LACMA in NoHo: Exploring Bookmaking at the Valley Plaza Library III

LACMA in NoHo: Exploring Bookmaking at the Valley Plaza Library III
We Write The Book

In December 2017 we had a blast MARBLING PAPER AND making Accordion Books at the Valley Plaza Branch Library, in North Hollywood (NoHo).

I was honored to serve as a teaching artist for LACMA (The Los Angeles County Museum of Art) to lead this program.

The stars of the program were mothers, daughters, SISTERS, girls and women.
YEAH! Girl Power! 

Play date at the Library with Mom!

The Mom above’s book…use of “scrap” (repurposed) paper…to colorful effect!

Girls creating together…

Young participants had a great time creating patchworks of color, shapes, patterns and textures on the accordion pages.

Others had fun using rubber stamps!

A material world…

Stickers are a hit.

Another Mom gets into the act.

And another…

Devoted Mom with her two beautiful little guys…

Focused..

The lovely Ivonne of LACMA photographs a lovely accordion book!

YEAH! Girl Power! 

LACMA in NoHo: Exploring Bookmaking at the Valley Plaza Library II

LACMA in NoHo: Exploring Bookmaking at the Valley Plaza Library II
We Write The Book

In December 2017 we had a blast making Tunnel Books at the Valley Plaza Branch Library, in North Hollywood (NoHo).

I was honored to serve as a teaching artist for LACMA (The Los Angeles County Museum of Art) to lead this program.

The stars of the program were mothers, daughters, SISTERS, girls and women.
YEAH! Girl Power! 

“Raw” tunnel book, all in black, ready to have content added to the frames and create a story, scene, drama or all three!

Fun use of stamping in different ways on the frame and backdrop if the book. What is the coyote howling at?

Sisters working side by side.

Smiling mom with her two daughters must be enjoying the creative break, and the opportunity to create side by side with them.

Animals parade through flora under celestial bodies, all in primary technicolors!

Wonderful use of trim….spanning on end of the “stage” to the other, with a butterfly attached!

These four beauties created gorgeous pieces, with attention to detail, and total concentration!

Older sis…

and younger (the middle child!).

Great use of zig zags to create a sea life theme!

A line-up of works in from of Mom.

Pink continues to rule…

Let’s celebrate….Girl Power! 

Le Papier V

Le Papier V

“Gossamer”

Side-bound book, repurposed paper, cloth, paint chips, vellum (?) and cord.

“Maggie’s Book”
“Folded fan” flag book, repurposed brochure, vellum (?), photo corners, brochures and postcards.

 

Flags and Found Fun at the Fowler

Flags and Found Fun at the Fowler

It was a joy to teach a “Flag Books and Found Writing” workshop at the Fowler Museum at UCLA last Saturday.

Participants created the Flag Book structure (invented by master Hedi Kyle),

after perusing plenty of samples,

experimenting with color, and expressing their own sensibilities.

Then filled their books  with “found” writing, and images,

garnered from myriad scrap, recycled and repurposed print media. assorted papers, drawing and writing materials, and their own creativity.

They played with pattern, texture, shape, font, similarities and contrasts.

There were many surfaces of each book to consider adding content to.

Each student displayed an individual approach to color, collage, layering, placement of images, and use of text and image in their books.

Indeed.

This student cut letters out of paper patterned with…letters. (words),

integrating color, pattern, text and imagery.

They were focused!

This artist used the program from the museum about the current José Montoya show…re-purposing it for her book!

We used beautiful wooden tools designed for ceramics work, as our “bone folders“, to make our folds crisp, and “smooth” the process along (!).

This adventurous student even took off with the accordion folding technique, creating a second accordion fold book.

I was thrilled to hear what some of the participants felt about our workshop…

“….I really feel I have learned something useful. Thank you for offering the workshop.”

 “I enjoyed the flag bookmaking class very much. ….each of us produced something totally individual yet with the same format…. More, please!”

Yes, more indeed!

A Taste For Texture IV: HAPTIC

A Taste For Texture IV: HAPTIC

I have a passion for texture…don’t you?  Ideally texture you can actually touch and feel, but visual texture too. Texture, the quality of the tactile, “HAPTIC“…these inspired this body of work.

Working with the “HAPTIC“…hungry for texture, and working in layers, in Book Form.

This post is the companion piece to this one…and focuses completely on the use, meaning and essence of the term “HAPTIC“.

So enraptured by “HAPTIC“…that I was compelled to stitch it over and over, creating more HAPTIC on the pages of these conTEXTual Flag Books.

HAPTIC 1

HAPTIC 2

HAPTIC 3

Do we ever have enough HAPTIC in our lives?

The feeling of feeling. We so need to feel, I think.

I mean, I feel.

A Taste For Texture III

A Taste For Texture III

I have a passion for texture…don’t you?  Ideally texture you can actually touch and feel, but visual texture too. Texture, the quality of the tactile, “HAPTIC“…these inspired this body of work.

Working with the “Haptic“…hungry for texture, and working in layers, in Book Form.

The messaging, or text on these Flag Books was added later, and will be featured in another post.

In this flag book, the covers surfaced with soft, crumpled paper (rice paper? Don’t know- the paper was given to me-) and adhesive. Hemp cord was sewn through awl-prepared holes, then knotted to create another layer of texture over the initial resurfacing. The back  and inside covers are stitched with no knotting, creating a flatter layer of texture over the surface.

The flags are textile remnants glued onto the accordion spine embellished with raffia,  a bead, a tiny ribbon and stitching with linen thread and hemp cord. The spine is an accordion-folded piece of heavy drawing paper designed for pastels.

Crumpled tissue paper fragments were adhered to these covers, which then painted and varnished. Sewing thread was used to create the stitching through holes punched with an awl, creating the pattern and texture layered over the surface. The single strip of cloth and button were sewn on with the same thread.

The accordion spine, made from folded tagboard, was textures with tissue and adhesive like the covers, and the fabric remnant flags were adhered with adhesive.

These cover boards were textured with crumpled brown paper, and adhesive, then primed, painted and varnished to achieve a sense of solidity. The repurposed envelopes were added before the painting process, their flaps punctured with a sewing needle, with hemp cord tied through each flap. Stitched and tied bands of texture were created through stitching and  knotting hemp cord through holes prepared with an awl.

The reverse side of the knotted stitching, and an a pieces of ribbon add layers of texture to the inside covers. Flags are textile fragments that look like sample swatches, and are stitched to the accordion spine with linen thread and hemp cord at stress points.

These books become “standing” sculptures. Small in scale, but emanating meaning, feeling, and the “Haptic“…I hope. The feeling of feeling. We so need to feel, I think.

I mean, I feel.

A Taste for Texture II

A Taste for Texture II

I have a passion for texture…don’t you?  Ideally texture you can actually touch and feel, but visual texture too. Texture, the quality of the tactile, “HAPTIC“…these inspired this body of work.

 Inspired to create a series of textural, textual, and textured Flag Books, I used a series of simple techniques to get the “haptic” feel I craved.

i think texture is like that. We crave it. The sense of touch is elemental. Primal. it is not enough to see or hear something we are drawn to.  We are compelled to feel it…one way or another.

I used torn scraps of tissue paper applied with no other then Mod Podge, to create the texture on repurposed cardboard.

The collaged strip of patterned paper is stitched with jute cord, which also holds a piece of repurposed bead necklace which is strung onto it.

The flags are cut from a stiff window shade-like material, and they are attached to an accordion folded spine, repurposed from a brochure about Richard Neutra‘s VDL House. The spine is covered with transparent fabric ribbon. The text: “A STITCH IN TIME SAVES 9“, is, yes, stitched on to the flags with hemp cord.  It is also the name of this piece.

For the piece, “Narrow Bridge“, a similar process was used, with collaged images on the front, punctured by slightly uneven stitches that add another layer of both visual and tactile texture to the surface of the front and back covers.

The repurposed cover boards were were textured with torn tissue paper, and adhered with Mod Podge, and a thinner tissue was used to add solidity, strength and presence to the tagboard accordion spine.

The same window shade-like material was used for the flags, which are stitched (embroidered?) in linen thread with the text, “”The whole world is A narrow bridge The important thing is not to Fear“–the essence of which was penned by the great Reb Nachman of Breslov  The inside covers are collaged with fabric scrap.

“Thin Ice” wears its title on its back cover. The repurposed cover boards are textured with crumpled scraps of brown paper bags, adhered, once again, by the inimitable Mod Podge. The accordion spine was textured and strengthened with torn tissue fragments, and the entire surface was painted in shimmering washes of silvery metallic paint.

The front cover is stitched with a sort of maze, all stitching done with the thread pulled from the detailing on a decorative pillow that had seen better days. (Saved the pillow, repurposed the edging…)

The text, or, messaging, “if you are going to skate on thin ice, you had better be able to walk on water”, is stitched to the flag pages (made from the same type of window shade-like material) with metallic thread, or cord.

Good advice, I think, for any of us…

Sending Bookish Love

Sending Bookish Love

In honor of Valentine’s Day, I led an hands-on Envelope Bookmaking workshop for families, at a building owned and operated by The Community Corporation of Santa Monica, or CCSM.

Participants learned to make a concertina or accordion fold,

and attach it as pages to their envelope covers.

Then came the fun part…

EMBELLISHMENT!

Markers, stickers, collage, ribbon…this is a mixed media project.

This artist displayed not only a wonderful color sense, but tremendous patience, as she cut and glued on paper triangles mosaic style to her envelope cover.

   This artist became absorbed in her writing.  Who is the lucky recipient of her efforts?

     The sky is the limit…or should we say the stars…

Proudly displayed…A very special Valentine, or some kind of communication.

BRAVO!

 

Pushing the Envelope

Pushing the Envelope

Using the form of the envelope to create an artist’s book can be evocative, provocative,  crafty, conceptual, fun, somber, expressive, “artistic”, creative, engaging, and baffling. As with many artists’ books, the question can be raised, “What are these for? What is their purpose? Are they meant to be read, observed and perused, handled, shown behind glass?”  And in the case of the envelope book “…sent through the mail?”

I don’t presume to answer these questions, and can imagine another post which delves more deeply into them.  In this one, my  intent is to share a few of my own envelop books, the materials used in them, some of the motivation, thinking and feeling behind them, and let the observer draw their own conclusions, and perhaps becoming inpsired to explore, and even create one of their own.

Note: in this post,  we see books created in the form of an envelope…as opposed to books created from existing envelopes, which is a whole other story. Also, hemp cord was used to bind the sewn books, and acid-free UHU glue sticks were used as the adhesive for anything glued on all the books depicted.

Cutting, Folding, Stamping, Sewing…

In this book, the basic form is cut and folded, and a single signature is sewn into the last fold with a pamphlet stitch.  A single rubber stamp image stamped in varying ways is used to develop and adorn the piece, and delicate handmade paper containing plant material adds a finishing touch to the pages.

Lone Stories Connect…Discover “I Think I Can”…It’s Everything

In the piece above, the basic structure is cut and folded from a sketchbook cover, and the pages created by a concertina/accordion folded paper strip glued into its next to last section.. The collaged elements, ranging from printed material cut from magazines,  personal writing, repurposed corrugated paper, ribbon scrap and copied illustration images, tell a story of pain and isolation with the potential of redemption through connection and story.

Painfully Animal

This mini book opens on four sides, with pages sewn in a single signature into one fold. Soft handmade paper is used both for adornment and  pages, attached with a running stitch which is threaded back into the sewing holes so that the two ends can be tied together. The single message greets the viewer right in the center. What does it mean? Well, ponder it for awhile, and notice your associations with the phrase, “Painfully Animal”. What does the term evoke for You?

Mixed Media Envelope Book: Work in Progress

This mixed media message piece has been underway, along with a number of bookish siblings, for over two years.  It’s structure is cut and folded, like the first envelope book depicted in this post, and it’s graph paper pages stacked into a single signature, and sewn into the end fold with a running stitch as described above. The  painstaking, step-by-step process of developing the book’s content requires time and focused attention.

Every bit of image and text must feel ‘right’ in how it looks, what it evokes and where it is placed in the book. The ‘story’ that emerges, however non-linear, is discovered in the doing as much by the artist, as it may be later by the observer. Time itself is one of the most significant materials used, as such a piece can’t be rushed.

In these works, many aspects of the creative process come into play: patience and impulse, technique and tension, methods and materials, effort and evocation.

The medium of the envelope book may be on  a mission to become a missive to the outside world from the maker’s heart and soul, hands and head. If it gets a little heady, or crafty in-between, well, that might be just another aspect of this long strange trip we’re on.