Calligraphy and book arts in the studio of Beth Lee, Bozeman, MT
I’m pleased to have one of my works in the The 37th Bradley International Print and Drawing Exhibition in Peoria, IL. The openings – across six venues – are this afternoon and evening. I wish I could be there.
I’ve glimpsed my piece being installed in the Contemporary Art Center of Peoria … via Facebook.
The exhibition will be up through April 12.
Remember this post about my paper mosaic “Fragment” in Letter Arts Review? I just revisited the exhibition at the Guild of BookWorkers site and was pleasantly surprised to see a beautifully organized online presentation of the exhibition. Here’s my page.
And here’s the remaining schedule of “Formation”:
Robert C. Williams Papermaking Museum
Georgia Tech
Atlanta, GA
November 1, 2018 — March 7, 2019
Charles E. Young Research Library Lobby Gallery
University of California, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA
March 15 — May 25, 2019
North Bennet Street School
Boston, MA
June 5 — July 27, 2019
University of the Arts
Philadelphia, PA
August 1 — October 30, 2019
This piece, “Prairie Spring”, is currently on display in “The Horse” exhibition at the Ryniker-Morrison Gallery of the Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT. The text is a Willa Cather poem of the same name.
I’m so pleased to have been selected for inclusion in the annual juried review issue of the Letter Arts Review! And to be included as a tile on the page cover (top right)!
I realize that although I have posted a process image of the piece , I never did post a final image. Here it is, shown below. I’m also honored to have “Fragment” included “Formation,” a juried exhibition of the Guild of Book Workers which will travel to Minneapolis, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Boston, and Philadelphia in the coming year.
I had a wonderful time Friday night at the opening of my solo show in Missoula. I took these photos just before the opening began. It’s a good thing I did because, although I thought I’d get some more photos later, I forgot all about it once people began arriving. It doesn’t matter much; my photography skills can only be described as underwhelming.
It was gratifying to see it all come together so well. Thanks so much to Ann Franke and my husband Ed for helping to hang the show. Actually, I think the better characterization is that I helped them hang the show!
A solo show of my work opens on Friday at The Artists’ Shop in Missoula. I’m almost ready. Here are a couple of things to see in the show:
Gouache and a #6 Mitchell nib, lettered to fill a 12″ circle on soft-pressed Fabriano Artistico. I began doing this style of whatever-it-is in high school, long before I discovered calligraphy. The text come from 32 speeches by US presidents 1-44. I have found it a comfort to ruminate on the words of our previous US presidents, from Washington to Obama.
I’ve done several circular pieces for the show, including the paper mosaic, Fragments, that I posted about earlier. It was finally completed last week.
Many pieces in the show are the originals of work I did for a commissioned book of poetry. I re-did this one, this time without regard to the center gutter. You’ll probably have to click on the image to read the list of words that make up the stems of most of the flowers. Size is 12″ square.
I know I’ve been quiet. I’ve been keeping my head down and getting the work done. In between, I made a quick trip to Chicago to take a bookbinding workshop on forwarding basics with Karen Hanmer. What an excellent teacher! I’ll post more on that … when I get a little more done.
A show of my work opens on Friday, September 1, at the Artists’ Shop in MIssoula. It’s been a long time since I had a solo show, and I had partially forgotten all the work that goes into one.
I’ll be showing 14 pieces from the book that poet Madeleine Gomez commissioned. I’ll also have some newer broadsides and books. Lately I’ve been into circular designs (see one example below). I’ve become enamored of texture, specifically textures formed by our alphabet, and the circular format. I’ve always liked the square format; a circle shares properties of a square but is more dynamic, moving the eye.
Orders for framing supplies – mat board, foam core, framing chops, Plexiglas – had been arriving for the past week. In preparation, I assembled a matting/framing station in the basement TV room: work table on cinder blocks on towels, cutting mat, mat knives, 4-foot metal ruler, Logan mat cutter and knife, empty trash can, and so on. Last night I started. I queued up some “Father Brown” mysteries, which I’d never watched before, and got to work. A mere 4 hours later, I had 12 finished mat sandwiches awaiting the construction of their frames, plus hole-less mats and foam-core backs for 6 more pieces. Not bad for an evening’s work, given how long it’s been since I did much framing. And the Father Brown mysteries were quite enjoyable.
About a month ago I though it would be a good idea to do this Amy Lowell poem as a paper mosaic. It’s looking more and more as though this piece may be finished in time for the show.
To continue the account of my recent art feast …
The day after I went to the Grolier Club, The Frick, and The Morgan, Ed and I visited The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This time, for a change, we took a tour of the highlights of the museum. It was interesting enough, but afterwards we wandered, and some things particularly caught my eye.
Gallery 690 displays a rotating selection of The Met’s prints and drawings. We made it a point to visit this gallery to enjoy the etchings by Rembrandt and Castiglione that were on view. The costume studies by Leon Bakst were also incredible.
I was interested to see examples of the graphic design of Erwin Puchinger, an Austrian who designed for Viennese newpapers and periodicals at the beginning of the 20th century. According to the information provided by The Met, this design for a certificate of Viennese citizenship shows his early exposure to the English book illustrations of the Arts and Crafts movement, its four allegorical figures are reminiscent of Pre-Raphaelite, and the decorative borders show Moorish influences.
This framed piece shows the black-and-white design of a book cover with notes indicating color and adjustments, as well as the 3-color-printed piece on blue cloth. Puchinger was chair of the manual graphics design department of the Viennese Graphic Design School and this was 1913 publication honored the school’s 25th anniversary.
You can see images of everything on display in Gallery 690 here. Take a look at Leon Bakst’s illustrations!
Through a post in the Book-Arts-L listserv, I recently discovered that something interesting things have been going on in Baltimore regarding artist books. This article in HUB, the Johns Hopkins magazine, describes an interesting class, “Paper Museums: Exhibiting Artists’ Books at the Baltimore Museum of Art”, which led to an exhibit from the collection of artists’ books at the Baltimore Museum of Art. This exhibit, entitled Off the Shelf: Modern and Contemporary Artists’ Books, opens tomorrow, and I wish I could see it.
Many of the books are collaborations between authors and artists –between Guillaume Apollinaaire and Raoul Dufy, between Stephen King and Barbara Kruger, between Joan Miró and Paul Élard. This article has more detailed information about the pieces in the exhibit. Unfortunately, there is no catalog. I asked.
I’m pleased to have one of my books included in the book arts exhibit words|matter in Chicago from October 3 – October 29th, 2015.