Altered Book: The Butterfly Effect

November 19, 20094 Comments

This is my seventh altered book, which kind of amazes me because I only started making these in mid-September. I’ve been wanting to make more before deciding what to do next in regards to showing and selling them. I want to have a group of them all together and get an overview of where I’m going with this before I can let any of them go or make decisions about a show. I’ve set the goal to have ten altered books completed by the end of the year. I began working on number eight today so it could happen.

I started this butterfly book on the same day as the previous altered book with folded pages. I decided to retain the 3D accordion affect by leaving the folded pages loose and gluing one corner of each to the proceeding page to retain the shape and structure. This altered book was definitely one of the trickier ones to create. The wire I used in the centre of the book bent out of shape easily and the middle butterflies were not very cooperative about gluing onto them. The pages were also quite brittle and would tear easily. All factors that make this the most delicate and fragile altered book art I’ve made so far.

Materials used in this altered book: book, Japanese paper, resistor wire, acetate (?) butterflies, gel medium and glue dots.

Threads & Needles

November 18, 2009

In September I kicked off my new portrait series with a bang by shooting four of them in one month. In October I decided shooting two a month would be a more reasonable pace, and both subjects ended up being people from out of town. My sister Kathryn was in Vancouver visiting for eight days over the thanksgiving weekend so I took advantage of the timing to include her in my series.

The idea behind these shots was based on a suggestion by my friend Susie. She liked the idea of emphasizing my sister’s very thick and curly hair by making it crazy and nesty with birds and bugs in it. Since the only way I could pull of that idea was with a huge amount of photoshop work, I opted for something less elaborate but that still made use of her hair. My sister is a knitter so I went with knitting needles and yarn. I ended up having to string the yarn into different corners of the room for the shoot and then Kathryn had to sit VERY still while I took photographs. It was hilarious and we finished with the moustachio’d shot below.

The yarn draped over Kathryn’s shoulders is made by a local Vancouver yarn company called SweetGeorgia Yarns. Felicia Lo is the owner and she makes beautiful yarns in rich colours that even a non-knitter such as myself can covet.

Ten Wonderful Things From the Weekend

November 16, 20091 Comment

1. Taking the train to Seattle and enjoying the beautiful view from the window. I saw about a million different bird species flying, gliding, or bobbing in the water as we went past.
2. A relaxing Friday afternoon spent in the Turkish Baths at the Banya 5 Spa in Seattle.
3. A long long afternoon nap in our hotel room with a beautiful view of the city and a giant king-sized bed. (Thanks for the amazing dealio Priceline.)
4. Visiting the Elliot Bay Book Company and managing to keep the book buying under control.
5. Trader Joe’s candied ginger and lemon verbena soap.
6. Amazing inspiring art at Patricia Rozvar Gallery and Gallery I|M|A in Seattle.
7. The lovely and funny wedding of Dave and Lauren.
8. Dancing the night away with Boris, and in high heels no less.
9. Ending the wedding evening with a huge Near-Death Ray gun battle between Boris, Mark and me. (We had to test out the wedding favors somehow!)
10. Hanging out with Mark and Andrea in Seattle for some quality eating and shopping.

Altered Book: Let the World Speak for Itself

November 12, 2009

I experimented with a new technique with this book. Folding the pages is yet another way to manipulate an old book, and there are so many different ways to fold the paper too. I loved how it looked when it was done because the folded pages create a beautiful pattern within the book. I decided to divide the pages into two sections and glue the edges of the paper together on either side, leaving the end pages exposed because I liked the pattern. I kept things simple with the composition of this book because the type on the page and the pattern on the end pages makes things busy enough. I wrapped the thread around the flower seed pod stem because I felt it needed just one more little thing.

My friend Siobhan was looking at the altered books in person yesterday and told me she didn’t get a good sense of them in three dimensions because so far I’ve photographed all of them flat. I decided to take more detail shots of this one to give people a better idea of what the whole thing looks like.

A sewing needle embedded into the pages to secure the thread.

A dedication written “To Elsie” on the end papers.

Materials used in this altered book: book, thread, two sewing needles, a poppy seed pod, and gel medium.

Button Action

November 8, 2009

A few friends and I attended the Hot One Inch Action button show yesterday evening. If you’ve no idea what I’m talking about it’s a show of buttons designed by fifty different artists and is on for one night only. The buttons are on display at the show and people can buy grab bags with five buttons each. The idea is to trade buttons with the other audience members until you get the ones you want. Everyone gets into it and the fun of the show is in the trading.

These are five of the buttons I came away with at the end of the evening, mostly thanks to Boris because he’s a more convincing trader. I went for most of the buttons with designs featuring birds and one of the two designs featuring a cat.

This is the button design I came up with for the show. It wasn’t accepted but it didn’t make it any less fun to attend and participate. Next year I will try again.

(Edit: The dash lines mark the button area and the bleed and aren’t part of the design.)

Polaroid Week November 2009: Red Leaves

November 7, 2009

Japanese Maple leaves turn the most vivid red of any tree I’ve seen. They are a favorite site when autumn rolls around and their intense colour seems bright even on the rainiest fall days. These were both taken along my street while I walked to catch the bus to work one morning.

Polaroid Week November 2009: Yellow Leaves

November 6, 2009

These are some of the shots I took this week during Polaroid week 2009. I jokingly commented to someone on the above photo on flickr that being a photographer gives you an excuse to buy interesting shoes to use in photographs. It’s not a bad idea.

Vancouver Art: The Sultry World and The Red Thread

November 4, 20091 Comment

I have two shows for you featuring the colour red. One is past and the other is upcoming.

Centre A Gallery was hosting Norico Sunayama’s live installation of A Sultry World for only two days last week, so I made sure I got myself down there to see it. The idea is relatively simple, a live model is seated high on a chair wearing a giant red dress that covers the floor of the gallery. Audience members are invited to crawl under the skirt and make their way to a sitting area directly under the model. It’s a very intimate experience and it reminded me of the blanket forts kids like to make. From the outside the installation is stunning with the red fabric covering the floor, and the way the dress transforms into different shapes when people crawl underneath. I’m very glad I went to see this because I found it a very inspiring piece.

soizick_meister
I love Soizick Meister’s paintings. They are everything I aspire my photographs to be; imaginative and real with the twist of the magical. Her work has had an influence on some of the photos (here & here) I took during the 52 weeks series. I saw her last show at Jacana Gallery in August 2008, and now she is having another show there, opening this Saturday and on-going until November 22. It’s called The Red Thread, and the imagery is based upon an old Chinese proverb about an invisible thread that connects those that are destined to meet. I am loving what I can see in the online gallery and can’t wait to see this work in person.

So Many Books, So Little Time

November 3, 2009

Monique Trottier was the fourth person I photographed in my portrait series. She is a voracious reader of books and writes reviews of some of them on her SoMisguided blog. Of course I came up with an idea to photograph her with books – lots and lots of them.

The concepts I came up with for her shoot ended up being the most complicated so far and have required extensive post-production in photoshop to construct each of them. I had two ideas, one is the above shot with a tiny Monique sitting on a tall pile of books. The other idea is still in progress and involves EVEN more books than this one. Neither image worked as I’d originally planned and shot, which was frustrating, and I was going to reshoot until I finally came up with a solution. Sometimes art is about problem solving.

I love the final version of this shot because it’s cute, colourful and came out even better than I’d been picturing it in my head.

Collecting Materials

October 29, 20093 Comments

My interest in collage and altered books has compelled me to become a scavenger. When I am wandering around outside I am always on the lookout for interesting bits of natural materials, like the above acorn caps I found the other day as I walked back to work after an errand. I pick up things like this because there is something about them that attracts me, like the shapes, even if I have no idea how I can use them in future work.

These are some of the many feathers I’ve collected or been given and I’ve started keeping them all together in box. The feathers in the photo above are a mix from peahens, chickens and crows. I have lots of lovebird feathers as well as ones from a cockatoo.

Leaf skeletons are another natural item I’m always on the look out for, but they aren’t easy to find since Vancouver’s wet climate typically causes leaves to rot away. In the spring I came across layers of magnolia leaf skeletons under a bush in Stanley Park and I’ve used a few of them in my work, but I haven’t come across any more since then. Anne gave me the small box of holly leaf skeletons pictured here, and they are absolutely lovely.

Hopefully my collecting won’t get too out of control as time goes on, but it’s pretty typical of collage makers to have HUGE stashes of stuff. I guess the theory is that you can never have too much material to work with.

Canvas to the Imagination

Rachael Ashe – Art | Craft | Life