Collaborate!

When I first started this blog, it was a way for me to keep a record of the little projects that I was doing, but also to share them as I went along. Not much has changed since then, except that from now on bubble and the dusky is going to be a place of more ideas than just my own. And on that note, I would like to welcome Sarah Chiles and Sarah Hutchinson! Yes, three Sarahs on one blog! This idea of collaborating is something we spoke about many years ago and are finally getting started with. Although we all lived together a few years ago, we now live in very different cities (Sarah Spring (me) – Joburg, Sarah Chiles – Durban, and Sarah Hutchinson – Cape Town). And while we each have different interests and fields of expertise (Me – fine art/books and book-making/teaching, Hutchie – botany/conservation/art/music, Chiles – anthropology/conservation/urban studies/music), we all have shared views of the beauty and opportunity that surrounds us. Below is a brief explanation of the name of this blog and the beginning of this exciting new blog adventure!

  Bubble and the dusky is a phrase that came about during a word-based art work I created. I was paging through books and cutting out words and phrases that weren’t necessarily intended by the author eg:

 

 This phrase didn’t quite suit the tone of the anthology I was creating, but something about it caught my attention and I didn’t want to let it go. Instead, I stuck it onto my laptop where it has slowly corroded since.

 

 

 

 Apart from the unusual ring it seems to have, for me this phrase symbolises a way of seeing, of looking in and around the obvious, to see the subtle beauties and wonders around us. When Sarah Chiles first heard it (out of context of this explanation), her response was, "When I think of the word dusky, I think of this bird called the Dusky Flycatcher which is a little grey bird with 'whiskers' and a sweet call. It perches in trees in forest edges looking for insects. And well, bubbles have lots of nice connotations - imagination, child-likeness, speech etc." This interpretation seems to fit in perfectly with the tone I was trying to set here. So here’s to sweet imaginings and playful flight!