Artists' Book Cornucopia V at the Abecedarian Gallery

Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, Colorado opens its fifth juried Artists' Book Cornucopia exhibit this Friday (April 18th), and I'm pleased to announce that "To Whom it May Concern" will be in it! This is especially exciting and validating since it was not accepted into Unfolding Images in September. This book really is stunning, and I can say that because it is owed heavily to Sandra Varry's photographs that make up the content. Finding a book cloth that matched so beautifully didn't hurt either.

If you are looking at these photos and thinking "Gosh darn those look nice, I don't think I've seen these before," that's because they are and you haven't! A big thanks to Jon Findell at UCF's Faculty Multi-Media Center who allowed me the use of his camera and photo studio as well as helped me set up and guide me through the photo shoot. I would not consider my self a photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but Sandra has moved away to bigger and better things so I had to stumble through it. These photos would look much worse if it weren't for Jon and for years of helping Sandra photograph our collection material.

Abecedarian Gallery already has the entries up in their online store. Click here to check it out and get a sneak peek at the other entries as well as first dibs on buying a copy!

 

Bonus fact nugget: Do you think Abecedarian Gallery sounds strangely like the beginning of the alphabet? It's no coincidence: Merriam-Webster defines the adjective form as "of or relating to the alphabet". Quite fitting for a gallery specializing in contemporary book arts.

Classes at Art & History Museums - Maitland

It's finally happening. Not Your Mama's Print Class, that Molly Chism and I envisioned in 2011, is finally running as a bonafide nine week class at Art & History Museums - Maitland. Unfortunately, Molly moved away to bigger and better things in California, so she is not here to see this momentous occasion. But her spirit lives on in our class!

We meet on Sunday's 2pm-4pm starting April 13th for nine weeks (with the exception of Easter). We will delve much further into relief printmaking than previous workshops would allow. I plan on getting into techniques such as registration with multiple colors, Chine-colle, and printing an edition. Students will also be given the freedom to choose the relief material they would like to work in. I can't wait to see what images will be created- and what kind of knarly dumpster wood people find to carve on! If you would like to be one of those students, you can sign up here.

I am also teaching The Book As Art as another nine week course. I can't make up my mind which class I am more excited about. This class will meet every Wednesday 7pm-9pm starting April 9th. We'll be discussing the history of Book Arts and taking a critical eye to the medium as a whole. The end of the nine weeks will culminate in the production of an Artists' Book inspired by the Artist's Book Ideation Cards by Barbara Tetenbaum and Julie Chen. These cards are not only terribly fun, but are also extremely helpful in building parameters for a book project and enabling creativity to spark. You are running out of time to sign up for this class, but you can register on the website here.

I can't wait to meet all my students and start posting more updates about their work!

UPDATE 4/13/14: Sadly, I may have jinxed the Not Your Mama's Print Class with my earlier enthusiasm. Several students had to drop out leaving us with not enough to run the class. However, it will return! By Grabthar's Hammer, you shall be avenged!