image/text

Sante Fe Doors--Canyon Road

2007-07-09T08:15:00.000-05:00

If you visit Sante Fe, you can't help but notice the doors. I went on a seven mile run early one morning, carrying my camera with me the whole way, just so I could take pictures of my favorite doors. It was a pain to carry the camera, but worth it in the end.

Sidewalk Art

2007-06-25T20:22:00.001-05:00

I came across this sidewalk stencil while walking in front of the video library in Santa Fe, near the plaza. I don't know who did it, but I like it.

A Bird's Eye View

2007-06-08T19:39:00.000-05:00

Birdhouse Shadow Box for Habitat for Humanity Auction: Mixed Media with Wood, Feathers, Science Illustrations.

Altered Book Project: Fun At Sea

2006-03-18T20:51:00.000-06:00

This week, for spring break, I'm making my annual migration south to the gulf shores. In anticipation of the trip, I started this altered book journal project. I found the book at a Flea Market, liked the illustrations and the quirky, but conscientious text, and thought it would make a good backdrop for journaling my beach experiences over the next few years. The underwater swim photo was a recent find; the mermaid I've had for years. For now, she's found her way onto the front of this book. Maybe later, she'l find her way onto something else. Mermaids can be unpredictable like that.

Fun at Sea Interior Detail

2006-03-18T20:41:00.000-06:00

When I make an altered book to use as a travel journal, I prepare certain pages ahead of time, so I can make entries once I reach my destination. The shells that I've secured inside these little hidden "portholes" are shells I found on the Florida beach last year.

Fun at Sea Interior Detail

2006-03-18T20:35:00.000-06:00

These pages are ready for a beach-side journal entry.

Card Art Collaboration A to Z

2006-03-17T18:55:00.000-06:00

My Image/Text class just finished a major project that involved card art (see sidebar link). The project was to do a complete Alphabet with a duplicate set which we would "trade" in a random drawing. This is my random set. I love my Alphabet Card Art collection. I like to take my set out and look at it over coffee...just after the morning newspaper and right before I start my day.
Does that make me a card art nerd?

Card Art Detail: J, K, Q & R

2006-03-17T18:45:00.000-06:00

Artists:

Rachel Scott
Lindsay Westbrook
Joe Zephyrs
Sarah Hover

Card Art Detail: E, F, L & M

2006-03-17T18:38:00.000-06:00

Artists:

Amanda Callaway
Tiffany Schneider
Rachel Scott
(I drew a lot of
Rachel's cards in
our random drawing
which was o.k. by
me since her cards
were all about
shoes....)

Card Art Detail: A, B, H & I

2006-03-17T18:30:00.000-06:00

Artists:
Rachel Scott
Jandyn Markham
Hannah Clemens
Jessica Augustine

Card Art Detail: D & V

2006-03-17T18:15:00.000-06:00

In the spirit of exploration....

Artists:

Joe Zephyrs

Jessica Stong

Card Art Alphabet Deck: A to Z

2006-03-17T17:44:00.000-06:00

Here's my complete deck. I don't know what other people thought about this project, but I really had fun with it. Oh, near the end, when I couldn't find the hard letters like K and X, things got a little hairy and frustrating. And I did better on some cards than others. But that's how it is with things that are really rewarding. I'm already planning my next deck. Anybody up for a trade?

Card Art Detail: A & E

2006-03-17T17:30:00.000-06:00

A is for age.

(I used to wonder what
happened to lost mail.
Now I know.
The only question
I have left to answer
is what happened to
all those single socks.)

Card Art Detail: N

2006-03-17T17:22:00.000-06:00

After 4000 years,
this guy deserves
a party hat.

Card Art Detail: X & Y

2006-03-17T17:10:00.000-06:00

I like these for the textures, colors, and random associations.

Palm Book Series: The Playground of the Mind

2006-02-25T13:18:00.000-06:00

Interior Detail

Indigitagio: The Canon of the Fingers. An altered book from "A Show of Hands"

2006-02-05T10:55:00.000-06:00

Altered Book. Leather, image transfer on mulberry paper. 6 x 8.

I am working on a series called A Show of Hands which will include Book Arts and Found Object Collage Assemblages. This Altered Book (see explanation below) entitled "Indigitagio: A Canon of the Figures" is an exploration of how hands serve as the foundation of expression and communication.

Interior detail. "Indigitagio: The Canon of the Fingers."

The Altered Book

2006-02-03T08:29:00.000-06:00

Making an Altered Book involves taking an existing book and using it as a foundation for creative expression and exploration. The book artist can take the book apart and put it back together again, recover the book with a new theme or title, tear out pages, put pages in, exploit the existing text by crossing words out or adding them. In other words, with an Altered Book you get to break all the rules and do all the things you were taught never to do to a book when you were in school. At first you might feel like you're doing something wrong and your seventh grade home room teacher is going to track you down and slap you with a hall pass straight to the principle's office. But you'll get over that feeling.

I like to use the altered book in two ways...as a long term journal, something I can work on for a year or so as a place to play and explore themes, and as a collaborative project...I find someone who likes to play with images and text the way I do and we pass the book back and forth to each other, making entries and communicating ideas. When you track down an existing book to use for an altered book project, make sure it's sturdy, stitched and well glued, and the pages aren't brittle. The book needs to hold up to a lot of distress.

Altered Book detail from the Show of Hands Series.
Indigitagio: The Canon of the Fingers. Leather, image transfer on mulberry paper. 6 x 8.

Zen and the Art of the Book

2006-01-31T20:11:00.000-06:00

My early introduction to the book arts came from two art communities: the Penland School for the Book and Paper Arts, in North Carolina and Anderson Arts Ranch in Snowmass, Colorado. I participated in the Penland Book and Paper Arts Intensive in May of 1994. I had the opportunity to work with Ed Hutchins along with others...gained experience in basic codex book binding and learned way more than I wanted about the History of Glue.

In 1996, I participated in Zen and the Art of Bookmaking at the Anderson Arts Ranch, taught by Susan kae Grant whose work is featured in the Smithsonian as part of the Science and the Artist's Book exhibit (see link on sidebar). While in Snowmass, I began a series of limited edition palm books. These books, as the name implies, are made to fit in the palm of your hand. They include words, sayings and images as a focus for meditation, prayer and reflection.

Palm Book Series: Haiku

2006-01-31T19:42:00.000-06:00

This is a Limited Edition Butterfly book, with hand printed original text. Walnut wood, vintage ribbon, 1.5 x 1.5.

Palm Book Series: The All Seeing Eye

2006-01-31T18:59:00.000-06:00

The coin on this cover of this book is a lucky coin. It has good luck images from numerous cultures, and includes the inscription: The All Seeing Eye. I found it in a second hand store. If you look closely, you can see that the coin has already been rubbed for luck many times.

Walnut wood, found object, linen book cloth, 2 x 2.5

Palm Book Series: Meditation

2006-01-31T18:53:00.000-06:00

Oak, Bone, Linen, 2 x 3

Palm Book Series: Japanese Style Stitched Miniatures

2006-01-30T21:56:00.000-06:00

Cotton cloth, linen, rice paper, 1 x 1.5

Travel Journaling

2006-01-29T22:58:00.000-06:00

I made this journal in preparation for a three week trip to Ireland which I took in 2003. The journal is filled with written entries, photos, postcards, rubbings, watercolor sketches and emphemera from my travels which I entered both during and after the trip.

Leather, nails, found objects, 5 x 7.

Unmade Art

2006-01-27T10:41:00.000-06:00

I have some cabinets with long, shallow drawers that are just right for tucking away bits and pieces of things I think might someday end up in a found object art assemblage. I like to pull open the drawers and consider the possibilities....

Pocket Journal

2006-01-23T23:04:00.000-06:00

2.5 x 3.5, leather, book cloth, linen, bone, found text

Writer's Journal

2006-01-23T22:56:00.000-06:00

6 x 6, leather, found objects collage

The taking of this photo was aided by my cat, Kitkat. His toes are in perfect focus, but I think he threw off eveything else.

Writer's Journal Too

2006-01-23T22:50:00.000-06:00

5 x 5, leather, linen, found text

The Tools

2006-01-23T22:41:00.000-06:00

Most of these vintage bookmaking tools I've picked up at flea markets and antique shops. I came across several prize ones at a weekend market in Lincolnshire, England, when I was visting my friend Karen. Her dad thought I was nuts for spending so much money on such crude looking tools. And he made fun of me for my southern American accent. Apparently, when I say the word "tools," it has two syllables....too-uls.

The Inspiration

2006-01-23T22:18:00.000-06:00

This was my mother's journal. She made it when she was in college in 1938. It's a lovely volume, hand stitched and bound, about 4 x 6. She wrote poems in it, ranging from when she was seventeen to when she was seventy. She used to keep it in her dresser drawer, and when I was little I would ask for permission to take it out and look at it. It seemed to hold such power and charm for me. Still does.

About the Odes....

2006-01-07T14:20:00.000-06:00

I have always loved the initimate worlds of shadow boxes and dioramas. I was first introduced to the world of the shadow box when I was very young. In my early play years, my two older sisters would depart each day for school and leave me lonely and longing for companionship. My mother often kept me occupied by handing me an old shoe box, scissors, paper, pictures, glue and encouraging me to build secret worlds which could only be viewed through the smallest of peep holes. The following shadow boxes contain visual poems. I like the idea of intersecting literary forms, such as the ode, with visual forms such as collage assemblage. Each shadow box is an ode to something. According to my Funk and Wagnall's, an ode is a lyric poem which celebrates something in lofty and serious tones.

(The Shadow Box Series and the Lesser Angels Series both appeared in a show at the Mudhouse Gallery, Springfield, Missouri, December 2005 to February 2006. Prices for pieces range from $75.00 to $200.00. If you are interested in purchasing a piece, you can contact me by e-mail at jvanarke@drury.edu).

Ode to Double Shot Mondays

2006-01-07T14:14:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media Collage, private collection

Ode to the Good Dog

2006-01-07T14:09:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media Collage, private collection

Ode to the Happy Runner

2006-01-07T14:03:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media Collage, private collection

Ode to the Crisp White Shirt

2006-01-07T13:57:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media Collage, private collection

About the Lesser Angels....

2006-01-07T13:31:00.000-06:00

Quite a few years ago (almost thirty), while traveling in London, I found The Abridged Compendium of Lesser Angels at the bottom of a pile of old books in an open air market near Picadilly. If you've been there, you know how market fairs appear one day in a narrow, nameless alley and disappear the next.

The book has no publishing date, nor does it have a named author--just an anonymous staff of diligent and sincere catalogers referred to as Editors at Large. Some time early in the last century, these Editors at Large attempted to identify several of the Lesser Angels for whatever benefits such a directory might provide.

A compendium is a catalogue. To abridge a compendium is to shorten it. Thus--The Abridged Compendium of Lesser Angels. I think the editors had every intention of compiling The Compleat Compendium of Lesser Angels, but became so overwhelmed with the sheer number of Lesser Angels and their myriad tasks, that they truncated their efforts.

Naturally, a catalogue about Lesser Angels would be abridged since theirs is the secondary, even tertiary work of the world. They go about, quiet and unnoticed, toiling away at the most obscure, menial jobs, like making sure letters with postage due still get delivered, or overseeing the sweep second hand on your watch. What follows is a small sampling of the known population of Lesser Angels.

(This show ran from December 2005 to February 2006, at the Mudhouse Gallery in Springfield, Missouri.)

The Bread of Angels: Chaos and Creation

2005-12-23T20:33:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media, 8 x 10

Bread of Angels: Stardust

2005-12-23T19:59:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media, 8 x 10

From the Abridged Compendium of Lesser Angels: The Sweep Second Hand Angel

2005-12-23T19:51:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media, 3X 5

From the Abridged Compendium of Lesser Angels: The Wandering Souls Angel

2005-12-23T19:46:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media, 3 x 5, Private Collection, Barbara Rogers

From the Abridged Compendium of Lesser Angels: The Postage Due Angel

2005-12-23T09:31:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media, 3 x 5

From the Abridged Compendium of Lesser Angels: The Angel of Unfinished Love Notes

2005-12-23T09:22:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media, 3x5, Sold

From the Abridged Compendium of Lesser Angels: The Blustery Day Angel

2005-12-22T15:39:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media, 9 x 9

From the Abridged Compendium of Lesser Angels: The Clothes Line Angel

2005-12-22T15:35:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media, 9 x 9

From the Abridged Compendium of Lesser Angels: The Two Cents Angel

2005-12-22T15:28:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media Assemblage, 9 x 9

From the Abridged Compendium of Lesser Angels: The Hairpin Turn Angel

2005-12-22T15:21:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media Assemblage, 9 x 9, Sold

From the Abridged Compendium of Lesser Angels: The Travel Writer's Angel

2005-12-22T15:13:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media Assemblage, 9 x 10

From the Abridged Compendium of Lesser Angels: The Two Step Angel

2005-12-22T15:09:00.000-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media Assemblage, 9 x 10

From the Abridged Compendium of Lesser Angels: The Wild Mustard Angel

2005-12-22T15:00:00.001-06:00

Found Object Mixed Media Assemblage, 9 x 10