Viva Haiga!

Exciting day in the studio today. 

I'm a fan of visual poet Scott Helmes, who I met in a lucky encounter at the library where I work.  I've posted about his work before over on my haiku blog, no more moon poems.

Earlier this year, I got an unexpected package in the mail from Scott.  It contained a series of colored-ink-blob paintings on paper towels.  He included a note saying that these were from "the Viva series," with instructions to add to them, title them, and bind them however I liked. 

Project followed project followed deadline followed deadline, and the little paintings disappeared under the drifts of paper that inevitably accumulate on any flat surface in my studio.  I never forgot about them -- just always had other things that took priority.  Until this weekend.

The page in the photo above will be the back cover when all the pages have dried and I bind it.  The covers are entirely my creation, but all of the internal pages are collaborations.

Here's one of the originals as it arrived and what it turned into:

I decided that my contribution would be textual.  On the front of each page I printed a recent haiku using the rubber-stamp type that I've used for the past couple of projects.  For the back of each page, I created a new haiku using only words from the haiku on the front.  Using dice, I determined how many words would be in the second haiku, then (also using dice) randomly chose which words they would be.  As in most chance-produced poetry there are some incomprehensible moments and some that it's hard to believe are the result of chance.  Here's one fortuitous combination:

  

 

 I'm excited to bind it and finish it up, but have forced myself to let them dry overnight.  Should wrap it up later this week, though.  More photos then!

Vamp and Tramp and Vespertine

A couple of quick mercantile notes:

• Vamp and Tramp Booksellers -- artists' book vendors extraordinaires -- are carrying the editioned artists' book I'm producing with Stephen Addiss, stitching speechless.  It has been a while since I posted about it, but you can see my earlier posts here and here.  Stitching speechless is currently featured on Vamp and Tramp's New Arrivals page.  If you're not already familiar with their offerings, spend some time browsing the Vamp and Tramp site.  They have truly the finest treasure trove of book art around.
• Last week I took a new batch of small blank books to Vespertine in Carrboro.  I foolishly didn't take any photos because I was in a hurry to get them out into the world, so if you're in the area you'll just have to stop by the shop to have a look at them!

More news soon, next time with pretty pictures, I promise.

An angular blank book + Surf Book #1

The studio projects I'm working on continue to be pretty varied. Above is a blank book I was commissioned to make for a co-worker at the library.  The signatures are cut at progressive angles to create the effect.  I made some books in this shape about 10 years ago -- one of my first adventures away from standard book forms -- and it was a pleasure to re-visit it.  This one is 6" x 6" (if it were square), and about 3/4" thick -- a very satisfying, chunky little guy.

Here are two more looks:

* * * * * *

I'm also continuing to make progress on a new one-of-a-kind artist's book that I'm calling Surf Book #1, for lack of a better title so far.

On a recent trip to Topsail Beach, NC, I was reminded of how much I love the smells of surfing -- not just the ocean and salt air smells, but wet neoprene and sunscreen and surf wax.  More importantly, it was an example of just how powerfully smells can evoke our memories.  One whiff and I was a teenager again on surfari with my brother -- sense-memories that are especially powerful now that he's been gone for almost 20 years.

When Margarite and I got back home to Pittsboro, I started making this book out of an old wetsuit, writing the text with surf wax and magic marker.  Below you can see the first page (I don't want to give away too much yet!) and the spine, which includes the original zipper from the wetsuit.  Still a ways to go, but it's shaping up: 

 

 

Odds and Ends

Long absence from the blogosphere, but a lot of action in the studio in recent months.  First, though, check this out!  I've had aloe plants in one form or another for years and years and never seen one bloom.  This guy caught us by surprise, and has been blooming like this for about a week now...

In studio news, I've been working lately on an exciting, semi-clandestine project.  I've been working with a friend's photography company to develop a new line of photo albums.  It's been an interesting experience -- developing prototype books that will be "mass"-produced (still handmade, but on a larger production scale than I can pull off on my own) -- rather than the one-of-a-kind or very small editions I normally do.  One day soon I'll share photos of what we came up with, but for now I'm keeping the designs under wraps until they actually release them.

At the polar opposite end of the spectrum, I've started on a new series of one-of-a-kind artists' books inspired by a recent trip to the beach.  More details soon to follow as it comes together.  For now, some photos of the work-in-progress (Surf book #1) in the studio...

"In a Bind": Panel discussion in Wilmington, NC, Thursday April 12th

I'm very excited to be part of a panel discussion this Thursday at Randall Library at UNC-Wilmington about the book as art. The panel coincides with the opening of an exhibition of student-designed books and is called "In a Bind: Celebrating the book as art."

The panel will be from 5:15-6:15 p.m. in the Azalea Coast Room, in the Fisher Student Union.

More information at the following links:

http://library.uncw.edu/news/discussing_future_book
http://appserv02.uncw.edu/news/atuncw/annview.aspx?id=6993
http://books.blogs.starnewsonline.com/15755/the-future-of-the-book-uncw-version/

Artists' books and artists' books

Usually when I talk about artists' books, I'm talking about books that are conceived of as art objects in and of themselves. [Click on the link for a thoughtful meditation by book artist Angela Lorenz on the question "what is an artist's book?"...]

Sometimes, though, I work on a different, more literal kind of "artist's book" -- blank sketchbooks for local artists to use. As fulfilling as it is to create an artist's book from the ground up, it's also extremely satisfying to make a blank book for a talented artist, anticipating the work that will fill its pages.

I want to take a moment here to point you to the work of 2 local artists for whom I've made sketchbooks. Their work is very different from each other's, but equally stunning. Most recently I made one for Phil Blank, a Hillsborough-based artist. If you check out the 'Journal' section of his website, you can see what the pages of his sketchbooks end up looking like. Another artist I've been lucky enough to make sketchbooks for is Laura Murphy Frankstone, who chronicles her work on the blog Laurelines.

The sketchbooks I've made for them aren't dazzling or innovative -- they're standard Coptic-bound books with pages of watercolor or multimedia paper. But they are a total pleasure to create, for the meditative craft of it, for the satisfaction that comes with creating any solid, real, functioning thing, and for the knowledge of what will fill their inviting, blank spaces once the artists have made them truly their -- the artists' -- books.

Poem of the week featured on The The poetry blog

This is tangential to book arts, but I'm so pleased to have a poem featured on The The poetry blog this week.

Many thanks to them -- especially to Colie Hoffman, poetess extraordinaire and all-around awesome muchacha!

Revisiting that particular poem -- a haiku sequence called "in our bodies now" -- I have an idea to turn it into a new book project. The repetitive form seems like it would work well with an accordion-fold structure, and I've got some ideas to add a performance/ritual element to it. Hope to be able to report some progress in the not-too-distant future...