BOOK ARTISTS TALK AT BAINBRIDGE ISLAND MUSEUM OF ART

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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.

ICARUS WING AT THE BAINBRIDGE ISLAND MUSEUM OF ART

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SHANE MILLER AND CYNTHIA SEARS

I am so pleased to announce that my Icarus wing, titled IF FOUND RETURN TO ICARUS, is on display at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art from October through January. This is just the second round of exhibits in this wonderful new museum which is just a delight to explore.

The 20,000-square-foot art museum includes a reception area with a two-story atrium and grand staircase, seven formal galleries, two classrooms, a 95-seat auditorium, conference room, community gallery, bistro, museum store, and a green roof garden and patio. The focus is on contemporary work by artists from the Kitsap and Olympic peninsulas and the western Puget Sound region. We are so fortunate to have this museum in our own backyard and as an artist, I am so proud to be a small part of the whole.

This past Friday I traveled to Bainbridge with my friend Linda Jarvis and her sister, Wendy. We wanted an art day and none of us had yet seen the newest exhibition at the museum....so it seemed like the perfect place to go. Cynthia Sears, one of the founding board members of the museum, treated us to lunch in the newly opened bistro on the lower floor. The food....the conversation....the sharing of stories was just delicious. It was the kind of exquisite day that transforms into a long term memory. I managed to get my photo taken with Cynthia beside the Icarus Wing. She is a wonderful supporter of art and artists in general and it is because of her purchase that my Icarus Wing has a home in the museum.

On the first floor we were delighted by the work of Richard Jesse Watson. His exhibit is titled INNER ZOO : OUTER ORBIT. He is a children's book author and illustrator of the highest order. I loved his obvious imagination ...his found object sculptures ... and especially his industrial looking easel that is on display complete with goggles hanging from several rear view mirrors attached to the easel. I am a goggles girl all the way and I am pro almost anything with an industrial vibe ... so getting to see where he actually creates was a high point for me. Beyond his exhibit were the works of many more artists ... some new to me and some I have the pleasure of calling them my friend. Having a piece of my art here among all this incredible talent feels somehow beyond a dream. My work is among sweet company.

After lunch we wandered upstairs to the Sherry Grover Gallery and the newest exhibit called CHAPTER TWO. This space is all about artists made books. Cynthia has a large eclectic collection of artists made books and it is intriguing, to say the least, to get to spend a little time with them. It was fun to see Linda discover that she had two pieces of her art on display. A surprise to us all. And our mutual friend, Donna Snow, had her magnun opus book on display called FIGMENTOSUM OCEANUM. It is a large book with many two sided lose pages and could have been a real challenge to display but , of course, they pulled it off beautifully. My newly acquired photo etched book called A BOOK IS LIKE A GARDEN YOU CARRY IN YOUR POCKET was also on display.


I am newly intrigued with the whole idea of artist made books and to have one of my first attempts in this collection is thrilling. It, too, is in incredibly good company. Many of the books on display I have only previously seen in commercially printed books such as the LARK 500 HANDMADE BOOKS. To have the chance to see these books in person and to get a glimpse of the binding ... the content ... the craftsmanship ....well, all I can say is that it is a rich experience.

Also upstairs were the incredible paintings of landscape artist, Gayle Bard. After walking just a few paces into her exhibit we all realized that we were almost whispering ... there was such a feeling of reverence. Her work is large and meditative and memorable.

So, in the end, a good day was had by all.