The Piece that Would Make A Librarian Faint

I'm not sure how this piece came about. I can't remember whether I found the quote first or found Connections by James Burke and the earth spread. Chicken or egg. In any case, the book had been collecting dust on the bookshelf for 20 some odd years, and the globe page spread just begged to be altered with this quote attributed to Albert Einstein

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."

The book text was covered with Payne's Grey. Color and waves were added to the ocean areas along with a sea serpent. The quote written with a 1 mm. Brause and "Hic Sunt Dracones" (Here Be Dragons) written with a Nikko G nib and Ziller Midnight Blue ink. An origami sailboat was folded from one of the pages of the book, yardarm and mainmast toothpicks hold the colors (blue ribbon) and nautical flags with my initials on a tea dyed, one ply, kitchen string. In this view, you can't see the light bulb figurehead. The prow of the boat cuts through quilled waves also made from the book page. Oh, and the edges of the pages were faux gilded with acrylic gold gouache.

Come to the Worcester Art Museum Faculty Exhibition Reception, Thursday, 5 September 2013 in the Higgins Education Wing from 5:30 PM - 7 PM.where you can see my piece that would make a librarian faint. The art show is open to the public and runs from 5. September 2013 - 5. October 2013, Wednesdays through Sundays 11 AM - 5 PM.

When Jupiter Aligns with Mars

Prynne, Coat of Arms

For my Artist in Residence du Jour, I chose The Scarlet Letter VI by Tim Rollins and K.O.S. from the WAM collection as my inspiration. I decided I wanted to alter a copy of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and use the book as my canvas. I didn't have a copy of the book on my bookshelf and friends and relatives didn't either.

On a search of AbeBooks, a site for used and out of print books, I found a 1970 Penguin Classics version with a cover picture of Elizabeth Freake and her daughter, Mary as Hester Prynne and her daughter, Pearl. The portraits of the Freakes are also in the WAM collection.

After finishing the mixed media piece, I heard of Unbound Vol. III, a juried art show from the Artistree Community Arts Center and Gallery in Woodstock, Vermont. I submitted my piece for consideration. Entering this show was a little out of my comfort zone. I almost talked myself out of entering. I thought my work wouldn't be edgy enough, calligraphy isn't considered fine art, and any number of excuses why I shouldn't submit the work. I was pleased with myself for following though.

Many would say these events were coincidental. Maybe, they are "wyrd", Anglo-Saxon for fate or personal destiny. Either way, I'm pleased to announce my book was accepted into the show. Color me my favorite blue with excitement.

Unbound Vol.III
26. July - 7. September 2013
Artistree Community Arts Center and Gallery
Woodstock, VT

Opening Reception: Friday, 26. July 2013, 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM

In The Studio

And you thought all I would need would
be a pen and ink?

The afternoon session of my Artist in Residence du Jour was spent in the studio. The book had been prepared ahead of time for its use as a canvas. The last line of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne had been selected as the text. "On a field, sable, the letter A, gules" This is the blazon (the written description) of Hester Prynne's coat of arms. I had hoped to scribe the text on the last page of the story, but the book didn't naturally stay open on this page. The pages were painted with gesso with a touch of Titanium Buff to keep the look of the original aged pages. The edges of the book were painted with gold acrylic to simulate the gilded edges of old books.

The text was scribed using a 2 mm. Brause nib and Ziller Glossy Black ink.  In the book, the text was printed in uppercase Times New Roman. I'm working on my Romans and wasn't confident enough to use them in this piece so Uncial was chosen as the hand  or script I would use. (When talking about calligraphic writing the term "font" is never used. Font is for type, typography. Hand or script is the correct term for calligraphy. But you already knew that, right?) Uncial is a majuscule hand. There is no "lower-case" so this would approximate the uppercase text used in the book. The text was scribed on the verso page and then a large, modern illuminated A, in the style of Sherrie Kiesel, was drawn on the recto page and would be upside-down to the viewer.

A paper doll base was prepared ahead of time. The dress was a page from an old Worcester Museum Class catalog. It was painted Payne's Grey and folded with modification into an origami dress. An articulated arm was made, and a collar and cuff was glued from a scrap of eyelet trim.

While waiting for the ink to dry, I painted another tiny, illuminated A in a traditional style on a 1/2" square of black Canson Mi Tientes. When dry, the scarlet letter was pasted to the doll's dress. Baby Mary and Elizabeth's head were cut from the cover of the book and the doll was assembled. A wire stand is glued to the back. "Hester" will be positioned at the top of the recto page. The paper doll is roughly in the shape of a capital A and casts an illuminated, scarlet A shadow which is also Hester's coat of arms.

The day ended with the project 3/4 complete. The rest was finished at home. The illuminated "A" was colored with various red shades of watercolor pencil to simulate stained glass. The black field was painted with ivory black acrylic. 24 gauge, gold wire was bent and glued with PVA to form the flourishes of the illuminated initial and represent the mantling of a coat of arms. A small pearl bead was glued to represent Hester's daughter, Pearl.

Measurements: 8 1/2 in. x 7 in.x 5 3/4 in.

Altering A Book

Western movie book altered to My Favorite Westerns

On Monday, Sherrinda asked:

I have always wanted to do an altered book, but it just looks like way too much work for me. Do you gesso every single page? Do you leave all the pages in the book? How long do you think it will take for you to finish filling up the book?

Like any project, such as refinishing an old chair, there is a lot of prep work to be done. An old chair may need to be scrubbed down, sanded, stained, or painted with whimsical designs. The question to ask is what will the chair be used for? Will it be put in a formal dining room? A child's room?

Altering a book takes the same approach. What will it be used for? Will it be a journal? A photo album? A shadow box frame for an object or a secret compartment for trinkets?

Depending on uses, pages may have to be removed, or not. If the book is to be used for a shadow box frame, you don't need to remove any pages. Just glue all the pages together and cut out the size hole you want. If you aren't planning to add text, you wouldn't need to gesso the top page.

If  you want to add embellishments (pictures, stickers, charms, buttons, ribbon..) then pages need to be removed so the book will close flat or not! I usually start by removing every third page or every fifth page of the book. Save the pages in case you need to add a page or use the book paper in some other way.

If you are adding embellishments, and/or the book pages are thin, you will need to glue pages together to give the paper strength. Glue two or three pages together.

If you want to paint or add your own text to the book, you will need to gesso your glued together pages. Gesso is a primer used to prepare canvas or other substrates. How many coats you need will depend on whether you want the original book text visible or not. I use one coat if I want the original text to show through or two or three coats if I want to make sure the text doesn't bleed through my work.

You can also cover the pages with decorative papers or fabric in which case you wouldn't need to gesso the pages. Just be sure you can close the book with the extra thickness of the paper or fabric.

How long an altered book project will take will depend on you and/or what the book is to be used for. Will you use the altered book as a scrapbook? A journal? A never-ending project? Do you have a definitive theme and know exactly what you will write, draw, paint, collage on your pages? The time it takes is up to you, and the drying time needed for gesso, glue, and paint.

The best way to test the waters is to give altering a book a try. You don't need to start with a tome. Start with a children's book like a seen better days Golden Book. You'd end up with a couple two or three pages.

What may seem like a fussy project in the beginning, may turn out no fussier than repainting a chair. You'll have saved something from the trash and given it new life as a piece of treasure.

April is National Poetry Month

To celebrate, Masscribes, the Massachusetts and Rhode Island calligraphy guild is having an exhibit  called New England Poets, Calligraphic Interpretations. The exhibit will be on display at the Norfolk Public Library during the month of April. All guild members in good standing (i.e. your dues are paid up) are invited to participate.

Warnings about checking copyright were in the guild flyer. Supposedly, things written before 1923 are now in the public domain, but there's a big caveat. Just because something was written before 1923, doesn't mean it can be used without obtaining permission.

 I came across the poem There Is No Frigate Like A Book by Emily Dickinson, but the copyright is held by the Harvard Press which holds the copyright to most of her poems. (Thanks, Andy for answering my questions about copyright). Bummer because I really liked the poem. Some of her other poems are in the public domain, so I chose In A Library another appropriate poem to interpret for a library venue. I thought I would use an old book for my substrate, but a call to the exhibit chair nixed the idea. The library doesn't have any sort of display for a 3-dimensional piece. All work submitted must be framed and ready to hang. Bummer.

When I did some rough calculations as to the size for this poem to be framed, I came up with a 16 inch by 20 inch frame with a writing area roughly 11 inches by 14 inches. I don't have the wall space in the dollhouse to hang something this big, and I don't have any place to store it. Besides, I like the poem, but I'm not in love with it as a framed piece.

I thought long and hard and have decided not to enter the show. I still want to interpret the poem by altering an old book. I had one of my dad's college textbooks. The spine is broken and torn, and has no value beyond its sentimental value. I'll rescue the book from the trash and give it new life.

I have some library contacts so when the piece is finished, I'll see if one of them would like to put my book on display. Hopefully, the librarians won't have a heart attack to see a book used as a canvas.

Image Transfer

One of this month's ATC exchange themes was just begging for an image transfer. I'd read about the technique in a book, Altered Imagery. Could I find the book? That's right, in the cheap seats. No, because Ceej doesn't always put her toys away where they belong. I've hunted but the gremlins ran off with the book.

I've done image transfer using packing tape, but didn't want that glossy effect. What to do? Search online. And lo and behold an EBSQ artist website with a wonderful education link with all kinds of techniques including image transfers.

Most image transfer processes I have read about involve using matte medium, acetone, or nasty carcinogens like xylene. Just a little too messy for me and in the case of using xylene, too toxic.

On the website was a technique using heat from an ordinary iron used to press clothing. I printed out a test image using the color laser printer. Dug out my iron, dusted it off because it doesn't get much use. Set the heat indicator to cotton, no steam. Placed my image color side down in my art journal and using circular motions with the iron, ironed the back of the image. I didn't keep track of how long I kept the iron on the paper. Maybe as long as it takes to sing the alphabet song. I carefully peeled back a corner of the image. OMG, it worked! I ironed the image a little more to get a deeper color. Peeled the paper off and ta-da!

Now to get busy creating the actual ATC.

Sketchbook

The cover of the sketchbook had been done back in July. The idea for the peacock came from the book Altered Imagery. The cover was collaged, decoupaged, 3D gel markered (way cool to play with), washable crayoned and then washed. A drawn wing didn't look quite right.

The other day on an expedition to Michael's for Christmas picks, I happened to find this glittered feather pick. It was the perfect color and at 50% off, the perfect price.

ATC Storage Box

I'm participating in a new ATC exchange. Received my first batch and decided they needed a storage box. So, I altered a Crystal Light Ice Tea to Go box. It was the perfect size to hold the 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" cards.

Wrapping paper was simply glued to the box. Motifs such as the kitty and the letters were cut from another scrap to use as appliqués. Sharpie markers were used to color the kitty black and to jazz up the letters. A red bow dresses up the kitty.