Book Arts Program, Marriott Library

Before leaving Salt Lake City, I printed all the pages and the cover of my book Shadow Me. I was having so much fun I continued to print the pages and images for Finding Home. The books are ready to cut, fold, and assemble. It is difficult to keep a working schedule on the road. First, I don’t have much space and often the everyday activities take precedence. That’s life when it interferes with art!

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, printed pages of Shadow Me

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, printed pages of Finding Home

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Last week, at the Book Arts Program Studio of the Marriott Library, I met with Emily Tipps, Program Manager, and Marnie Powers-Torrey, Head of the Book Arts Program and Managing Director of the Red Butte Press.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Marnie Powers-Torrey at the University of Utah

I had the pleasure of seeing some of Emily and Marnie's artists’ books, produced during the last few years. They also demonstrated some of the books produced by the Red Butte Press. The conversation continued by sharing thoughts on structures and techniques chosen, favourite binding methods, typestyle and fine press. The type of substrate of various books was stimulating as I’m constantly looking to print on new papers.

The feel of paper for the fourth imprint of the Book Arts Program (In)visible Shores by Danielle Dubrasky was very tactile, sensual to the touch. BAP imprints are designed, printed, and bound in-house.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, (In)visible Shores by Danielle Dubrasky

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Stranger and Stranger by Katharine Coles The book Stranger and Stranger by Katharine Coles with images translated from the paintings of Maureen O-Hara Ure

Marnie shared three of her own artists’ books. It was delightful to see Marnie enjoying the feeling of renewal through production.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Cities & Justice by Marnie Powers-Torrey

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Nuts, Seeds & Heavier Fare (left) and Mama Self (right) by Marnie Powers-Torrey

Mama Self is an edition of 32, the age of the artist when she became pregnant and gave birth to her second child, realizing that she'd never be the same again.

Work on this book began in 2006 in a workshop with the brilliant Julie Leonard, just after the birth of the artist's third and last child. After nine years of gestation, the book was finally released into the world. Imagery is derived from circular ink washes suggesting the cyclical nature of being, the constancy of motion, revolving planets, ripe ovum and lactating breasts. The text is experimental and broken, collected in haste throughout the early years of motherhood. Stripped of formality and exposing raw, maternal femininity, the words string together a visual poem of primal and authentic language.

A short exposure with Marnie Powers-Torrey by KUEDCHANNEL7. "The visual book, as I like to call it, can be a mode of creative expression."

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Emily Tipps is the founder of High5 Press. At the moment Emily has a new visual book in production with the working title of Amoral. I enjoyed the visual aspect, design, and composition of its pages. 

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Amoral, work in progress by Emily Tipps

I aim to provoke energetic reader interaction with innovative texts, using letterpress printing, hand paper-making, and bookbinding to create limited-editions whose content and form are conceptually and interestingly related. Says Emily.

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The most enjoyable part of traveling is meeting old friends and artists. I’m looking forward to having a space to create and express myself through these travels. Visiting artists and getting to know the productions behind the studios are absolutely invigorating! I welcome the next encounter.

Abecedaries

It feels tremendous to be on the brink of creating an artists’ book. Hopefully, I will have time to start the design process before we embark on our next trek. My traveling studio leaves Salt Lake City to go Eastbound at the end of May. 

For the present, I’m looking forward to stand or sit; and think, plan, and print. How will it feel to handle tools again? Especially the glue!!! I may choose a non-glue method of binding.

Through my research, I discovered many published alphabet/ABC artists’ books in different binding formats depending on the meaning behind the work. Some of the types of bindings used for abecedaries are the flip book, cards, tunnel book, accordion, codex, panorama concertina... to name a few.

Karen Hanmer has used different bindings for her alphabet books. In The Spectrum A to Z the letters of the alphabet are colored to run through the spectrum and back within a tunnel book format.

© 2003 Karen Hanmer, The Spectrum A to Z, pigment inkjet prints, 5 x 5 x 18", edition of 20

Another alphabet book inspired by the U.S. Patriot Act is in an accordion style binding. Patriot Alphabet incorporates words or phrases taken from the vocabulary of terrorism, homeland security, and the Iraq war.

© 2004 Karen Hanmer, Patriot Alphabet, pigment inkjet prints, open 5.75 x 66 x 3.5", closed 5.75 x 4.5x.5"

© 2004 Karen Hanmer, Patriot Alphabet, pigment inkjet prints, open 5.75 x 66 x 3.5", closed 5.75 x 4.5x.5"

Karen’s last alphabet book A2Z is in a flip book style. I had a chance to view A2Z personally at the University of Utah’s library while living in South Jordan.

© 2013 Karen Hanmer, inkjet prints, double-fan adhesive binding, 2 x 4.75 x 2”

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Another artist’s work that delighted my eyes was Shu-Ju Wang. Her theme is Belly Dancers in a pull-out accordion structure.

Alphabet for a Belly Dancer captures the essence of belly dance through wordplay and a rhythmic pattern that mimics the dance itself.

© 2003, Shu-Ju Wang, Alphabet for a Belly Dancer, wrap-around cover in Japanese Masa Unwaxed and French handmade paper finished with hand-dyed rayon ribbon, coins, and beads, the protective envelope is made with a shimmering cover stock.

© 2003, Shu-Ju Wang, Alphabet for a Belly Dancer

© 2003, Shu-Ju Wang, Alphabet for a Belly Dancer

In Shu-Ju’s unique nonlatin character set Da(3)Pai(2), we find a full deck of 54 cards trace the evolution of 52 Chinese characters from their original pictographs to their contemporary forms. The heart and diamond suits illustrate the evolution of 26 radicals, and the spade and club suits show these radicals used in complex, combinatorial characters. Based on the book Chinese Calligraphy by Edoardo Fassioli and Guo Yu Ri Bao Zi Dian, a Chinese dictionary.

© 2003 Shu-Ju Wang, Da(3)Pai(2), wrap-around cover, cards in Evergreen Cover Aspen and Astroparche Antique Gold

Many other artists have been inspired by the theme of consonances and vowels of our language and there’s too many to show in this post. Tune in next week for more fun abecedaries.

Phoenix Book Placement

Last week was intense! My thoughts are to stop the madness and start creating, publishing and have fun with photos, I took way back when... Before the face the sand event!

© 2017 Louise Levergneux, Coachella Valley, Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve, California

Snapping photos during physical therapy for my alphabet book gets me excited about working and thinking about the content and title. With a high strain sprain, I’m also taking time to enjoy and study my Sony camera with all its features. Content to learn something every day but it’s absorbing the info that is a process.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Heiden Orthopedics, Salt Lake City, Utah

On the administration side of the studio, while passing through Phoenix, I contacted the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department of the Arizona State University Library. The result of my conversations represents the placement of two artist's books in the Book Arts Collection. The collection contains books with unusual formats about fine printing, binding, and handmade papers, it also includes pop-up books.

With this acquisition, the complete edition of Entre deux and Guadalupe are sold out. Both artists’ books are in great company, I discovered deux and Guadalupe are sold out. Both artists’ books are in great company, I discovered deux and Guadalupe are sold out. Both artists’ books are in great company, I discovered deux and Guadalupe are sold out. Both artists’ books are in great company, I discovered deux and Guadalupe are sold out. Both artists’ books are in great company, I discovered deux and Guadalupe are sold out. Both artists’ books are in great company, I discovered After Image: Colour at play by Barbara Hodgson & Claudia Cohen is part of the collection and The Blame Game: Winning Excuses and Strategies on and off the Court by Carolyn Shattuck. 

Entre deux is an interactive documentary inviting the reader to take part in a simple meal with a couple whiles being privy to their conversation on the subject of love. deux is an interactive documentary inviting the reader to take part in a simple meal with a couple whiles being privy to their conversation on the subject of love. 

© 2013 Louise Levergneux, Entre deux

© 2013 Louise Levergneux, Entre deux

© 2013 Louise Levergneux, Entre deux

Guadalupe was created after exploring Santa Fe, New Mexico, I created a documentary on the Virgin Mary, an image that saturates the entire city in different formats, sizes, and styles.

© 2012 Louise Levergneux, Guadelupe

© 2012 Louise Levergneux, Guadelupe

© 2012 Louise Levergneux, Guadelupe

I have another three weeks in Salt Lake City and looking forward to positive answers to studio visits as hiking the wonderful Wasatch Mountains is out of the question.

Predicaments Make

Still constrained by a sprained ankle, I’m unable to photograph at will, go on hikes, or even stand at a work table. 

How does an artist cope with an overwhelming circumstance? I often create out of the situation I'm presented. 

Through this pickle, I’m developing an ABC artists’ book using my ankle stretching exercises for the content. The images below are some of the elements that will be included in the pages. I have ideas for the cover by manipulating a stretch compression bandage. I’m not sure of the title, that will develop with the book.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux

© 2018 Louise Levergneux

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My predicament compelled me to think of how artists continue with their work during an illness, malaise or unfortunate event. Let me introduce a narrative from Miriam Schaer, an artist, and educator based in Brooklyn, New York. Miriam began a teaching and research adventure in Telavi. A Fulbright Fellowship enabled her to live and work, outside Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital. 

© 2018 Miriam Schaer

Once in the Republic of Georgia, some 5,600 miles from home in the winter of 2017, a sore knee triggered a cascade of debilitating conditions. 

My right leg from the knee down grew so swollen I could not bend it, stand on it, or fit into a shoe. Walking was out. The pain was excruciating, an arthritic discomfort had become frighteningly serious. I decided to head home on a midnight flight.

I came to grips with the extending length of my recovery and resigned a Senior Lectureship at Columbia College Chicago. I could see it would be a few semesters before I could return.

As an artist, however, I can’t avoid making things. Usually, I’m compulsively busy making artist books, book-related sculptures, prints, and multimedia projects.

© 2018 Miriam Schaer, Miriam home studio

My home studio is well-equipped, but in rehab, my iPhone was the only tool I had to document the unfamiliar rehab environment.

© 2018 Miriam Schaer, hospital diary

© 2018 Miriam Schaer, hospital diary

Back from the hospital, mobility became my top priority. Serious art making would have to wait. Fortunately, I had committed to several projects with long lead times. The commitments turned out to be gifts and, I adapted my limited energies to them. I reverted to a trick developed as a young artist by doing one small thing and hoped each step would lead to another, and so on.

I took breaks. Some short, some longer, like binge-watching episodes of the Great British Baking Show. I allowed myself to fail and make mistakes, to take things apart and put them back together, sometimes multiple times.

However, just as my walking improved enough to hobble around, carpal tunnel syndrome developed from months of struggling, first with a walker then a cane. My ability to make small tools and accomplish anything went out the window. Instead of producing books, I was soaking my wrists in ice baths.

I turned to related work — updated my website, helped a neighbor start her own website. A two-day artists’ book workshop conducted in my studio helped  produce a simple ‘instant book.’

I pecked away at an essay for a book I’d been asked to contribute to, due later in 2018. During the summer, I started a piece, writing a little each day. I wanted to finish a draft by summer’s end knowing I would need time to go through at least three drafts. In the end, there were seven.

I felt overwhelmed by the growing list of new conditions. But once diagnosed and treated the symptoms slowly retreated. By this time, I started on an artwork for an exhibition. Feeling better but with low energy, I was still, not able to stand for prolonged periods. So, I needed to think about how I would approach the project.

I decided to try a garment; I have worked with garments in the past, usually manipulating the clothing items. This time I wanted to make something from scratch.

© Miriam Schaer, Ida's Notebook

The decision was to make a shirt and tie with the neckwear extending, like Pinocchio’s nose to an indecent length inspired by media’s attention to the reign of Trump. I entitled the piece Liar’s Couture.

© Miriam Schaer, Liar’s Couture

© Miriam Schaer, Liar’s Couture

The project was challenging, therapeutic, even fun. It showed me I was ready to get back to work even though I measure my progress by achieving a milestone at a time.

Now, more than a year after that dangerous day in Georgia, my knee needs to be replaced and my fingers are still a bit numb. But I’m hopeful.

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Artists take notice of all events or situations that arise. We create from everything that touches our souls, personalities and, environment. What have you created lately from a problematic situation, a tight spot, dilemma or a can of worms that just happen to disrupt your life on a beautiful day?

Phoenix Architecture

Sorry to have missed a week. I experienced life before the internet as I traveled back-up to Salt Lake City. Absolutely no connection for a week. Odd!

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Traveling to Phoenix, Arizona is not complete without a visit to Taliesin West, Architect, Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home, and Scottsdale's only National Historic Landmark.

Taliesin West is on six hundred acres purchased around 1937 at the foothills of the McDowell Mountains in Scottsdale, Arizona. Set amid a Sonoran Desert Preserve, Wright’s home commands dramatic views of Camelback Mountain and the Valley of the Sun.

When standing on the lawn facing the desert from the main house — in Wright's own words, Taliesin West would be "a look over the rim of the world."

Eighty years after its construction, the desert still consumes Taliesin West whole. It is not until one is on its doorstep, that one can appreciate anything at all of the buildings; they so perfectly blend in with the desert. And once inside one does not visualize anything of this world from the windows in any sitting position.

Deeply connected to the desert, Taliesin West is among the most personal of the architect’s creations since it was built and maintained almost entirely by Wright and his apprentices.

Taliesin West is a prime example of Wright’s organic architecture in that the structures are built of the rocks and sand of the Sonoran Desert and melds to the lower McDowell Mountains. 

The next time I’m in Phoenix I would love to visit the David and Gladys Wright House. This house is a 2,500-square-foot concrete house designed and built for the architect's son in 1952. This Wright house was boarded up back in 2014. These days it has been restored and accessible for viewing. My sprained ankle is the culprit for not enjoying this architecture.

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I will be in Salt Lake City for the next couple of weeks. If you would like to introduce me to your studio, just let me know by emailing me at louiselevergneux@gmail.com

Little Things with Great Love

During my stay in Desert Hot Springs, California, I met Cathy Greenblat, Writer, Sociologist, and Photographer, through my husband’s work and game-based learning.

Since 2001, Cathy has been working to change the imagery of aging, illness and dying by combining her background as a Professor of Sociology with her photography.

Cathy’s body of work began at a municipal old age home in Mexico after she left her tenured full professorship to focus on work combining photographs and text. 

© 2004 Cathy Greenblat, Mrs Morimoto Singing, Japan

I believe this to be the most effective vehicle to open people’s eyes, literally and figuratively, providing a better way to help them “face” issues that are generally avoided. Since then I have directed my energies to the creation of photographic projects that challenge stereotypical conceptions of the aged, the infirm, and those in the terminal stages of life.

© 2008 Cathy Greenblat, Benedicte Snoezelen, USA

I then documented a person-centered approach to Alzheimer’s care in the United States; those photographs and text appeared as a book in 2004, Alive with Alzheimer’s (University of Chicago Press). The German edition (Alzheimers und Lebensqualitat) was published in 2006 in conjunction with a three-year traveling exhibition in Germany. In recognition of that work, the University of Houston College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences awarded me the 2007 John P. McGovern Lectureship in Family, Health, and Human Values.

© 2008 Cathy Greenblat, "Can we use your ball?", India

Cathy has continued to photograph Alzheimer's care in the USA, in France, India, Japan, and the Dominican Republic. These photographs were presented in exhibits and are now offered in her book, Love, Loss and Laughter: Seeing Alzheimer's Differently (Globe Pequot, 2012).

© 2007 Cathy Greenblat, Rolland & his daughter at Kate's music group, USA

In both forms, they offer an additional challenge to stereotypes about Alzheimer’s disease. They show that while the losses created by degenerative brain disease are real, people with Alzheimer’s are not, as they are often depicted,  “empty shells”, completely lost. The photos show what quality healthcare looks like, and illustrate that such care allows people with Alzheimer’s disease to sustain connections to others and to their own past lives at a far higher level than is generally believed to be possible. The photographs reveal that they are capable of experiencing joy as well as sorrow, that loving care can yield loving responses and laughter.

© 2008 Cathy Greenblat, Jacqueline laughing, France

My other project, undertaken between 2005 and 2008 focuses on end of life care. Exhibits from that project have been titled Alive at the End of Life, or Little Things with Great Love. The latter title comes from a statement by Mother Theresa "We cannot do great things, only little things with great love." This project is meant to provide insight into the ways the experience of dying can be enriched, both emotionally and intellectually, for the person who is dying and for those attached to him or her. We cannot do “the one great thing”, eliminate death, but I hope to show the important little things that are being done with great love by those who are engaged in the reconceptualization and reconstruction of the dying process. 

© 2008 Cathy Greenblat, Judge Pratt and his friend John Wayne, USA

As I have spoken with people with dementia, with cancer, and with AIDS and with their family members, I have seen how little prepared most of us are in terms of knowing what to do when death approaches, even when it has been coming on for some time due to a chronic illness. It is rare for people to make advance visits to places where palliative and end of life care is offered. If they visit at all, it is when someone is in need of immediate help, and then they are often so emotionally burdened that they are unable to observe and judge the quality of the services offered. I believe that my projects can help convey new information and insight to viewers not (yet) under such stress.

© 2008 Cathy Greenblat, "It's a DOG!!!", USA

The photographs and accompanying text provide a symbolic journey through the dying process via the representation of everyday people whose lives and deaths have been eased by the best of programs. Because of the obstacles to overcome in viewing death, I believe that still photography is a better medium for this endeavor than is film; people need time to stop and reflect on the images, to deal with their emotions and thoughts at their own pace.  

Much still remains to be done to increase both public awareness of the issues and to provide healthcare professionals with knowledge and training in dementia care and end of life care. I believe that photography can be an important tool in creating a new vision of what can be, of how to meet the growing need for quality care.  

© 2008 Cathy Greeblat, Going home after the Memory Clinic session, France

Professor Greenblat has been selected to have her work archived at the Bienecke Library at Yale University. It will be accessible in the Women in Photography International Archive, Western Americana Collection, and Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library/Yale University.

Thank you Cathy for such wonderful and candid photos!

Numerous Hats

I’ve been wearing my arts management hat this week. An assistant to deal with the field that concerns business operations around my art world would be nice. Even on the road, one has to facilitate the day-to-day operations of one’s own organization — the finances, the sales, the invoices, the inventory, the databases, the acquisition of materials, the marketing...

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Heads 2014 by Jun Kaneko at the Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix, Arizona

I deal with administration and create policies. But, who fulfills the mission? Most artists work on their own since finances do not allow us to hire staff. We need to understand all business units of a working organization. I've often felt I should fire one of my hats and hire another, better equipped to do the job. But reality presents itself at every turn, and I must deal with the whole shebang!

The teamwork, the creative leadership, and the dynamic process of reflection all lie on my shoulders. Oh! What fun when Income Tax returns are due in 21 days. 

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, a bird making its nest in a Saguaro, San Xavier Mission, Tucson, Arizona

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, a rabbit looking on in Congress, Arizona

I prefer to produce than execute administrivia, I’m adept at it, but that is not my labor of love in life. 

At the moment, I am constrained by the living space and suffering from a sprained ankle. These create disquietness, and I can only dream of hiking and photographing cacti in the Sonoran Desert or standing at a workstation swearing at glue that is running amuck. But for the next week, Income Tax and database reorganization are my future.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, a Geico resting at the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site, Gila Bend, Arizona

In the meantime, the early mornings are where I dream of new artists’ books. I would welcome the opportunity to visit another studio — I’m in Phoenix, where are you?

What strategies do you pursue to maintain your creative process through the many hats you must wear in a day?

How do you implement these strategies?

What gets your mojo motived?

Documentation

It’s been two weeks since my last post. My friend, Flavie Beaudet, visited us in Arizona and her companionship took precedence over everything else. We enjoyed six days of sun and warmth in Sedona and Gila Bend—what a treat! As artists, art is never far from the conversation, and documenting what we witness is strong.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, cactus at the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site, Gila Bend

I brought my studio outside once again as I absorbed my surroundings with an unconventional eye. As a lover of landscapes, I could finally share with a friend from back home what I perceived in this astonishing—stupéfiant environment.

Textures and colours of Arizona suited Flavie’s fierce sense of design. In the past, Moroccan patterns have influenced her creations.

© 2017 Flavie Beaudet, first layer for a tabletop design

© 2017 Flavie Beaudet, the second layer for a tabletop design

© 2017 Flavie Beaudet, several layers later, the finished tabletop

© 2017 Flavie Beaudet, another Moroccan inspired tabletop

We soon watched out for each other's obsessions. This past week, I was fixated on the sky with its fabulous clouds. More on that later.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Phoenix sky

Flavie photographed motifs nature gifted within cacti, trees, desert plants, shadows, hay...

There were rocks to photograph...

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, rocks at Gila Bend KOA Camping site

... then there were rocks.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Painted Rock Petroglyph Site, Gila Bend

Since my camera was always in hand, I recorded Flavie documenting patterns. I’m looking forward to seeing what will become of this photographic archive of Arizona.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, on the way to document the desert

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Flavie documenting at the Painted Rock Petroglyph Site, Gila Bend

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Flavie stealing a shot of the Solana Generating Station near Gila Bend

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Flavie photographing hay on Citrus Valley Rd near Gila Bend

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Flavie photographing and enjoying an architect's work at Taliesin West, Phoenix

We all document our thoughts and ideas in different ways, what is your process? I would love to hear.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, un bis pour toi