Book Bundles

I think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to make sense.
Harold Kusher

Comments about Comments

Of the many pleasures of blogging, one highlight has definitely been "meeting" so many creative, generous, and like-minded people. There is truly a spirit of community and a sense of camaraderie that exists in this cyber world. Part of this connection is created through the unique conversation of comments. As every blogger knows, getting comments is always special. I definitely appreciate the fact that not only do people chose to visit my blog but that some visitors take the time to leave comments that are so supportive, encouraging, and informative. The feedback I get from everyone is so inspiring and it lets me know that what I am creating is valued by others. And I love to leave comments as well, partly because I feel the need to express my thoughts when I read a post or see a piece of art that touches me and partly because I know how valuable comments are to each blogger.

The generosity of this community is evident in a blog interaction I recently had. I had just discovered the work of David Castle and his blog. He works with watermedia and creates amazing abstract work that is inspired by the mountains and urban terrain of both Colorado and the places he has traveled to. I was really taken by the beautiful colors he uses and the composition of his paintings. I had left a comment about one of his pieces, Peace on Earth, which I particularly liked. In response, David made the amazingly generous offer of sending the painting to me. He said that he wanted to "share the peace" with someone who left a comment and I was the lucky recipient. The work is pictured here and the colors of this painting are even richer in person.

Thanks David. And thanks to everyone who visits The Altered Page and in doing so, leaves a little bit of their own spirit and energy on these pages.

Revolution II

Spotlight: Barbara Kleinhans

Barbara Kleinhans is a San Francisco based artist who creates beautiful, textured paintings. Her experiences as a child growing up on a farm in Wisconsin are evident in her work, which evokes a sense of expansiveness and wide-open space. Her paintings are rich in depth and layer and are minimal in color. As she notes on her website, her work is informed by "the boundless possibilities provided by a bunch of dirt-covered stones; the feeling of rough barn floors and prickly grass under my bare feet; of feeling contained within my surroundings." And the feeling of such simple sensations are captured so effectively in her paintings. She primarily uses acrylics to repeatedly build layers to create a textural quality that is rich. complex, and captivating. And I love that her website presents images of her art in such an inviting way.

Mixed Media: i found...

New Year New Project: revolution

I have started a new project for 2008, revolution, that involves making a large number of small collages that are relatively quick to create. My aim is to periodically post individual images of them as they are done and a final photograph of the whole project when completed. Here are the first two...

Mixed Media: observations

Details:

Spotlight: CW Slade

CW Slade is a California based artist whose paintings I have admired for quite a long time. Carol's luminous mixed media paintings are alive with color. She works on on paper, canvas, and wood. There is a dynamic energy to her work. Layer upon layer, each of which reveals a hint of what came before and what is to come next. Her work is spontaneous and abstract, yet includes collaged images of both words and objects which strongly anchor it in the familiar. According to her website, her technique includes both adding and removing, layering and scratching away, leading to a phenomenal level of texture and depth. Her work is in many collections, has garnered multiple juried awards, and has been published, most recently in the book In This House: A Collection of Altered Art Imagery and Collage Techniques. I have posted several of my favorites but so many more can be seen on her website.

Shadows

Turn your face to the sun, and the shadows fall behind you - Maori proverb

Small Gem

I have recently purchased this gem from Angela Rockett at her Etsy shop. The image is small, about 4 x 4 inches, but I think it packs a punch with such rich, vibrant colors and great movement. You can see more of her work on her blog RyhopeWood.

Happy Holidays to All

Underground

I have just completed Underground - my book of altered photographs celebrating urban images from New York City. All the photographs were shot in New York to capture the impact of time, change, and movement. Click on the images for a more detailed view.

In New York: Martin Puryear

There is an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art of sculptures created between the 1970s and the present by Martin Puryear, a post-minimalist American artist. His primary materials are wood, steel and wire. His sculptures are simple, yet quite sensual and hypnotic. There is evidence in the work of his extensive travels in Africa and in Asia.

By far my favorite piece in the show is "Ladder for Booker T. Washington" (1996), created from ash and maple.


Although not apparent from the photo, this piece is suspended in midair in the Museum's large atrium and is 36 feet long. It is 22 3/4 inches wide at its base and tapers to 1 1/4 inches wide at the top. In person, it looks like it goes on to infinity!

Photography in the main exhibition hall was not allowed, but I was able to capture another piece on film that was exhibited outside the main venue, Greed's Trophy (1984), made from steel, wire, wood, rattan, and leather.



The entire exhibit can be found here.

Mail Call: Book of Countries

In an earlier post I wrote about Yamato Hotel my contribution to a Yahoo group swap where each participant chose a letter of the alphabet and created 26 mixed-media pages, one for each participant, based on the theme countries. Jan Post hosted the swap and bound the pages using a piano hinge binding. Here are some images including my page.

Mixed Media: to be continued.....

Another page for roughcast, my mixed media book. Click here to see the completed first half of the book.



Details

Spotlight: Janet Jones

Janet Jones is a San Francisco-based printmaker and mixed media artist. She has been exhbiting since the 1980s and is in multiple corporate collections across the United States. Her artwork uses traditional material in unexpected ways, and includes found paper, hand-printed paper, book covers and pages, found objects, beeswax, and metal leaf. Many of her pieces are rooted in Japanese principles and others are influenced by the concepts of time and place. Surface, texture, composition, and color all intersect to suggest ethereal, miniature landscapes. Letter forms are used in unique ways. To me, her serene artwork suggests journeys to far away places. Images of a few of my favorite pieces are below, but explore her website to see the breadth of her work.

Microcosms - mixed media landscapes reminiscent of sueseki or the Japanese art of stone appreciation: Microcosm #31/Microscosm #2




Ex Libris - encaustic book cover assemblages: Penumbra/Imago



Decollages - miniature landscapes made from the reverse side of weathered posters rescued from a construction site: Haiga #5/Haiga #8




Mirages - landscapes made from book, found, and monoprinted papers: Mirage #17



Counterpoint - monoprint collages of found and prepared paper: Counterpoint #5

Mail Call: asian tag deco

I received a beautiful tag deco with an Asian theme from Livia Hajovsky, who made the deco for me in a Yahoo group swap and completed the cover page, as can be seen in the image below. Thanks also to Susan, Sari, Eva, and Patois, who also contributed pages.