For the past few weeks I've been working in Jill's book choice Designs in Nature. This is a subject that I'm very happy to work with as nature is always an endless source of inspiration for me. My fascination with the birch as an abstract form has made it's way into these pages along with my love of images of bare branches. I've included leaf images, drawings and actual leaves, and a beautiful feather found long ago. My pages are about simplicity and solitude.
I've spent the past few days working on Supria's book, On Paper Wings, about Helen Keller - funny how the ideas that I have in mind before I receive the books change once they arrive. Some of the elements remain, knowing a quote that I wanted to include which I had gathered months ago, an old photograph, of course integrating wings somehow, and feathers, and flower petals - things of nature. The way Miss Keller was taught, through touch and the natural world, and though I know she couldn't see, I'm certain her inner world was filled with colour. This is my final book, and though the parting of it, along with the parting of this group project, will make me sad, I do look forward to seeing my own once again after such a long trip and so many magic hands have touched and altered it. Once all of the books are back in the lovely hands of their owners, I will post all the photos of the pages I created. Though parting is such sweet sorrow, the journey has been an expanding one, for my heart, for my mind, and for my creative soul. For this I am grateful to Supria...and thank you all for embracing me on these travels.
I've been working on Roxanne's 'Earth Tones' - what a lovely surprise this book has been. I have gathered items throughout these six months as I've been working on the different books, and the inspiration for each one seems to come more quickly. My focus this time is not only on colour but on the sounds, both tones, of the earth. Silence is something I try to get more of in my life...to silence the man-made - traffic, television, radio...and to begin to listen to the sounds of nature. Leaves rustling in the breeze, birds speaking with one another, water moving against rock. The book itself is a treasure, and the addition of each artist's work makes it more so. Over the years my own work has been quite focused and though I've ventured out of my box in the past three years, mixing media, trying new subject matter, I think I've become more satisfied with the original work because of these great leaps of faith. I feel more grounded, more connected to this earth, and realize that my contribution adds value not only to others, but to myself. And that I can contribute to this silence with a visual story that touches another soul.
I had a particularly wonderful time working on Veronica's book. Her theme "Friend" is near and dear to my heart. Perhaps you read this post on my blog. In preparation for working on Veronica's book, I went through many old photos of friends and used some of them in my pages here. I also used the words to the song "You Gotta Have Friends". My favorite version is with Bette Midler singing the song She's divine!
When I first received Supria's book "On Paper Wings" in the post, I felt a little intimidated. After all, this is what Supria does. She is a mixed media artist. I was in awe of how she treated the pages. Such care and so much detail. Techniques that I haven't dared to try yet. This is, as you may recall my first venture into the altered book. The fact that Roxanne was the first artist to work in Supria's book made me a little tense as well. After all, this is what Roxanne does. She is a mixed media artist. Roxanne's pages in the book are very creative and textural also. I enjoyed working on these pages and looked at them as a challenge. I'm quite happy with how they turned out, even though I did have a bit of an issue with the paper wrinkling up on me. The book is coming together as a wonderful tribute to Helen Keller with all the texture and the wonderful scent of beeswax.
I've been working in Roxanne's book "Earth Tones" for the past couple of weeks. Here are just a couple of photos, a sneak peak if you will. I didn't want to show the whole page but did want to give a sense of what I came up with. I interpreted the title "Earth Tones" as the four elements, earth, air, fire water. Here I've shown sections of fire and water. To see earth and air have a look here at my blog. I've really enjoyed working with this theme.
