Open Studio-November 2

Saturday, November 2, 11 AM–6 PM

I'm thrilled to be sharing the open studio with my friend and fellow artist Sandra Kavanaugh. It's especially appropriate this year as Sandra is mentioned more than once in my new book which shows an invitation I lettered in the early 1980s for her exhibit "Earthscapes" and calligraphic kitchen counter tiles and dishes that we did together. Her current work is stunning and I know you will love seeing it. I'll have Spirit Books that have not been shown in Newburyport before and calligraphy. We'll both be doing demonstrations throughout the day.

My new book, Calligraphy: How I Fell In, Out, and In Love Again, will be for sale at a special price of $20 (regularly $24.99). A free hand-lettered bookmark (your choice of name, done while you watch) comes with every book purchased. 

View Sandra's work here.
Learn more about my book here.

This Open Studio is part of Newburyport Artwalk. Make a day of it and visit Newburyport's galleries (a map will be available), its natural areas (Maudslay State Park and Plum Island Wildlife Refuge), and dine at one of its many restaurants and cafes. Hope to see you!

Getting Ready for Tomorrow in Amesbury, MA

Organizing work and making signs for Open Studios in Amesbury this weekend. I'll have a table in the Transpotration Center at 68 Elm Street. It is Saturday from 11-5 and Sunday from 12- 4.

November Events

HEALING ARTS MARKET
Saturday, November 9, 10 AM–4 PM
Unitarian Church
26 Pleasant St
Newburyport, MA

For Sale: copies of my 3 books—Art Lessons, The Wondrous Nearer Drew (the Emily Dickinsons), and Handmade Books For A Healthy Planet (purchasing in person means you can get them inscribed for gifts), framed Emilys, small Spirit Books, and little hanging booklets. I'll be writing words and names on rocks and on paper while you watch. Little books, rocks, and quotes will be $10. each. If you buy any 3 of the printed books, you get one free.

AMESBURY OPEN STUDIOS
Saturday, November 16, 11 AM–5 PM
Sunday, November 17, 12 AM–4 PM
Amesbury Transportation Center
68 Elm Street
Amesbury, MA

For Sale: the printed books—Art Lessons, The Wondrous Nearer Drew (the Emily Dickinsons), and Handmade Books For A Healthy Planet (purchasing in person means you can get them inscribed for gifts), framed Emilys, small Spirit Books, and little hanging booklets. Depending on how it goes the week before, I may or may not be doing the writing.

Illuminations at Mass General Cancer Care

Twenty of the Emily Dickinson Series will be at part of the Illuminations Program at the Mass General Cancer Care Center from June until September. I am one of thirteen artists (Jeremy Ackman, Catherine Brentani-Stallard, Marian Christy, Roelof Daling, Larry Dunn, Susan Gaylord, Anthony George, David Maroney, Beverly Myers, Linda Ramsden, Edward Rice, Randi Siu, and Katharine "Kim" Thayer) whose work will be on display and so pleased to be there. Here is how they describe the program:

The exhibit is intended to offer enlightenment and encouragement to patients, families, staff and friends of the Cancer Center as they receive care, provide care, or accompany loved ones.

There is a reception on Tuesday, June 18 from 5:30 to 7:00 PM to which all are invited. Parking will be validated for all on the night of the opening reception. When you enter the Mass General Campus, there will be several parking choices. Any will work but the most convenient is the Yawkey Garage.

You are encouraged to sign in and grab a program upon arrival, and then check out the artwork, planning to return to the Opening Reception Space for the comments at 6pm. Each artist will have a chance to make a brief statement about their work. You are welcome to view the artwork following the remarks, keeping in mind that the waiting rooms will be closing at 7pm.

Directions

Free Art: Take One

This is the first year I am participating in Newburyport's Free Art Show. Started in 2001 by Gordon Pryzbyla and Dylan Metrano, it is an annual event. Artists make 30 pieces (the same or different) that are stamped with "Free Art" and placed in boxes around town. This year's locations are: Caffe di Siena, the Firehouse Center for the ARts, Joppa Fine Foods, The Dance Place, and Ganesh Imports in Newburyport, and expanding beyond at Ganesh Imports in Portsmouth, Engine in Biddeford, Maine and Waterfall Arts in Belfast, ME.

If you are not in the area, here is my free art entry as a pdf. It's another rendition of words of wisdom from Jack Kerouac. You can read more about them in an earlier post.

The studio is a perfect place to spend a rainy weekend. I started to put together a collection of the Spirit Books for an exhibition that could easily travel last year. I wrote a post about it on November 20, 2011 stating that I thought the packaging would be done by Thanksgiving and the supplementary material would be together by the new year. Well, we are now about half through that new year and I am just getting to finishing up the packaging part. I will no longer speculate on a time frame but will keep posting the progress.

A Life in the Book Arts

Susan is a reader, writer, maker, designer, collector, and teacher of the book. Starting with a love of reading as a child, she studied English Literature in college. Her early fascination with words led her to the study of their component parts (letters) in calligraphy and then their containers (books). She has made books with words and books without, created community installations, led workshops for children in schools and libraries, and shared her knowledge and experience globally through her website (makingbooks.com) and blog. In A Life in the Book Arts, Susan shares her work in the book arts and her growth and development as an artist.

Friday, February 3, 7 P.M.
Helen DeVitt Jones Auditorium, Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX

Saturday, February 4, 1-4 P.M.

Free public events in conjunction with the exhibition Speaking Volumes—Books and Ideas from 1250-1862.

Hand Lettered at Abecedarian

The exhibition Hand Lettered opens today at Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, Colorado. I am so pleased to have Words for the Journey a part of it. The structure is a fan book. The pages were cut from a full sheet of bagasse paper on which I made a series of marks with sumi ink and a brush.

Each page contains a quote that I find particularly meaningful—words for the journey. I had planned to share a page from the book each day. I have a distinct memory of taking photos of all the pages but alas, I cannot find them on my computer. Here is one page with a quote from Thoreau:

Alicia Bailey does a wonderful job of sharing Abedcedarian's exhibits online. You can find the catalog here.

November 4-December 17
Opening Reception: November 4, 6-8 pm, part of Denver's First Friday Artwalk
Gallery Hours: Thursday-Saturday 1-5
1st & 3rd Fridays 1-8

Uncommon Threads at 23 Sandy in Portand OR

Uncommon Threads: Handicrafts in Book Arts opens at 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland, OR on September 23 and runs through October 29. There is an Artists Reception on Friday, October 7 from 5-8 pm and an Artist Walk Through Event on Saturday, October 8 at 4 pm. The gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday from 12-6 pm and by appointment.

You can view the catalog online as well as purchase a printed copy. And read Laura's description of the jurying process for the show, Behind the Scenes of Jurying an Exhibition: An amazing week with Uncommon Threads, on the blog.

I have one piece in the exhibit—Spirit Book #49: Creative Generosity.

Fifth Annual Beyond the Book

The Fifth Annual Beyond the Book: An Exhibit of Book Art and Collage
Honan-Allston Branch
Boston Public Library
300 North Harvard Street
Allston, MA

March 26-May 7
Opening Reception: March 26, 2-4 PM

I'm happy to have two Spirit Books in this exhibition of work selected by Marjorie Kaye of Galatea Fine Art in Boston. Thanks to Curator Ronni Komarow for beginning this wonderful tradition and seeing it through in great style for five years!

I won't be at the reception but hope to attend events which will be scheduled later.

Trees of My City by Roberto Mighty

Yesterday I went with friends Meghan and Trudy to see Trees of My City, a film and exhibit by Roberto Mighty. Here's how he describes his project:

Trees of My City is an original multimedia installation about the beauty and science of dormant, dead and decaying trees in one American city over one calendar year...and how we can expand our ideas about the cycle of life by contemplating how nature deals with death.

In the film we join him in his travels around Newton, MA looking at dying and decaying trees. He is a friendly and enthusiastic guide. I loved the way he interwove personal reflections and interviews with scientists including an ornithologist, a plant physiologist, an ecologist, and an architect. It is a reminder that there is poetry and art in learning and wonder in the world around us. He hopes that this is the beginning of a great adventure where he can give others a forum to tell their tree stories. I wish him the best.

Visit Roberto Mighty's blog for more information about Trees in the City.

Getting Ready for Emily Dickinson Series Exhibit at Newton Free Library

We install the Emily Dickinson Series at the Newton Free Library in Newton, MA next Monday. Everything is framed and boxed and ready to go. We'll be hanging the pieces in groups of four (with two groups of two) and my friend Nancy Butler and daughter Kendra helped me decide on the groupings this weekend.




I've also created a page on my website where you can view the series online.

Paintings by Carol Baum at Merrimack College

I went to Carol Baum's exhibition of paintings at the McCoy Gallery at the Rogers Art Center at Merrimack College. They are exquisite paintings with both depth and lightness. While there, I also walked the new outdoor labyrinth (in the style of the one at the Chartres Cathedral) at the college.

The exhibit continues through November 20. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday 9-5.

McCoy Gallery

Carol's website

Labyrinth

Strong in the Broken Places: Healing Art

Last Saturday I attended the opening reception for a wonderful exhibit at the ALL Gallery in Lowell, MA. I am a believer in the power of creative activity to bring comfort and solace to our lives. This exhibit is part of a multi-venue series which includes work by artists and community members. There were works from many groups including family services organizations, homeless shelters, hospice programs,and cancer support groups.

The piece above was made at Casey Family Services and the reflection written was: A place I call home for the soul.

Strong at the Broken Places closes on November 1 when The Art of Healing: The Art of Psychotherapists opens nearby at the Brush Gallery. There are both closing and opening receptions that afternoon. You can find out more about the exhibit and other related events here.

Waterfall Opening at Nave Gallery

Waterfall is an international collaboration between three artists, Pirjo Heino from Finland, Karmela Berg from Israel, and Ellen Schön from the United States. The collaboration--an exhibit, installation, and performance--explores the theme of water as a metaphor for life and conveys both the idea of abundant water AND water at risk.

As part of the installation, local and international artists (including me) were invited to donate their interpretive snapshots of water which are being sold for $35 each. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to WaterAid.

The photos were taken at the opening reception. Top photo is of Karmela Berg from Israel (left) and Ellen Schön from the United States (right). My water photo (clouds reflected in a pond surrounded by small rocks taken in Woodstock, NY) is the second from the right in the bottom row.

The exhibition continues until April 26. The exhibtion images can be viewed at the Nave Gallery website.

Copying the Koran

Friday's New York Times had an art review by Holland Cotter about two companion exhibits on calligraphy in the Koran at the Asia Society in New York. He writes:

The art of the book and the art of writing are the subjects of paired exhibitions at Asia Society, “Traces of the Calligrapher: Islamic Calligraphy in Practice, Circa 1600-1900” and “Writing the Word of God: Calligraphy and the Qur’an.” Perfect in size and proportion, carefully thought out and gorgeous, they are worthy of the book they honor.

View the article and take a look at the slide show.

Robert Henri Quote

The reception and walk through with the artists for the Tenth Outdoor Sculpture Show at Maudslay was held on Saturday September 20. I made this banner to go near the reception tables. I thought the quote was particularly appropriate as many of the artists did in fact talk about how the work they created surprised them. Proposals were submitted in June so there was a lot of time for changes to occur as the artists worked on their pieces. Most were created specifically for Maudslay. The photo was taken by Dick Lundgren of Rockport, MA.

You can see images of the work at http://maudslay.ning.com.

Palm Leaf Books at the Met

Holland Cotter reviewed an exhibition entitled “Early Buddhist Manuscript Painting: The Palm-Leaf Tradition” in the South Asian galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the August 28 New York Times. He writes of the history of the palm leaf book and the importance of its portability in its survival.

Such practical features — size, resilience, portability — help explain why a similar form of palm-leaf art, the illustrated book, was popular in India between the 10th and 13th centuries. And they suggest why such books and their illustrations have survived into the present, while painting in more perishable media has not.

He discusses the subject matter, Buddhist sutras, and the many uses of the book.

So palm-leaf manuscripts, like most art, had multiple uses. They circulated spiritual information. They functioned as protective charms. They served as religious offerings, gifts from which karmic returns were expected. And they became objects of worship....

And a book could have a final use. It could be a personal possession; something to keep at home, carry around, examine up close whenever you pleased. That’s basically the experience offered by the scattering of palm-leaf pages at the Met, with their elegantly written texts and magnetic little pictures.

The exhibition continues until March 22, 2009.

The PoeTree Project

This year's Newburyport Literary Festival in Newburyport, MA honored local poet Rhina Espaillat. In honor of Rhina and the theme of poetry, I designed and coordinated The PoeTree Project, an outdoor installation of poems on trees near several of the Festival venues. I was inspired by an image of a folding screen by the seventeenth century Japanese artist Tosa Mitsuoki.



Students from the sixth and seventh grades at the Rupert A. Nock Middle School wrote poems on strips of tyvek with sharpie markers. They were tied to trees and bushes and were a beautiful sight fluttering in the breeze. The timing was perfect as several of the magnolias were in bloom.





In addition to the children's poems, participating Festival poets wrote poems for Rhina which were tied to the weeping cherry tree that is planted in front of the library in her name.



I was able to attend three of the poetry events: the opening evening with Dana Gioia, Rhina, Lewis Turco, and X.J. Kennedy, a breakfast with the poets with readings by members of the Powow River Poets, and the closing evening with a reading by Erica Funkhouser and Melopoeia: Poetry Recited with Musical Accompaniment with readings by Rhina and Alfred Nicol accompanied by John Tavano on guitar.

Shelter

SHELTER: A Unique Vision of a Universal Subject Through Artist’s Books

SHELTER focuses attention on a universal subject and one of humanity’s most basic needs in all its manifestations: the home, the psychology of personal space, current issues in the housing market such as homelessness, the mortgage crisis and loss of historic fabric. 43 artists have been chosen to participate in SHELTER, an exhibition of artist’s books juried by Janine Wong, faculty member in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at UMASS/Dartmouth. This show is presented in partnership with Boston Book Arts, a group of artists dedicated to advancement of the book arts.

Yamawaki Art & Cultural Center
Myrtle Avenue
Lasell College
Newton, MA

The show will be on view 12- 5 pm until April 22.

Directions

Boston Globe article

The exhibition will travel to several venues including the gallery at Rhode Island School of Design, Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Center, and Wells College, New York.