Book + Art = ?

A couple of months ago, in a post titled Rejected!, I wrote about my attempt to get some of my altered books into a a book arts show. It was my first time trying to get accepted into a juried show, and of course, I was a bit disappointed that I wasn’t accepted. Apparently they had a lot of entries. At least that’s some consolation. Anyhow, the art from the exhibit is now being shown online and you can see it here. There are some beautiful, amazing books. I especially liked the first place winner by Tara O’Brien called Framework. as well as Roots of Self by Nina Zingale. Most of the books are fairly traditional in the sense that they tend to lie flat and look like books are generally expected to look. But there are also some very unique books on display that give a good sense of how a book can break out of its bindings and become real works of art. The online exhibit is definitely worth checking out.


New Adventure! Altered Books! Artful Journeys!

I am nearing the end of an exiting adventure: creating this new blog using WordPress. This has been a wonderful learning experience for me. Don’t you just love it when your mind churns with new concepts and all your hard-work at learning the curve finally works out?

Many thanks to the kind, patient, and talented Cricket Bailey of for her hours of hand-holding and guidance throughout the past (almost) year.

Also, a shout-out to Andy Skeltoac and Catsudon for their terrific tutorials on transferring my Blogspot files to their new home.

In addition, thank you to Joni Mueller for the Iris theme which I drastically modified but which is based on her original design, and to Squid Fingers who makes the most beautiful background patterns, and finally to Lady K. for the Typogenerator and addictive little app which helped me create my banner.

Just one more small step on my Artful Journey.


Sunday! Sunday! Sunday!

Yesterday I woke up at 6:30 a.m., which is what time I usually wake up during my work week. I don’t like to sleep late on the weekends because I use my precious Saturdays and Sundays to cram in all those things that I’m too busy to do during the week days. My perfect daily schedule would be to wake up early, stay up late, and take a nap in the middle of the day when my batteries start to run low.

So I woke up early, had some coffee, and started cleaning. Saturday was laundry-dishes-floors-pay bills-general straighten-up the house day, all in preparation for SUNDAY!, the day that I’m determined to dedicate to working on one or more of the dozen altered book and collage ideas that are pressing on my brain.

I did take a couple hours off from my housekeeping duties to get down to the library book sale. Yippee! And I had a wonderful impromptu lunch out with a friend who was working there. I filled three bags with books and paid $19.50. What a bargain! Of course, these new books have given me even MORE IDEAS for things to create, so there I go again, making more trouble for myself.

On a sad note, I received an email from the woman who bought Anatomy of Paradise, and she’s having buyer’s remorse. Unfortunately, her dog got sick and she’s having to spend tons of money on vet bills and wants to return Paradise. She said she loved it, but can’t afford it right now. While I totally understand and am willing to take the book back, I can’t help but feeling disappointed that things turned out this way.

Now, off the computer and onto an artful Sunday!


Altered Books Take a Journey

I mailed out three altered books today. It was sad to see them go. I shipped two books to the show in San Luis Obispo, and Anatomy of Paradise to a new home in San Jose. I am hoping the kind woman who purchased the book enjoys it as much as I have.

I had never really given much thought to how I was going to ship one of my wall hangings, especially this one. With the Reliquaries, I just wrap them up in copious amounts of bubble wrap and everything is fine. I couldn’t do that with Paradise because there were so many fragile three dimensional elements. I was worried that the flowers and vines and other paper parts would get squashed. So I decided to surround the altered book with those styrofoam peanuts that everybody hates receiving. I placed the book inside the box and buried it in foam popcorn until it disappeared from site. I just hope that Anatomy of Paradise has a safe trip to San Jose.