Shows to See in SD

I am honored to be included in the Mesa College Gallery juried show "Art That Cuts" opening April 12. There was a write-up in the San Diego Union Tribune that you can read here. I created a new piece for the show that went through some revision before making the cut. Below you can see some of the missteps I took along the way to the finished piece.

And now for a bit of art philosophy... When I make a piece of art, especially something new, I have to make lots of decisions about size, color, structure, etc. Yesterday I finally started working on a book structure that I have been putting off. It occurred to me that the decisions I made were probably not the same decisions I would have made had I worked on it sooner or later. In other words, the art I make is time and place dependent. I make certain decisions today that I may not make tomorrow or yesterday. Making a specific piece of art is temporal as well as physical. Okay enough philosophy. Onto pictures...

Enjoy!

My first idea was the branches at the top of this image. Then I tried the curving shapes in the foreground. I didn't like either one.

Next I tried the curve running across the folds instead of being defined by the folds. I didn't like this either.

Next I sketched ideas for cutting the triangular sections above. I finally decided on the shape on the left that looks kind of like a dragonfly wing. This is a cut out that I have used before on a different spiral and I was trying to avoid repeating myself, but I couldn't come up with a better way to fill the space.

My final cut paper has the wing shapes cut out along the central spine of the piece.

Here is the finished folded and sewn piece titled "What Remains."

It looks best in motion.

Playing with Spirals

I enjoyed making Vector Analysis so much that I decided to play with the basic spiral from Tomoko Fuse's book and see what kinds of variations I could create. I also wanted to make some spirals from large sheets of paper. Here are some of the results.

Enjoy!

-Gina

Many spirals folded on graph paper. The straight lines make folding easier and the paper is inexpensive as a test surface.

Notes on variations of the trapezoid spiral.

Good quality, thin Japanese paper ~ 24 x 36 inches being forded.

The paper was so large and thin that I had to fold differently than for the small 8 x 12 samples.

The finished spiral. I invented the turn in that gives it a leaf shape at the top of the picture. It was a happy accident. The finished spiral is 11 x 12 inches.

"Vector Analysis" Altered Book: part 2

After consulting with a couple of artist friends (Thanks Mom and Bhavna for the advice.) I decided the altered book I blogged about two weeks ago needed something more to make it complete. First, I added paper from one of the original book pages to the spine area to cover up the dark brown. Then I had an epiphany one night and realized I could make a spiral to fit into the spine. I worked on a prototype and it fit! So I made a few more using strips from the book's pages. In the end I needed 7 pages or 56 inches of length to make a spiral that measured 9 inches long. Below are pictures of the strips being folded with before and after pictures of the altered book.

Enjoy!

-Gina

The strip on the left was the prototype. I unfolded it so I could repeat all the measurements and scoring in the correct orientation.

Here are the first 5 strips creased.

Before the spine was decorated.

How the spine looks now. The center spiral is really 7 small spirals joined together.

Before the spiral.

After the spiral was added.

More views showing how all the spirals interact.

Before the spiral.

After the spiral was added.

Artist Books in England

I am a member of two book arts organizations: San Diego Book Arts (SDBA) and Puget Sound Book Arts (PSBA). They are both very supportive groups that offer different experiences for their members. PSBA, in collaboration with the Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of the West of England, in Bristol is holding an exhibit of PSBA artist's books this summer. I was honored to be asked to contribute to the show. You can see my books below and examples of all the other wonderful books here.

Enjoy.

-Gina

Small Migrations (2015)

Haikube (2015) -open

Haikube -closed

University of South Dakota Altered Book Show: Bound & Unbound III

Today's post is all about altered books. I love making and seeing altered books. It's a way to recycle old books that no one reads anymore and it is amazing to see how many ways people can alter a book. I hope you check out the Bound & Unbound digital exhibit. Be prepared to be inspired.

Here are my two entries in the show.

-Gina

Alternative : Topographic carving in an old German book. The beach rock matches the marbled endpapers perfectly and adds some weight to the piece.

Stone Mountain, GA : Topographic carving of Stone Mountain, GA showing both positive and negative elevations. The sedimentary rock happened to be almost the same shape as the base of the mountian.

FOBA and Other Trips

I have not posted in a while and now I have a back log of posts to write. So... I will try to work backwards from the present and catch you up on what has been happening in my corner of the paper and book arts worlds.

First up is my trip to FOBA (Focus on Book Arts). I attended this wonderful event for the first time in late June and had a great experience. The conference was well organized, full of enthusiastic participants and overflowing with great teachers. I met so many book artists that I hope I will be able to stay in touch with. My class was taught by Jill Berry and you can see pictures below of the book we made. The class was called An Intimate Atlas and it was all that and more! Thanks Jill for a wonderful class.

While I was in Portland for FOBA there was also a talk by Hedi Kyle, a person I greatly admire and have never met before.  I did get to introduce myself to her briefly and thank her for all the inspiration she has provided over the years. I also attended the artists' reception at 23 Sandy Gallery and got to see all the lovely books up close. I met several of the other artists in the show and we bonded over our love of Hedi's structures. There was even a table of her (Hedi's) sample books at the show that we could touch and try to figure out. All in all it was a wonderful trip and an experience I will remember for many years.

Enjoy the pictures of my FOBA experience.

-Gina

An Intimate Atlas - book designed by Jill Berry and executed by me.

Page 1 "My Head"

Pages 3 and 4 shown folded into their turkish map fold shapes.

Pages 3-4 closed up and encased in their black paper gate fold binding.

The back of one map page showing the random lines we made using dripped walnut ink. Color was added with Twinkling H2O's and watercolor.

Hedi Kyle sample of a map accordion folded and fishbone folded at the same time! Amazing structure.

Hedi Kyle Map book closed showing her belt fold closure. You can find directions for this closure in Preservation Enclosures by Hedi Kyle

Me with my book Lost River at 23 Sandy Gallery.

News

I want to share some good news along with some links today. As you know if you follow this blog, I was juried into the Hello Hedi show at 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland, OR. The show opened yesterday and I am excited to share the online catalog with you here. I will be attending the artists' reception on Friday June 26 and hope to meet Hedi Kyle, who will be attending. I am also in Portland that week attending the Focus on Book Arts Conference and taking Jill Berry's class An Intimate Atlas. I can't wait for both of these events and when I am back home I will be sure to blog about the experiences. If any of you are attending either event I hope to see you there.

The other thing I want to mention is that I will be teaching a two hour workshop next weekend. I will show students how to fold Hedi Kyle's Pocket Book. It is similar to her Blizzard Fold book, but creates an expandable structure that can hold bulky items. Here is a link to my blog showing how to fold the structure. I also taught this class at Puget Sound Book Arts in April and it went very well. I hope my students will be inspired to use the structure to create their own artist books.

Pocket Book for mini workshop

Here are the books I have in the Hello Hedi show. One has already sold which I am very happy about. Enjoy.

-Gina

Three Fold Night (sold)

Lost River

Bound and Kyled...

I am very happy to report that I have two books juried into each of the shows I submitted to last month. Bound and Unbound III at the University of South Dakota accepted Stone Mountain, GA and Alternatives for their altered book arts show beginning in August. Hello Hedi at 23 Sandy Gallery accepted Lost River and Three Fold Night my Hedi Kyle inspired creations. Puget Sound Book Arts accepted Tine Language and Small Migrations. I feel like I am floating on a cloud right now and I want to share my good fortune with you all.

Here are pictures of each book. Enjoy and please leave comments if you wish.

-Gina

Stone Mountain, GA

Alternative

Lost River

Three Fold Night

Tine Language

Small Migrations