SPRINGVILLE ART MUSEUM RELIGION SHOW

I cannot even tell you how excited I was that my sculptural book called A House of Learning was accepted into the Religion Show at the Springville Art Show! I am very grateful to my good friend, A, for encouraging me to enter and even taking my work up there. I had to remove it from the Faculty Show at the college so that I could enter it and it paid off! I never even would have thought to enter it after it got rejected from the Church International show. I really have poor self-esteem when it comes to my art. Something I need to work on, I guess...

Tonight we went to the opening and I got to see both my little book and A's video right across from mine! What an honor!

A House of Learning, Mixed Media Sculptural Book.

There is a lot of symbolism in this work of mine. The shape of the structure represents the many places we learn of spiritual subjects, such as our homes, churches and temples. The script you can see on the front and sides is a copy of the First Vision in Joseph Smith's handwriting. On the back there is a 'window' with music in it representing how much we learn through hymns. The books symbolize the many printed works we gain knowledge from by reading. It was fun to create!

SUMMER SNOW- WEEK 2

This was my favorite Summer Snow workshop ever! It was a class taught by Daniel Essig (here's a link to his website). He is an amazing book artist! The class was sculptural wooden books and niches and I am hooked! I can't wait to make more!

Using the drill press.

I have always had a fear of power tools, but this class helped me get past that (to a certain extent- I still won't use a table saw) and I can now use a drill press and sander. That is serious progress for me!

My first book in the class. (before the end band was done)

First we made tiny wooden/mica covered books (1" x 2") with a little peep hole and then learned to do Ethiopian coptic bindings and end bands. I already knew how to do coptic binding, but the end bands were new and awesome!

Working on my first wood carving- ever!

After the books, we moved on to the niches- or reliquaries- to hold our books. He gave us a block of wood and told us to design! It was pretty intimidating, but I decided to do a house. I am absolutely in love with the way it turned out! (Now when have have you ever heard me say that??)

'A House of Learning' by Kim Gordon. Wood, paper, milk paint, mica.

I was in the class with a bunch of really fabulous artists too. I just have to show some of the other works that came out of this class...

Adam Larsen

Doug Larsen

Zane Anderson

Frank Mc Entire- his website

Kalee ?

Karleigh Heywood- her Website

My fun class!

SUMMER SNOW WORKSHOP- printmaking & book making

I am attending a workshop here at Snow this week for printmaking and book making. That's all I ever do you say? Well, I can't get enough, obviously. It's been a fun opportunity to work with some of the students who had moved on to other schools and came back for the week. We've had a great time!

The Red Book- maquette

We did a little bit of everything in this workshop. I hope I can get all the projects done that I've started. I am really liking a lot of them. There's lots of potential!

Wasp- woodcut, Bread- linocut

Today is the last day and I'm going to have to print, print, and print some more to get done what I want to. Then I can hopefully bring the rest home and finish it here.

N and I, working hard!

HANDMADE LEATHER JOURNALS

The other day I got a text that told me to come get some leather and book board scraps from a friend that makes books for a living. I was more than happy to oblige! It made me want to make some books, so I did!! 

Ethiopian coptic stitch.

I've never worked with leather before. I've always been too intimidated, but hey, these were scraps anyway, so I just went for it.

Inside (approx. 3.5' x 4.5)

Bad idea. I should have slowed down and watched the tutorial FIRST, but of course I didn't. I did the corners wrong, but at least they are consistent. Big C grabbed it and said he wanted it, so it can't be too bad. It just wouldn't pass muster with a professional.

Long stitch leather journals

I have also made some other journals, a little bigger (approx. 6" x 4.5") and a different stitch that I'd never done before. They turned out pretty well too, but I still have some issues to work out. I'm loving the leather and I'm so pleased I still have sacks of scraps to work with to make even more!! 

TEA PARTY BOOK

I finally got my tea party book done! It was for the final in my Printmaking 2 class. 

This is the cover. I love the pink on pink!

I am still going to add a bit of explanation inside on the front end page. I will talk about the teapots and that these are each a representation from my collection.

This is the inside. Sorry so small, it's so long it doesn't photograph very well.

I did two large duo tone (2 color) sintra cuts and a xylene transfer for the tablecloth. As I folded the pages into an accordion book, I made it appear as though they were all one stack.

This is the colophon page on handmade paper (not mine) with pressed flowers in it. I wanted it to look like an elegant tea party invitation. It was a very fun book to do and I love the way it all turned out so girly and pink! 

EXPOSED BINDING WORKSHOP

I was fortunate enough to be able to take a book binding workshop yesterday and came home with 2 and a half books finished! It was SO MUCH FUN! I have no idea why I love making books so much, I just know that I do!

Double Needle Ethiopian Coptic Stitch Binding.

 The coptic stitch binding was complex for me. It looks fairly straight forward, but got confusing. I need to hurry and make another one so that I can keep the processes in my head. I tried to take notes, but I don't know how much sense they will make.

The Secret Belgium Binding by Ann Goye.

This book (the Secret Belgium Binding) is my favorite. I love the patterns I used, but I love the binding even more! I am so excited to learn these new techniques. If any of you are interested in taking some classes and learning to make books, here is the blog for Karleigh Heywood. She is the one that taught the workshop. She teaches all over. I highly recommend her.

ART TALKS

Thursday night I was the visiting artist for the art majors at Snow College. I have never done anything like it before and was VERY nervous. I showed images of my work (watercolor, oils, drawing and artist books) and discussed the meanings and reasons they exist. The class is is an hour long and I wondered how I could fill all that time, but I shouldn't have worried. My talkativeness kicked in and I took up the whole 60 minutes. I have shown most of my work on this blog that was discussed that night, but I don't think I have ever shown this book, so I thought I'd blog about it.

The title of this book is called 'Death.' I know that sounds fairly morbid for me, but it has a lot of meaning behind it.

As I have mentioned before in my writings, my father was killed in a plane crash when I was 17. It was a horrible time in my life and in the lives of my family. We were devastated. It took me years to accept that he wasn't coming back and I grieved for a long time.

Comparing that experience with the death of my mother is an interesting concept, and the subject of this work. About 4 years ago my mother passed away. She had been sick (multiple heart attacks and strokes) for quite a few years and we knew she was never going to recover. The illnesses changed her personality, warped her memories and her basic sweet-natured self was gone as well, not to mention her inability to be physically self-reliant. Needless to say, by then we were actually praying for her to go. My dad had been dead for 20 years at this point and we were thrilled they would be together again.

Obviously my experiences with death differed greatly in these two incidences. I wanted to express that visually in this book. One side says 'Dad' and one side says 'Mom'. They are separated by a 'wall' covered by different material on both sides to convey differing view points and expressing the idea that at different times and at different places we can view death in drastically opposing views.

There, you just attend a small segment of my lecture. Hope you're still awake! Some of the students didn't make it.

COUNTERFORM

I am entering one of my handmade books from last year's faculty show into a show at the U. (I think the show starts in October). I've had one in it before, but not for a while, so I am happy to have a book to enter this year.

Here is the cover. I had to recover it because I ran the board's grain the wrong way and it warped. I am thrilled the redo turned out as well as it did!

These are the accordion pages inside. All the images are mini versions of drawings from my sketch journal. I xerox transfered them onto the cotton paper.

Here is a sample page.

HOLIDAY PROJECTS

Every year we have an Art Department party where we have to bring a gift that we have made and then we play the gift exchange game. It is always very fun, but I struggle with what to bring a lot of the time.

This year I did a handmade sketchbook that I thought turned out pretty well. This is actually another one that I made for my aunt, but it looked like this except that it was red and black.

Here is the cover. It is called a stab binding and has blank pages for sketching inside.

This is a snowboard I painted for the daughter of a friend. They painted it white and I did the designs. It turned out pretty fun. Hope she likes it.

BOOKMAKING WORKSHOP

I attended a bookmaking workshop at the college this morning. It was a blast and I learned some great new techniques. We made 5 books in 3 hours!

This is a simple accordion book.

This is a 3-tiered accordion book.

This is called a flag book.

The first 3 books fit into this slip case.

This is called a retreating accordion book.

And last and cutest, we have a match book.

I LOVE TO MAKE BOOKS!

ART PARTY GIFT

Every year for the art department Christmas party we have to bring a White Elephant gift of something we made. It is always very stressful for me and I really struggle for what to do, in fact, I don't even remember what I did the first year. Last year I made a tunnel book with a little Christmas-y fireside scene inside of it. It turned out fun, but I am insecure and I worry about how it was received. This year I was going to do something different, but I couldn't come up with an idea, so I went back to the old standby of bookmaking and here is what I did. I really like it, but again, I have the insecurities of worrying that a serious art person will think they are getting ripped off by getting something so cutesy...

This is the inside. (It is a Christmas tree made out of a paperback novel and spray painted gold.)

This is the outside.

I really love it and would keep it in a minute, so I guess that is always a good sign. At least I remembered to photograph it this year.