“We Right The Book” III

“We Right The Book” III

I am 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 is entitled, “We Right the Book“, and is supported by an Artist in Residence grant from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.  I am working with the students on a series of bookmaking projects during weekly workshops held right in the classroom from September – December, 2017. The students are also assisting with bookmaking workshops held for the community at-large in the Sunland-Tujunga Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library.

We started with the basics: Accordion Fold Books, created from folding equidistant sections of material. We used “bright tagboard” for the folded pages, and assorted posterboard and railroad board for the covers.

Six wonderful student artists assisted in a community accordion bookmaking program at the nearby Sunland-Tujunga Branch Library/Los Angeles Public Library, passing on what they had learned to 28 participating children accompanied by

parents and grandparents,

some of whom also got into the act.

Materials for book spines and covers are laid out and ready for the young makers.

Supported by student artist assistants Angelica, Karen, Roxy, Lillian, Kai and Haroutyun, participants got right into the activity, choosing colors, folding accordion spines, adding covers and then…

perhaps the best part, developing their content! Writing, drawing, cutting, gluing, designing

The student assistants supported the young makers with their presence,

 interaction, distribution of supplies, and sample making.

Proud bookmakers show off their creations.

What a line-up!

This young artist integrated story and illustrations beautifully, keeping character details consistent.

In this book about striped snakes, the author carefully cut out all the stripes and glued them to the snake characters….a great deal of work and commitment.

Much effort went into this book about Star Wars character Kylo Ren.

The young creator had special support and guidance from student artist assistant Haroutyun, who provided excellent assistance and support.
It was beautiful to see.

We are looking forward to our next community bookmaking program at the Library, a magical place in and of itself, amplified by creative activity.  The student artist assistants will help to spread the word about how to make a flag book, and the results are sure to be magical indeed.

It will be beautiful to see.