a handmade book and artist statement by yours truly
Developing a narrative for my artists book was a process of
contemplating important themes in my life and transforming those
thoughts and ideas into a story and series of relief prints. My
initial brainstorm idea was to explore the theme of resources; within
our selves, our community, and our city. During class critique
students helped me see the process and shape this idea could take on
and it seemed to possibly go in a direction of cliched “use your
resources and tools wisely” pamphlet, something I didn’t want to do.
While sitting outside in my little back yard I noticed a small honey
bee walking on ground. I gently picked him up and put him
on a freshly blossoming flower in a small tree. Then it suddenly hit
me; my book needs to be about something I love that will encourage a
work of beauty and admiration for nature, the most likely
subconscious intent of my first idea. I then walked into my house
and started brainstorming on my print compositions and researched
poems from a wide variety of cultures and time periods. It is more
challenging and rewarding for me to develop a book discussing nature
without bringing in any negative connotations of human destruction.
For this project I wanted to focus mainly on the pureness of the good
in my subject and the positive human interaction with bees found in
poetry. Although I have been stung many times in my life, (the price
I pay for walking barefoot in the spring), I do not fear bees but
welcome them to the flowers and plants around me. I find them
charming and pleasant and wanted to communicate this warm feeling into
this project.
The Honey bee is responsible for the pollination of all the wonderful
plants on earth. From small garden vegetables to flowers to crops we
would not have the lush
green world we have today without these tiny busy creatures doing what
they have evolved to do. The relationship between bees is
cooperative, communal, and hard working. The relationship between
the flower and the bee is a
heartbreaking love story of two earthly creatures symbiotically
coexisting and propagating together. These are the themes that come
to mind and the images of nature I wanted to convey with my book.
Deciding to include beautiful works of literature repeats this desire
to communicate gratefulness and warmth of the insects labor.
The colors I chose for this project are monochromatic yellows, creams
and golds that embody the pure light and royalty bees have come to
possess through our centuries of admiration. Golden honey and
honeycombs reflect the golden sun and represent light and life in a
bright, energetic way. These colors reinforce the unity of the
subject to its habitat and the positive words of the poems to their
subject.
The first couple pages of my book are composed of various wax papers
so that your fingers remind you of beeswax and honeycombs as soon as
you begin exploring the book. Layers of golden foil has been cut into
amorphous yet perfectly geometric hexagonal shapes to symbolize the
layers of building the bees do to create their hives. This post
modern strategy of layering creates a rhythm that continues after the
title page by the placement of gold and black relief prints in between
each poem, allowing the viewer to enjoy the words of the artists
admiring the bees followed by a meditation on a visual dedication to
the subject without any words. This alternating composition creates a
sense of time through the book and a balance to the content. The
prints without text lets the image speak for itself, and allows the
viewers reaction of each poem to influence and change the meaning and
feeling one receives from the following print.
I chose a soft cover for the book because I imagine the book to be a
possible favorite to someone who loves poems, encouraging its owner to
carry it around easily and for it to have a soft feel in ones hands.
I wanted its weight to be light, communicating once again the
lightness of the bees and the dominant whiteness of the cover repeats
this intent. The book in its entirety communicates unity and balance
while the variety of yellow values and torn pages enables a natural
and organic impression of hand made quality.
