Studio News

Dear Subscriber First Name,

In 2022, you may have collected my work, or invited me to speak or exhibit (or both!). You may have asked me to collaborate, to jury, to instruct, to fellowship, or perhaps you have simply offered a word of encouragement. We may have spoken for the first time, or through social media, or at a past event, or by email. Whatever form or place, I offer my sincerest thank you for your continued support.

This year has started with a bang and I’m excited to roll out several announcements as they unfold, including new editions that were tabled last year due to a move that included home and studio renovations. Now, I am pleased to introduce three projects that were completed near the end of 2022.

New Work

Things I’ll Miss

Several years ago, I experimented with a letterpress printer, which is a printing press where inked rollers are passed over a metal plate containing raised type (see image). Around the same time, I stained my favorite sweater, which was so soft it reminded me of my daughter’s hugs. I hated to discard it, so I cut off the sleeves and ran them through the press. I also ran pieces of a worn bedsheet through the press, and later sewed them into a micro mini pillow and pillowcase. Experimenting with the letterpress printer spurred thoughts of other items that I would miss were they not around - moonlight, fig trees, and quilts, to name a few. Things I’ll Miss, an edition of 2, is a jewelry box of blessings.

Loci is a snapshot in time of three gardens that sparked and still hold my interest in using plants as charged materials to forge connections with ancestors. Loci contains three books, each dedicated to one of the gardens that supported my plant investigations – Red Bird Lane, the location of my former garden; BRIT, the Botanical Research Institute of Texas (now a part of the Ft. Worth Botanical Gardens), which I visited during my early plant exploration period; and Portland, the location of the garden of artist Diane Jacobs, with whom I collaborated on Interwoven, an abecedary book project.  Each book is composed of monoprints created with plants harvested from their particular landscape. Loci, is a unique bookwork that also includes a set of sample cards featuring botanical inks, and an eco- and transfer print.

Archive Book Project

From the start of my artist book journey, I’ve been interested in utilizing ephemera from past projects in a meaningful way. Archive Books is a collection of works that shows the evolution of finished works. This collection includes drawings, calculations, thoughts, writings, samples, experiments, and lists produced during the creation of the final books. Images of the finished books are exhibited alongside their models. To date, ten models have been completed. The Archive Books project will remain as a complete set and is available for exhibition/educational purposes. If you are interested in exhibiting this series, please contact us.

Note: Archive Book images made possible through a grant from the Book/Print Artist/Scholar of Color Collective

Inheritance is on extended display at the Ricker Library of Architecture and Art at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. Themes presented in the displayed works are related to those posed in a recent exhibition, Black on Black on Black, at the Krannert Art Museum. 

Lineage

Lineage will be on view in the traveling exhibition Paper as People, at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, April 14 – August 12, 2023, before heading to the San Francisco Center for Book Arts. 

More News!

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Kind Regards ~alisa