TJBookarts Windfall and other bookarts stuff

One of the things I love about getting home from a trip is going through the mail. Don't ask me why - usually most of it is bills, but this time I was lucky to have three parcels waiting for me!
Inside one was the booty above: a lovely windfall which I won simply by leaving a comment on Jackie Poutasse's website: TJBookarts. Her site has free tutorials and lots of sites of interest for anyone interested in book arts and paper-making. I first "met" Jackie on the yahoo book arts group and have found her extremely generous with her knowledge, and now also with these goodies. Over at TJBookarts, Jackie is celebrating the first birthday of the web site and offering a weekly prize draw. Its not too late to surf on over, check it out and put yourself in the draw. Jackie has also started up the Book Art Forum in the past few weeks and this looks likely to develop into a wonderful resource and space to chat.



The second parcel I opened contained the great book cover start above as well as this start for the "Library" from Jade Pegler. I am a huge admirer of Jade's artwork and feel honoured to be collaborating with her. If you are not familiar with "the Library", but you are interested in doing some collaborative art work which will be exhibited in New York! (YES! I said NEW YORK!) have a look at the Library group on Flickr and see if it is your kind of thing.

My final package was a gift to myself - the Penland Book of Handmade Books. I have been wanting this book for about 4 or 5 months, so when I saw one at a reasonable price on Amazon, I decided to treat myself. This book is full of a great range of inspirational book designs in the gallery sections as well as about ten detailed "how to" sections by established book artists. I love it!

Fruitless

Safe
Originally uploaded by potsrme1962.

This is the last post I will be doing before I head to Melbourne for supervision tomorrow. This work has been troubling me because much as I love it, I did not think it was going to work as part of my masters work.

I had made these fragile,flimsy and translucent boxes with holes. A box is a container - to hold things, to preserve them and keep them safe. I wanted to use the boxes to express how we as humans try to hold onto things, to keep them the same, and to stop things changing. To express "anti-process" and the fruitlessness of trying to keep things the same. In a way, the boxes did this but there were too many other interpretations that could be made, and were probably more evident.

I was thinking about putting different things in the boxes, but what?Then I thought of adding locks. This clarifies the idea of holding something, containing it. But the boxes have holes! And are empty! So something has happened - whatever it was has gone! To me, the work is now about what has happened, a change in state. This seems to work.

I'm not sure if this is conceptually within the bounds of my thesis - I'll be discussing that with my supervisor, but I am a lot happier with these pieces anyway, and I plan to make more.

I'm not sure whether I will be able to post while I am in Melbourne - I may only have dial-up access which makes loading photos difficult. I will be checking out a number of exhibitions while I am down there though, and will be sure to report back as soon as I can. Thanks to everyone who has provided comments and support during the past weeks while I prepared for this trip. Your help has been greatly appreciated!

Flag Book - maquette

This is a rough maquette of a flag book I plan to make as part of my masters. The white concertina spine will be blue sky in the finished book, and there will be imagery on the front and back outside covers as well. The next stage is to write the text, which will be on the back of the flags.

The concept for this book is based on the idea from Buddhist meditation that thoughts, feelings, sensations are constantly changing, drifting across the mind like clouds in a sky. To cling on to our states of mind is as futile as expecting the weather to be constant.

From what I have read, it is typical to make a mock-up or maquette of an artists book to help ensure that things like size and materials are consistent with the artists meaning. After constructing the middle section I realized that it would add to the meaning if the flags were attached to "sky". I also discovered my flags are too far apart for my liking.

I would really love to make this book in a large size (A3 or A2) to fit with the idea of an expanse of sky. That would mean having it professionally printed and to achieve the quality I want, I might have to apply for a grant to fund printing. I spoke to a printer yesterday about offset printing and they said they did not know anyone who would do such a small run - so that means I would have to send it interstate. Hhmm!