebooks!
After a busy few weeks of card-making closely followed by Folktale Week on Instagram over at my Binky McKee Illustration account, my notebooks had become rather neglected and deranged, and I felt the need for tidying in time for the new year. I always have several books on the go at the same time which I dip in and out of for years, collecting and adding ideas. I photographed six current ones opened at random pages in my work room this morning. The oldest dates back to 2009. Over time they acquire affectionate nicknames, which I labelled above.
You might notice one small notebook is named ‘The Messy Drawer’, although most of them are pretty messy, and The Messy Drawer isn’t as messy as the Book of Materials. I think it refers mostly to my thought processes rather than its appearance, as it was the originator for my Confused Flags series for Brexit. The Book of Materials contains scraps of experiments with different media such as wax, inks, oils, metal leaf, and drawings made with unlikely instruments. All my finished works originate in these books one way or another, and there are usually two or three open in my desk with a large one on the floor as I work.

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‘Fairisle + Form (Ol’ Scruffy)’ is probably the one I would have to save if there was a fire. I don’t know how I would begin again if there was a fire and I lost them. I think I would dig around in the ashes, retrieving anything recognisable and make the ‘Fire Book’, resplendent with singed edges and scorch marks. I imagine it would have an unpleasant odour and get renamed ‘The Smelly Book’.

They should all probably be locked in an iron safe, but then they wouldn’t be part of my life any more. And I’d probably forget the key code.
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    I work a LOT in sketchbooks and always have several on the go. My dad was an architect and naval draughtsman, and after he died in 2017 I found heaps of old templates while clearing out his study. Always having been an avid collector of shapes, at the beginning of this year I bought a WHSmith A5 diary to use as a sketchbook specifically for work based on them.
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    As well as the work you see here, I illustrate under the name of Binky McKee (my mother's maiden name was McKee, Binky was every single one of my great grandmother's many cats!)
    If you would like to visit my Binky website, please click the picture above.
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    Candle-light shadows. I set up little 'night theatres' in my bedroom. As darkness falls, I light strategically placed candles and watch the plays begin. A perfect activity for the darkest days of winter.
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    A 2013 work book, still very much in use
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    Please note all images on this website are ©Heather Eliza Walker 2013 - 2020, and may not be used or reproduced without prior consent.
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