Reverse Archaeology and new website!

These are some preview images of my upcoming installation Reverse Archaeology at the Life Is Art Foundation in Santa Maria, CA. To read the project statement, please visit here.

In other news, I have released an official website - michellwilsonprojects.com. Hope you will check it out!

Paper Pouring Mold

This post is slightly off topic from what I usually announce here, but after a discussion on the Yahoo Papermaking group about pouring paper, I had a few queries off list about how I built my mold. So here is a brief explanation with some images that will hopefully make it clearer for others. Above and below this text you can see images of the front and back my prototype pouring mold - the one that is about 5 feet long by 2 feet wide. The door behind it below can help give you a sense of scale.



Above this is a image looking through the mold from the front (or top). The mold is designed to create slow drainage, and so is lined first with screen print mesh (220 screen), then window screening, then egg crate for support. Below is a detail looking from the back (bottom) to the front. You can kind of see the U-shaped hook I used to attach the egg crate.


Below are two details of how the wood support for the egg crate are screwed in. You can also see the U-shaped hook a little clearer.



Hope this helps some fellow papermakers out there! Feel free to pass this blog link along. For an image of the bigger mold in use, please take a look here. To see images of some of the poured paper I've done, visit here and here.

Thread Loves Paper

Emily Marks, curator of the exhibition Thread Loves Paper, on view at the Sonoma County Public Library and featuring the work of yours truly, has made a YouTube video documenting the exhibition. It isn't the highest quality production, but for anyone interested in seeing some of the work, check it out below or visit the link here.

2010 New Courtland Fellowship

This past summer I was awarded the New Courtland Fellowship from the Center for Emerging Visual Artists. I proposed a project in which kids and residents of New Courtland collaborated in handmade paper by creating designs using pulp-paint stencils based on a series of interviews conducted by the children of the residents.


The wet sheets were then stretched over armatures that had been made in the shape of boats. The overall result is a series of collaborative-collage-boat-sculptures.


The boats will be all gathered together and installed as part of an exhibition next spring at the Skybox called Art is Ageless. Right now, here a few of the boats (we made quite a few!), to check out.

White Mountain, New Artist Book

My newest artist book, White Mountain, was inspired by the White Mountain, outside of Rock Springs, Wyoming. It is also the first piece I've made in my new home in California. The book is embroidery on handmade flax-abaca paper, with a flax-abaca cover dyed with walnut dye. It is currently on display at the Sonoma Public Library as part of the exhibition Thread Loves Paper curated by Emily Marks.

I'm busy unpacking, but have much news! More to come...stay tuned.

May Update

Much to report! My collaboration with Mary Tasillo - Book Bombs - will be taking part in many upcoming exhibitions. The first of which is Axis Alley 2010 - our installation Fibrile is currently on view in the alley behind 2212 North Calvert Street in Baltimore, MD. Everyone is welcome to join the Axis Alley stroll on May 23 (rain date May 22) to see the installations and enjoy food and drink B-more style.

Also coming in up in Baltimore, Book Bombs will have work at the Whole Gallery as part of their upcoming exhibition Sign Language. And later this summer we will be part of the exhibition Paper at the Lost Coast Culture Machine in Fort Bragg, CA.

April Update

My Book Bombs collaboration with Mary Tasillo continues to thrive - over the next few months we will be exhibition work from the project in Baltimore and in Fort Bragg, CA. We will also be part of the Axis Alley project, taking over the back of a house with wheatpasted demin paper. More to come....so stay tuned!