My Booky-Wooks

So here are some books I made for friends of mine. These are a ton of fun to make, I think people like them as gifts, and the more books I make the less likely I am to forget how to do it. (Use the skills or lose 'em, especially if you have a sieve memory like myself.) I try to make these things from salvaged materials as much as possible, because it's cheaper and I don't like a waste. Plus it's fun to find some new source of paper or cloth or something, makes me feel crafty.

Amy's book:

The spine is covered with cloth offcuts I got from some lady who hand-prints her own fabric (one dollar, thank you very much), purple paper for the cover, and the insides are old screenprints of mine (the green and purple houses), letterpressed trees from my internship, and a variety of paper samples from paper companies (nicked those from school).

Sophie's book:

Rainbow in the middle! Everyone loves rainbow. Except when you get to the pages made of red, and then it's hard to write on. But you can skip those.

Liz's book:

Leah's book:

The red and cream cloth for the spine is made from this shirt I got from Goodwill; nice cloth for bookmaking but horrible as an entire large men's shirt. The pages inside are white and cream paper, and there's also some letterpressed pieces left over from my internship - they say 'happy' on them, which I thought was appropriate for a birthday/wedding present, while hopefully not hitting you over the head with it.

Caity's book:

This one has an extra little flap to cover the pages. The edging is some electrical tape I think, I nicked it from my girlfriend because she uses it to secure bar tape on bike handlebars. (And then I borrowed it and used the whole roll. Basically, I am a bad girlfriend.) Anyway, it makes the notebook super durable, but it's flexible so the covers don't warp.

My book:

Made this one for myself to take notes during art history class. This kind of notebook is probably best for taking notes, since I used pretty basic paper. You don't want to use them for drawing, or saving for best. In this one half of it is made out of photocopies of stuff I used for another project. It's architecture, rock formations, and a bunch of other stuff that makes a nice pattern. You can write on the other side.

Plus / Minus

Just got a yummy new CD through the post. It's an EP from one of my new totally fave bands, Buke and Gass. Buke and Gass is pronounced Byook and Gayss, (awkward) - this refers to hybrid instruments, e.g. a bass uke-elele. They are a girl-guy duo, they make their own instruments, they are from Brooklyn, they sound great. The End.

Check out this gorgeously crafted Ep, though. It's called +/-, and all the packaging seems to be hand-printed, which of course I massively appreciate. They also included a free sticker, which is another way to win my heart.






Lovverly! Here's a video of theirs, not of my favourite song maybe, but it is their only vid so far. Here is the Buke and Gass website, also. Check it out. Especially check it out if you enjoy vibrant, vocally awesome, surprisingly, eccentric, rocking rock.

Where you LEARN to save

Just want to take a private second to mourn the passing of the bizarre sign board outside the Dollar Scholar ("Where you LEARN to save"). The store has moved to smaller premises, because let's face it they probably do not make a whole lot of money. Anyway, this thing always had something amusing written on it, I will miss seeing it. Also, why can I only find two photos? For shame!



Edit: Found another photo I took. And nicked one from the internet. Sorry, internet.

Palimpsest

Here we have fabulous artist Julie Mehretu, my latest obsession. She is of Ethiopian origin, born 1970, now lives and works in New York (with her lady partner, omg.) She received MacArthur “Genius” grant, is represented by White Cube in London and big galleries in New York and Berlin, and according to Wikipedia one of her pieces sold for around a million US dollars at auction in September. So Mehretu is making bank, basically.

Untitled (brigade) detail, 2005, ink and acrylic on canvas, 36 by 48 inches

Mehretu's thing is highly worked, large-scale canvasses layering pencil, pen, ink and paint, usually acrylic, and her subject matter is architecture and cities: she may include drawings of buildings, floorplans, symbols and flags, along with more abstract marks and blocks of colour and tone. Some earlier work has a diagrammatic, chart-like quality, using made up symbols to record some mysterious change or movement (like the 'Stamped Ink' pieces below). She may use assistants to layers drawings using a projector, which sounds like pretty much the best job in the world to me, I wish it was mine. I think the idea is that she is creating her own syntax to record the city’s history, change and flux, the movements of people and how they respond to the space – it's her own idiosyncratic POV.

Cipher, 2006, ink and acrylic on canvas, 48.5 by 60.5 inches

I like how the work can be read in detail – you can recognize bits of building – but also at a distance as an abstract piece. The level of detail as well as the scale and time-consuming method is almost overwhelming, but also absorbing. To me it really feels like what cities feel like: a confusing barrage of information, your eye roaming over a million complex shapes. Love it!

Palimpsest (old gods) detail, 2006, ink and acrylic on canvas, 60 by 84 inches

Atlantic Wall, 2008-09, Ink and acrylic on canvas, 304.8 by 426.7 cm

Citadel, 2005, ink and acrylic on canvas, 72 by 96 inches

Stamped Ink (the herd three), 1996, Stamped ink on canvas, 72 by 60 inches

Stamped Ink (the herd 2), 1996, stamped ink on canvas, 72 by 60 inches

Berliner Platze detail, 2008-09, ink and acrylic on canvas, 304.8 by 426.7 cm

P.S. I am referencing Julie Mehretu in a class project right now, so all this may sound familiar to anyone in my Drawing Concepts II (:Electric Booglaoo!) class.

And Now For Something Beauteous and Soothing

After looking at a lot of wonderful, lively, stimulating but occasionally icky modern art, it is sometimes nice to look at something entirely and simply lovely. This is where John Singer Sargent comes in handy. Not to simplify or put down his art, because I love it. The light, the deep colours, the charismatic and beautiful sitters, rich fabrics, virtuoso brushwork: amazing.

The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit, 1882

(I would recommend a full-view on this one, a closer look at the brush strokes. I love the fact that the two young maids are included and granted as much attention and personality as the young misses in the foreground. I like how the little girl in the front is sitting with her doll and her legs stuck out, just like a real kid and not like a stiff aristo child in portraits from earlier centuries. I like the mysterious dark space the painting recedes into in the background, and what are those strange lights back there? I can't quite make it out.)

Portrait of Carolus-Duran, 1879

(I like this chap, he looks stern yet charismatic, like he is destined to be someone's eccentric father one day; possibly be really into dinosaur bones.)

Mr and Mrs I N Phelps Stokes, 1887

(The adventurous New Woman, with her husband in the background! Amazing! Apparently at the time there was controversy because her hat was covering his crotch, I suppose this was seen to emasculate him. Rather amusing. Also, I love Sargent's women: elegant but not demure, spilling over with personality and self-assurance.)

Nonchaloir (Repose), 1911

(Argh, look at that fabric! I think it must have been a gift to Sargent that the rich women of the time wore voluminous silk skirts.)

Ena and Betty, Daughters of Asher and Mrs Werthheimer, 1901

(I have a postcard of this painting on my notice board at this very minute. I like how with a little imagination it looks kind of gay, although of course it is not. Look at the light hitting that vase, just like in the painting up top of The Daughters. I suppose gigantic vases like that must have been in fashion what with the Orientalism trend. Once again, a useful tool to show off the painter's virtuosity, like how still life artists like to paint decanters of water.)

Isabella Stewart Gardner, 1888

(A major patron of the arts at the time, although I suppose the halo created by the fabric behind her suggest that she is as much as a patron saint. Great artists are also into puns.)

Venetian Glass Workers, 1880/82

(I suppose Sargent must have spent some time painting in Venice. It makes a change from his portraits of fancy-pants Society people. And once again, art and literature set in Venice seems to catch my attention. Maybe I could go there one day.)

Shoes, Step 1

I just scanned some sketches and converted them into a format that I can screenprint with (upped the contrast, made them greyscale, fixed some gaps, and switched to bitmap). Pretty exciting, they will be screenprints soon. I also think that whenever I finally get around to Enthusiasm Issue 5 these drawings will appear there. (What can I say, I enjoy drawings trainers.) Call this a watch-this-space post. Soon it will be wall-to-wall trainers, simply everywhere!

Susie's Golas, 2010

Tim's Nikes, 2010

Lucy's Nikes, 2010

Blog, Help Me With My Homework

Well I have been doing some homework researching a bunch of contemporary artists. I have to find one I have an affinity with. Many artists these days are far too icky for me to empathise with their work. Attempting to eliminate that which grosses me out, here is today's preliminary list:

John Latham
Naomi Shigeta
Andrea Zittel
Warrington Colescott
Takashi Murakami
Jasper Johns
Jeff Koons
Mark Grotjahn
Thomas Struth
Claus Oldenburg
Ralph Goings
Whiting Tennis
Juul Kraijer
Ellen Gallagher
Kiki Smith
Vija Celmins
Fred Tomaselli
Raymond Pettibon
William Kentridge
Alfred Leslie
Robert Gober

Here are a few things I've found that caught my eye:

William Kentridge, Typewriter II-IX, intaglio prints

Robert Gober, Untitled, 2002, lithograph on Arches cover paper

Alfred Leslie, Rock Beach, Santa Barbara, watercolour

Alfred Leslie, Bridge From Mill Creek, watercolour

Vija Celmins, Web 1, charcoal on paper, 1999

Vija Celmins, Untitled, 2005

Vija Celmins, Comet, linocut, 1992

Zola = Sexytimes

Yep, it is a bodice-ripper alright.
(I confess I haven't read this one yet, but if I know Zola half the pricipal characters die miserably and there isn't even the ghost of a happy ending. Just like love!)