CHAPTERS 8: SoCal Book Arts Explored V

CHAPTERS 8: SoCal Book Arts Explored V

Final thoughts…for now…

The Craft and Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles currently has on view “Chapters: Book Arts in Southern California” curated by Holly Jerger through May 7, 2017.

“Chapters explores the significance of Southern California artists in establishing the field of book arts from the 1960s to present day. The exhibition highlights over 60 artists, presses, and organizations who explore ideas related to conceptualism, feminism, process, and community building through artists’ books, sculptural forms, small editions, and zines. “–CAFAM

Artists’ Books pack the proverbial punch…I did not get photos of the labels for these…but their power is made manifest through their forms. Visit the show to see them up close (well, closer-) and personal.  They are, both personal, and universal.

You can still catch the show for another almost week.

Check it out!

In the next few posts I will explore  and share my interactive book, “Chromatic Interactions” commissioned for the show and its viewers become participants. An interesting perspective.

Let’s hear it for Free Speech.

CHAPTERS 7: SoCal Book Arts Explored IV

CHAPTERS 7: SoCal Book Arts Explored IV

The Craft and Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles currently has on view “Chapters: Book Arts in Southern California” curated by Holly Jerger through May 7, 2017.

“Chapters explores the significance of Southern California artists in establishing the field of book arts from the 1960s to present day. The exhibition highlights over 60 artists, presses, and organizations who explore ideas related to conceptualism, feminism, process, and community building through artists’ books, sculptural forms, small editions, and zines. “–CAFAM

Here are some of the book works shown….some provocative, fun and unusual bindings, structures and forms.

Charlene Matthews‘ James Joyce “Ulysses” pole piece. hand lettered.

Concentric cutouts…

The seeming simplicity of these ties…

Flag and accordion structures…looks like the addition of single signature as well onto the accordion.

Wallace Berman…Semina Culture.

C.K. Wilde…cut-outs…

Nancy Jo Haselbacher…words on words…

 Turkish Map Fold…Nick Herman

The wondrous Kitty Maryatt…this wild, bridge-like structure…

All this an more at the Craft and Folk Art Museum‘s CHAPTERS exhibition…through May 7, 2017!  Don’t Miss It!

CHAPTERS 6: SoCal Book Arts Explored III

CHAPTERS 6: SoCal Book Arts Explored III

The Craft and Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles currently has on view “Chapters: Book Arts in Southern California” curated by Holly Jerger through May 7, 2017.

“Chapters explores the significance of Southern California artists in establishing the field of book arts from the 1960s to present day. The exhibition highlights over 60 artists, presses, and organizations who explore ideas related to conceptualism, feminism, process, and community building through artists’ books, sculptural forms, small editions, and zines. “–CAFAM

Here are some of the book works shown….speaking for themselves.

You can visit the show through May 7, 2017, and continue through the chapters of CHAPTERS.

CHAPTERS 5: SoCal Book Arts Explored II

CHAPTERS 5: SoCal Book Arts Explored II

The Craft and Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles currently has on view “Chapters: Book Arts in Southern California” curated by Holly Jerger through May 7, 2017.

“Chapters explores the significance of Southern California artists in establishing the field of book arts from the 1960s to present day. The exhibition highlights over 60 artists, presses, and organizations who explore ideas related to conceptualism, feminism, process, and community building through artists’ books, sculptural forms, small editions, and zines. “–CAFAM

Here are some of the book works shown….

The amazing Wallace Berman…photographer and assemblage artist. We lost him too soon…

The work of contemporary book artist  Machelle Choi from Otis Collage of Art and Design. I love the use of frames…and string.

More to come…as we continue through the chapters of CHAPTERS.

CHAPTERS 4: SoCal Book Arts Explored

CHAPTERS 4: SoCal Book Arts Explored

The Craft and Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles currently has on view “Chapters: Book Arts in Southern California” through May 7, 2017.

“Chapters explores the significance of Southern California artists in establishing the field of book arts from the 1960s to present day. The exhibition highlights over 60 artists, presses, and organizations who explore ideas related to conceptualism, feminism, process, and community building through artists’ books, sculptural forms, small editions, and zines. “–CAFAM

Here are some of the book works shown….

” ARCH” honors women architects….

Museum member walk-through…curator Holly Jerger absorbs an artist’s narrative about her book.

The wondrous works of Howard Marshall…who infuses music and his heritage deftly into his books.His line drawing shows expertise, exactitude and expressiveness.

The richly textured works of AfroPuff’s Adah Glenn are beautiful and highly tactile. Her use of textured papers brings us directly into a sense of the haptic.

Machelle Choi shares about her book created at the Otis College of Art and Design. She graduated in 2016, and shows a moving book about bridging the gap with her parents, which includes an interesting use of frames.

More to come…as we continue through the chapters of CHAPTERS.

CHAPTERS 3: “We Write the Book”

CHAPTERS 3: “We Write the Book”

The wonderful Craft and Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles currently has on view the exhibition, “Chapters: Book Arts in Southern California” through May 7, 2017.

I had the opportunity of creating an interactive book for the show, one that potentially 8000 viewers/participants could become co-creators of by adding and subtracting color, pattern, graphics and text as they so chose.

Cards and pencils nearby encourage patrons to become participants.

“Windows” are uniform, to allow messages to show/shine through.

Some wrote stories, employing the ancient “There Once Was…”

Some, one word.

Some expressed philosophy…

Others,  directives.

Some messages came together to create new meanings and  inadvertent poetry.

Some seemed to write a journal entry,

Some declared their vision.

Some drew,

Some shared experiences.

Some got creative with the grid,

 ALL created with the form.

The form of the book is a window to infinite possibilities. You can see many of them in the show.   On view through May 7, 2017.  

CHAPTERS 2: Opening at CAFAM!

CHAPTERS 2: Opening at CAFAM!

The wonderful Craft and Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles currently has on view “Chapters: Book Arts in Southern California” through May 7, 2017.

Kitty Maryatt

John Baldassari

I need to investigate this further…

Exciting take on accordion fold structure…

Allen Ruppersberg

Must get back to CAFAM...and take another look!

CHAPTERS I : “Chromatic Interactions”

CHAPTERS I: “Chromatic  Interactions”

The wonderful Craft and Folk Art Museum of Los Angeles currently has on view “Chapters: Book Arts in Southern California” through May 7, 2017.

I had the opportunity of creating an interactive book for the show, one that potentially 8000 viewers/participants could become co-creators of by adding and subtracting color, pattern, graphics and text as they so chose.

I created the flag book  structure from book board (covers),

watercolor paper (accordion spine), rice paper (covering the spine),

repurposed file folders (torn into pieces to “cover the covers” and folded to form the flag page pockets), linen thread (to stitch the flag pages/pockets), Lineco Neutral pH Adhesive (for gluing) ,
and colored file cards (to write and draw upon, and insert into the pockets in varied arrangements), to create  “Chromatic Interactions”.
I aligned the ‘windows” in the covers, with the windows cut out of the flag book pockets, 

so that the file cards would read through the front and back cover apertures.
The results of offering the public the opportunity to express themselves through interacting with the book were fascinating.

I was moved that participants were expressing their feelings about current events, and the “state of the nation”. 
Some just got silly and had fun.

Some asked profound questions…reflecting what is on the collective mind.

Some waxed poetic.
And one young artist expressed her feelings through creating a bookmark, as all the windows were filled!

 Perhaps the greatest treasure of all…

Thank you Inez!

And thank you to the wonderful Holly Jerger, curator, for this amazing opportunity to give CAFAM viewers a voice..I am looking forward to seeing what else they have to say.

The Sheltering Book Chapter 6

The Sheltering Book Chapter 6

I was honored to be one of 17 artists to receive an inaugural ‘The WORD Grant 2016: The Bruce Geller Memorial Prize” from the Institute for Jewish Creativity, a project of American Jewish University, to create, “The Sheltering Book“.

“The Sheltering Book will be a life-sized book structure which will become the backdrop for community bookmaking workshops drawing parallels between the meaning and architecture of the book, and that of the Sukkah. The project also explores the relationship between the public sphere and private space, whether that space be our personal creativity, where we create, or what we create.” —Debra Disman

The Sheltering Book is composed of an accordion spine, front and back covers, and two movable pages on each side which open away from the center, creating a space for shelter, presentation, performance and sharing.

To create a Sukkah shelter, dyed and stenciled netting was spread over the top of the Book, held in place by pins.

The Sheltering Book was constructed out of corrugated cardboard, primed, base painted, and transformed with layers of semi-sheer paint applications in harvest colors, which played across the surface.

Participants gathered in front of The Sheltering Book to create their own books,

and then share them, using The Sheltering Book as a backdrop, stage set, and human-sized performance space.

The Sheltering Book becomes a synergistic process and experience for the community at-large, offering shelter, safe space, and creative inspiration for all who engage with it.

Let us hold the vision.

The Sheltering Book Chapter 5

The Sheltering Book Chapter 5

I am honored to have been one of 17 artists who received an inaugural ‘The WORD Grant 2016: The Bruce Geller Memorial Prize” from the Institute for Jewish Creativity, a project of American Jewish University, to create, “The Sheltering Book“.

Open to the world.

“The Sheltering Book will be a life-sized book structure which will become the backdrop for community bookmaking workshops drawing parallels between the meaning and architecture of the book, and that of the Sukkah. The project also explores the relationship between the public sphere and private space, whether that space be our personal creativity, where we create, or what we create.” —Debra Disman

A “Sheltering Book” program was held at the , of the Santa Monica Public Library. The program was attended by participants from preschool to post school who created books,  and shared them in the shelter of The Sheltering Book.

This kind patron helped Montana Branch Library Manager Stephanie Archer and I carry The Sheltering Book into the Community Room.

Covers and pages were prepped, and participants bound them together into a single signature book which they then added to with writing, drawing and collage materials.

A whole wonderful family of three generations…grandma, mom, and four fantastic, talented and creative daughters!

Reveling in materials.

Creative use of papert strips too create waving grasses, behind which cat’s eyes glimmer…

Sharing with little sis looking on…

Use of magazine images.

She has a beautiful sense of design.

Grandma gets into the act!

Creating with Grandma…pretty in Pink!

Sharing…

A children’s book illustrator…

shares her creation…lovely color choices!

This wonderful teaching artist claimed the time to create a piece about her own identity…

employing buttons, collage, mixed media,

to great effect…  and sharing.

Beautiful use of leaves…

outside,

and inside, her book!

She strolled into the Community Room during a break, and jumped right in!

  A natural presenter!

This lovely couple go right into the expressive spirit…

creating about music,

and other visions.

Photogenic too!

This maker truly committed…

using inspiration from the natural

and the man-made worlds…

and fully developing ideas

within her book.

Sharing…

This spirited artist used to be a casting agent…

and she has truly found a new medium within which to epxress herself…and vision.

The Sheltering Book becomes a synergistic process and experience for the community at-large, offering shelter, safe space, and creative inspiration for all who engage with it. 

Let us hold the vision!