Take Me To Church

Under the Dome 2

Under the Dome

Francis

Working on a New Altered Book...

"Self Culture" is an almost-completed altered book that offers advice about living one's life on the wilder side.  The original book is a slim late-1880's volume entitled On Self Culture in Phonography, written entirely in phonetic shorthand as a "vade mecum" for the intellectual, physical and moral betterment of young men.  ("Vade mecum" apparently means a useful guide that one always keeps handy on one's person for easy consultation.)  I've printed the background images on some used teabags, and then collaged some human/animal hybrids on each page.  The text is typed in on my vintage Adler typewriter.  Here are a few pages:

Bird Women

Just finished collaging some bird women onto an old player piano roll (Duo-Art #6489, PERPETUAL MOTION Rondo, Op. 24, date unknown).  Figures are from magazine scraps, background is printed on tissue paper, Turned out nicely, I think...

Hatchlings

player piano scroll collage

11" wide x 60" wide

Hatchlings detail

Hatchlings detail

23 Sandy Builds a New Exhibit

Heading down to Portland in a few minutes to attend the artists' reception for a new exhibit  called "BUILT," which opened yesterday at the wonderful 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland, OR.  The show includes book and paper art examining the relationship between contemporary book art and architecture.  There are fantastic pieces in this exhibit, well worth a trip.  I am pleased to have two little books on view:

La Cite des Animaux

(an accordion-style book about a deserted white city)

letting go

(a "built" book made from wood)

Zines...

Recently I was experimenting with home-printing some little zine-style booklets on my beloved Epson WorkForce.   I ended up with three of them, each printed on lightweight copier paper on a home inkjet printer, stapled together (badly), with covers made from travel brochures and ripped-out book pages.  Typography features a variety of black silhouettes and brief sayings illustrating the importance of white space in typography.   A Brief History of Time is my explanation of how Time came to be and what it means to us, illustrated with various collage pieces I’ve done over the years.   Good Advice From Bad People features real quotes by unsavory people. Here are a few pages from Typography:

Dark Places

House of the Rising Sun

Napoleon's Fever Dream

Dark and Stormy Dance Party