Projects a plenty

Hello out there on this rather balmy Sunday afternoon. I hope you all are having a nice weekend. I thought I'd post the three projects I have been working on for the past three months. I have been making some books for an upcoming show at Kennedy Heights Art Center here in Cincinnati. The show is called "Contents Unknown" and the premise is books in containers. Now the idea was to conceal a book in a container. But, many of us in the show have taken liberties on this. Some of mine aren't obvious when you look at the box. But, since we have to display the contents as well it will be obvious what the box held.

This first set of images is for a book called "Memories in Blue". This book is a sort of picture/diary of the pivotal moments in my life that made me who I am. Some good and some not so good. I wanted to give an honest yet abbreviated snapshot of my life and those moments that shaped me.

I created the images as cyanotypes on cotton fabric. So, I wanted to show you the process. The first step beyond the image is creating a digital negative of each image in the appropriate size. This method is a direct contact print method which means that there is no enlarger to project the image onto the surface of your print medium. So, you need to make the negatives the finished size that you want your images to be. They are then exposed in the sunlight for the recommended amount of time. I used Jacquard products cyanotype treated cotton fabric sheets. This stuff is amazing. I have discovered a whole new way of exploring photography.

Once the sheets are exposed, they are then rinsed in cold water to bring out the image. This washes away all the excess chemicals. They are rung out and hung up to dry. The blue oxidizes and gets much darker when it dries. It becomes a beautiful Prussian blue.

The images were then heat bonded to the paper that I dyed to match with my very own Prussian blue ink I made myself. I used a white gel pen to create the text.

The cover was made from a pair of old jeans and dyed with the same ink as used on the paper. I bound it like a travel journal with a matching jute cord.

The cover has words made from pounding copper wire and wooden letters painted blue. All in all a beautiful result.

The book will be placed in a box painted to coordinate with the book. I kept the box plain as to not be too obvious as to what's inside.

The next book I created is the second in my personal dialogue series. The blue book was the first. I am intending to create a series of these books that are about my life up to this point. The second book is called "Family Heirlooms" and explores the idea of things passed down. For me it was a no brainier. I decided to create a cookbook of collected recipes that were given to me by a few influential women in my life in addition to some of my own. Cooking is such a major part of my life and a beautiful creative outlet outside the studio. I left some of the pages blank deliberately so that it could be added to in the future. I used a heavy duty handmade Thai rice paper for the actual pages. I used a variety of handmade inks to dye these pages in coordinating colors of the various food groups. Most of the inks are made with plant dyes so they tend to lighten up with age.

In the photo below you can see the signatures stacked. I used a piece of colorful cotton in the coordinating color for each section/ I used a Golden Paints product called GAC800 that is for stiffening fabric. This allowed for the folding of the fabric like paper.

The above image is of the signatures with the cover which is made from laminated silks.

This is the book bound and I used chop sticks painted orange initially for the edge treatment. I later cut the ends off of the stick and toned them to a reddish brown color.

Another view of the book before it's final incarnation.

Here she is in all her glory. The wooden box is one that my grandmother gave to me. So, it was the second thing that was passed down from one generation to the next. I added the cutlery.

This last project book three for the show is called "Songs of Oceania" and is a book about whale songs. I decided early on that I wanted to try my hand at creating an exploding box style book. Each of the panels represents one of the major oceans. I have created a center piece that is tiered like a wedding cake that depicts a variety of see life. There are four little accordion style books one at the end of each panel. Each one represents an image of an actual sound wave of a whale song. This same wave is painted on the panel with UV activated paint. Use a black light to see it. I also used a variety of glow in the dark paints to add texture and color to the books themselves. Each book has a different whale species. I will include a little bucket of sea animals that people can place on the book panels.

Here you get an idea of what it looks like opened up. It was a fun little project and my humble homage to the sea and some of the largest creatures on our planet.

I enjoyed making all three of these books and it is always a unique learning experience while doing so. It is also nice to learn new things about myself along the way. As I have said many times before, my art practice is enter twined with my spiritual practice. Much of the time spent actually making becomes very meditative. It gives me a chance to explore my inner world. Especially while making the "Memories in Blue" book. I wept after completing it and reading the text I wrote. It brought a bit of closure to some of the things I mentioned in the book. I love how art can do that.

Thank you for taking the time to see into my creative process. I hope only the best for all of you. Peace.