WIP -- People I Know

 I've been working on a new collaged artist's book to be called "People I Know, People I Don't Know."  Collage on mostly "found" pages, such as old music scores, scrapbook pages, a page from a vintage knitting instructional booklet, miscellaneous decorative paper and whatever else I find down in my studio.  I'll bind it with a soft cover, probably some variation of Japanese-style stab binding.  Here are a couple completed pages:

I Read the News Today -- WIP

 Like everyone else, I have way too many projects in various stages of completion -- some in notes, some all mapped out and "merely" needing completion, most in between somewhere.  So, of course, a day or two ago I got another bright idea, thought of a cool title, and I'm working on that, instead of EVERYTHING else.  I don't feel bad.  A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

So, basically I am tearing pieces of pages out of newspapers and using acrylic paint to highlight one detail from an image.  The pages are large, 11"x11", and they feel great.  Words? Not sure, we'll see. I'm having fun with it and I'll be interested to see what it becomes.  (Assuming I ever finish it, she said contritely...).

Here are the first 8 images:

Work-in-Progress: MONSTRA

 Working this week on a new altered book project called MONSTRA.  The title is a made-up word, and the images are mostly cut & paste collage on spray-painted pages, riffing on the abstract shape of a woman's torso.  Here are some quick camera shots of a couple pages:

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:

Work-in-Progress: "A Blue Thread Runs Through It"

Busy working on a new artist's book about the color blue, featuring collage and embroidery and to be called A Blue Thread Runs Through It.  Here are a few images of pages in process:

 front endpaper to A Blue Thread Runs Through It

 "...the oldest languages had no name for the color blue."

 "...and man learned to name the blueness--indigo blue, comet blue, azure blue, periwinkle, aqua, turquoise."

 "But blue remains the most enigmatic and contradictory of colors."

 "We say blue stands for calmness, serenity and openness, but if we are sad, we have the blues."

"A blue flame often burns the hottest..."

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:

Pin Head Faces

Part of a work-in-progress...