VT Book Arts Guild “MailB.A.G.” October 2012
Next Meeting: Wednesday, October 17, 2012, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
We meet at the Unitarian Universalist Society Church located at 152 Pearl Street in Burlington, VT. We will be in the Sophia Fahs Community Room, a large room located in the basement.
Click here for more information on directions/parking.
Program: Hands-on Monoprint Workshop with Lyna Lou Nordstrom
Get ready to jump into the wonderful world of monoprints in October as Lyna Lou Nordstrom leads us in an exploration of techniques that will allow us to incorporate nature directly into our work. Under Lyna Lou’s guidance, we will learn to use gelatin prints, as well as a small, professional press, to reproduce the beauty of both plants and patterned objects.
Lyna Lou will bring her press and the materials needed for gelatin printing; she will also supply the ink and paper. In addition to curiosity, creativity, and a playful attitude, she asks that we bring plants (vines, leaves, flowers, etc.), as well as lace, textured fabrics, doilies – anything our imaginations can come up with! To keep our plants looking fresh she suggests we harvest as close to our meeting time as possible, or better still keep what we pick in water in a jar. Dried plants are also fine.
Important note: Please wear “artwork” clothing, a smock or your art apron – although the inks wash up with water, they are permanent when dry.
Lyna Lou Nordstrom is a nationally exhibited artist with over 25 years of experience. She is currently working in monotype, solar plate etching, serigraphy and mixed media.
Reflections on September’s Meeting
The September meeting served as our welcome back from summer meeting with fun creative exercises lead by Stephanie Wolff. To begin the meeting Stephanie shared some of the ways she uses research and creative connections to generate content for her artist books. She shared her latest book about indigo, combining content and structure into an exquisite work of art. Stephanie continued the meeting by leading our eager group with games that provoked unique connections and associations.
As predicted many of us are still pondering some of the ideas and stories we generated. Thank you Stephanie.
You can view images from the meeting on the B.A.G. blog.
B.A.G. News
*** A call to B.A.G. members: The B.A.G. Bookboard is looking for folks with sharp minds and fresh ideas to join us as new board members!
The commitment involves only four meetings a year and a willingness to contribute to the continued success and future direction of our beloved Book Arts Guild. Don’t worry – we don’t bite!
Have questions? We’d love to hear from you!
*** B.A.G. member Carolyn Shattuck will be showing her work Wardrobe Chronicles – an Installation of Women’s Rights as part of Central Booking‘s exhibition Feminism and the Artist’s Book. The show runs from October 19 – December 30, 2012 and is a companion to the Brooklyn Museum‘s current exhibit, Materializing “Six Years” by Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art.
Artists have dealt with the issue of feminism in their own way, sometimes directly by embracing choice of materials or subject matter defined as “a woman’s” province, sometimes quite the opposite, simply by the fact of being a woman involved in a movement that is considered male dominated, or often a combination of both, a women’s issue heard through what is traditionally thought of as male materials.
In the spirit of Lucy Lippard and her seminal work, Central Booking artists do not confuse seriousness with solemnity, they have taken very real concerns about the woman or individual women heroes and delivered smart, engaging and sometimes tactile answers that may be greeted by a Mona Lisa smile. The exhibit will be hosted by VESPA Properties, 262 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY.
For more information, please visit Central Booking’s website.
Book Arts News
*** The Chandler Gallery in Randoph, VT is hosting an invitational artists book exhibition, Turning Leaves: New Directions in Book Arts, now through November 10, 2012. The artists participating in this unique show are definitely thinking ‘outside the book.’ The show features one-of-a-kind or limited edition books crafted using drawing, painting, objects, sculptural elements, printmaking, letterpress, photography, collage, calligraphy and hand lettering, typography, handcrafted paper and photocopy and other creative media.
Books may be entirely image-based, may incorporate prose and poetry or other uses of words, or may include both images and words. Two-dimensional, wall-relief, and three-dimensional works will be displayed. The exhibit catalog is available for online viewing.
For more information, please visit the Chandler Gallery website.
*** Now through December 20, 2012, A Room of Our Own: An Exhibition Celebrating Fifty Years in the Mortimer Rare Book Room is on display at Smith College in the Book Arts Gallery, Neilson Level 3. The Mortimer Rare Book Room houses the college’s rare books and literary manuscripts. The exhibit features books, manuscripts, and photographs documenting the state of rare books at Smith before 1962.
For information about hours or directions to the exhibit, please visit the Mortimer Rare Book Room website.
*** From September 4 – January 16, 2013, the Burns Library at Boston College is hosting the exhibition Fine Specimens of the Bibliopegistic Art: Bookbindings from the Burns Library Collections. The show includes books in a variety of styles from a wide span of years and represents many different topics in the library’s collections.
The exhibition will be on display in the O’Brien Fine Print Room and the Irish Room on the Chestnut Hill, MA campus.
Book Arts Classes
*** B.A.G. member Elissa Campbell is teaching The Travel Companion Journal at Studio Place Arts in Barre, VT on November 7 & 14, 2012 from 4:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
A travel journal is a wonderful way to create a tangible memory of your journey. In this two-day workshop, participants will create a journal with a double-needle coptic binding, an intricate stitch that will be visible on the spine of the book.
The journal will include pockets both inside the covers and in the text block, allowing you the opportunity to save lots of stuff from your travels – tickets, photos, pressed flowers – you name it! Some bookbinding or sewing experience is helpful, but not required.
To register, contact SPA via phone (802) 479-7069 or Email.
*** The Kate Cheney Chappell ‘83 Center for Book Arts in Portland, ME is offering Intimate Apparel: Books Worn Close to the Heart with Anne-Claude Cotty on October 27, 2012 from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
For centuries, books have been made to be worn on the body: journals, almanacs, sacred texts inscribed in miniature scrolls and tablets around the neck, sewn into leather amulets for the wrist or tucked into a girdle belt at the waist. This workshop will focus on three innovative structures that bind elements of style and adornment with the play of a book inside. Form and content will include an added dimension of concealment and enchantment as these are books that can be shared but mostly remain closed and private. The workshop will begin with a slide show and end, of course, with a fashion show of the day’s creations!
For more information or to register, please call (207) 780-5900.
*** The Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) in Boston, MA is offering a Practical Origami Workshop with Bill Hanscom on Saturday, November 3, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Participants will learn to transform simple sheets of paper into a variety of books, envelopes, boxes and other useful objects through the art of paperfolding. Using a simple set of tools, you will manipulate paper into elegantly simple and dynamically functional objects with only an occasional cut and no adhesive whatsoever.
The structures can be used on their own, in combination with each other, or as an accessory to book structures. They make for excellent opportunities for experimentation when combined with printmaking processes and paper decoration techniques (and pretty much anything else!). Participants will have the opportunity to work with a variety of papers as well as less conventional materials.
You can check out the structures on Flickr. For more information or to register, please visit the GSLIS website.
- Book Arts Guild of VT website: http://www.bookartsguildvt.com/
- Book Arts Guild of VT Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/bookartsguildvt
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