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.
Book Arts
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 Book :: The Art of Happiness
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.