I'm very happy to say that Alicia Bailey of Abecedarian Gallery in Denver has selected one of my books for Photo Book Works, which opened there this Friday February 15th.
If you've been following here for some years you may remember the flag book I made called Like Weather. The book explored the inconstancy of emotions and compared this to the changability of weather. It was in fact the book that drew me in to making artist's books, because the structure expressed my idea so perfectly.
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| Like Weather (Amanda Watson-Will) |
Like Weather has brought me success before, as it was acquired by Southern Cross University for their artist's book collection, and I am really thrilled that it is the second of my works to be selected for exhibition at Abecedarian Gallery. If you head over to the gallery's website, you'll be able to see all the selected work in the online catalogue.
Another piece of good news was the acquisition of my first zine, Looking for Wabi-Sabi in Tokyo, by University of Melbourne Library (Special Collections) . Among other work, I sent off some copies to BAZE which was held in December at Hand Held Gallery in Melbourne. I was fortunate that my zine was among those that Sue Millard selected for the Library.
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| Detail from Looking for Wabi-Sabi in Tokyo |
I can also show you a photo of the first proof for A Day Just Like Any Other, my contribution for Edition 4 of Book*Art*Object.
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| Apologies for the poor photo, but I didn't want to reveal too much yet! |
Soon I'll be able to post more information about the research and process of making the book, but first I'll be heading over to Sarah Bryant's very useful post about assembling an edition. It has some great tips on how to make the process as easy, accurate and speedy as possible.
And Something New
Finally, I wanted to share a recent acquisition of my own. You all know I love books, but you may not know that I also love jewelry, so what could be better than a book that is a necklace. Or is that a necklace that is a book? It doesn't really matter, it's beautiful whatever way you say it.
This little treasure is the work of Barry Smith, a very talented sculptor and artist who works with metal. He lives not that far away from me, in Maleny, with his wife Fiona, a fellow BAO-member.
I read about Barry's Peace Book pendants on Fiona's blog, Paper Ponderings and was immediately captivated. I love the fact this pendant is a little book, it mixes yellow and white metals that are recycled, it has that superbly ornate second page, followed by the quote from Thich Nhat Hanh. As a person who experiences frequent bouts of anxiety, this reminder that the solution lies in mindfulness could not suit me better. So thank-you Barry, this necklace is already very special and I know it is set to become a favourite.
You can see more of Barry's work, including some Peace Book pendants at the moment, over on his blog Rustnstuff and in his online shop.
