26+ Alphabets in 4. Gouache and metal pens on paper. 4 x 4 in.
I’m so pleased to have my work included in this year’s juried annual issue of the Letter Arts Review! My copies arrived in the mail today.
In making this piece I found myself exploring many of the same design elements that quilters contend with: proportion, color, texture, direction. At just four inches square, this was an exercise in small writing. Each 1-inch quadrant contains a large letter made of white space, the remainder of the alphabet in medium-sized capitals, and a lot of smaller complete alphabets.
I’m so honored to be included once again in the juried annual issue of Letters Arts Review!(Once again, my copy arrived creased. The regular issues arrive in pristine condition, but the annual reviews: not so much. Go figure.) The title of the piece is Variations on a Meme by Pandemic.
Variations on a Meme by Pandemic. Gouache and metal pen on paper. 16 x 20 in.
The meme, “We are all in this together”, has struck many different notes throughout the pandemic. At the beginning it carried cheer-leading tones, optimistic and bright. Then the corporations took it over and included it in their PSA-like commercials. As rifts in the social fabric widened, corporations abruptly dropped it, and the tone of the meme on social media became pleading, as it gradually became clear that, in many ways, we are not, after all, all in this together. This piece opens with this now-well-known theme and then provides 28 variations, ending with a restatement of the theme. Within those variations, a bleak subtext lurks.
This was made for my solo show at The Artists’ Shop last year. (The initial spark was Variations on a Theme by Paganini. I wandered rather far afield, but that was the starting point.)
On Monday, I was thrilled to receive my copy of the current issue of Letter Arts Review. It’s always a good day when the LAR arrives, but especially so this time: my ABC pencil portfolio, How to Be In The World, was featured in it — all 28 pages! If you follow this blog, you’ve read about the portfolio several times here. The final product is definitely a ship of Theseus: every single page has been redone at least once.
Although I’m understandably infatuated with those particular pages, the entire issue is an excellent one. It includes an interview with the inimitable Julie Wildman, a book project by Louise Grunewald, Anna Pinto on pastels and pochoir, and more. Get your own copy here.
(In a few weeks, I may be letting up on the exclamation points. Maybe.)
“Scintillate, Scintillate” broadside in the annual juried review issue of Letter Arts Review. Irridescent ink and metallic watercolor, metal nibs on dyed Arches Text Wove, 10 in x 8 in.“Prairie Spring” in the annual juried review issue of Letter Arts Review. Wheat-paste and acrylic ink on Arches Text Wove. 12 in x 15.5 in.
I’m honored and delighted that two of my pieces were chosen for inclusion in annual juried review issue of the Letter Arts Review. I’m in exalted company!
The back cover of the current issue of Letter Arts Review
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.
“Fragment” – poem by Amy Lowell. Paper mosaic cut from a single piece of paste-painted paper.
