Studio Sunday-Ed Karr

I've written about Ed Karr before. He was a calligrapher from Boston who had a studio on Boylston Street. Thanks to Tom Costello, I am lucky to be able to spend some time with Ed's work before it goes out to the Letterform Archive in San Francisco. I thought I'd share some samples with you as well as a few photographs.

Ed at work

Ed in his Boylston Street studio

Ed with Gudrun and Hermann Zapf

 Completely hand-lettered book of hymns

 Logo for restaurant in Quincy Market

Getting samples of one's work has always been a struggle

Studio Sunday-Spirit Book #94 Underway

I was gifted a couple of pieces of Harry Lauder's Walking Stick by Gay Tracy, an artist at the Brush Gallery in Lowell, when I had a small exhibition of Spirit Books there in the spring. I've started a new piece. Spirals are my favorite pattern to stitch and here they seem to echo the twists and turns of the wood. The gray handmade paper is from Paszkowski Paper from the Ukraine. The thread is DMC floss (2 strands) and DMC metallic gold (one strand).

Paula Estey Gallery

It has been such a pleasure and honor to be part of the current show Pretty As A Picture with Karen Tusinki and Jan Roy at the warm and welcoming Paula Estey Gallery in Newburyport, MA. I have four Spirit Books and two framed originals from the Words For Our Time series on display until July 29.

The gallery is made up of several small rooms. Every nook and cranny holds another surprise. The experience is one of discovery. You walk up a couple of steps and enter the main gallery room. Here's some of my work. I especially like the way the Words pieces look on the brick wall.

You then go down a few steps to the Sitting Gallery. Two of the Spirit Books are in the sculpture nook under a painting by Karen Tusinski.

There is a winding hallway filled with art,

leading to more work in the Vault,

and even art on the walls of the bathroom.

Paula is warm, open, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. Her gallery is always joy to visit and it has been wonderful to work with her. She believes in the power of art to enrich lives and her passion is palpable. In a blog post, she has written eloquently about her journey to gallerist and curator.

I bring my artist's soul to Paula Estey Gallery; to her artists and patrons and visitors. I know what my artists go through to create. I know what they hope for, dream about and desire.  And I know now from experience that there are many people who collect art! 

I have absolutely no qualms about selling art now and no real idea if I will return to creating full time. I seek only to spread art's beauty on the walls of your homes. I understand both sides now, and there's nothing that brings me more pleasure than to complete this circle of creativity in my own life.

Pretty As A Picture continues until July 29
th. A show of Brooklyn artists is up next. Visit if you can!

Book As Object

I'll be giving an illustrated talk at the G.A.R. Memorial Library in West Newbury, MA next Tuesday, July 25, at 6:30 PM. I'll offer a few thoughts about the physical book in the digital age,

trace the history of the book around the world,

 Curandero Accordion Book from Mexico

 Account Book from Japan

 Cuneiform Tablet from Mesopotamia

 Sewn Binding from Japan

Palm Leaf Book from Bali

and some of the amazing work being done with the book form by contemporary artists.

 Pamela Paulsrud

 Julie Chen

 Shanna Leino

 Laura Martin 

Gail Smuda

 Colette Fu

Laura Russell

There will be a display of books from my collection and an opportunity to handle them at the end. Join me if you are in the area. Please feel free to share my information and this post with your local library. I love to give this talk.

Studio Sunday-New Art Talk Video

I have spent the better part of the last two days at my computer creating and uploading a series of videos from my talk on June 17 at the Paula Estey Gallery. I set up a tripod with my iPhone at the gallery and recorded a video. After talking to my social media expert daughter, I decided to break the 30 plus minute video into smaller parts.

I brought the video into iMovie and divided it into separate clips. I then copied each of the separate clips into a new project and made a series of 13 videos. I didn't do any editing within the clips and added a title to each and my information at the back.

I then exported the files as .mp4 (no choice of file type, iMovie does that automatically) into a folder and uploaded them from youtube. There is an option in iMovie to upload them directly to youtube but I had difficulty with that. As the files were uploaded, I added titles, descriptions, and keywords for each of the videos. Everything takes time.

And now, they are up and ready to share. I'll be highlighting different ones periodically here on the blog but here is the link to view them all: http://bit.ly/2tuF9Yo.

I hope you enjoy them and feel free to share.

Happy Birthday Henry David Thoreau

Studio Sunday-Spirit Books review

I will be having an exhibition of the Spirit Books at the McCoy Gallery at Merrimack College in January 2018. I expect to make at least six new Spirit Books and hope to make more. They take a lot of time and I am committed to their growing organically. I often need to spend time with the cradle and the paper before I am ready to start stitching the pages.

Last week I decided to get out all the Spirit Books in my possession, except the ones that are in my personal collection. The last time I looked at them as a group was in 2014 when I was photographing them for the catalog I published. When I do this, I often make changes. I want the harmony I seek in the individual pieces to extend to the entire body of work.

Here's what's happening this time: Spirit Book #8 is getting the cradle of Spirit Book #77 which is being taken apart and possibly reused. The cradle of Spirit Book #8 and its base are being permanently retired. Spirit Book #20 and #49 are switching bases and some new paper is being added to #49. Spirit Book #28 is either getting a new base or a second layer is being added. Lately I've been making more cradles of two pieces of wood. The cradle of Spirit Book #57 is getting a second layer—logistics will be handled by my husband. I will be on the lookout for a new cradle for Spirit Book #52. I'll share some before and after pictures as I make the changes.