From my notebook. June 13, 2005

It’s mother’s day. We’re sittng on the porch outside my parents’ home. There’s six of us, sitting, talking– my mom and dad, by sister and her husband, and my husband.

A house sparrow has made a nest in the painted metal sailboats that hang on the wall. She’s tucked it beneath one of the brightly painted sails. There’s a little rust here and there where the paint has worn away. I can’t see the eggs, but I know they’re in there. Small, pale blue, lightly speckled.

We’ve scared the mother off, and she sits anxiously in a nearby shrub, waiting for an opportunity to return to her nest. Sometimes she tries to make it– bravely swooping in, but then quickly darting away when someone moves an arm or speaks too loudly.

I feel sorry for this bird for her and her anxiousness. I almost want to move everyone inside so she can get back to her nest.

She tries to approach again, resting on the top of the metal mast, watching warily, but then my dad waves his arm for emphasis and she flies off again. I’m agitated, like her. I can’t follow the conversaton. I watch her watch us, waiting.

She swoops again. This time she lingers on the edge of the boat and stays, gaining confidence. She slowly works her way behind that sail and settles down into the nest. She feels safe, hidden, protected. I see her small brown eye looking towards me. But I feel better now, knowing she’s back in her nest.

Two weeks later I’m back to help take care of Mom and to look after Dad. I walk onto the porch again to check on the birds. But when I look behind the boat for the nest, I find that it’s gone.

Inside the boats are seven delicate eggs. Remnants of the nest are strewn about here and there. I wonder if an animal got to it. But then, the eggs would probably be gone.

I ask my dad if he knows what happened to the nest.

“No. I didn’t even realize it was gone. Sandie,” he says to my mom, “do you know what happend to the nest that was in among the boats?”

“Oh those messy birds! I just can’t stand it. I had to clean up that mess.”

“But honey, that was a bird’s nest,” my father says gently.

“I just don’t care. They just can’t come around and leave a mess like that!”

“Okay, mom,” I say. “It’s okay.”

This is my new mom talking– the one who’s on the edge of being a stranger to me, and I to her. She’s the one I’m trying to get to know. Old mom cherished birds. Old mom took care of three or four bird feeders hanging full of seed near every window where she could watch them. Old mom could name every bird she saw. Old mom filled hummingbird feeders with sugar water, and called her daughters over every time a hummer came near.

My old mom was heartbroken by every bird who lost its life against an unseen window. She had bird guides and binoculars always at the ready. When two house sparrows built their house foolishily and precarioulsy in the narrow porch rafters two summers ago, she didn’t even want us going outside so as not to disturb them.

This new mother is a stranger to me. I want my old mother back, the one who would have done just about anything to protect the bird’s nest in the boat.

It’s five months since that I wrote that entry. I have created an altered book and written a poem about that moment. You can find it on my web site at Found Object Assemblages :: The Gift.

I recently received the following email from an aspiring altered book artist: How do you prepare the hard cover itself to receive what is to be glued onto it?

First of all, I suggest leaving the cover for last. The reason is that if you plan on doing a lot of work in your altered book over a period of time, you don’t want to have to worry about damaging the artwork on the cover while you’re working on the inside of the book. Plus, if you put any three dimensional items onto the cover, it will be difficult to work inside the book if you need it to lie flat.

When you’re done with the inside, there are a lot of possibilities for how to decorate the front cover. If you plan on adding any embellishments, I would suggest using Golden soft gel medium. It has a nice, creamy texture that isn’t runny and it dries clear. Keep some baby wipes handy to wipe up any stray medium that squishes out as you press down on the items that you’re applying.

If the book has a cloth or paper-type cover, you can paint it first with acrylics. You can use a brush or even sponges to apply your paint. Be careful about over-wetting the cover; you don’t want it to warp too much. If the cover does warp, wrap it in waxed paper and put a weight on top of it. I use my pasta machine as a weight and it works great.

If the cover of the book has a glossy finish, I would recommend sanding the cover first to remove the plasticky surface so that things will adhere properly. You may even want to paint over the sanded surface with gesso to eliminate any artwork that is on the cover. This might take two coats of gesso to accomplish. I often sand the dried gesso again for a really smooth surface. Or if you’re looking for a textured finish, use rubber stamps, bubble wrap, combs, burlap or other textured items to press into the damp gesso to leave an impression.
On the other hand, you might want to allow parts of the title or cover illustrations to show through. It’s up to you.

Another possibility for finishing the cover of your altered book, is to cover it with decorative paper, which can be painted, embellished, or collaged for a really nice look.

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.

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!

It’s been a year, but I finally did some more pages in my altered book The Art of Happiness. The original text is by John Cowper Powys, copyright 1935. I found it at a barn sale in Sacramento over a year ago. The title was perfect; I knew immediately that I wanted to use this book to play with color and create spontaneous art that would make me happy. I wanted to try different color schemes than I would normally use, so for each double page spread I find a square of colors/textures from a magazine clipping and glue it to the page. Then I use the colors in that square as the inspiration for the art work. Not surprisingly to me, I have of course chosen patches of colors which I find appealing, so the colors that I’ve been using are ones I tend to gravitate to anyhow. However, I have used combinations of colors I wouldn’t ordinarily use, so that’s been challenging and fun.

I’ve been using F&W acrylic inks, watercolor crayons, pastels, and pencils, wax pastels, sharpie markers, and acrylic paint on the pages of this altered book. Although it takes me a while to find the poem and mask out the text, I try to work very fast with the art work. Unlike my other altered books, where I tend to have to do a lot of planning and contemplating prior to starting, in this altered book, I try not to over-analyze or think too much about what I’m doing. It’s nice to come back to this book in order to be a little less serious and a bit more carefree.