Dear Mary Is On Her Way To Decatur

Each year there is a lovely showing of artist's books presented by the Decatur Arts Alliance in connection with the Decatur Book Festival in Georgia.  This year's show, entitled "The Book As Art: Boundless," runs August 19 - September 30, 2016, at the Decatur Branch of the DeKalb County Library, and will include Dear Mary, an accordion-style artist's book created from a 1931 college yearbook and nine vintage college photographs which I altered with hand-embroidery, beading and appliqued fabric scraps.  The only text in the book are the messages that were handwritten to "Mary" by each of her fellow students at an unnamed college in Waterloo, Iowa.

ADDENDUM -- Dear Mary has been honored with a Third Place Award...thank you, Decatur!

On View in August

A couple more exhibitions in the waning days of summer...

Two collage pieces will be on view at The Studio Door in San Diego, CA, as part of "Endangered," an exhibition of artwork about the beauty of endangered and threatened species or habitats, running from August 5-28.

 Beasts of the Northern Wild

 Beekeeper

One of my recent embroidered pieces will be on view in the "Real People 2016" exhibition, August 4 - October 1, 2016, at the Old Court House Arts Center in Woodstock, IL.

All My Love, Wilma

Exhibition News, Winter 2015

Several pieces are winging their way eastward and southward for upcoming exhibitions, including:

Our Family, a refurbished Victorian photo album with collaged antique cabinet cards, will be included in "BLOOD QUANTUM," an exhibition of book and paper arts appearing at 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, OR, November 6 -- December 19, 2015.

Mother, a multi-media collage pieces that includes paper, watercolour pencil, beads, hand-cut lettering and pigmented wax, will be on exhibit November 6 - 24, 2015, at Habitat Gallery, Denver, CO, as part of "The Best of..." exhibition.

And, finally, Dear Mary, an artist's book featuring embroidered vintage class photos, is headed to Philadelphia, PA, to appear in an exhibit entitled "Old Enough To Know Better," which is sponsored by the Women's Caucus for Art, Philadelphia Chapter, at Crane Arts Gallery 109, November 1-28, 2015.

Thanks to all for including my work!

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

Work in Progress: "Dear Mary"

Last week the mail brought my most recent eBay purchase -- a batch of small college photos in little photo holders with different hand-written messages inside each one, all addressed to a girl named "Mary."

Dear Mary, It seems I've known you for ages

tho it's really been a short while.

I'll never forget our discussions and

little secrets in homeroom

and home-making class.  Love, Nancy

I'm altering each one with ribbon, embroidery thread, seed beads, ribbon, etc. to add some sort of mask or statement over each face (masks seem to be the essence of the high school/college experience!).  I plan to bind them together accordion-style to make a little artist's book to be called "Dear Mary."

Here are some of them: