Books as Art

When a plumber or electrician comes into my house, they often stop in their tracks in the living room. They stare at the 20-year-old TV that takes up the center portion of a big book case. The book case has deep shelves, and on each shelf is two rows of books. The former dining area is my office. My desk is surrounded by a row of book cases. Almost always the repair person asks, “Are you, a librarian?” or “Have you read all of these?” No, and yes.

I love books. I decorate with them, I make them, I use old ones and re-purpose them. Books are so much more than reading material to me. They are art.

(c) Vladimir Kush's Atlas of Wander

Vadimir Kush is a painter. His remarkable transformation of a tree into a book is Atlas of Wander. (Shown small, at left). It represents both the power of books, as well as the tree from which most of their paper comes from. To say nothing of the transformative nature of reading.

At the Website Dark Roasted Blend, there’s a two-parter about altered books. Part I was interesting; I was especially interested in the code-like writing in one of the books. In Part II, she shares some amazing images of cut-up, re-shaped books. If you cringe at altering books, this site will amaze you. Jacqueline Rush Lee is turning books back into magical apparations, I swear!

Cara Barer poses books to look like new life, then photograph them so we can enjoy that new life. These airy, curvey, sculptures make you glad you own books.

Because, quite frankly, there are times I feel like the last person on earth to love books for their own sake.

Georgia Russel is an artist who uses a scalpel the way most artists wield a brush or pencil. Her constructions take books, photographs

Le Voleur de Souffle, (c) Georgia Russell

and musical scores, as well as maps and currency, and makes them into something so different, so structurally aesthetic, it takes your breath away. To the right is Le Voleur de Souffle, (Translation: The Thief of Breath), a cut book jacket in an acrylic case, 14 x 9 x 4 inches.

There are days I hate the whole world of technology and all the evil things it has spawned that don’t work, disappear, have to be rebooted. Today was not one of those days. Today, technology brought the world of art books into my grasp, and I am grateful.

—Quinn McDonald is a writer and certified creativity coach. Her book, Raw Art Journaling will be published in July of 2011.

Journal Pages That Button Up

This gallery contains 5 photos.

Lots of people in my journaling classes worry about keeping secrets in their journals. There are all sorts of replies–but the bottom line is that if you don’t feel safe in your own journal, you can’t feel safe anywhere. In … Continue reading →

The Rescue Journal: Diana Trout Class

At Journalfest last week,  (Oct. 28-30, 2010) I took a journal-making class from Diana Trout. If you know her book, Journal Spilling, you’ll want to take a class from her. She loves books. She loves journaling. She loves painting, and it doesn’t matter if you make mistakes–in fact, in our class, she said there were no mistakes, just things to change. Her easy manner and depth of knowledge made exploring possibilities wonderful. There were many possibilities–new book spines, endpapers, bookmarks, ways of closing the book.

Old embossed book cover spruced up with Sakura metallic gel pens.

We made rescue journals–using the covers from old abandoned books and putting new pages in them. Each person created an entirely different book.The book I brought was in German with a very tired cover. Using a gold Sakura gel pen, I gave the worn-out embossing on the cover a new look.

Monsoon paper page with circle cut outs. Notice cut on edge.

We used pages of various papers and sizes. Here, monsoon papers make a return into the journal. I could use the papers even though I had cut two circles out of them because I could fold the paper, creating a surprise.

Washi paper tape, original pages from the book, wallpaper strips are all fair game in the book

Diana had brought washi paper tape for us to use. Here I combined the original end paper from the book with similarly-colored washi tape. The paper closest to the spine of the book is lifted up to show the space for private journaling.

Wallpaper on the left, monsoon papers on the right add variety.

I loved the soft neutral tones of wallpaper on the left, contrasting with brighter monsoon papers on the right. The middle page will be great for journaling and maybe a watercolor sketch.

Thanks, Diana, for a great class!

--Quinn McDonald is a writer, creativity coach and artist. She’s just beginning to get a start on making more journals!

Altered Book: Fahrenheit 451

The Big Read is an idea sponsored by the Valley’s libraries. Each year a book is chosen and libraries sponsor events to encourage people to read that book. One of the events involves artists–I was one of the artists chosen to alter the book for a display at one of the libraries. This year’s book is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

What makes the book interesting is that the 1953-written book has elements of  current reality–a society obsessed by television and celebrities, a fear of intellectual discussions at social functions, a minority kicking up a fuss about books, which are subsequently banned from libraries, and my favorite, a love of wearing earbuds and being plugged in to programmed music.

In my approach to altering the book, I chose the idea from the final scene of the book, in which people become living books. Readers live in books, so I created a row-house made of books. In the image below, the central house is Fahrenheit 451, surrounded by other book houses.The pages of the central book are stuffed with message tags.

Altered book, Fahrenheit 451. © Quinn McDonald, 2009

Each house represents a genre: mystery, science fiction, art and poetry. Because love of nature was banned in the story, the two houses on the left represent winter and spring, and the two books on the left represent summer and fall.

Altered book detail, left side © Quinn McDonald, 2009

Altered book right-side detail. © Quinn McDonald, 2009

The tags are all quotes about books, all  from famous people. Ray Bradbury’s own quote, “You don’t have to burn books to destory a culture, Just get people to tstop reading them,”  is there, as well as Salman Rushdie’s quote, “A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it or offer your own version in return.”

Detail of book tags, © Quinn McDonald, 2009

In the heart of the book (I chose page 98 deliberately, as 98.6 Fahrenheit is the normal temperature of the human body), there are flames on one side and a matchbook on the other. The matchbook has a burning match on the cover, and the inside “matches” are the spines of books that have been banned in the past.

Right side detail, matchbook © Quinn McDonald, 2009

The matchbook itself is surrounded by paper flames that have already consumed the page of the book.

The tags are removable for easy reading, and can be used as bookmarks. I hope the book is displayed in a way that allows people to touch it and play with it.

Banned books as matches, detail of altered book, © Quinn McDonald, 2009

I read the book when I was about 10 and just discovering science fiction. My first big literary shock was discovering that Bradbury had made a mistake, paper bursts into flame at 451 Celsius, not Fahrenheit. Yes, I stuck a piece of paper in the oven to see it burst into flame.

It took me a long while to accept altered books. The thought of ruining a book was overwhelming. But the lure of transforming a book that was scheduled for the shredder into a piece of art won me over.

The satisfaction of planning out a concept and carrying it through was really satisfying. I am honored to have been chosen for this project. And yes, I do custom altered books to honor a special event or person.

–—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also teaches people who can’t draw how to keep an art journal.

Another Idea About Slow Art

Slow Art: (noun) the visible or auditory result of creativity; the original work of art created by a person without assembling kits through instructions. Kit parts or kits assembled in a way not originally intended (the kind of re-assembly that violates warranties) count as slow art. Used first by Quinn McDonald, who took the idea of Slow Food (the opposite of fast food, and meant to apply to food grown locally, cooked in simple ways that are both nourishing and enjoyable) into the creative world of the imagination.

I’ve written about the value of slow art before. More than once. The idea has moved beyond art and into general creativity. Inspired by Do-It-Yourself channels, the imagination has taken creativity into the most interesting corners.

Perhaps the digital world is not as satisfying as we hoped. In the 1960s, visions of the future included lives with computers that did all the work, while people enjoyed far more leisure. But we don’t have leisure anymore. The 40-hour work week is non-existent; we stay at the office longer and longer to prove our “passion” for our work. When we leave, we beg to have our lives interrupted via phones, beepers, Blackberries, and computer cameras. We love being available at work.

And a certain contingent is rebelling against the organization that everything is virtual. The artists who delight in Slow Art want independence from digital compliance. So they hack and mock their way into a new world of creativity.

Instructables.com defines itself as the “world’s biggest show and tell.” You can learn how to draw (analog or digital), bake bread, get a tree planted on your block in San Francisco, or create a spill-proof tray for your Honda Odyssey. This is original work by people who want to let others know an easier, better, or more interesting way to live their life.

If you are a bit geekier, you can go over to makezine.com, which will show you how to make a Minthesizer– is a low voltage, low power, analog synthesizer. If you are a low-level geek, there is an article for a foolproof way to open a bottle of wine. My favorite is the crossover from PDA to altered art–a hardback book turned into a “laptop PDA” by a combination of art and hack.

Hackzine reclaims the word hacker for the good guys by bringing the technorati together in the blogosphere to improve technological devices. Sure you can run Linnux apps in Windows, but I’m really interested in drawing holograms by hand.

My mood is lifting. Art and the imagination are not dead. It’s simply moved into the streets as a pick-up game of mental play, where mixed media gets a whole new meaning and anything original can be improved on. It’s a wonderful next step into the magical realm of Slow Art where originality counts more than price, and sharing information is part of the joy.

–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach and artist who values Slow Art. See her work at QuinnCreative.com

Book Art and Color Thesaurus

There is so much information on the Web, it’s amazing we can sort out the useful from the dregs. I depend on others who find wonderful things to send them to me; I post them so you can add them to your bookmarks. Pete Harbeson and Paul Lagasse are major sources of wonderful and obscure links. Today, it’s Pete’s turn.

He knows I’m an artist, so he sends me art links. He sent me this great thesaurus for color names. After all, who knows the difference between bluebell and azure? The Color Thesaurus does!

And if all that color needs to go into a sketchbook, here is one that is both horizontal and vertical.

You may be familiar with the work of Brian Dettmer, particularly if you are attracted to altered books. (That’s an example of his work on the left.) This site shows Brian’s work, but it is not Brian’s site. However, this site, Centripital Notion, will also treat you to a film of a sphere being turned inside out.

Go get inspired!

–Quinn McDonald is a certified creativity coach and a writer. See her work at QuinnCreative.com Image: Brian Dettmer’s work on Centripital Notion.

Make Your Own Journal Cover

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Links to useful places about journals: Here’s a great video showing how to make a gusseted pocket on the inside cover of your journal. Want help on writing on that blank first page? My  other website, Raw-Art-Journals, is for journal … Continue reading →