Collaboration is...

I've been working on an article for the upcoming issue of The California Printmaker. The issue has a focus on collaboration, and I'm writing about Book Bombs!

Collaboration is such an important part of my work. Not only have I collaborated with Mary, I also have collaborated several times with Marie Elcin, and am currently working on a collaborative project with Anne Beck. And I can't forget my recent collaboration with Robert! The image above is from one of Anne's and my tests. In fact, one of the first artist books I ever made, which convinced me what I really wanted to do was make books, was a collaboration between sixteen artists.

As I was writing about Book Bombs, I was trying to capture the essence of what a collaboration really is. It's more than just working with others to make art in some way. As I was brainstorming, I ended up with the following list, which I decided to share here.

Collaboration is working together
Collaboration is an environment for growth
Collaboration is a loss of ego
Collaboration is exciting
Collaboration is a form of evolution
Collaboration is learning to listen
Collaboration is embracing the process
Collaboration is opening up
Collaboration is new insights
Collaboration is unexpected turns
Collaboration is a form of giving
Collaboration is a form of receiving
Collaboration is a form of gratitude
Collaboration is an act of love

Geeking out

I've been unabashedly geeking out on some interesting and great papermaking stuff online. First of all, this website, Papeles con Marca al Agua (Papers with Watermarks), is a great collection of watermarks online. It's where I found the image above. Text is only in Spanish, but you can peruse the images without a fluency. Check out these!

Two great blogs on papermaking that I have been reading are Paperslurry (written by May Babcock) and The Fiber Wire: Plugged in and Turned On. Full disclosure, Paperslurry has featured my work before - most recently here (!), but previously here. Both blogs feature not only papermaking, but historic insights and contemporary roles of paper, such as this recent post on The Fiber Wire on the new $100 Bill.

May Babcock is the coiner of the word "pulptype," a form of combining pulp painting with monotypes. Very similar to what we did at Magnolia here, read her talking about her practice here.

Finally, I discovered the Youtube videos series by the Hermitage and Matanhongo Heritage Center. They have a whole series of videos on processing flax. The brothers there, Christian and Johannes Zinzendorf, are also the authors of The Big Book of Flax, which has been on my wishlist for a while now, although I haven't had the money to splurge yet.

The videos go beyond just how to process, but also some of the history and comparative methods of processing from various part of the Western world. Check out the video below on breaking flax:



Scutching:



Combing:

Interviews in 2014

I was so overwhelmed looking at my SGCI photos that I forgot to mention that I met the lovely Melissa Potter during the conference. We had "met" prior to then over Facebook, and had been corresponding since, realizing that we had many of the same interests and values. During SGCI, she interviewed me for her project, Gender Assignment. You can watch the video here.

My latest work, some of which was also featuring in Now. Here. This. is also featured in this interview, (which is actually my third of this year)!

Frieze, the print above, was completed for my recent show. (click on the image for a larger size). Some shots of the making can be seen here and here.

Its come to me that the pieces like Frieze and the others I poured myself into for the show emptied me out of something, a sorrow, some unfinished mourning. A catharsis has taken place. I'm thinking about new things, or more accurately, old ideas in a new way. Maps and navigation are coming back, but more refined, more directed. Still in the beginning stages, but on a course towards something exciting.

Estampa Interview

A few months ago, the amazing Leticia Burgos interviewed me about my work in handmade paper for Estampa, the online journal of contemporary art of the Universidad de Cuyo. Yesterday I got the news that the article had been published! The journal can be read in full here, my feature starts on page 89, text is in Spanish.

This is completely thrilling for me. Click on the images for larger view. I am so honored and grateful to Leticia for this. Muchisimas gracias, mi amiga y comadre!

Un/Natural Occurances at Central Booking (and other stuff!)

Chacaltaya is part of this exhibition opening this week at Central Booking, now at its new location on the Lower East Side! The press release can be read here, and a catalog of the exhibition can be purchased here.

Book Bombs will also be part of the citywide exhibition Intertext in St. Louis this October. And Carbon Corpus is going to be part of the OFFspace exhibition Brave New World, at the Spare Change Artist Space.

All in all, going to be a busy fall.

New Publications

This book was recently released from Lark Crafts, featuring yours truly on page 115! Juried by Gene McHugh, the Kress Fellow for Interpretive Technology at the Whitney Museum of Art, this book shows the extreme range of possibilities in paper art - including, but not limited to, handmade paper, commercial paper, cardboard and compressed paper, cutting, folding, casting, shaping, scoring....preview some images by other artists here.



My book, White Mountain, was selected.

This past month, I was also honored to be a part of The Art of the Book, at Seager-Gray Gallery in Mill Valley, CA. My pieces, Chacaltaya, and Kasha Katuwe were featured. The exhibition included a gorgeous catalog.





Finally, I was interviewed by Leticia Burgos for an upcoming edition of Estampa. The article will be in Spanish only, as it is a South American publication. Leticia sent me the first draft right away for proofing, which left me completely mind-blown. All I could think was, WOW! Can't wait to see it.

Berkeley Times Feature

The Berkeley Times ran a feature on the Kala Artists' Annual! It was a while back, but I finally got to see a copy. And I it turns out the piece I had in the show sold!

To see the works from the exhibition, please visit here.

Busy

This past weekend was both the opening for Proof of Some Existence at ECHO Gallery in Calistoga, and the reading and signing for Thread Loves Paper at Mrs. Dalloway's Books in Berkeley. Fortunately for me, they were scheduled so as to allow me to make it to both.

Mrs. Dalloway's Books is one of the few bookstores I've ever been in that devotes a small section to Book Arts, which makes them totes awesome.

Emily spoke about the overall project, how it started, and discussed how many of the artists featured learned sewing skills from family members, not in art school, and that such techniques are often seen as a lesser form of art compared to say, painting, sculpture, etc....and that she saw it as a feminist action, publishing this book, featuring these artists who made this work and felt it mattered. At the close of her talk, she was asked to read a short section of text that stood out. She selected a section of text by the always insightful Erin Sweeney.

Below, some books on display for the event, including some by yours truly.

Emily also invited me and another artist to come up and say a few words. I tried to talk about how I see paper as a reference to nature, and anything done to paper - sewing, puncturing, marking - becomes an invocation of the human hand. And so, in my mind, paper with marks on embodies the interrelationship between the natural world and humankind's affect on it.

Once the talk was over, I stayed to mingle for a few minutes, then had to get on the road up to Calistoga.

I originally had intended to exhibit more work, but I didn't want to crowd these two pieces (see previous post on their making). Yet, I received the sweetest compliment from J Kirk, who told me that he wished they had more work up.

I spent the evening trying to focus on feeling grateful and fortunate. Not only for these opportunities, but for the community around them, that makes such events possible and nurtures my spirt; people like Emily Marks, Ann Trinca, Kathryn Reasoner, Oscar and Azalea Aquilar. I feel like I spent so much of 2012 overwhelmed in a whirlwind of to-do lists, I must remember to enjoy and appreciate what I have. The most integral, and sustaining thing for me as an artist, heck, as a human being, is always community. It's difficult, when I'm overtired, when I'm always feeling rushed, when I'm juggling so many things, to remember to just be, and yet it's what I need more than anything. I've been in a cycle of working all the time, I'm trying to transition into a more present state of being. So here goes.

"The Art of Handmade Paper" at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art

Some of the Population Dynamics series is currently part of the exhibition, The Art of Handmade Paper, at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, in Sonoma, CA. The exhibition is up till the end of December, and last Friday I went up for the opening reception.

The show is predominately focused on the history of handmade paper, featuring a few contemporary artists like myself, as well as one of my teachers, Lynn Sures:

Also featuring a tiny little hand-crank beater. This made me think of all the discussions I've had with fellow papermakers about a bicycle-powered beater (which was finally developed by Lee Scott Mcdonald), although several people found pedaling while grinding rag pretty onerous (and could you imagine trying to make something like high-shrinkage? Hours and hours of pedaling!) Anyway, made me wonder if this would be better or worse.

Two other intriguing historic objects included were these fusan bakudan, or Japanese fire balloons. For those unfamiliar with the history, during World War II, these were washi balloons that were used to carry bombs across the Pacific towards the United States, floating along Jet Stream air currents. I gather that most did not make it, but some did. It brings to mind a conversation I had with Mary years ago in which she said something to the affect of," I don't know whether to be horrified or like, YAY PAPER!"

The show is up to December 30, and there is talk with the curator on October 28 at the museum.

On a related note, I was recently interviewed by Discover Paper. Check it out here.

Projects, Promotions, and Publications

After talking about this idea off and on for about three years, and proposing it to various venues, I am launching a new project, Carbon Corpus. You can read about the project as it develops here, but a synopsis is that I will be selling the animal-based carbon credits to my body to people. In exchange I will eat a vegan diet for the period of time purchased. The project aims to examine the difficulties surrounding carbon reduction by individual choice in modern society.

An installation of the ephemera generated for this project will be part of the exhibition, S'Long As Its Yours, at Gallery Aferro, in Newark, NJ, in March 2013. Other venues may also feature this project as well.

While Carbon Corpus progresses this fall, I'm also participating in a few upcoming exhibitions:

Agents of Change: Artists as Activists, at the Jean and Charles M. Schultz Memorial Library at Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA

The Art of Handmade Paper, at the Sonoma Valley Museum, Sonoma, CA

How to Read a Book, at the Lawton Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay

And finally,Thread Loves Paper is out! I'm so honored to be included in this publication. To find out how to order a copy, please visit here.

Michelle in Comix!

Click on the comic for a larger image.

The Artist As Storyteller came down last week, but the catalog for the exhibition lives on! Curator Alison Frost did a comic about each artist, in my case, incorporating text from this very blog.

Each artist was given several pages to create something unique for the catalog. You can see the series of drawings I did here.

The Compound Gallery still has catalogs for sale - visit here to get your copy.

"Voyage," a suite of drawings

Allison Frost, curator of the exhibition I'm a part of at the Compound Gallery, decided to take a different approach to the catalog that accompanies the show. Instead of just reproducing the work from the show, each artist was given a few pages to make art specifically for them. She also contributed some comics based on each artist - which were AMAZING, and I'll have a post on that later.

Below are the drawings I did for the catalog. It's a visual narrative of some images that were running through my mind, incorporating some handmade papers I had lying around that seemed perfect for this series.

I'll note here, I was doing these drawings around the time Maurice Sendak died, and the dog in the laundry image is a nod to Jennie, the dog in Higglety Pigglety Pop. In her travels, she came for a brief visit to this narrative, though prior to these drawings that was never recorded.

The Compound Gallery still has copies of the catalog for sale. To purchase, please contact them.

Hot off the Press - 1000 Artist Books!

Okay, maybe not totally hot off the press - 1000 Artist Books: Exploring the Book As Art arrived a week or two ago, but today was the first day I had time to sit and really look at all the images. And I have to say, I'm so honored to be a part of it - there are so many amazing books! My only criticism is that I'm frustrated that I can't see and handle these books in real life at this time.



Humble brag - my books are on pages 23 and 112.

1000 Artist Books

1000 Artist Books is out! I have work featured in this publication among many other artists I respect and admire. And I want to especially thank Peter Thomas for inviting me to be included. I can't wait to see it!

Publications, a New Print, and other news

Maddy Rosenberg invited me to dust off my collagraph skills recently, by inviting me to write a how-to article for Central Booking Magazine (follow the link to order a copy)! The gives step-by-step instructions, which are illustrated by the making of the print above, Solace.

It's been a while since I made a collagraph outside of a classroom demonstration or print exchange with students. It was exciting to get back into experiment mode - I used to make so many collagraphs, like this one below, made while on a residency in Costa Rica.

My challenge was to fit this technique into my current work, which incorporates a more graphic punch. The final print uses the collagraph as a the first layer of color, with four more layers of linoleum on top. Since I've been back from Wyoming, I've been trying to take more walks. Still not managing to as much as I'd like, but my favorite place to go is Point Pinole, which is where I drew the inspiration for this piece.

I'm not sure what exactly draws me there, I love the panorama of the bay and Mount Tamalpais from it's western side, I love seeing the plethora of birds, I love hearing the wind blow through the grasses. Though I think what I find most comforting is the history - the park is the site of a former munitions company that made black power and dynamite. There are still a few relics on site - like this black powder press.

There is also a bunker where I believe they tested explosives, now almost completely overgrown with trees growing out of the walls. Nature has reclaimed the site, and I find this evidence, with Robert still incapacitated, as a great comfort.

As I continue with this series, I've been wondering about this recurring theme of "people looking at stuff" that seems to crop up often. Not sure where it's going, but I think I might need to break out of the static nature of it soon, though not yet...

In other publication news, Shelley Thorstensen, in other words, a catalog of prints by the woman who introduced me to printmaking is out. I've written an essay for it - and it's the first in the book! It can be ordered online or scrolled though page-by-page here.

I'm also part of a three-person show with Helen Hiebert and Sun Young Kang at MCLA's Gallery 51 in North Adams, MA, curated by Melanie Mowinski. The show is called Branching Together, and as Melanie puts it, in an almost Mary Oliver poem kind of way:

The lines, paths and ways created by fiber, paper and shadow that each of these artists create branch together as they journey from birth, through life and into death. Where are the places inside of each of us that mother, that mourn, that take a stand? How do they branch together in you? How do they branch together in me? How do they branch toward each other, bringing us together as we journey in this great community of earth? I ask you this as the curator, to think about this as you experience this exhibit, what is your path? How is it part of this greater communal journey of birth, life and death?

Image above is my piece, The Ghost Trees, on view in the space.

The idea for Solace was a moment I had at Point Pinole, standing on the eastern side looking over the water. It was early evening, low tide, and birds were feasting on what they could find along the shore. One gull flew in an arch almost directly above my head, crying out a single caw. It seemed directed at me - probably from his perspective, it was either telling me, the predator, to get lost, or warning other birds of my proximity, or some mixture of the two. Yet something about the cry, the moment, the recognition of my presence, reminded me of how interconnected I am to everything. It didn't take away the anxiety and sorrow of everything that's been going on, but it was enough.

November 2011 Update

With November's arrival, I'm on the verge of leaving for Wyoming for a month at the Jentel Arts Residency Program. I'm still kind of in shock that it's really happening. I'm hoping to spend a month making prints, as it has been a while since I just made prints without them being part of some greater, more complicated project. Though I'm sure I'll find a way to make things more complicated when I get there.

In other news, I was recently invited to write a piece for Felt and Wire on my papermaking practice. I'm also looking forward to being part of two parallel exhibitions this winter after my return from Wyoming, one at SOMArts and one at the San Francisco Center for the Book, both curated by Hanna Regrev and focusing on artists responding to the work of John Cage.

Book Bombs has also released it's sixth zine, Horizontalidad, available in both print and PDF versions. This zine is a response to the Occupy movement, and the print version was printed at both the Crane Paper Factory and Melanie Mowinski's Press: Letterpress As A Public Art Project, both in Massachusetts. Out of all our zines so far, I'm proudest of this one. Not just because it's our most recent, but because I felt that we tied our concept into a larger, greater whole, speaking to the moment of now, but tying it to other movements and philosophies.

Finally, I'm still selling this piece on Etsy to raise funds for Robert's parents to rebuild their lives after Hurricane Irene. The print has been purchased by the Special Collections of the Newark Public Library and the Free Library of Philadelphia, as well as a few individuals, but there are still some left!