BEYOND WORDS: August 2009

Monday, August 31

finis

well, for this chapter of the process anyway!

Way back in March, Lynne Hoppe and I began a collaborative book process, which I first posted about here, and she started here.

detail from Karin's book cover

About a month ago I started the last couple of pages that I wanted to do, before sending Lynne her book back to her.

detail from Lynne's book cover
Every day I'd see the book sitting open, looking up at me with it's colorful patch, waiting for more, but without a definitive deadline, I allowed other projects to step to the front of the line.

detail from an interior page of Lynne's book

So, after spending a wonderful weekend catching up with our nephew (my husband's brother's son), who has just come back to New York after spending 2 years in Mali, Africa, doing research for his PhD in African history at Columbia, I put paintbrush to paper and finished up!

You can see my earlier posts of what Lynne had created for when the book arrived, and how I began working over what she had started here and here, and then where I started on a couple of blank pages here.

click on images for closer view

These are my final pages to the installment. The white squares, representing prayer flags, are two ply paper towels separated from each other. Placed side by side, created by mopping up color from previous painting and paint brush cleaning, their colored patterns mirror each other. I coated them with gel medium, and adhered the one on the left hand page directly to the book page, and allowed the right hand side to float freely, attaching it only at the top edge. I gessoed all around the edges, over the color on the flags, to soften and feather in the color.
The cool thing about this process is that by the time Lynne gets done with them, there may be no hint left to the colors or lettering or anything that I've started with them. They could become something completely different, or disappear altogether, becoming a hint of texture beneath a series of other layers!

The symbol of OM is painted in gold on the left page,

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and PEACE is written in hebrew on the right. (Gotta love Google Translate!!)

Beneath the flag, she'll find a watcher to their waving...

Friday, August 28

August 28

click on images for closer view

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Wednesday, August 26

August 26 & yesterday

Today

click on images for closer view

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Yesterday

Change in plans.

Bone head here, didn't read the finer details of the 10,000 People Project, which were only to be found online, and were not included in the materials sent to me. I thank the powers that be that I did read them all before heading to the post office!

Apparently, the work that is being included for this show - the collection of Chair themed art -will not be returned to the artists. It is being held onto until all 10,000 pieces are collected. I'm thinking maybe a decade from now?! Needless to say, I am not willing to give away my Scribe's Chair for storage, and will not be sending it in for this show! So now I need to come up with another chair idea, before the postmark deadline of September 1. So much for being ahead of schedule!!

I do have another exhibition in mind for the Scribe's Chair, which I'll fill you in on the details of, if it gets in.

Back to the drawing board!

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Since I posted the above I've added this little update...

With all the wood already prepped for the last piece, I had enough left over to begin the Scribe's Apprentice Chair. A mini version of the original. I used up every last twig!
I felt it necessary to make something along the same lines as the original, especially after I was informed by Seth that he noticed my Scribe's Chair was one of the featured pieces on the Art House Co-ops home page... I had no idea that had happened, as I removed my photos from my submission page yesterday! Yeesh. Well, now it's time to scribe, scribe and scroll, scroll!!

Saturday, August 22

The Scribe's Chair

I have been focusing solely on finishing my piece for the 10,000 People Project this past week. It is going to the Art House Coop in Atlanta. The idea is to get 10,000 people to all interpret one word - in this case, that word is CHAIR.

I decided to create a chair that I could incorporate scrolls of my asemic writing into.
It's made of branches that I've stripped and sanded, and joined together with little dowels
that I carved from wooden toothpicks. It's staying together well, just with tension, as I used no glue anywhere.
The chair itself is 20 inches tall, 22 inches wide, and 7 inches deep.
After I finished writing out all the scrolls and weaving the seat, I saturated the paper with beeswax, which I then ironed out, to give it a translucent look and to add body to the paper itself. There is writing on both sides of the scrolls, which shows through now, because of the waxing.
I'm pleased with the results and am ready to pack it up and ship it off - and it's a whole week before the deadline!
Here are a few more views as well as some details.

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click on images for closer view

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For scale purposes, as requested, here's the chair in my studio...

Tuesday, August 18

August 18

When I was a kid, my favorite summer time thing to do was swimming.

I especially loved being under water, where sounds was swallowed,

and gravity seemed to lose it's hold.

I'd take in a deep breath, submerge, and swim across the pool and back again,

sometimes convincing myself I could breathe under water.

Today I escape the heat wave from indoors,

and imagine returning to the water.

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click on images for closer view

Sunday, August 16

August 16

...seeking the Middle Way

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click on images for closer view

Saturday, August 15

June Bug in August

I missed the deadline for the Artist Challenge in June, even with the theme chosen being one I came up with. The deadline for submission was the same day that my dear kitty companion Zack passed, and I had been spending all my time with him that week, so I let all art fall to the way side. Since then I have completed my bug though, and this month we were given a free theme, so I thought I'd submit my June Bug in August!