Upcoming show in Pittsboro! Opening reception on Sunday, April 6th

I Ching #64: 'Unfinished'

After an unusually wintry winter here in North Carolina, today the air had a distinct smell of green to it. Not the green beer of St. Patrick's Day (although there may still be a whiff of that around), and not yet the visible yellow-green tinge of pine pollen in the air. Just the first, barely noticeable taste of Spring. And the much more noticeable increase in temperature to 70 degrees.

With Spring this year has come an exciting opportunity. My work and Lisa Gilbert's work will be featured in a wonderful little gallery in downtown Pittsboro called Liquidambar. Here are details:

• Where: Liquidambar Gallery and Gifts, 80 Hillsboro St., Pittsboro, NC
• When: The opening reception will be part of Pittsboro's First Sunday celebration on Sunday, April 6th, from 2-4 p.m. 
• When else: The show will be up for a nice, long, two-month run from Sunday, April 6th through Sunday, May 25th.
• When else else: There will be another reception on the First Sunday in May, too.  Sunday, May 4th, from 2-4 p.m.

I'll be showing a mix of work--old and new, artists' books and handmade blank books of different kinds. Depending on space constraints, the giant Book of Mister Miracles may make another appearance, along with his smaller cousin Doctor Mister Miracles's Guide to Miracle-Making: A Manual (Abridged).

2 copies from the 5-copy original edition of Doctor Mister Miracles's Guide
 to Miracle-Making: A Manual (Abridged)

I've also just had a larger edition of DMM'sGtM-M:AM(A) printed, which I'll be picking up from the printshop tomorrow. It consists of scans of my favorite version of each page from the original edition compiled into a new version and digitally printed. It's my first foray into publishing a larger edition (100 copies) that's neither print-on-demand nor an open-ended edition of handmade copies, and I'm excited to see how it goes.

There will be copies of Surf Book #3 at Liquidambar, too, as well as copies of I Ching #64: 'Unfinished.'

I Ching #64: 'Unfinished', open

There's other new work in the works, but it's not quite ready to be photographed yet. A scroll inspired by the flooding Haw River, painted using water from the river itself; and a new book in the I Ching series: I Ching #3: 'Difficulty.'  

I'll see if we can't post some photos of the newer work before the show opens, but if we don't, I hope you'll come out to Liquidambar and be surprised.

Surf Book #3 (Get Barrelled): Cover #4

The original image for this cover was pretty perfect just as it was, torn out of an issue of Surfer magazine. But I couldn't just steal it without altering it somehow. Okay, sure I could--it's all blatant appropriation, anyway. So rather than try to 'improve' on the image or expand upon the story it tells, why not give credit where credit is due with these portraits of the tools of the appropriation trade...

Front cover:

Back cover:

And the full, open spread:

Surf Book #3 (Get Barrelled): Cover #5

Things are getting weird in Surf Book country. On cover #5, Octopus dreams himself a surfer who dreams he's on a much gnarlier wave than he really is... or something like that.

Front cover:

Back cover:

And the full, open spread:

Surf Book #3 (Get Barrelled): Cover #18

Following on the wizard theme from the previous post's cover, here's another guy who lent himself to that treatment. He works his magic to transform the back cover of this simple, saddle-stitched pamphlet into a reverse flaming traditional half-binding.

Front cover:

Back cover:

And the full, open spread:

Surf Book #3 (Get Barrelled): cover #12

Another day, another unique cover for one of the copies of the latest edition, Surf book #3 (Get barrelled).  Cover #12 features a demoniacally talented surf wizard...

Front cover:

Back cover:

And the full spread:

Surf book #3 (Get barrelled): cover #14

As I mentioned yesterday I'm working on unique covers for all 20 copies of the latest edition, Surf book #3 (Get barrelled).  Here are some views of the cover for copy #14.

Front cover:

 

Back cover:

And the full spread (pardon the glare from the scanner...):

Surf Book #3 (Get barrelled)

A month of opportunities. In July I took a class with Maureen Cummins, who was teaching at ArtSpace in Raleigh. And last week I was at California Rare Book School taking a course on artists' books with Johanna Drucker. Either opportunity would've been enough to provide material to chew on for a year at least--to have them back-to-back as they were was overwhelming in the best of possible ways.

Maureen's class met four times, each Tuesday evening of July. The idea was that each student would create a small edition of an artist's book from conception to finish over the course of the month. I decided to continue a series I started with last year's Surf book #1/#2. Instead of a one-of-a-kind book this time, I produced 20 copies of an 18-page visual poem made up of collaged photos from surf magazines. It's called, creatively enough, Surf book #3 (Get barrelled). No text--just images I created by tearing photos out of surf magazines using a piece of packing tape.

Once I'd created and scanned the collages, I had the pages printed from PDF at Kinko's on a color laser printer/copier. Here's what the original cover looked like:

A title strip copied from the internal collage, glued onto the cover paper provided in class. Compared to the cut-up collages inside the book, which sample from the best and worst of surfing's visual culture, it was staid and out of character.

So now all the copies have been disbound and I'm creating new covers for them--a unique cover for each copy of the book. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be showing you the new covers, which I'm creating by altering pages torn straight out of surf magazines. A little graffiti, a little palimpsest, a little found poetry. Let me know what you think.

Here's today's cover, which graces copy #8 of 20. Front cover: 

Back cover:

 

 

And seen as a spread:

 

And here's a bit of found poetry I dug out of the advertisement on the back cover:

What is the future

What is the future

? 

What is the future

?

we believe it is choice. The introduction of new 

shapes and tools means more choice

fish, 

pintail, swallowtail, 

sandwich, 

fiber, etc. All of these shapes, materials and technologies are relevant

Not all 

are created equal and neither are all

constantly testing

to give you the best

It is our job to not only supply our

products, but also

to make the right choice. Consumers deserve 

materials and

affect

we are making the commitment to

get

you.  As the customer, you deserve

This