Dear Mary

My goal this summer:  to FINISH some of the myriad books I have in process.  It's a long list, but I am making good progress.  Here are photos of an artist's book I finished last week called Dear Mary..

Dear Mary is a unique work created from vintage class photos, an old yearbook, embroidery thread and beads.  The cover and endpapers are cannibalized from a 1931 college yearbook. Inside are nine vintage college photographs, each in its own cardboard folder, which I have altered with hand-embroidery, beading and appliqued fabric scraps.   The photographs are bound together accordion-style with decorative hinges of Japanese kozo paper.  The only text in the book are the messages that were handwritten to “Mary” by her classmates from an unnamed college in Waterloo, Iowa:

Mary:

We have always had good times

when we were together but the trouble is

we weren’t together enough

“Love”

Russ

Rock Paper Scissors

Crevasse

Lucha Libre!

Him and Her

An Orderly Mind

Fleur

Some of This, Some of That

 Ceremony

 Poodle

Tourist

Some Shady Guys

Portrait of the Self-Rightous Candidate

St. Francis Being Abducted By Aliens

The Cloud

Rootytooty

Two Lovely Local Exhibitions

I'm honored to have pieces in two very lovely exhibits in the Puget Sound area this month:

In Tacoma, WA, you will find the Fifth Annual Puget Sound Book Artists Members Exhibition showcasing a wide variety of beautiful artist's books.  The exhibit runs from June 4 through July 30, 2015, at the Collins Library on the campus of the University of Puget Sound.  You can see the on-line catalog here. I want to thank PSBA and Collins for including three of my books

 Smoke

 Our Family

letting go

and most especially for bestowing the 2015 Curator's Choice Award on Smoke. This is a book I wasn't sure anyone would want to exhibit as I was making it, so this award is tremendous validation for me....huge thanks!

Also showing through June 28th is "Adornment," the 2015 Spring Show presented by the Northwest Collage Society in the Community Education Gallery of the Bellevue Arts Museum in Bellevue, WA. I have two pieces in this show and was thrilled to have been recognized with the Eleanor Woltees Smith Memorial Award for Medusa, and the Juror Award from juror Michael Monroe for Birth of Stars.

 Birth of Stars

Medusa

Huge thanks for including me PSBA and NWCS!

I Found Some Vintage Knitting Pattern Booklets at the Goodwill Store

We Are Wearing Our New Sweaters

 At the Petting Zoo