Posts Tagged ‘Artist Book’
February 21, 2012
The Wind Horse, shown on the the imprint of a prayer flag is a luck-bringing symbol. This horse can bring good luck, life force, health, influence and merit. On his back is the Flaming Jewel, a spiritual warrior, capable of fulfilling all wishes. The spiritual warrior is carried past the many obstacles leading into the sacred world. The word for Wind Horse (Lungta) has come to mean luck.
I found the wood block in Thimpu, when I was snooping around the shops near the contemporary art school. Using printers ink, and stamps on mulberry paper I made up some small pieces. I started to make an limited edition of five Artist’s Books on mulberry paper. They are scrolls about 62″ high. Now there are only four. I tore up one last week while working on an idea. The torn pieces may be incorporated in the finished product. This print shown above may be added to one of the scrolls. It’s a work in progress. (As usual click on the image to see it bigger)
Tags:abstract painting, animals, Art, Artist Book, Bhutan, poem, Prayer flag, Shopping, Thimphu, Travel, Wind Horse, woodblock print
Posted in Abstract Painting, Artists' books, Bhutan, Paintings, Poems, Travel Drawings | Leave a Comment »
February 16, 2012
Yesterday I did pick up a brush, but it was for polyurethane varnish. I went over to a friend’s studio where I met her daughter, a blogger I had been following. http://thegirlinthehat.wordpress.com/ While we kept our hands busy making something, we quizzed each other about wordpress and blogging. It was great fun – fun to see each other’s faces and to have a conversation in person.
Seeking suggestions on what to add to the Bhutan scrolls I had made earlier, I brought them with me. Along with the scrolls, I brought prayer paper from Thimpu. When I was visiting Thimpu, I spent an afternoon at the saturday art school; we looked at each other’s work and painted together. After school, one of the students took me to a store where I bought some prayer books. Actually, the books were separate pieces of printed handmade paper. Yesterday, I felt close to Bhutan. My wet varnish stained hands were covered with Bhutanese ink from the prayer paper. What will become of the box? Maybe it will become part of an Artist’s book about that part of the world at the base of Mt. Everest. Mt. Everest is so high; the white mountain was above the clouds on a clear day as we were flying towards the Paro airport. As usual, click on the images to see them bigger.
Tags:Artist Book, Artists' Book, Asia, Bhutan, Bhutanese, Paper, Papermaking, Paro, Thimpu, Wangchuck Centennial Park
Posted in Artists' books, Bhutan | 6 Comments »
February 7, 2012
(click on the image to make it bigger)
Behind the Veteran’s Building 2001
Handmade paper using plant life from Napa, CA. pen and ink, watercolor,
Parchment paper, ink jet print, stamps, raffia, plastic
7 x 5 inches
It’s really easy to make your own paper. All you need is some scraps of paper, a blender from the kitchen and a framed screen. You’ll need some felt to sop up the excess water. After collecting leaves and tiny flowers I made the pulp. Before the new piece of paper was dry I inserted straw for a tie. One day when my husband and I went on a hike, I jotted down some notes along the way. When I made this book I just just left the notes the way they were, made the font really tiny and printed it. The grasses and tiny flowers were collected during the hike. This kind of handmade book is called a single signature book, an Artist’s book.
Tags:Art, Artist Book, California, Flowers, Napa Valley, Papermaking
Posted in Artists' books, California, drawings, Paintings, Poems, Travel Drawings | 4 Comments »
January 27, 2012
This was the view we had from our apartment. We looked at a picture that was always changing. Besides making drawings and paintings for my Artists Book, I made photographs. This photograph was taken at 5:34 in the morning.1.3 sec at f/4.0 The focal length was 28mm ISO 200. I didn’t have a tripod so I set up my Canon EOS Digital rebel XTI on a pile of books on a table. Then, I put the camera on timer and experimented with different settings. A bit crazy, too, it was dark, I’m trying to see the dials with a flashlight – I have to remember where they are on the camera! I’m trying to be quiet so I don’t wake up my husband, then of course when I do try that, I usually crash something.There’s not a lot of time to fiddle around because the light changes rapidly.
I’m working on how to show bigger images on my WordPress site here but so far all I can say it click on the image to see it bigger. It makes a difference. If anyone has a suggestion on a better layout for my blog, I’d love to hear about it.
Tags:Art, Artist Book, Cameras, Canon EOS, photography, san francisco, WordPress
Posted in California, Photographs | 4 Comments »
January 25, 2012
This is an Artists’ Book
An Artists’ Book is a work of art. It is not just a vehicle to contain a story and communicate non-visual ideas.
Different media are used in a unique way to create a book-like object.
These books are puzzles.
They are undefined.
The viewer and the artist make up their own story using clues from the book-like structure.
Text, image and structure are equally important in an Artists’ Book.
In The Bay Bridge my cover and spine is the steel box. The pages can be taken out of the box and looked at indvidually.
For a few years we lived in an apartment looking right out at the Oakland- San Francisco Bay Bridge. In a drawer near the window I kept a supply of the same size ’pages’ for my Artists’ Book. I’d record what was going on outside my window. What happens is you have the same size paper for each drawing and painting so you start to think of different ways to fill that piece of paper. The book is chuck full now. Included in the steel box are stories about connections I have had with the bridge.
Tags:Artist Book, drawings, graphite drawing, Oakland - San Francisco Bay Bridge, Painting, pen and ink, Steel, watercolor
Posted in Abstract Painting, Artists' books, California, drawings, Paintings | 8 Comments »
January 20, 2012
When I started making Artists’ Books I thought people have been making books for years and anyway, I’m a painter. What can I do that would be different? I decided to make a big book. Each page is made up of two oil paintings on canvas, stretcher bars included. Metal prongs hold them together. What is Intuitive Collisions about? My father was a financier, an industrialist and I was an artist. Our minds couldn’t have been farther apart. We ended up taking early morning walks together. He would talk to me about building a bridge or how the stock market was doing. I would be looking at how the fog masked out the vineyard leaving only the trees to see. By the end of the walk, we’d be happy to have spent some time with each other. I think we understood each other a little bit better, too.
Intuitive Collisions 1999
Oil, transfers, acrylic on canvas, stretcher bars, wood joiners,
prong type glides, metal hinges
14″ x 29″ x 9″ 58 inches open book
Tags:Abstract Art, acrylic paint, Art, Artist Book, Artists' Book, California, oil paint, Painting, Paper, Shopping, Stretcher bar, Visual Arts
Posted in Abstract Painting, Artists' books, California, Paintings | 4 Comments »
