UPDATE re: artists' book exhibit at UNC

If you won't have a chance to see the exhibit in person, check out the photos the library has posted on Flickr.

Artists' book exhibit at UNC

This week marks the opening of an artists' book exhibit I've curated at UNC -- "Art in Books' Clothing: Artists' books from the Sloane Art Library."

If you're in the Chapel Hill area, come by to check it out. It's in the hallway gallery on the first floor of the Hanes Art Center, and will be up until Sept. 17th. If you can't see it in person, below are some photos to enjoy.

The exhibit kicks off a series of exhibits and events we're organizing along with the Sallie Bingham Center at Duke University. You can see the list of events and info here.

The next event to be aware of is an artists' book reading at the Sloane Art Library. Four book artists will be reading and discussing our books: Beth Grabowski, Susan Leeb, Lisa Beth Robinson and myself. That will be on Tuesday, Sept. 14th at 7 p.m.

Studio Progress

Wanted to share some photos from our in-progress garage-to-studio conversion.

One of the keys to our decision to buy this house was that we would convert the 1-car garage into a studio for both me (books) and Margarite (sewing & fiber arts). The keys would be climate control and good light to work by.

We worked with a friend and his family's construction company, Will Johnson Building Co. Together we worked out that the most important first steps would be 1). to put in a wall unit A/C & heating unit; 2). to insulate the walls; and 3). to add another window for more natural light.

In the photo above, the window to the left is newly installed and framed -- matching the one on the right which was original to the house. (You can also see some of the 60 holes that we needed to punch in the walls in order to blow in insulation. More on that below.)

And here you can see the A/C & heating unit, which they framed securely into the wall.

And finally, the holes for insulation. It turned out that out of the whole project, patching the holes was going to be the most expensive part. So Margarite & I looked up instructions on This Old House.com, modified them for our particular situation, and stocked up on drywall and joint compound at Lowe's. With practically no prior experience, we're becoming a master & mistress of drywall patching. (Or at least good enough to do the studio wall -- not sure I'd be comfortable doing it in our living room...)

We're tackling them in batches of 15 -- big enough to feel like we're making progress when we finish a batch, but small enough not to be overwhelming. Sure it's taken longer than if we'd paid to have it done, but it's good experience, comparatively cheap, and now we both feel a lot more invested in the work and the space.

We're halfway through the final batch of 15. Then, a little sanding, a little painting, and our dream studio is one giant step closer.

On a totally different note, check out this big guy that was on our lawn when we got home from work a while ago! We'd seen huge luna moths at night at our previous house out in the country, but this was right after work, on our lawn in the middle of town. They are really striking creatures.