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“We Right The Book” VI

“We Right The Book” VI

I was honored to serve as Artist in Residence at Verdugo Hill High School in Tujunga, CA (Los Angeles) for a group of 41 Senior English class Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) students.

The students’ completed book works were exhibited at the Sunland-Tujunga Branch Library on December 13, 2017.
Accordion fold books, flag books, tunnel books, scrolls, and side bound books…the results were stunning.
Below is a digital tour through the show.

Each student’s works were displayed together, except the scrolls, which were hung on the walls.

Students created extraordinary Tunnel Books with whimsical, innovative and imaginative use of materials.

They made Flag Books…with “Found” (collected from existing print media) Writing.

and Accordion Fold Books…

with elaborate pop-ups.

The students completed their final projects for the class in their side bound books…the theme: IDENTITY…Who they are…Where they want to go…How they see themselves.

A Junior VAPA English student peruses the side bound books. She looked at each and every one.

I would love to work with her next year!

Fingers Crossed for next year’s Residency!
Thank you, LA DCA.

“We Right The Book” V

“We Right The Book” V

I was honored to serve as Artist in Residence at Verdugo Hill High School in Tujunga, CA (Los Angeles) for a group of 41 Senior English class Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) students.

Our project , “We Right the Book” was supported by an Artist in Residence grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. I worked with the students on a series of bookmaking projects during weekly workshops held right in the classroom from September – December, 2017. Students also assisted with bookmaking workshops held for the community at-large in the Sunland-Tujunga Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.

In our Library Program on November 29, 2017, five wonderful student artist teacher assistants helped to teach the Flag Book structure, to a group of children ranging in age from 5 – 12, accompanied by parents, grandparents and other family members.

The students demonstrated how to fold the accordion spines from “bright tagboard”, add railroad board covers, and finally, attach the flag pages.

The students shone at showing techniques, then moved through the crowd, assisting participants one-on-one.

Once the books were assembled, participants could experience the joy of developing them….

adding color, collage, drawing, stickers,

and Titles!

Mothers worked side by side with their children…

Upon completion, participants proudly shared their books with the group.

It was beautiful to see and hear!

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!

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on June 24, 2016 at 2:53 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Accordion Fold, Artist Books, Artist's Books, Bone Folder, Bookmaking in Los Angeles, Books made By hand, Concertina Fold, Flag Book, Flag Books, Found Writing, Handmade Books, hedi Kyle, José Montoya, Make Your Own Books, Museum, Museum Art Workshop, Museum Bookimaking Workshop, Print Media, The Fowler Museum at UCLA

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.

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on June 13, 2016 at 11:02 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Accordion Fold, Accordion Spine, Artist's Book, Artist's Books, Awl, Book, Book Form, Bookbinding, Bookmaking, Concertina Spine, Content, Flag Book, Flag Books, Flag pages, Handmade Books, Haptic, Hemp cord, Jute, Jute Cord, Linen Thread, Linene Thread, Messaging, Mod Podge, Repurposed, Stitching Awl, Stitiching, Tactile, Tagboard, Text, texture, Textured, Textured Surface, Touch, Unique Books

A Taste For Texture III

A Taste For Texture III

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.

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on May 29, 2016 at 12:55 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Accordion Fold, Accordion Spine, Artist's Book, Artist's Books, Awl, Book, Book Form, Bookbinding, Bookmaking, Concertina Spine, Content, Flag Book, Flag Books, Flag pages, Handmade Books, Haptic, Hemp cord, Jute, Jute Cord, Linen Thread, Linene Thread, Messaging, Mod Podge, Repurposed, Stitching Awl, Stitiching, Tactile, Tagboard, Text, Touch, Unique Books

The Big Read in LA 2016: LAMAG WORKSHOP

The Big Read in LA 2016: LAMAG WORKSHOP

Please join us at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery for a free family art workshop as a part of the Big Read Program, celebrating the book Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury.

“ARTIST’S BOOKS: SYMBOLS OF PERSONAL EXPRESSION”

with Guest Artist Debra Disman

Saturday, April 30th

Drop-in between 12:00pm – 3:00pm

Participants will create a mixed-media artist’s book inspired by their imaginations and personal

stories.

All ages welcomed. No reservations necessary. Supplies provided.

AT:

Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery

Barnsdall Park

4800 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles 90027

323.644.6269 Facebook

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
Sponsored by the Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), City of Los Angeles.

Wave your Flag!: Teens Create Flag Books in Honor of The Big Read

Wave your Flag!: Teens Create Flag Books in Honor of The Big Read

As a program of The Big Read in LA, 2016, I taught a flag bookmaking workshop at Verduga Hills High School. The Big Read book is Ray Bradbury‘s “Fahrenheit 451“, in which firemen light fires to burn books, instead of rescuing them from the flames. Although published over 60 years ago, the book remains uncomfortably relatable to present day issues. Even prescient at times.

Conducting the workshop with the teens was great. I loved it, the students loved it, the school librarian loved it, and the classroom teacher loved it. Here are a few images of what the students made.

Students had a choice of “flag” pages: rectangles of uniform size, cut from tagboard in an array of bright colors, repurposed library return cards offered up by the school librarian (treasures!), pieces of sketchbook covers, and one off items such at the card above, painted in black chalkboard paint and adorned with red letters and numbers.

Students used a variety of materials to create layered meaning through text and image.

They mixed it up, playing with pattern, visual texture and color in their compositions.

A curated selection of quotes from the book were available, and a number of students used them in their books.

These young artists had the passion!

They spoke their hearts.

“Meaningful elements remind us to live”

“Pura Vida” = Pure Life. Setting the intention?

The color combinations were striking, and students had the chance to see first had how the red accordion spine looked different pared with green….

and blue. This ambitious young artist reassembled the words that had been cut from this sketchbook cover, to striking effect on his book.

The Flag Book is a potent vehicle for personal expression, allowing for visual and verbal content on its numerous surfaces, places and spaces, in the form of writing, drawing, collaging, note taking, photographs, and combinations of any and all of these.