Barbara A Morton ~ Entropie Books

I am a St Andrews based author, artist, curator, and bookmaker. In 2014 I established Entropie Books to publish small fine print editions of my poetry, literature, artist books, drawings, and pamphlets. My artistic and literary practice incorporates the arts of poetry, printmaking, bookbinding, typography, papermaking, and chine-collé to present my literary texts and abstract geometric drawings in an exact and deliberate visual form.

The environment, the home of the text, is critical. Likewise, typography ~ how the text resides upon the page ~ is crucial. Resisting uniformity of design each published title is hand-crafted and intuitively considered to achieve an equilibrium of artistic form and literary content.

My work is also published widely in national and international journals and anthologies. And my fine art books and prints have been exhibited in Scotland by the Royal Scottish Academy, The Edinburgh Drawing School, Dundee Contemporary Arts, The Meffan Museum and Art Gallery, Birnam Institute, St Andrews University Library, and The Edinburgh College of Art Library. I am the recipient of literary and artistic awards, most recently the prestigious Meffan Institute Purchase Prize for The Word Itself is a Musical Sound.

Self-taught or Art School?

Self-taught. Even so, the books I choose to read are faithful educators ~ I return to them often.

Likewise, ~ practice is a great teacher ~ and a reliable way of getting to know what it is you want to get to know.

And patience. Waiting for the work to be exact.

And concentration.

Read. Think. Practice. Patience.

If you could own one piece of artwork, what would it be?

Three. The three minds cannot be separate ~

By Louis le Brocquy from the Portrait Head Series ~ The poet’s head as an image of consciousness. In these paintings, Louis le Brocquy presents not just a physical image, which is itself accurate but also releases to the viewer a sense of each writer’s inner consciousness. Everything that is expressed in these paintings is accurate. They are more than an image ~ they become a way of seeing. The persona cannot be denied.

Image of W B Yeats, 1976. Oil on canvas. 70 x 70 cm

~ because when I was writing my MA dissertation on the significance of the collective unconscious in the work of WB Yeats and C G Jung, this was the image I kept in mind

Image of James Joyce 1978 Oil on canvas. 70 x 70 cm

~ because he is the forerunner ~ even, the archetype

Image of Samuel Becket 1987

~ for all the truth he expresses ~ most of all for his poetry

How would you describe your style?

Exactness. Harmonic. Consistent ~ with small gradual movements over time.

Can you tell us about your artistic process?

Sensations come first. Then a story builds ~ in my head. And then I must handwrite it all down in my notebook. After I type what I have written and as I do so I watch how the words appear on the page. I watch how they arrange themselves. I look for form. I think very carefully about what I have written ~ I begin to make adjustments. Perhaps I will replace one word with another ~ for exactness.

Thus ~ poetry arrives. The words settle onto a line. A shape assembles on the page. Adjusts. Shifts. Until it becomes satisfied. Settles. Correctly upon the page.

I print out the text. And take the page in my hand. I come away from the computer. I read what I have written as if I have not written it. I check for accuracy. I ask myself ~ is this what was in my mind. Is it the same?

All the while shape and colour are becoming a part of the text.

I think ~what size is this? How many pages? Shall I bind the pages together? Or shall they be loosely arranged in the sequence I choose?

I start to imagine materials ~ paper and ink and pencil and cloth. And colour.

I visualise the methods ~ Calligraphy. Drawing. Screen Print. Letterpress. Chine collé.

I place paper samples upon my desk ~ Handmade paper. Japanese shoji. Fabriano.

I evaluate the poem upon the page. Then I begin to draw ~ and the drawings are not illustrations. The drawings are in harmony with the text ~ and allow for contemplation in the reading of the text. And then ~ a home for all of this. I begin the book design ~ I incorporate strict rules of craftmanship. The Environment. Is critical.

Where is your studio? What is it like?

My home is my studio. I think and write and read and draw in every room. Things happen differently in different rooms. And at different times. As the light alters. I see things differently.

And ~ very recently we converted our garage ~ now I may spread out my pencils and my paper. Alongside my many books, bookshelves store rows of A4 document wallets and I try to remember all that I have stored there. And there are three long trestle tables ~ one for cutting paper and book cloth, one for layout and planning and boxes of pencils, and one as my writing desk. Here ~ also ~ my restored nineteenth-century Hampson & Bettridge printing press and my trays of letterpress type ~ which Matt of Paekakariki Press very kindly cast for me. From Spring through to late Autumn, most days, I open the doors wide ~ and look out onto the trees and hear the gorgeous sound of birdsong.

Do you have any studio rituals?

Music

Anything presented by Elizabeth Alker will be perfect ~ especially Unclassified. Likewise ~ Night Tracks, hosted by Sara Mohr-Pietsch and Hannah Peel. And J to Z when hosted by Kevin le Gendre. After supper ~ on vinyl ~ Alice Coltrane ~ and if I want words, and the reliability of the subconscious ~ Veedon Fleece and Astral Weeks by Van Morrison.

Notebooks

A whole series of. And sketchbook journals. And diaries. And lists. And always ~ the date, often also the time of day, at the top of the page.

Tidy

A useful method for allowing my ideas and plans to organise and collect. Moving around the space of the studio ~ tidying materials from one shelf to another. Sorting pencils. Washing brushes. Holding shoji paper in my hands.