The Bad Sparrow - a video!

I made a little video document of The Bad Sparrow crankie. Enjoy!

This is a letterpress printed scroll, 9" high by 25' long, made into a 'crankie' -- housed in a handmade box with a cranking mechanism. Printed and handmade by Jessica C. White. Original story and illustrations also by Jessica C. White. Music is Baker's Waltz by The Mammals.

Apologies for the poor video quality. I'm much better at making physical things than digital!

You can also see this video on YouTube here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKAiAgs878o.

My Gordo Adventure, final Day 6

The best news of day six is that I finished printing the book! Well, everything I could finish while in Gordo. I still have to make a new plate for the colophon and create an image for the foldout, then print the title and maybe an image on the cover. I didn't quite have the materials prepared in time, but it's so nice to have most of the book done, and all done by lunchtime, too!

Since I had some extra time for the rest of the day, we decided to take a trip to the House family cemetery. It was full of good inspiration for this book project.

We had another fantastic home-made meal of spaghetti and eggplant parmesan made from fresh garden veggies. We got punchy and came up with our own gang sign, which I got Glen and Jessica to demonstrate.

After dinner I headed back to the print shop to have some fun with their type collection and work on my Gordo Project, inspired by an Aqua Teen Hunger Force episode but meant for the chicken feed processing plant across the street. We made sure to hang a few up in the windows this morning before I left.

Around midnight I just couldn't stop and moved on to a second project, a postcard for an exchange with the Ladies of Letterpress. I was originally going to print postcards for Asheville, but I guess I just got inspired, mainly by Cousin Jimmy's watermelons (I'm gonna print watermelons on these before I call them done).

Overall, I'd call this residency a success! I'm back home in Asheville now, but I miss Gordo already and am already making plans for going back. If you're looking for a place to go where you can print and  enjoy good food and good company, I'd definitely recommend it. (contact Jessica Peterson at jessica@papersouvenir.com for all the details).

A fan of Fanaticon

Yesterday I exhibited/vended at Fanaticon, Asheville's first comic con, and really had a great time! I've gone to a few comic cons in the past few years, but this was my first time showing and selling my own work, so I was a little nervous at first but people there turned out to be super nice and friendly. I shared the table with partner-in-crime LuckyCreature, and we took turns watching the table and running around to see everything else there. We were lucky to have a good location, and we could even see the music acts out in the courtyard without leaving our table unattended. The turnout was wayyy more than I'd expected, and such an incredible mix of people - all ages, girls and guys, normal-ish to very weird. Definitely not the same crowd I've gotten used to seeing at other comic cons in the past few years! I'm inspired by other local artists I met there, reminded of how much I love making comics and zines, and definitely planning on being there again next year! Some of my favorites: Comic Envy, Rice Boy, Deaver Park Press, Hope Larson, and Wide Awake Press.

The Lost Land in progress

I'm now in the final stretch of my big Final Project for the UICB certificate. I'm printing a short story by Lawrence Pun, a Chinese author based in Hong Kong, who was in the International Writing Program here in Iowa City last year. The story, The Lost Land, was translated into English and I'm printing it in both languages, to be bound in a dos-a-dos binding (two books that share one cover). The English version is printed from metal type from the Bixler Press & Letterfoundry, and the Chinese is printed from photopolymer plates made by Boxcar Press.
Here are some images of the printing process:




The cover will be decorated with 'paper' from a real hornet's nest!

This book will be on display at "The Printed The Bound The Finale" show at Arts Iowa City Gallery, 103 E. College St., in May. Come to the opening reception on Friday May 8th, from 6-9pm to meet the artists and touch their books!

MIMB on the move

Monumental Ideas in Miniature Books (MIMB) is now on display at the Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory in Cleveland Ohio. It was recently reviewed by Douglas Utter in the Cleveland Scene Magazine, and you can read the review here. He mentioned my scroll, describing it as "about three inches high and nine feet long, it shows opposing armies of squirrels and rabbits, a raccoon, a ferret, several deer, an emu, an elephant, camels and a catapult, drawn in outline as if to be colored. It's a story (a little like The Iliad) of offense and incommensurate response, and about the questions asked of justice by accident and fate."

Sweet.

The Exhibition closes on April 29th, so make plans to see it while you can!

MIMB

The Monumental Idea in Miniature Books (MIMB) show, now on exhibit at Columbia College Chicago for the Southern Graphics Council Conference 2009, now has their website up here. The gallery space is small, but is in a great location on Michigan Ave. 5 blocks from Chicago Art Institute, next to the Hilton Hotel(the conference site for SGC). This international show of miniature books by 125 artists was curated by Hui-Chu Ying at University of Akron, with the help of her students. There are more photos at the MIMB flickr site.

Art, Fact, and Artifact: The Book In Time And Place

That's the title of the upcoming College Book Art Association (CBAA) Biennial Conference, to be held here in Iowa City, hosted by the University of Iowa Center for the Book. We'll have talks, artist presentations, exhibits, demos, professional development, and tours of UICB and other venues in Iowa City showing work for this conference.

January 8-10, 2009

KEYNOTES
"Fearful Asymmetry," Randall McLeod, University of Toronto
"Enfolded by Holes: a talk on book openings," Tate Shaw, Preacher’s Biscuit Books and University of Rochester

The list of confirmed participants include Book Arts superstars such as Betty Bright, Julie Chen, Inge Bruggeman, and Daniel Kelm, along with our very own superstars Julie Leonard, Emily Martin, Tim Barrett and Gary Frost. The complete list, along with more information can be found at this UICB site.

I'll be there, helping with a large-format papermaking demo with Elizabeth Munger and Kathleen Tandy, and giving an artist presentation on my work, "Unbound: Book Art Without the Book." It will include squirrels and scrolls.



As Gary Frost would say, "Be there and be square!"

Please excuse my effete pamphlets

I was trying to figure out how to spell book art today; bookart, book-art, or book art? I'm also confused by artist book, artists book, artist's book, and artists' book. So, I did some googling to see how others spell the words (knowing full well that there isn't one standard just yet). I came across a definition of book art at encyclopedia.com , and was amused to see that they had managed to reduce the definition down to one paragraph - not an easy task! What surprised me even more was this tidbit in the definition:

<< John A. Walker (Glossary of Art, Architecture and Design Since 1945, 1973, 3rd edn., 1992) writes that it ‘refers to publications by individuals or small groups of artists whose background and training is in the visual arts rather than literature. These publications are usually small in size, slim, white, often effete pamphlets, journals, or booklets issued in small editions and marketed via art galleries rather than via bookshops … Frequently the text and illustrations are minimal and the majority are not splendid examples of printing or binding.’>>

I don't know when he added this definition of book art in the Glossary, so maybe it held water in 1945, but by the last edition in 1992 maybe the editors should have noticed that there are many artists books out there that are not "small in size, slim" or "white". As for the rest of the definition... what a jerk. (One could argue that most paintings suck, too, but that's not exactly how paintings are defined.)

For a better definition of artists books, I prefer Wikipedia's version, or this discussion on the Book Arts Web.