FLOATING

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE

FLOATING is one of the books I currently have on exhibit at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts on Bainbridge Island in Washington state. It is part of the show titled CARPE LIBRUM: THE ART OF THE BOOK, curated by Cynthia Sears and Hidde Van Duym. You can read more about this exhibit in the previous post. You can view this work at the gallery through April 26th.


inside front cover

The metal covers for FLOATING are photo etched brass and the images are inkjet printed with archival inks on BFK Rives paper. The book measures 7" x 11" when closed.

Recently one morning I was thinking about dreams and how sometimes in my dreams I have the ability to fly. Upon closer examination of this I realized that I am not so much flying as I am floating. With that thought, words immediately filled my head and I went scrambling for pencil and paper to capture them before they were gone. Those captured words make up the text of this book.

I've heard people say that when they dream, they can fly like a bird ... by constant flapping of their arm-like wings or by coasting in circles like the red tail hawk over my pasture.

I try to picture this and the wondrous feeling of the wind in my face and my hair blowing out behind me, but it is a difficult image for me to conjure. I think this is because I know I am more of a floater than a flyer.

In my dreams I hover where the wall meets the ceiling ... just where the near invisible spider webs hide.

I float just at the top of the trees that act as sentinels on either side of the dirt road.

The sky is my ocean as I drift with a school of fish just above the water.

I am like low lying clouds content with slow movement and the ability to cast fuzzy edged shadows on the earth below.

Floating gives one time to contemplate the surroundings ... to notice the smallest detail ... to acclimate to the new terrain.

In my dreams, as I float, I am often aware that this is miraculous somehow ... that I need to remember this technique so that I can try it in my awake state.

I drop a breadcrumb right here so I can remember how to do this ...

... how to hold my mouth just right ... the proper arrangement of my arms and legs ... the attitude of my mind ... I drop more breadcrumbs.

The 'know how' stays with me for a while ...

... even as I start to stir ...

... even as my exploring spirit re-enters my body ...

... but the string attached to my fluttering eyelids tips the bowl and the 'knowing how" spills out and evaporates like water on a hot sidewalk.

I turn to find ravenous sparrows eating my dropped breadcrumbs ...

... perhaps tonight they will dream they can float.


This image in on the inside of the back cover.


back cover

All the images in FLOATING are photo based. I often like to use vintage photos in my art and I searched and searched through thousands of images looking for women who looked like they were floating or who I could manipulate in a way to make them appear as though they were floating. The couple of images I found, and tried to use, looked more like the women were falling from the sky instead of peacefully floating. After much hand wringing, I decided to take my own photos and have more control over body placement. This is where my friend, Zo, comes into the picture ... literally. I borrowed a night shirt from my good friend, Lynn Anju, and invited Zo over for a photo shoot. The night shirt was a little short so I had to stretch it out via photoshop in every image. The photo shoot was so much fun....figuring out ways to make Zo appear as though she was floating. Here is an image showing some of the high tech floating techniques we used ... Zo stretched out on a galvanized tub with a saw horse under her feet for support.





Zo was enthusiastic and charming through the whole ordeal and would have been more than willing to put on a harness and get strung up between the douglas firs ... if only I had a harness.

I definitely wanted the floating figures to be women and I pictured them with long flowing hair ... dream like. Zo's hair is about 1 1/2 inches long and is not exactly the look I was going for. I ended up making my life quite a bit more difficult by photoshopping my hair onto Zo. The process of working with the photographic images over the days and weeks got a little confusing for me and occasionally the lines between Zo and myself would blur and I would lose track as to which one of us it was that I was working on in the photo ... a very odd feeling.

Here are some of the images ... photoshopped and sent through many filters to get the look I wanted ... somewhere between a photograph and an illustration. Be sure to click on an image to see it larger.
























This is am example of the font and page layout for the text.


I turn to find ravenous sparrows eating my dropped breadcrumbs ... perhaps tonight they will dream they can float.

CARPE LIBRUM: THE ART OF THE BOOK

Friday, April 3rd, is the opening reception for the art show titled CARPE LIBRUM: THE ART OF THE BOOK. This exhibit of artist books will be at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts located on Bainbridge Island in WA state. I am so honored to be one of the 33 pacific northwest book artists to be invited to this show. I am especially excited that CARPE LIBRUM is curated by Cynthia Sears, our very own eminent book art collector and Hidde Van Duym, an arts advocate.

I delivered my three books yesterday and even though the show wasn't officially put together yet, I could tell by the quality of the books I got to glimpse, that this will be a memorable show. Since I am fairly new to the book arts world, I am just pleased to be in such good company. The 32 other artists included in this show are: Sam Garriott Antonacci, Mare Blocker, Lou Cabeen, MalPina Chan, Maralyn Crosetto, Elsi Vassdal Ellis, Timothy Ely, Jules Remedios Faye, An Gates, Donald Glaister, Mari Gower, Deborah Greenwood, Mark Hoppmann, Diane Jacobs, Roberta Lavadour, MJ Linford, Susan Lowdermilk, Dorothy McCuistion, Catherine Alice Michaelis, Suzanne Moore, Chandler O'Leary & Carol Inderieden, Margaret Prentice, Chele Shepard, Donna Snow, Jessica Spring, Carolyn Terry, Barbara Tetenbaum, Sandy Tilcock, Jill Timm, Carolina Veenstra and Sande Wascher-James.

Also, on Saturday, April 4th at 12:30 pm, the curators and staff will offer a guided tour walkthrough of all the books in the exhibit. I am so looking forward to this and hope to meet some of the other participating artists.

A panel discussion about what lies at the heart of this intriguing art form...book arts... will take place at 2pm Sunday, April 12th in the Buxton Auditorium at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.

WAITING FOR THE LUNAR ECLIPSE

CLICK ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE

PENUMBRA THEATER presents WAITING FOR THE LUNAR ECLIPSE. On Friday February 6th the show titled MOON AND STARS opened at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts on Bainbridge Island in Washington state. Moons and stars and everything having to do with the galaxy and beyond is all imagery that excites me.

My theater, WAITING FOR THE LUNAR ECLIPSE, is loosely inspired by the photo below. I've always wanted to etch this image but the resolution is not very high and there is not enough detail in the faces. Still, every time I look at this photo, it seems to me that the people are on a stage...and the boat and driftwood are props...and the backdrop is of a starry sky. All of that is what led me to build a theater....PENUMBRA THEATER. Penumbra is such an excellent word....I love the way it rolls off the tongue. It means...the shadow cast by the earth or moon over an area experiencing a partial eclipse.





My theater is approx. 15 inches high in the front...10 inches deep....and 12 inches wide. The walls and floor are cherry and the metals are photo etched brass, copper and nickel. There is a small lever on the top that, when pushed, moves a black disc over the moon creating the lunar eclipse. There is also a momentary switch on the lower left that, when pushed, makes a subtle light turn on which represents the moonlight.

Inside the theater are three women actors who portray historic women astronomers, Annie J. Cannon, Henrietta Leavitt, and Maria Mitchell. It's hard to imagine being a woman astronomer at the turn of the century when men were so prominent in the field. In researching these women I learned that women astronomers were not allowed to look through the world's largest telescopes until the 1960's. That seems so ridiculous to me.....what were they afraid those women might see???


In this image you get a glimpse of the background...a bluff...water lapping the shoreline...and a starry sky.


I made this little lapstrake boat from some narrow strips of basswood.

Penumbra Theater was a challenge for me...one of the more complex pieces I've made. I'm dreaming now of 12 or 15 little theaters all together as an exhibit in some wonderful gallery. Stay tuned....

BOOK ARTISTS TALK AT BAINBRIDGE ISLAND MUSEUM OF ART

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE
On December 13th I was invited, along with Carolyn Terry and Chele Shepard, to give a talk at the Sherry Grover Gallery that is housed within the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. This is a beautiful space within the museum that houses Cynthia Sears' private collection of artist made books. With the gorgeous cherry display cases and some of the best examples of artists made books in the country, it is easy to find inspiration here. Cynthia Sears, seated at the far end of the table, suggested this gathering and encouraged us to talk about artist made books that we have in progress. It was such a fun event and a reminder to me that even if you had a whole room full of book artists, everyone has their own perspective ... of experience that led them to the subject matter ... of materials they like to use ... of techniques that work best for them ... etc.


Chele, wearing glasses in the middle of the photo, talked about a book (three small books actually) that use microfiche as pages ... this is one of her favorite materials for building books. In this type of book, stencils are often part of Chele's language. Another style book Chele makes is as personal as you can get. Using her daily journal pages (a big stack ... many years worth) as the basis for the work, Chele types them into the computer and then uses various software to scramble the words so that they are disguised in a code-like way. Sometimes this code is printed on top of the hand written text making it all 'not quite readable'....but almost.


Carolyn Terry, for years, has wanted to create a fictitious journal type book. She has a project in the works about a woman biologist/explorer who lived in the late 1800's. Within the journal will be sketches and drawings of observations and letters, written and received, that will help carry the story. To make everything seem as real as possible, Carolyn is researching and experimenting with aging paper... early envelope construction ... and even practicing penmanship that resembles examples of writing from that period. A second book Carolyn has in progress will be an ABC type book with beautifully illustrated alphabet pages that represent words borrowed from a military dictionary. Carolyn has chosen a harsh dichotomy on purpose ... one sure to stir conversation ... and to make the complacent uncomfortable.


(this photo courtesy of Laura Silverstein)
On a lighter note, I talked about a small book I am working on titled I WOULD GIVE TO YOU THE MOON AND STARS. This book will have an etched metal brass cover and is in the shape of a cutout hand. I won't say too much about it here because in another month it will be on display at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts for their February show titled THE MOON AND THE STARS. I will blog about it when that show opens. On the end of the table you can see a few of my books. Cynthia was kind enough to take my Oak Leaf Haiku book, the Garden Book and THE CLOUD COLLECTOR out of the display case so I could show them and talk about their components. I also told my story of how I came to book arts through the back door ... via metal sculpture and my narrative art boxes. Actually, that seems like a whole other topic for a blog entry ... maybe I will write about that soon.

Anyway ... a good time was had by all. A big THANK YOU to Cynthia Sears for organizing this event and to all who came to hear our stories and in turn shared their thoughts and kind words with us.

PS...just a note that Carolyn, Chele and I meet every month, along with our artist friend, Victoria Mournean, to talk about book arts ... art in general ... painting ... upcoming opportunities ... inspiration ... how to get unstuck when we find ourselves stuck ... and so much more. Carolyn and Chele are also musicians and occasionally, at the end of the meeting, we are treated to a little fiddle or accordion music sometimes accompanied by a stand up bass ...... sheer bliss.

THE CLOUD COLLECTOR

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE
October 3rd was the opening of, OFF THE WALL...CONTEMPORARY SCULPTURE, an exhibit at Bainbridge Arts and Crafts. I am so pleased to be a part of this exhibit with my narrative box titled THE CLOUD COLLECTOR. This box is photo etched copper, brass and nickel with a framework of cherry. It measures 11.75" wide by 9.5" tall by 2.5" deep ... with the doors closed.

The young woman in the cockpit, etched in copper, is from a vintage photo. I love it that she looks adventuresome in her leather helmet ... goggles ... and bi-plane ... and totally up to the challenge of collecting samples of clouds.


I've been focused in on clouds for the last few years....really, since I found a pair of sunglasses on the side of the road. These sunglasses....my magic sunglasses... have such good polarization that the clouds and all their details really pop. I could watch the clouds all day.

In thinking up a piece for this show, I remembered that, for a while now, I've wanted to make a box about collecting clouds. It was a little bigger challenge than I expected. I have many cloud photos that I have taken over the years ... that wasn't the problem. What I forgot about was how elusive clouds are ... and how all their edges are soft ... wispy even ... and how tricky that would be to etch in metal ...hard metal ... where all the etched lines have a hard crisp edge. Even the clouds that I printed on the transparencies, that would eventually find their home inside the varied glass bottles, were a challenge. I really wanted just clouds and no sky in the bottles and after many frustrating printing sessions realized that clouds, with no sky for contrast, really were nothing but white with a hint of grey ... or on a transparency, that meant clear and a hint of grey. Not so much what I had in mind. Finally I settled on printing the bottled clouds with some sky ... some contrast ... and I added some wisps of cotton in each bottle to help soften all the edges.






Open the doors and more of the story is revealed. This is where the collection is kept. The bottles, with their cloud samples housed inside, are lined up and numbered. Corresponding sample numbers, dates, latitude, longitude, and pertinent notes are all logged into the cloud ledger. If nothing else, THE CLOUD COLLECTOR is organized.

On the inside of the left door is a description of the various clouds ... high, mid, and low level clouds ... and the characteristics of each.








The sample numbers, dates, and latitude/longitude for each cloud are all pertinent to my life ... memorable events in memorable places. It's a subtle way for me to put part of myself into this piece of art ... without being 'in your face' about it.





I had a revelation while working on this box. It has taken me all this time to understand that I am THE CLOUD COLLECTOR ... I am THE TIME TRAVELER ... I am THE YOUNG ENTOMOLOGIST. It's funny to me that I never realized it before.

STUDIO TOUR 2014

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE

It's been a couple of weeks now since the Port Townsend Studio Tour and it's time to post some images and say a few words. It was a spectacular and beautiful weekend ... GreyBird Barn looked spiffy ... the property was clean and trim ... the apple trees were full of apples as if they knew this was their time to shine ... there was a wonderful sense of camaraderie among the participating artists ... and there were lots of guests checking out the scene. This sale is always the perfect time to reconnect with friends ... clients ... and to make some new connections. It was also a perfect time for me to share my almost completed loft studio space in the barn. It's been a long time coming. I spent a lot of the weekend trooping up and down the stairs ...pointing out special features in the loft ... and sharing my enthusiasm for this remarkable space. You can learn more about the loft in the previous post.

There are a few people I want to thank. Pulling off this event would be so much harder without a little help. A big 'thank you' to Carrie Ehrhardt for always coming through with some delicious home made cookies for our guests ... and to Wendy Jarvis (Linda's sister) and Bob Snow (Donna's husband) for helping us on clean up day before the sale ...and another huge 'thank you' to Bob for parking cars for us for two days. He was so good at it that he's putting it on his resume. I also want to thank Melinda Bryden and Northwind Arts Center for organizing this event ... with over 30 studios on the tour this is no easy feat. And last, but certainly not least, I want to thank the artists of GreyBird Barn. It's always such a pleasure and a treat to spend time with you all and to share our visions ...our processes ... and our passions with each other.

REMEMBER TO CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE




Linda Jarvis with Diane Haddon ... a fabulous assemblage artist and dear friend.


Donna Snow demonstrating her collage process.


Lots of people gathered around Shirley Moss and her hand made chain jewelry.


Linda Jarvis, Steve Parmelee ( another fabulous assemblage artist), and me ... Shane Miller.


Lynn Anju (a friend, jeweler, and past participant of GreyBird Barn) giving a look that only she can pull off. You can just make out Loran Scruggs in the background. She was a new participant this year and we all so enjoyed getting to know her and her wonderful tin and bottle cap creations.




Linda Jarvis and our dear friend, Zo.


Diane Haddon and Shane.


Zo and Shane


Jay Haskins visiting with Donna Snow. Jay is an integral part of Northwind Arts Center.


Bob Snow taking a much needed break from parking cars. He's a Mac guy (you can tell by his reading material) and we teased him about setting up a genius bar in the cupola that has not yet been mounted on the barn .... he could answer all kinds of Mac questions during the sale.


A couple of kids, Jupiter and Lola, (you've just got to love those names) checking out my tractor, Bliss.