The Previously Private Post-it World of Raymond Aerials

The Previously Private World of Raymond Aerials;

This book, although cartoon-like is not meant to be a comic book, however, funny moments are scattered throughout. Rather it is a celebration of my love of the Post-it Note. I simply love scribbling down my random thoughts on these perfectly square, sticky, yellow, little pieces of paper. Post it notes take away the preciousness of the act of drawing, in a spontaneous way that the sketchpad cannot. They are small, easily filled and surprisingly big enough to get an awful lot of information on. They are both throw-away and easily contained, in my case, in an extra-large Elastoplast tin. They are less present than a sketchpad, less worthy, and more easily overlooked. They are humble, and precious at the same time, to me perfect in every way.

The other aspect of this book is it is written by my extrovert alter ego Raymond Aerials and yes, he was created from an anagram of my own name Alison (Mary) Read. Through him, I am braver, I can doodle what I like, and I can also hide behind him a little bit.

So, with a lot of encouragement from friends I selected from my tin, 400 of these doodles, which is 400 of many, many more. In a brief analysis, it was obvious that I treated these doodles as a form of a diary of sorts, some are lo-brow, others might be considered hi-brow, all are snippets of things that the mind thinks up Many are random memories, tales from my village/farming upbringing, things that have been etched on my mind for a multitude of reasons. Sometimes the drawing is just for drawings sake, and sometimes they make it into my printmaking. The beauty of the post-it Note, it is a form that knows no restriction, after all it can be simply thrown away as there is always another on underneath, or it can be hidden away, much like a lot of our sketch books. This book is me deciding to reveal this mainly secretive obsession with the hope that you can relate to some of it, and I also hope it encourages a Post-It Note Doodle obsession of your own!

A small warning of the contents, despite the childlike drawing, some of the content has some adult themes, some may raise questions but all have harmless explanation and are here as they are part of my memory.

Yours Sincerely Raymond Aerials, a.k.a. Alison (Mary) Read.