COVER STORY

Book of Quakers by Stephen Livingstone. See Stephen's website here.

"Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found" - James Russell Lowell

When I first started googling, not quite 4 years ago, I had never heard of an altered book. I was staggered when I realized this was an artform. Now I am discovering the most intriguing book cover artworks and deconstructions.

Another piece by Stephen Livingstone. See website here.

"i use natural and found materials. paints made from pulverised rocks, sludge and dust, the results of rusting and burning. i collect rusted objects and reform them, give them new life. i recycle books, save them from incineration and give them new meaning." - Stephen Livingstone

Mixed media piece using book cover by Jo Horswill. See Jo's blog here.

Two of the most exciting pieces (in my opinion) are those of Jo Horswill, an artist and blogger from Australia. I love the fact that she has incorporated bits of her own etchings and prints into these pieces. Jo has written a wonderful post about book art on her blog, My Story. Well worth a visit!

Another piece by Jo Horswill. My favourite! See Jo's blog here.

Stain by Pat Swanson. Discarded book parts and graphite on wood backing. See more here.

Scraps I by Pat Swanson. See more of Pat's work here.

You may recognize Brigitte Riesebrodt's work from an earlier post. See more here.

John Fraser, another familiar artist featured on Art Propelled. See here.

All that Remains by Gillian Robinson. Blog post on Drumcroon - Art Education Centre, here.

Reliquiae - All that Remains by Gillian Robinson. See more here.

"Books have a powerful symbolism, communicating ideas, knowledge, wisdom, history, experience. ‘All That Remains’ seems to capture that sense of power, combined with great vulnerability" - Words by Kevin on the Drumcroon blog.

A detail from one of Jason Twiggy Lotts intriguing pieces. Jason's website here.

Jonathan Callen's work always stops me in my tracks. See more here.

"Don't worry about your originality. You couldn't get rid of it even if you wanted to. It will stick with you and show up for better or worse in spite of all you or anyone else can do." - Robert Henri

GOOD SALES AND GOOD BOOKS

Detail of Niche Door by Robyn Gordon. Wood Carving 63cm x 70cm x 6.5cm (24" x 27")

It's been a lucky week! Three good sales and a parcel of new books arriving on my doorstep.....



A little breathing space to page through my new books before starting my next carving.

Lee Bontecou: A Retrospective, is the most beautiful book! Lee's work is strikingly different to anything I've seen before. At first glance these pieces look like metal sheets patched together but they actually consist of canvas and scavenged fabrics stretched over welded steel frameworks, stitched with wire. They are extremely powerful and one wonders where these ideas came from. What inspires an artist to create something like this?

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An article by Diane Calder gives a little insight .....

"As Bontecou worked in her studio, her short wave radio broadcasted threats of attack by (cold war) terrorists or news of horrific events in Africa. Fear and anger that she had felt as a child, about the Holocaust, began to surface. “I’d get so depressed that I’d have to stop and turn to more open work. Work that I felt was more optimistic--where for example, there might be just one single opening, and the space beyond it was like opening up into the heavens, going up into space, feeling space. The other kind of work was like war equipment. With teeth. Not many people realize that. But the funny thing is that those canvases ended in German museums or Israeli ones. Just where they belonged, without my saying a thing. One of those pieces went to the Jewish Museum in New York. It was a sort of memorial of my feelings. I never titled any of these. Once I started to and it seemed to limit people to a certain response, so I didn’t continue.”

Read Nancy Natale's excellent post about Lee Bontecou, here.

Amazon link, here.

"The object isn't to make art, it's to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable." - Robert Henri