Sante Fe Doors--Canyon Road

If you visit Sante Fe, you can't help but notice the doors. I went on a seven mile run early one morning, carrying my camera with me the whole way, just so I could take pictures of my favorite doors. It was a pain to carry the camera, but worth it in the end.

Sidewalk Art

I came across this sidewalk stencil while walking in front of the video library in Santa Fe, near the plaza. I don't know who did it, but I like it.

A Bird's Eye View

Birdhouse Shadow Box for Habitat for Humanity Auction: Mixed Media with Wood, Feathers, Science Illustrations.

Altered Book Project: Fun At Sea

This week, for spring break, I'm making my annual migration south to the gulf shores. In anticipation of the trip, I started this altered book journal project. I found the book at a Flea Market, liked the illustrations and the quirky, but conscientious text, and thought it would make a good backdrop for journaling my beach experiences over the next few years. The underwater swim photo was a recent find; the mermaid I've had for years. For now, she's found her way onto the front of this book. Maybe later, she'l find her way onto something else. Mermaids can be unpredictable like that.

Fun at Sea Interior Detail

When I make an altered book to use as a travel journal, I prepare certain pages ahead of time, so I can make entries once I reach my destination. The shells that I've secured inside these little hidden "portholes" are shells I found on the Florida beach last year.

Fun at Sea Interior Detail

These pages are ready for a beach-side journal entry.

Card Art Collaboration A to Z

My Image/Text class just finished a major project that involved card art (see sidebar link). The project was to do a complete Alphabet with a duplicate set which we would "trade" in a random drawing. This is my random set. I love my Alphabet Card Art collection. I like to take my set out and look at it over coffee...just after the morning newspaper and right before I start my day.
Does that make me a card art nerd?

Card Art Detail: J, K, Q & R

Artists:

Rachel Scott
Lindsay Westbrook
Joe Zephyrs
Sarah Hover

Card Art Detail: E, F, L & M

Artists:

Amanda Callaway
Tiffany Schneider
Rachel Scott
(I drew a lot of
Rachel's cards in
our random drawing
which was o.k. by
me since her cards
were all about
shoes....)

Card Art Detail: A, B, H & I

Artists:
Rachel Scott
Jandyn Markham
Hannah Clemens
Jessica Augustine

Card Art Detail: D & V

In the spirit of exploration....










Artists:

Joe Zephyrs

Jessica Stong

Card Art Alphabet Deck: A to Z

Here's my complete deck. I don't know what other people thought about this project, but I really had fun with it. Oh, near the end, when I couldn't find the hard letters like K and X, things got a little hairy and frustrating. And I did better on some cards than others. But that's how it is with things that are really rewarding. I'm already planning my next deck. Anybody up for a trade?

Card Art Detail: A & E

A is for age.















(I used to wonder what
happened to lost mail.
Now I know.
The only question
I have left to answer
is what happened to
all those single socks.)

Card Art Detail: N

After 4000 years,
this guy deserves
a party hat.

Card Art Detail: X & Y

I like these for the textures, colors, and random associations.

Palm Book Series: The Playground of the Mind

Interior Detail

Indigitagio: The Canon of the Fingers. An altered book from "A Show of Hands"

Altered Book. Leather, image transfer on mulberry paper. 6 x 8.

I am working on a series called A Show of Hands which will include Book Arts and Found Object Collage Assemblages. This Altered Book (see explanation below) entitled "Indigitagio: A Canon of the Figures" is an exploration of how hands serve as the foundation of expression and communication.





Interior detail. "Indigitagio: The Canon of the Fingers."

The Altered Book

Making an Altered Book involves taking an existing book and using it as a foundation for creative expression and exploration. The book artist can take the book apart and put it back together again, recover the book with a new theme or title, tear out pages, put pages in, exploit the existing text by crossing words out or adding them. In other words, with an Altered Book you get to break all the rules and do all the things you were taught never to do to a book when you were in school. At first you might feel like you're doing something wrong and your seventh grade home room teacher is going to track you down and slap you with a hall pass straight to the principle's office. But you'll get over that feeling.

I like to use the altered book in two ways...as a long term journal, something I can work on for a year or so as a place to play and explore themes, and as a collaborative project...I find someone who likes to play with images and text the way I do and we pass the book back and forth to each other, making entries and communicating ideas. When you track down an existing book to use for an altered book project, make sure it's sturdy, stitched and well glued, and the pages aren't brittle. The book needs to hold up to a lot of distress.


Altered Book detail from the Show of Hands Series.
Indigitagio: The Canon of the Fingers. Leather, image transfer on mulberry paper. 6 x 8.

Zen and the Art of the Book

My early introduction to the book arts came from two art communities: the Penland School for the Book and Paper Arts, in North Carolina and Anderson Arts Ranch in Snowmass, Colorado. I participated in the Penland Book and Paper Arts Intensive in May of 1994. I had the opportunity to work with Ed Hutchins along with others...gained experience in basic codex book binding and learned way more than I wanted about the History of Glue.

In 1996, I participated in Zen and the Art of Bookmaking at the Anderson Arts Ranch, taught by Susan kae Grant whose work is featured in the Smithsonian as part of the Science and the Artist's Book exhibit (see link on sidebar). While in Snowmass, I began a series of limited edition palm books. These books, as the name implies, are made to fit in the palm of your hand. They include words, sayings and images as a focus for meditation, prayer and reflection.

Palm Book Series: Haiku

This is a Limited Edition Butterfly book, with hand printed original text. Walnut wood, vintage ribbon, 1.5 x 1.5.

Palm Book Series: The All Seeing Eye

The coin on this cover of this book is a lucky coin. It has good luck images from numerous cultures, and includes the inscription: The All Seeing Eye. I found it in a second hand store. If you look closely, you can see that the coin has already been rubbed for luck many times.

Walnut wood, found object, linen book cloth, 2 x 2.5

Palm Book Series: Meditation

Oak, Bone, Linen, 2 x 3

Palm Book Series: Japanese Style Stitched Miniatures

Cotton cloth, linen, rice paper, 1 x 1.5

Travel Journaling

I made this journal in preparation for a three week trip to Ireland which I took in 2003. The journal is filled with written entries, photos, postcards, rubbings, watercolor sketches and emphemera from my travels which I entered both during and after the trip.

Leather, nails, found objects, 5 x 7.

Unmade Art

I have some cabinets with long, shallow drawers that are just right for tucking away bits and pieces of things I think might someday end up in a found object art assemblage. I like to pull open the drawers and consider the possibilities....

Pocket Journal

2.5 x 3.5, leather, book cloth, linen, bone, found text

Writer's Journal

6 x 6, leather, found objects collage

The taking of this photo was aided by my cat, Kitkat. His toes are in perfect focus, but I think he threw off eveything else.

Writer's Journal Too

5 x 5, leather, linen, found text

The Tools

Most of these vintage bookmaking tools I've picked up at flea markets and antique shops. I came across several prize ones at a weekend market in Lincolnshire, England, when I was visting my friend Karen. Her dad thought I was nuts for spending so much money on such crude looking tools. And he made fun of me for my southern American accent. Apparently, when I say the word "tools," it has two syllables....too-uls.

The Inspiration

This was my mother's journal. She made it when she was in college in 1938. It's a lovely volume, hand stitched and bound, about 4 x 6. She wrote poems in it, ranging from when she was seventeen to when she was seventy. She used to keep it in her dresser drawer, and when I was little I would ask for permission to take it out and look at it. It seemed to hold such power and charm for me. Still does.

About the Odes....

I have always loved the initimate worlds of shadow boxes and dioramas. I was first introduced to the world of the shadow box when I was very young. In my early play years, my two older sisters would depart each day for school and leave me lonely and longing for companionship. My mother often kept me occupied by handing me an old shoe box, scissors, paper, pictures, glue and encouraging me to build secret worlds which could only be viewed through the smallest of peep holes. The following shadow boxes contain visual poems. I like the idea of intersecting literary forms, such as the ode, with visual forms such as collage assemblage. Each shadow box is an ode to something. According to my Funk and Wagnall's, an ode is a lyric poem which celebrates something in lofty and serious tones.

(The Shadow Box Series and the Lesser Angels Series both appeared in a show at the Mudhouse Gallery, Springfield, Missouri, December 2005 to February 2006. Prices for pieces range from $75.00 to $200.00. If you are interested in purchasing a piece, you can contact me by e-mail at jvanarke@drury.edu).

Ode to Double Shot Mondays

Found Object Mixed Media Collage, private collection

Ode to the Good Dog

Found Object Mixed Media Collage, private collection