well, i have decided to create a year long project for myself to find a direction! i find myself wandering around different materials and dabbling, but it all feels so disconnected and purposeless. i don't usually have a problem playing in the studio, but i am in need of structure! i will be experimenting and learning about new techniques using paper, fabric, felting, metal, yarn, string, clay... one new technique a week. i will create materials for use in other projects and create small projects each week. i am hoping to have fun and to also have some sort of artistic epiphanies! i must keep my work; well, at least, show it.
i began with an altered book: it is a book from 1898- a textbook. i had mixed feelings about cutting, tearing, etc. this lovely old book, however, it has just been on
a shelf and of no interest to anyone. So, i fearfully began to fold, cut, rip, tie pages at random. i just wanted to manipulate the pages without adding color or outside images. it is a bit strange, but a new thing for me. i still have some additions to make.my altered book in progress...
it looks so tortured, folded , cut, tied....
I purchased a book called "Wreck this Journal", which is full of prompts to do destructive but perhaps artful things. I think after working on it I feel much freer about altering a regular book like yours. Tell me, do you feel intimidated by the large number of pages?
ReplyDeletejuliet. i must see that book! i was intimidated by taking a wonderful old book and manipulating the pages. because of how i approached this project, i wasn't put off by the number of pages: i cut out a rectangular shape & then tied a bunch of pages together. i worked with pages in groups.
ReplyDeleteit was difficult for me to decide how to start and what to DO to the book! what to add...
so i limited my choices to folding, cutting, ripping, tying, embossing, and then some colration with charcoal to define the embossed/rubbing i did of the ship, in the frame. it is so much easier when you give yourself a specific assignment.