Blogorrhea Junior

The Best Gift

Happy Holidays to all.

Paper Typography: Yulia Brodskaya

Okay, I know these have been all over the net, but I really wanted to showcase them here because Yulia Brodskaya's work covers so many different areas: typography, design, paper art, even book art. Her designs are lush and make great use of both negative and positive space. Many of her paper pieces involve quilling, which I've always thought was a little precious. But in Brodskaya's hands, it becomes beautiful, elegant type with flamboyant swashes or rich textures within the form. She also uses collage to create the basic forms of numbers (below) or letters, and they're wonderfully playful too. [Click illustrations for enlargements]

Paging through her site is a real treat, from her black and white work, to her clean, stylish graphic design. Don't miss the pop-up book in her graphic design section. But for me, it's her paper art and design that really stand out and make me want to try new techniques. Add this to the list of Things I Wish I'd Done.

Illustrations used with the artist's permission.

ZOMG! FREE PAPER!

Who could resist this? It's not only a genius marketing plan, it's a great way to offer ensure everlasting loyalty. Just post an advertisement for The Paper Place's contest for a chance to win the ultimate Chiyogami sample pack, an 8.5x11” sheet of every Chiyogami paper (637 patterns in total with a retail value $1911.00, all tied up with a pretty red bow), and with the appropriate links win extra chances to win it yourself. What self-respecting book artist could resist a package like this, arriving at their workshop, gratis? Definitely a great way to start the new year (the contest ends Dec. 31st).

I don't use at lot of Japanese paper in my work so far (though I did use some in the 2007 flagbook New Years cards I made) but this would be a great excuse to explore it. I think I'd probably start making boxes and blank journals like mad. And star books. And, and, and maybe learning origami! Great materials are really inspiring, and a pile of paper like this just makes me drool. I'm looking forward to getting back to work on a bunch of projects and this would be a marvelous incentive.

So, like, don't tell anybody else about this, K? I wanna win!

Planning vs. Process: Roberta Lavadour

Great interview with Roberta Lavadour over on Oregon's PBS site. I love her books, but the most heartening thing about the interview for me, when she talked about not being able to plan things first. She says that for her, working with the materials and going through the process is what produces the book. It's nice to hear someone of Roberta's expertise say this, because it's how I always feel about the books (few as they are) that I've done. Like her, I can't draw or paint (not very well, anyway) and the materials suggest the book themselves through trial and error. What I plan often seems to work out differently from what I intended. One of my problem with coming to art bass-ackwards (i.e., not through art school) is that I'm always worried about doing it "wrong." Intellectually, I know there's no "wrong" way to do it. It either works or it doesn't. But the organized little rule follower in me freaks out all the time when I do this. I suppose part of it is that "credentialed" vs. apprenticeship model, where going to school for a degree is pitted against learning by doing. I've done my writing the same way, via apprenticeship mostly (my degrees are in English, not writing), but I'm a lot more confident about my writing, even though I've been making some kind of art almost as long as I've been writing. So it's good to see someone I consider a real pro working the same way I do, and having come to it the same way.

Anyway, go watch this video. H/T to Sweet Madness over at Live Journal's Handmade Books community.

Recycling the War

Some of the best paper is made from cloth rags. Some of the best art comes out of pain. Here's a project that takes both of those facts and uses them to help veterans makes sense of, and make beauty out of what they went through as soldiers. The Combat Paper Project, started by Green Door Studio in Burlington, Vermont, teaches veterans to make paper from the scraps of their uniforms, some of which have been ceremonially cut from their bodies. And in the mix, as one veteran says, is "sand, blood, tears, depleted uranium, Haiti, Canada, Hungary, Germany, Ireland, Kuwait, Iraq." The paper and the objects, prints, and books made from it, are all astonishing and powerful, as well as truly transformative and cathartic. Have a look at the video-in-progress, "Iraq Paper Scissors" by Sara Nesson, chronicling the project. Keep the Kleenex handy.

H/T to Alison Bechdel.

Dangerous Breathing Books

On June 19th, 2008 at 4:30 pm, a German citizen visiting the United States on a Journalist Visa entered Newark Airport to catch a flight back to her home country. She was detained and her personal items confiscated. Her name: Edith Kollath. The violation: Carrying books and electronic devices – artpieces in route to
her studio in Germany - in her carry on luggage. This exhibit, “Property and Evidence: The Whole Story”, recounts Kollath’s interrogation, retraces the steps of her personal possessions while in customs, and presents the “Breathing Books” that created the scandal.

Property and Evidence: The Whole Story
Edith Kollath
Nov 22nd – Dec 14th
Dam, Stuhltrager Gallery
38 Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Fri 3-8pm, Sat & Sun noon–6pm

Things - Edith Kollath Creates Books that Breathe from Bre Pettis on Vimeo.

Catch this exhibit now, because it closes soon, on December 14th, and the objects are truly marvelous, as marvelous as the story behind the exhibit is utterly ridiculous. Why is it that humorless nerds at the airport have such a hard time distinguishing art from dangerous objects? Don't they have bomb sniffing dogs for that? The story, as outlined in her journal excerpts is really absurd:

June 19th, 2008

I was detained at Newark Airport’s security check. After closing the terminal to investigate my activities, bringing over a bomb expert and helicoptering in a squad, four hours had passed. I’d had my first official interrogation by TSA, Police, FBI and CIA and was released on my own recognizance. I knew I’d cleared the final CIA report when an officer stated, "We think you must be a good person 'cause now we know how often you change your underwear." This experience cost me missing my flight and having some of my luggage impounded as "Evidence." My artwork locked away in Newark International’s "Evidence Room," I had to withdraw from an exhibit in Germany.

October 3rd, 2008

For over three months now, my personal items – art, computer cables, tools and books - have been incarcerated in the EVIDENCE ROOM at Newark Airport. The seizure of my belongings has been the fodder of a written letter by the Government of Georgia as well as futile emails and calls from me to the TSA. The official response yielded not my property but the clarification that, “Nothing ever leaves the Evidence Room.”

Sealed away in the tombs of Newark International, an airport high in the rankings of one of the worst in the world, my effects were deemed forever imprisoned. I mourned, accepted the fateful events and began replacing what was lost… I, of course, survived. There are much worse destinies one could meet at the airport. In looking at my loss in context, I rationalized I would be fine even if my creations were not. It is a strange way to look at art perhaps because art by theory outlives the artist.

I was astounded today by the call from Newark Police to come immediately to the airport to retrieve my belongings. Following the directions to claim my property, I arrived at the given terminal. I was on time. The policeman was late. As described over the phone, eventually a plain clothed officer did meet me in an unmarked white car, which I was ordered to get in. Once safely enclosed in the four door, I signed a receipt to reunite with my detailed list of possessions which were handed over in a giant black trash bag. A fitting ending to the ordeal, my articles and I
were dumped curbside… I walked away with my things after brushing off the suspicious looking white powder. The fire extinguisher had deployed in the officer’s car while he was in route to meet me, which subsequently had made him tardy.

H/T to Book Patrol.

 

Bronx Stories by Bronx Voices--Date Change

We've had a little date change for the fundraising performance and pushed it back a week to allow ourselves more rehearsal time. It's the same place and the same time, just a week later, on December 16th. Here's a revised flyer for your downloading pleasure. It's a really amazing multimedia show with some really great poetry, dance, and singing from people who have some powerful stories to tell. Plus, two of my poems!

Pimp My Mockup

Okay, the moment you've all been waiting for! The mockup is back from its peregrinations in Argentina all summer (actually, it's been back for a while), where it was covetously manhandled by Carlos' mom. It held up pretty well, which makes me happy, but I think I'm going to increase the number of stations on it, just to be safe. It's a dos-a-dos binding with only two signatures on each side, so there's not much to sew.  The cover is Nepalese handmade rustic curry paper and the white strip across it is Thai fabric-backed pulp circles. There's a slide mailer inset in both covers, and the title is hand stamped on vintage and contemporary human tissue slides inside the mailers. A bone clasp sewn on with faux sinew keeps the mailer closed, and two handmade Peruvian clay hand beads are wired on the cover of the mailer.

Anyway, without further ado, here's a teaser photo (click for a larger version). The rest can be found on my Flickr account with more details of the binding. Production of another 25 of these puppies is going to begin shortly.