Category: artist books

Just finished a commission for an accordion book. I thought I understood what the client wanted, but you know, every once in a while I just get it wrong.

I heard:

• Stained glass but not religious (which I suggested would be difficult).
• Masculine.
• Traditional.
• Muted colors.

Well, I’m not good with muted colors; this first attempt is muted colors … for me.

What I didn’t understand was the particular meaning of traditional. Looking at this first attempt I now realize that this looks like a particular style of my Presbyterian youth. My mother had jewelry that looks like this, and I was clueless about that connection while designing the book.

So I started over again with a style that the client had liked in the past. And I realize that even though it doesn’t have muted colors and it doesn’t seem very masculine to me, it is more traditional — in both a catholic and Catholic sense.

The cover is a green silk bookcloth shot through with gold. I think it works. I made a wrapper from handmade paper with leaf inclusions, using a strip of book cloth as the ribbon holding the bone clasp.

Commissions are always a learning experience.

Lee Kirk of The Prints & The Paper recently posted on the Book-Arts-L a Flickr set of photos of the annual exhibition of work by members of the North Redwoods Book Arts Guild, shown at Eureka Books in California. I recognize two book artists from book swaps I hosted in the late ’90s: Margaret Beech (her book is shown here) and Peggy Marrs. To paraphrase Reggie Ezell, haven’t they grown!

I’m finally settling in here in Bozeman. In the meantime, I’ve been collecting some interesting things to blog about, and now I’ve got a bit of time for it.

Several great book arts exhibitions are online. Don’t miss these:

Marking Time — a juried show under the auspices of the Guild of Book Workers. Shown here are books by Susan Collard and Bridget O’Malley. Clicking the images takes you to each of their pages in the online exhibit.

The Minnesota Center for the Book Arts has awarded their first annual international artist’s book award: The MCBA Prize 2009. See the winner, the finalists, and all the submitted books here.

This past June at 23 Sandy Gallery: The Beautiful Book: Exploring the Allure of Artist Books. The image is of Susan Lowdermilk’s book in the show, and clicking it takes you to that page of the exhibit.

Take a look at the winners of the DB International Bookbinding Competition. Here’s a little more information about the competition. The book being bound in each case was a specially commissioned fine press, limited-edition (500) publication from Incline Press, entitled Water. It contains poems and illustrations about water.

I love to see all the different approaches to the same subject. I’m probably denigrating this exhibit to compare it to a challenge quilt exhibit, but I love both in the just the same way. They’re both testaments to the individual creativity of us humans. The image shown here is of the 2nd prize book, made by Jenny Grey.

Didn’t get to Tallahassee in October for the artist book exhibit at LeMoyne Center for the Arts? Not to worry: the online exhibition of Feathers, Fins & Foliage is now … online.

It was a pleasure and an honor to handle these books while we were mounting and taking down the exhibition.

“Maternal Legends”, a juried exhibition of artist books, December 5 at 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland, Oregon. The online catalog is here.

My book, Personal Space, is in the exhibition.

Click on the image for a size that’s readable.

I actually worked with real tools and materials today in my studio! It was very good to [Oops — excuse me a moment while I go wash out the glue brush. No harm done. Why is that when I forget and leave my expensive Italian glue brush, it takes all kinds of time and elbow grease to salvage the brush, but a cheap Crayola So Big brush washes clean in no time?] …

As I was saying, it was good to leave the virtual world of pens and brushes and knives, and spend a day with real pens and brushes and knives … and paper. I love paper. And ink. I love ink. A couple of months ago i had begun reworking an idea I began working with in 2004, based on a childhood memory of my mother. I’m pleased with today’s work.