ideas

I have an inkling of a solution to my project woes in the back of my head.  It is still at its infant phase and it is very fragile and I am not ready to stand behind it quite yet.  

I just asked Sadashi if I could tell him about the idea even though it wasn't fully formed.  He didn't let me.  He said that I shouldn't let my unformed idea be influenced by anything but myself right now.  He told me that when he was younger he used to go to coffeeshops with a group of artist friends.  They would share ideas over coffee for hours, and feel so excited and optimistic because they believed in their ideas and had the external support to keep them confident.  But then he would leave and go back to his studio and not want to act on those ideas and make art, because the ideas had already lived their lives.  They had been exhausted and they could no longer be used. 

Nothing like a poignant piece of advice to turn your day around.

I am learning, I am learning, I am learning 

prophecy from a pen

Hi!  Sorry I haven't posted in a few days!  I'm a bad blogger!  I guess I am focusing more on life than on blogging!  I'm shouting because I had a little too much caffeine today!

Anyway.  Things are looking up.  I'm starting to kind of get somewhat of an idea of the direction that my IP project is going in.  It's still very fuzzy but I feel much more confident about it than I did before.  I have the rest of this week and then Thanksgiving break to get it all sorted out in my head so I can then explain it to other people in a mock presentation (practice for our midyear review, which is supposedly "a big deal").

I haven't yet had a chance to work on the book I mentioned in the last post, but I did cut and fold a bunch of signatures for a bunch of books that I am making to sell at TINY EXPO (I am really excited about this), and I sewed one of them tonight:

(the image on the cover is from a set of Tibetan woodblock prints that I got years ago)

I could talk about other things that happened this week but I am very tired and my brain kind of just shut off as I was typing a second ago.

OH, one quick thing: I found a pen on the sidewalk today, and it was my favorite kind of pen (Pilot Precise V5 Extra Fine), and it is full of ink and everything.  I'm going to go ahead and call that a sign of good things to come, just because I can.

some things

I promised that I would have something to share by today.  I did not get a WHOLE LOT done, but I did make a little progress.  Progress is progress.

One thing I did:
Started working on my next book.  It's going to be about something that's been on my mind a lot recently: making decisions about where to focus my energy/interests in life.  I want to do, know, and care about so many things.  I want to meet, befriend, and learn from so many people.  I want to travel to, become passionate about, and love so many places.  But we can only do and see and know so much.  So I've been grappling with how to sift through the abundance of options available to me and pick the ones that will be most meaningful.

Here are some ultra-exclusive sneak peaks into my thought process/planning via my sketchbook:

The book structure is going to be accordion-style, containing "pages" with open centers and slots allowing the viewer to insert an image of their choosing.  I have yet to decide what the images will be, but they will have something to do with choices and stuff.


This is a little model that I made to figure out the structure of the pages.  It kind of looks like a mini guillotine, hehe.

Another thing I did:
Put together this little tutorial on how to sew the Japanese Stab books.  I'm probably going to change it (perhaps add color, make everything more clear, etc.), BUT it gave me the idea to make a compilation of REALLY SIMPLE instructions for basic bookbinding techniques, because those are surprisingly very hard to come by if you are not "in the bookbinding know," so to say, or don't have access to book arts places and experts.

 


















Okay maybe I made more progress than I realized.  Hm.

Well then, I'm off!

forward!

Since my last post,

1) America made some great decisions

2) The sun finally came out

3) I spent some quality time with people I love

4) I went to a lecture by Stefan Sagmeister on the subject of happiness

5) I taught a class of 30ish 9th graders how to bind a book (with a little help from my friends) (it was hard but oh did I learn a lot)

6) I decided to start drinking coffee again

7) I laughed a lot

This list may seem a bit skewed because I didn't include anything negative (of course there were negative moments, duh)  It's part of a new personal attempt to focus more energy on the good stuff.  So far it's working out pretty well.

I'm going to spend a lot of time in my studio this afternoon/evening so I promise to have SOMETHING to show on here by tomorrow.

this one will be brief

Yesterday and today were whirlwind days and I am exhausted.  I spent approximately 12 hours scanning, designing, writing, printing, folding, and binding a book about my trip to Ghana for the International Exhibition.  Speed bookbinding yet again!  My emotional attachment to the content kept me motivated the entire time.  (I think I may be onto something...)  Here's a photo of the book, plus a sampling of a few random pages.  The covers are made with wax print Ghanaian fabric and the binding is an exposed-spine coptic stitch.

      










































I also prepped the materials for the bookbinding workshop at DCS high school this Thursday.  We're doing Japanese Stab Binding.  More on that later!

Now it's time for sleep.

telling my story

Last week my section had a critique to see what people have been working on.  Since I had had so many realizations in that past week, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to share the process I've been going through and the new decisions I've made (see post below).  So, I decided to make a book telling that story.  First I wrote a really long journal entry making sense of it all, writing in a way that I would want to portray it to other people.  Then I figured out what kind of book structure would be appropriate for conveying this story.  I settled on the Concertina Binding, which I had never done before but is expertly explained in Keith Smith's "Non-Adhesive Binding Volume I" (side note: I was ecstatic when I found out that the library carried some of his books, and I am planning on renewing them continuously until I can't any more or I find a way to own them myself - they run at about $30 each!!)  Anyway, next I condensed the writing I had done into more concise parts that I could hand-write on the pages of the book.  I painted some words in watercolor.  And then I think I might have broken the world record for book-binding speed: I started the book the evening before the critique and finished it about an hour before.  Oops.  Due to the stressful nature of this process the craftsmanship leaves much to be desired, BUT I finished it.  The critique was also a little anxiety-ridden because not everyone had a chance to actually read it and we only had 5 minutes to present it and get feedback (not good), but I think I got some good feedback from a few people and although sharing something quite personal was challenging, I'm glad I did it.  Also, I really loved this binding and I want to explore it more!

Here are some pictures. 

    

a (very late) beginning

So.  It's November 3, 2012, and I am about two months into my Senior Integrative Project.  My section instructors decided not to require that we keep a blog (contrary to, I think, all 3 other sections and past years' sections).  Initially I was in favor of this, because I thought it would be another responsibility that would add to my stress level rather than a positive tool in the process.  I don't know how other people in my section feel, but now, two months into it, I've realized that utilizing a form of daily reflection would be incredibly helpful for me and perhaps keep me from going insane.

Without going into too much detail, I'll just say that this semester has been rough for me, and I've been struggling with IP for a number of reasons (some internal, some external).  The past week I've been doing a lot of reflecting and talking to people, and I think I finally figured some things out.

Here's a chronology of what I've done and what I've realized.

• Decided to focus on book arts as my main medium, incorporating fibers into the book structures
• Chose to include social change component.  Decided that I would do this by making books that would visually "tell people's stories."  These people would be from communities viewed as "at-risk," "underserved," "marginalized," etc.
• Made a book about a close friend to get a sense of part of the process I might go through with these people.  
• Started accompanying Nick Tobier's Social Entrepreneurship class to Detroit Community High School in Brightmoor every week.  They are working with a 9th grade art class there, and I've been tagging along to get to know the students and the neighborhood.  
• Planned a bookbinding workshop for this class.  It's happening this upcoming Thursday and I'm excited!!
• Realized that physical distance and personal obstacles were preventing me from getting involved in Brightmoor the way I had hoped (also realized that these things can't be rushed) 
• Decided to start volunteering at the Delonis Center (a homeless shelter in Ann Arbor).  Have been to the volunteer orientation but haven't actually volunteered yet (my time management skills have gone down the drain in the past couple of weeks, but it's okay, I'll get them back, I promise.)
• Talked to a few people whose opinions are very important to me, and with their help had a lot of REALLY GREAT REVELATIONS

In keeping with the list format, here are those revelations and the new decisions that go along with them.

• I'm trying too hard to force together my personal art practice and my interest in social change through the arts.  Thus, I’m going to maintain more of a distance between these two realms.  I want to use art to help communities and individuals in need.  I want to create my own artwork because I love making art.  Those two things can be INSPIRED by each other, but they don’t have to be the same thing!

• The communities I’m working with are not the only ones who can benefit from expressing themselves artistically.  I can too, and I obviously know that since I’ve chosen to study fine arts for the past four years.  I wouldn’t be doing it if it didn’t make me feel good. 
• I AM DOING TOO MUCH THINKING AND NOT ENOUGH ART MAKING!!  I need to start creating.  Books, weavings, sketches, whatever.  I’m going to let the art be inspired by my experiences: experiences with IP, with these communities, with other things that happen in my life.  I’m going to let this inspiration happen naturally, not through force, because then it wouldn’t be authentic. 
• For whatever reason, I'm not getting the support I need from my instructors/GSIs/section peers.  So, I need to look elsewhere for "supporters."  Talking to people and utilizing their expertise in different areas will alleviate some of the pressure that I've been putting on myself for having to DO IT ALL MYSELF.
• I haven't been reflecting enough. Creating this blog is an attempt to start a (hopefully daily) reflection process for myself.  Maybe I'll write in my sketchbook one day; maybe I'll do some sketching instead of writing directly on here.  But I'll use this as a place to keep track of my accomplishments and be able to look back and see what has been happening.  

I was going to talk about the book that I showed at my critique last week, but I think I'll make a new post for that because this one's getting LONG!

Thanks for reading,

Abby