The Book as Art

While changing planes in Atlanta last month, I passed a display of artist books in the E Terminal and knew that I wanted to go back and look at the rest of the exhibit when I had more time—which I finally did. It was incredible! Seven wall cases held works by over 70 artists from all over the world. Books were made from all kinds of materials and in every imaginable—and unimaginable—format. I’ve included a few in this post, taken with my iPhone, but you can view the exhibition catalog HERE if you’d like to see more books and read about the show. It’s on display through October, so if you’ve got a layover in ATL make sure to have a look!

© Robin Price

© Lynn Skordal

© Saaraliisa Ylitalo

© Joseph Lappie

© Shireen Modak Holman

© Ann Kresge

Kudos to the Airport Art Program for putting on such a beautiful exhibition!
And thank you to the book artists who turned my layover into an art museum visit.

The Morgan Conservatory

Last week I was in Cleveland for a meeting and thought I’d pop into the Morgan Conservatory to take a look around. Wow. Papermaking, letterpress, AND book arts under one roof? … I’m all in! The Morgan is the largest art center of its kind in the nation, with 15,000 square feet of industrial space that combines “a working studio, gallery, gathering place for the community, educational hub and purveyor of some of the finest handmade papers in the world.” It sponsors artists in residence, offers workshops, and even has its own garden out back that’s home to trees and plants used for papermaking and dyeing. There’s even a kozo harvest in November!

The first thing you notice when you walk in is all the paper sculptures and mobiles hanging from the ceiling. So festive! It makes me want to make some for my own house (like I don’t have enough projects already). Allie was kind enough to give me a little tour.

The Morgan has a separate room for bookbinding and a huge dedicated space for letterpress. I drooled over all the rows of type in drawers.

I know nothing about papermaking, but I love all the supplies.

Curiosities were everywhere. I loved this sculpture—I don’t know if it was still being worked on or not—of what looked like a kinder, gentler version of a Little Shop of Horrors pod housing dried hydrangeas and twigs.

I mentioned this briefly in the previous post, but there’s a wall display of different papers artists have made, each with a description of its origins and process.

I think my favorite might have been this set of two:

Helmut Becker, Ontario, Canada
1. Natasja fibre flax, blue flowers 2. Belinka fibre flax, white flowers
Line fibre flax, beaten ultra fine in a stainless steel Hallander paper beater and laminated between extremely thin translucent sheets of fibre flax handmade paper.

I also got to see a sneak peek of the Morgan’s 2019 National Juried Exhbition—amazing works both on and made with paper— before it was even up on display. It opens March 29 and runs through April 27.

Finding the Morgan was such a treat. I look forward to returning!

Life Lately

I kicked off March with a 45-minute song set at the St. Francis Mardi Gras pasta dinner fundraiser, which is always such a blast and gives me a great reason to play dress-up. I’m not big on selfies, but hey, the pillbox hat calls for one!

Not too long after that I was able to get down to Florida to visit my brother, friends, warmer weather, and the beach. What is it about reading a book while seaside? Every other care and worry and to-do list item seemed to find its proper size and place—as opposed to being overwhelmingly huge and at the front of my brain where they usually live.

While on my brief layover in Atlanta I discovered the handmade artist book exhibition in the E Terminal— my only disappointed was not having enough time to look at them all. I love that artist books are being given a more prominent showcase in the art world. So cool that this was at an airport too, and that there wasn’t just one display, but that they were on exhibit throughout the entire terminal!

At home, I got back to the print shop to work on the last page of my Tiny Poems book. The photo below is of one of my typeset poems sitting on the press before a test run. It was tricky getting everything lined up right, because this page is replacing an existing one, and so all the spacing needed to match exactly. Next up: binding the books and printing images.

Working on a new essay. I love scribbling on drafts.

While on a very short trip to Cleveland, I poked my head into the Morgan Conservatory, a papermaking, letterpress, and bookbinding center housed in a 15,000 square foot warehouse off I-90. It is amazing! The photo below shows a small section of one of their display walls with handmade papers and descriptions of how each was made.

While spring is definitely on its way (it was a bizarre 75 degrees on Thursday!) there was a bit of winter just before that. I love my front courtyard in the snow…

Sewed up another dress, and I think I need to make something summery out of this fabric I found at Sew to Speak.

Happiness is seeing Sherman and Hazel snuggling! I’m so glad he finally has a friend.

Cheers for now :-)