April, 2009

Hello to any who might still check in on me.  It’s been months since my last thoughts were published!  So sorry.  Since my last post I’ve finished teaching one session of collage at Evanston Art Center, and am into the 5th class of the second session.  Had a fun and interesting class on Saturday morning teaching image transfer techniques.  Time being a factor we accomplished only 5 techniques:  soft gel (or acrylic polymer liquid), clear caulking on paper or a non-porous surface, acetone and chartpac blender (xylene), and clear contact paper transfers.  We set up for the first 2 and let them dry while doing the last three.  My favorites are the clear contract paper for images to be used in an altered book or for cards, and the soft gel or liquid acrylic polymer for those 2 uses and for collages.  With a black and white photocopy the chartpac blender made the blackest and sharpest transfer and the acetone took a little longer and the result was a softer look.

Ellen was over one Saturday to work on developing ’skins’ for digital transfers.  We weren’t particularly successful in fact, but Ellen was taken by a couple of my pieces in the studio, called Avram at Avram Eisen Gallery and that resulted in the two of us driving down to the gallery on Sunday to take these pieces to him for his ‘Annual Flower Show’ and picking up one of Ellen’s purchases.  The show opens Friday May 1 with a brunch for the artists on the 3rd.    How many people do you know who can get lost with the ‘help’ of a map and a GPS unit??  I think Ellen’s map was OLD…it didn’t show Damen connecting with Foster which it does!! and the GPS kept telling us to turn left before we got to Damen, which we did eventually (just to keep it quiet).  We finally arrived in the rain and found parking right in front of the gallery.

Then in June I’ll hang a show of collages and paintings of mine at the 800 (or is it 900??) Elgin building in Evanston.  No opening for that one, but a nice space to exhibit (if I can find the address  of course!!)

At last here are the books.

Jillian’s book

Helen’s book

Jillian’s book

Caroline’s book

Louis’ book

Anna’s book

January 30, 2008

I’ve been trying to figure out how to get my pictures from Kodak Easyshare to my blog.  When (and If) I figure it out I want to share pix of the 5 altered books done for my grandkids.  In the meantime hi to all you friends.  I hope you are keeping warm.  Don’t know about you, but I’m really tired of ‘white’.

Right now I’m working on papers for collage and getting ready to teach the collage class at Evanston Art Center next week. 

If any of you get the chance, go see/hear the opera Tristan Und Isolde….at the Lyric it was wonderful with Deborah Voigt as Isolde.  It’s a  loooong opera, but it was a special treat with sets and costumes designed by David Hockney. Simple designs, beautiful color, and fantastic lighting.  A feast for eyes and ears!!

December 1, 2008

Hi to all my friends.  I’ve really been here all along….just never enough time to ‘talk’.  Hope one and all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.  Lou and I spent the day with Monica in Evansville, with Michael and the girls and Lou’s brother Rick.  Monica has a very tiny bungalow….but we had a great and cozy time.  For the last 2 months I’ve been working on ‘pocket books’, five of them, for my grandkids.  Don’t care much for just handing money out as gifts, but kids have their own ideas about what they want, and like to do the shopping, so I always figure a way to ‘present’ the dollars.  My goal was to complete them by December 1.  Well, I’ve almost done it….just 2 pages more in one of them and then some attention to the covers to complete them.  Picked up a couple of additional techniques in the process, pop ups, contact paper transfers, alcohol reduction and marbling (kids style).  The latter will be fun for the collage class I’ll be teaching in February at Evanston Art Center.

October 22,2008

Well now I will try again to post a note.  I lost my server in the middle of my first attempt. 

If an altered book can be called finished, then this one is done except for the cover.  I had cut a window in the cover before covering it with a crumpled paper pattern designed paper.  The opening was backed with one of the book pages and the space was painted with polymer medium to seal it.  Now the one thing left to do is imbed the two artifacts from the trip into this window in a little ‘lake’ of epoxy.  I think my favorite part of the book is the three page section with four pockets sewn onto each page and tucked into each pocket is a tiny instruction sheet for each of the techniques used in the book.  I’ve added a few things to my techniques list on the blog if you care to check. 

Last week I was the invited artist for an altered book class at Evanston Art Center.  The class is team taught by Mara, Deb, and Ina.  It was great sharing my work, and at the same time getting new ideas working with this team and the students.  You never stop learning.

Today I’m back from a short trip to Michigan to visit my 96 year old Dad and my sister.  He doesn’t speak much because he doesn’t hear much, but he still knows us and has a beautiful smile and a twinkle in his eye.

October 6, 2008

It was a sad with the Cubbies going out in 3…….but happiness reigns with the Bears.  My altered book continues, but today I took time to write out “about me” which you can read by clicking on that page.

October 1, 2008

Wow.  It’s the first day of my 69^th year.,…and I was just getting used to 68!  Yay Cubs and yay Sox.  I’m so looking forward to tonight’s game, Cubs against Dodgers.

 

At the health club in conversation with Liz, she suggested that that $700 billion bailout should be given to the tax payer to spend instead of to the failing corporations.  After thinking about that for awhile I suggested if money was to be given out it should be in vouchers not dollars.  The voucher could only be used to cover current debt up to the amount it was decided each taxpayer should get.  The real problem was credit.  For many the money is already spent running up huge credit debt that they simply can’t pay back.  Paying debts would open up lines of credit which are currently tight if not impossible to get.  Lou’s comment was “that’s why Liz is a great personal trainer and I am an artist and Lou is the economist.  (Once a banker always a banker)  Personally I don’t think Liz and my “solution” would work either, but I still think we should run for office.  (and I’d rather my economics professor cousin didn’t read this).

 

Back to altered books.  Of the remaining pages in the book, each 2 were glued together so that the remaining pages were actually 2 pages glued together and thus thicker.  I used pictures and music for “Sloop John B”, made double doors which open to a print of Hokusai’s “Great Wave”, and made a thicker page of 4 shallow boxes to hold samples of knots. (see techniques) My next plan is to make another, deeper, shelf for artifacts picked up during our walks on the beach.  And then close out the book with a page of pockets filled with instructions for the techniques used in the book and an index.  You can go to “techniques” for more detail of my methods, and if I ever learn how Ruthe got the current pictures into my blog, I’ll attempt to include some of the finished book.

Day 1

Welcome to my blog.  Who am I?  Just an artist friend.  I’ve just returned from 5 days with artist friends in Sturgeon Bay, sharing, learning, renewing the spirit…becoming inspired once again.  Encouraged to create a blog, Ruthe showed me the way.

If this blog meanders it’s because that’s the way my mind works…I’m navigating through ideas, media, and techniques, and will write about them as they come up and are used.  This past week is my starting point.  Other experiences, both past and in future will be included as they come to mind.

The 4 of us decided that each would create an altered book rather than work in our usual media, as each of us works differently.  What we each do individually did feed the project and we all brought and shared materials.

Day 1 we wandered through the antique mall to find the ‘right’ book to alter.  My selection was a hardbound book 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ and about 3/4″ thick, a textbook on “Piloting and Navigating”.  Seemed perfect to me.

I said this was going to be a log of ideas and techniques rather than a focused art piece.  Perhaps because I wasn’t attempting to make a “masterpiece” so to speak, the book began to take on a definite look, feel and direction….with the title contributing to the concept.

We experimented with making doors, windows and pockets of the pages.  We created papers to use in collage, did rubbings (see techniques,page 1) and photo transfers ), painted and collaged pages.  The cover of Ruthe’s book was done in encaustic, beautiful.

I started by cutting a small window in the cover into which objects would be placed and set in epoxy later.  Then I covered the book in a crumpled paper I had made a couple of years ago to be used in collages.  Many of the diagrams and figures in the book were torn out, the edges treated with black ink on the edges and put into the pockets.  Using the photo transfer technique, I placed a ship navigating across one of the charts.  Several rubbings filled other pages.  What pleased me most was the desire to cover some pages, especially the written words, by drawing a continuous squiggly black line…looks much like stipling in quilting…to me this represented ‘navigating’, and is probably the most obsessive thing I’ve done in making art.  Virtually every page finished so far has at least some of this stipling line.  I love it.  The book is a work in progress.