P-Patch by Chandler O’Leary

As I prepare to head to Seattle and Tacoma next week it is nice to be reminded of the “edible and ornamental bounty” that is the Pacific Northwest. Chandler O’Leary’s illustrations are always a joy to behold.

I’ll post details soon about my Seattle event. In the meantime, if you live in Tacoma, you are invited to join us on Tuesday, May 28th from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. at the University of Puget Sound Collins Library for an event sponsored by the PSBA, Puget Sound Book Artists. More about that event here.

You can learn more about Chandler’s lovely P-Patch broadside here.

Chandler also has another important piece in FEAST, The Faery Gardener. See that beauty here.

See you up north!

Eating Mindfully: A Beginner’s Guide by Lane Taplin

This terrific zine gets today’s feature spot as I sit at my desk chugging fistfuls of M&Ms like there is no tomorrow. I am such a hopeless addict that I carry them in my purse whenever I travel and am just sure those chocolate dreams are the whole reason why I constantly feel the need to lose 5 pounds. So, for the rest of the week I vow to read Lane’s zine and pay attention.

Another nice reason to feature this work is that in 6 years of doing two juried shows a year we have had very few zines submitted. That’s a shame because zines are an important member of the book arts field and I’d love to see more of them in future shows. Got that zinesters? Get thinking about EcoEditions!

Learn more about this mindful zine here.

An Omnivore’s Memoir by Elsi Vassdal Ellis

FEAST Feature of the Day: An Omnivore’s Memoir by Elsi Vassdal Ellis. This work is stunning, a compelling tour de force! Elsi is one of the most prolific book artists I’ve ever known. Her books are always deep, intellectual and compelling. This work incorporates an apron, placemat and table tent; eight books, pamphlets and menus; 143 recipes on folded cards divided into courses; 28 “We All Must Eat Something” species coaster cards; and 28 “You Are What You Eat” coaster cards. All beautifully presented in a well-crafted, oversized kitchen utensil drawer organizer. Elsi accomplishes these kinds of feats regularly—even with a day job as big as a university department chair and professor.

Stop by the gallery if you have a chance to see this work. But plan on taking a while to read all of the cards and booklets. It will be worth your time!

Or, see more photos of this fantastic work here.

Chili: A Recipe by David Esslemont.

Learn more about this terrific work here.

Cloudberries and Other Fruits by Lisa Onstad

I chose to feature this work today after a terrific discussion in the gallery yesterday about “erasure” art. This is a very fun technique that poets and visual artist often employ whereby you white out or paint over or “erase” words from an existing text to create a totally new piece of poetry or language. Lisa’s Cloudberries piece has some erasure on the back sides of her cards and they are just fantastic. Tom Phillips’ “A Humument” is one of my favorite examples of this type of artistic or poetic “deconstruction.”

Learn more about Lisa’s work here.

Click the photo above to see our Eco Books Curated Collection. These books will give you some inspiration for your own eco work.

23Sandy invites you to start thinking about new work for EcoEditions. Can artist books raise consciousness, create awareness or change the world and our environment? Let’s use our powers as stewards of the earth to report on the state of our environment, ecology, sustainability, pollution, climate, recycling and our planet in general. This juried exhibition is open to unique and limited edition artist books, broadsides, zines, sculptural bookworks and more and will juried by Cara List, the Art and Art History Librarian at the University of Oregon Architecture and Allied Arts Library.

Deadline for entry: Saturday, September 7, 2013 at Midnight.

A full prospectus and more information can be found here.

Feast is in the Belly of the Beholder by M. L. Van Nice

FEAST Feature of the Day: This sculptural bookwork is hard to fit into the “artist’s” book category since as it was actually was crafted by bugs. But, you can tell that they really enjoyed the feast and the final “art” is gorgeous! “Feast is in the Belly of the Beholder” by M. L. Van Nice. I had a lot of fun with this show with works that really push the boundary of food and book art. Between bugs, cannibalism and cake, this show has it all.

Learn more about this terrific work here.

Four and Twenty Magpies by Sandra Winkworth

In honor of our Aussie friend Graham Schodda who dearly misses meat pies. This piece by Sandra Winkworth is great fun!

Artists Reception for FEAST!
Friday, May 10, 2013
6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

The book arts offer a banquet of materials, mediums and structures. Food offers a smorgasbord of ideas for the artist. Mix up generous servings of food and art and you have a sumptuous feast called book arts. This show features 46 food-related unique and limited edition artist books and broadsides by 43 artists. Several of the artists will be visiting from out of town. Come help us celebrate their terrific work.

Art Source Portland

Have you noticed 23 Sandy artist Heidi Kirkpatrick’s gorgeous work floating around town? 23 Sandy is thrilled that Heidi is the featured cover artist for this year’s Art Source Portland guidebook. This handy, colorful publication is a hot new source for art events and galleries on both sides of the river and can be picked up at locations all over Portland, including coffee shops, hotels, stores and galleries. Find a list of Art Source Portland locations here.

For more expedient information when planning your art outings, visit the Art Source Portland blog. The blog is updated weekly with events, openings, receptions and now even workshop listings. Or, better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed to stay on top of hot happenings.

Check out the Art Source Portland web site here.

And, see more of Heidi Kirkpatrick’s terrific work here.

Join us for FEAST! May 10th

23Sandy Gallery will be closed April 21 through May 9, 2013 as we take to the road with a big box o’ books. Join us on May 10 when we re-open with FEAST, our national juried exhibition celebrating food and book art.

Mark your calendar for an artist reception for FEAST on Friday, May 10 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Several of our artists will be coming from out of town, so this will be a fun one!

Cortona ABC by Bea Nettles

Artists Reception: Bea Nettles & Mary Bennett
This Friday, April 19, 2013
4:00 – 6:00 p.m.

For Portland Photo Month we are featuring two very talented artists, Bea Nettles with her photographic artist books and Mary Bennett, who has created a fantastic installation of vintage 35mm slides in our gallery windows. Stop by on this, the closing weekend of both shows, for a reception to meet these incredibly talented artists.

Preview an online catalog Bea Nettles’ artist books here.

Artist on Site Event with Mary Bennett
Saturday, April 20, 2013
12:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Installation by Mary Bennett

Mary Bennett’s installation currently on view at 23 Sandy from both inside and outside the gallery windows is a fascinating look at the forgotten ephemera of other people’s lives. Bennett explains, “viewing these images taken by people you don’t know, of people you don’t know, in places you don’t know will give you license to free associate and form your own story.” Stop by the gallery on this, the last day of this installation to visit with the artist, who will be on site all day. It’s your chance to ask the artist about the thousands of slides she has collected and the stories she has invented in her own mind.

Review Mary Bennett’s previous installation, 1,983 Rejections: 3 Acceptances at 23 Sandy here.

Stop for for a reception for Sandy today if you happen to be in town. Click here to see the details about the reception.

And, when you fall in love with her work, don’t forget that here at 23 Sandy we carry nearly every broadside and book that she still has in print. Check out her online catalog here to start your collection today.

See you there!

The FOBA conference is one of my very favorite book arts conferences—ever! I first attended as a student 10 years ago, just weeks after moving half way across country. Back then, the conference was held at Lewis & Clark College and I felt warmly welcomed into the Pacific Northwest book arts community. It was kind of like summer camp for book artists and many people I met at that conference are still friends today. The total immersion and lack of distractions were heaven.

23 Sandy Gallery has been a vendor at the conference three times, and last year I was honored to be the keynote speaker. So, I’m a huge fan of all things FOBA and the amazing group of volunteers who organize this fantastic conference.

This year I am pleased to be involved in the conference in a new way, THE “C” SESSIONS – Critique, Collaboration and Commerce for the Book Artist. My good friend Alicia Bailey of Abecedarian Gallery and I are teaming up for two very special opportunities for conference attendees.

The idyllic Pacific University Campus. FOBA home base.

First is a lecture on Wednesday evening, June 26^th. We’ll be giving a joint talk about these very important topics for book artists. How do you get honest feedback and critiques of your books? And, if you work is ready, how do you go about selling it? As gallery owners and working book artists, Alicia and I have had a ton of experience with these topics and we are looking forward to sharing that knowledge.

All day on Thursday we will be doing individual one-on-one sessions with artists. It’s sort of a portfolio review-style event that you may have heard about from other artistic disciplines. Each artist gets 20 minutes with either of us and gets our undivided attention and free flowing advice. Use your time with Alicia to get a smart, academic-style critique of your work. Or sign up for 20 minutes with me to learn more about selling your work, sort of a personalized Marketing 101 for Book Artists. Or just use your 20 minutes to pick or brains about any topic you’d like. It’s all up to you.

Sadly, neither of these events are open to the public. These are special benefit just to FOBA conference attendees. So, if you are registered or thinking about registering for the conference I’d like to encourage you sign up soon. Our talk on Wednesday night is free and open to all attendees, but that talk won’t happen unless enough artists sign up for the private sessions soon. We need a full roster of artists so that we know both of these events are a “go.” You can still sign up for a session even if you have previously registered. Contact the FOBA registration folks to add a session or two. Or, be sure to add it to your registration if you haven’t signed up for the conference yet. Alicia and I have already spent time collaborating on our Wednesday lecture and we are really looking forward to meeting you at this amazing, inspiring conference.

If you are curious about FOBA in general, the conference home page is here.

More information specifically about THE “C” SESSIONS can be found here.

Or, feel free to send me an email if you have any questions at all about FOBA or our session plans.

See you soon!

Laura

A sneak peak at FEAST!

E ach year we hold two juried shows here at 23 Sandy Gallery. And today was one of the two days each year I just dread. The call for entries for juried shows draws artists from near and far, many of whom I know well, or even have met briefly at some point over 16 years of being part of the book arts world. What makes days like today so difficult is sending out rejection letters for artists who didn’t make it into the show. I just HATE doing this part of my job! This is all made even worse when I am the juror for the show and have no one else to blame.

As an artist I know how hard it is to receive a rejection letter. I myself just got a tough one a few weeks ago from a curator I highly respect and was just heartbroken not to be included in the show. I took all that time to make new work for the show, paid an entry fee, filled out the (long!) entry form, shot photos of the work and then waited and waited for word. There is a lot of time, money and emotional energy involved. When rejection comes it is always a rough blow to my ego and my spirits.

The process of deciding who gets accepted or rejected is long and difficult. There are always many, many more entries then can physically fit in the gallery. I won’t bore you again with my process as I’ve written about it at length before here.

Happily, as a gallery owner, the rejections are offset somewhat by sending out acceptance letters on the same day. When I stop fretting and really take a good long look at the artwork that will soon be gracing the gallery walls, it gets very exciting. I still feel thrilled by the beautiful concept, structure, execution, materials or myriad other things that make the book arts such an amazing field that I am proud to play a part in.

Thank you to all of the artists who have submitted to 23 Sandy’s juried shows over our first six years of being in business. These shows are a big part of why we can stay in business. Thank you especially to all of the artists who submitted to FEAST, the source of my joy and pain today.

A hearty thank you as well to the many artists who handle rejection with aplomb. Their kind emails always make me grateful to be part of such a supportive community of artists.

Stay tuned for more information about FEAST. It’s going to be a good one! What really surprised me was the wide variety of topics explored by 88 very talented artists including cookbooks, family food histories, (several!) books made as sandwiches and books celebrating the sensual nature of food (think ravishing radishes and curious cauliflowers). Then there were many books on the thought-provoking side of food including famine foods, genetically modified food and even cannibalism.

While I offer congratulations to everyone who participated, here is a list of the artists accepted into FEAST, which opens here in the gallery on May 10th. Mark you calendars now for an artists reception that same date, from 6-8:00 p.m.

Naomi Adams
Islam Aly
Patty Bruce
Cathleen Casey
Minali Chatani
Robin Bachtler Cushman
Katie Delay
David Esslemont
Virginia Flynn
Joe Freedman
Patricia Freeman-Martin
Jonathan Gerken
Annie Herlocker
Diane Jacobs
Deborah Kogan
Karen Koshgarian
Elaine Langerman
Woody Leslie
Louise Levergneux
Sarah McCoy
Tekla McInerney
Bessie Smith Moulton
Jackie Niemi
Kathleen O’Connell
Chandler O’Leary
Lisa Onstad
Bettina Pauly
Linda Piacentini-Yaple
Bob Pliny
Katya Reka
Janet Reynolds
Robert Rowe
Elizabeth Sanford
Marina Sartori
Julie Shaw Lutts
Daniel Smith
Laurie Szujewska
Lane Taplin
Bonnie Thompson Norman
M. L. Van Nice
Elsi Vassdal Ellis
Laurie Weiss
Sandra Winkworth
Pamela Wood

More info coming soon! Stay tuned. Next up: catalog production.

Have a good weekend,

Laura

Mark your calendars for a reception for both artists on Friday, April 19, 2013 from 4:00-6:00 p.m.

Gulf Coast ABC by Bea Nettles

BEA NETTLES
Throughout her career, the renowned Bea Nettles has used a wide range of photographic processes in her work as a photographer and book artist. Her themes are often autobiographical or based in travel, mythology and nature; and she gracefully approaches the subjects of family, relationships, and personal identity. Books have held an important place in her artistic expression since the 1970′s and she continues to fearlessly combine her work in experimental and alternative process photography with mixed media and artist books.

Nettles is perhaps most famous for her 1977 book, Breaking the Rules: A Photo Media Cookbook, which has been the definitive textbook for alternative process photography and, after several editions, is still widely used today.

From there she turned to publishing her own offset, limited edition artist books, a huge endeavor in our pre-print-on-demand world. That led her into the world of handmade books, most all using her own photographs. Today, developments in digital offset printing have enabled her to create small printed editions of new titles, most recently Stonecipher: A Book of Seasons and Place, two tiles featuring poetry written using photographs of gravestone words and letters.

A couple of other highlights from her show here at 23 Sandy include Paper Birds, which features photographic etchings, laser prints, and decorative artist papers. Inspired by the life and work of James Audubon, Nettles collages her often-surreal photographs of birds against a sky of etchings and artist papers.

In the book The Four Guardians, Nettles explores Icelandic mythology with her photographic representation of the story recorded by Snorri Sturluson, explaining how the dragon, eagle, bull, and giant once protected Iceland from attack.

Bea’s photographic artist books can be previewed here.

Installation by Mary Bennett

MARY BENNETT
Portland-based, conceptual artist Mary Bennett collects the forgotten ephemera of other people’s lives: found photographs in various forms including 35mm film negative strips, vintage color slides, glass plate negatives, snapshots and more. With these lost and discarded objects, she contemplates, imagines and embellishes the stories of their unknown and forgotten owners.

Bennett muses on the days before digital media and the careful and uncertain attempts we made to preserve our memories. Back in the day, our desire to capture the fleeting moments that comprise our lives compelled us to take hundreds of snapshots on film—the unseen, much-awaited, and often unsatisfactory images were revealed to us only after days of anxious anticipation and tedious chemical processing. Now that we are swept up in the impermanence of pixels and the immediacy of the delete button, the mystery, frustration, and inevitable detritus of processed film is, for better or worse, largely a thing of the past.

In her installation that will be viewable from both inside and outside the gallery windows, Bennett collects this detritus and contemplates the unknown subjects of hundreds of photos creating stories through “looks, attitude, and imagination”. She explains, “viewing these images taken by people you don’t know, of people you don’t know, in places you don’t know will give you license to free associate and form your own story.”

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The exhibition career of Bea Nettles began in 1970 when her work was shown in Photography Into Sculpture, curated by the late John Szarkowski, at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. Her work has been featured in over two hundred exhibitions throughout the world and has been regularly reviewed in the media as well as featured in numerous publications, including internationally. Her books and photographic works have been placed in public collections and special collections libraries, and she has received two National Endowment for the Arts Photography Fellowships and grants from the New York and Illinois State Arts Councils. Nettles has been teaching since 1970 and has delivered lectures and workshops internationally.  Her 2007 solo show at 23 Sandy Gallery is documented here.

Mary Bennett earned her B.A. in creative arts, painting and her M.A. in Inter-Arts from San Francisco State University. She also holds finance degrees from the University of Washington. Bennett has shown her work in a number of solo exhibitions, and was awarded the State of New Mexico’s Emerging and Practicing Artists Purchase Initiative in 2003 and 2005; the Herstein Family Acquisitions Endowment Fund, Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM in 2004; and the Purchase Award from the Anderson-Abruzzo International Balloon Museum in 2002. Her 2011 installation at 23 Sandy Gallery is documented here.

Stop by to see more from these two very talented artists soon!

Artist’s Book Ideation Cards by Barbara Tetenbaum and Julie Chen

You’ve probably already heard of Barb Tetenbaum and Julie Chen’s fantastic Ideation Cards. This inspiring deck of imaginative book arts prompts can now be purchased here at 23 Sandy, both in the gallery and online.

Barb and Julie tell us “The Artist’s Book Ideation Cards deck was designed as an aid to the book artist, to jump start a new project or inform one in progress. There are two decks in the set: Category Cards containing approximately eight cards in each of the seven categories (text, image, structure, paper, layout, technique and color) and 54 Adjective Cards of which three are ‘wild cards.’ Choosing a card randomly from each of the seven categories and five cards from the adjectives offers an unexpected recipe for a book art project.”

Click here to order you set today!

Book artist, and art editor for So to Speak, the feminist publication sponsoring this call, Ceci Cole McInturff, is now accepting submissions for the 2013 All-Media Visual Art Competition “The Hybrid Book.”

From the call for entries: “The So to Speak 2013 visual art competition seeks entries in all media which the makers consider to represent – in any and all ways – today’s book experience, and which articulate issues of significance to women’s lives, voice, power, and equality in contemporary culture. Jurors Brigitte Reyes, Helen Frederick and Alicia Bailey welcome submissions in all media, including performance, digital and new media, photography and all 2D and 3D visual art forms, as well as sculptural book objects and artist’s books, whether or not incorporating text.”

Find out out more about call for entries here.

Dragonfly by Bryan Kring

23Sandy Gallery artist, Bryan Kring was an aspiring writer in his early twenties when he found that he had more pictures in his head than he did stories. The realization led to a decision: he would put his writing aside to pursue art—specifically, painting. Kring received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Shortly after graduating, he found his way into the world of printmaking.

Today, Kring has found success as a graphic designer, letterpress printer, and book artist. Living and working in Oakland, CA, he directs his creativity into paper sculptures and moveable prints. Kring explains, “The book arts and paper sculptures have allowed me to combine elements printed on the etching press, others printed on the letterpress, and water colored pieces as well. Whereas in the past it sometimes felt as if I was moving restlessly from technique to technique, now I am able to work within them all.”

Kring tends to work at a very small scale. Many of his pieces do not exceed four inches in width or height. Meticulously cut paper parts move seamlessly together or hover in layers, creating dimensional space. Kring’s tendency to blend painting and etching with letterpress printing allows him to achieve dynamic variations in texture and line quality as well as to combine text and image.

Insecta Coleoptera by Bryan Kring

The joy Kring finds in art making is apparent in all of his work. He expounds, “The main reason that I like making moveable books and paper sculptures is because it’s so much fun. It’s fun painting and tinkering with the various little bits and pieces that are assembled. When you are constructing with paper there is no limit to the objects that are available for you to use. If you need a specific piece, a rusty propeller or a wooden bench for example, you just draw it, cut it out, and paint it. With just a few simple tools you can build a miniature world.”

Kring’s work is whimsical and mysterious. Undertones of both darkness and humor tend to surface in his art. He often explores the relationship between meaning and the meaningless through themes of adventure and nostalgia.

For instance, the book Dragonfly is based on a childhood memory involving the killing of a dragonfly. Kring recounts, “it was a very small event but for me it marked a passage and a loss of innocence. Both sad and utterly human.” Dragonfly is a book that unfolds into two panels and a diorama. The multi-colored paper dragonfly, surrounded by brooms and attached to a hidden “stem”, trembles with the movement of the book.

The Fall by Bryan Kring

The Fall contains a tiny astronaut in a diorama book, eternally frozen in a steady plummet to earth. The astronaut hovers along with a bird amidst clouds and above city buildings. An unfurled banner in the bird’s beak encourages, “Carpe diem”, enhancing the satirical humor of the astronaut’s plight. In his eternal free fall, the astronaut is left to ponder the “unresolved tug of war between meaning, which can be found in the moments of life, and the meaningless, into which everything is ultimately rendered by death.” Like Dragonfly, the movement of the book causes the astronaut and the bird, both attached to the back of the book with “stems”, to shake.

Insecta Coleoptera is a small box containing a paper beetle specimen. When the lid, which contains a mysterious explanation of the specimen, is removed, and a tiny knob at the base of the box is pulled, the insect’s wings open to reveal a “hidden passenger.” Through Insecta Coleoptera, Kring considers our human tendency to observe, record, and catalog information as we attempt to make sense of the world around us, remarking, “Where there are holes, theories can be drawn to fill them—all in an effort to assemble a story that will light the void and give meaning to the meaningless. For without an explanation who could sleep peacefully through the night?”

Kring has come a long way from those days in his twenties when he dreamt of being “Ernest Hemingway with a bottle of rum in a grass hut on a beach in Cuba.” Through his journey in book arts, he has found his way back to writing and storytelling. His literary skill combined with his strong sense of design, precision, and creativity make his moveable books and paper sculptures unique, compelling objects.

See more of Bryan Kring’s movable book works here.

This article was written by Erin Mickelson for 23 Sandy Gallery and first appeared in the quarterly newsletter of The Movable Book Society, an organization we highly recommend.

Bea Nettles

Bea Nettles is coming to Oregon! She’ll be here in the gallery on Friday, April 19 from 4:00-6:00 p.m. for a reception celebrating 23 Sandy’s exhibition of her photographic artist books. That event will be a joint reception with Mary Bennett who will create an installation in the windows of the gallery. Both of these events are part of Portland Photo Month.

On Saturday, April 20, Bea will be teaching a day-long workshop called The Collage Book at Newspace. She is an excellent teacher and this class will fill up quickly so sign up soon. Registration is now open here.

On Sunday at 4:00 she will give a reading of her latest book Place at Pioneer Place Mall, 700 SW 5th Ave/3rd Floor, as a part of TJ Norris’ exhibition called Off the Plain. Additional details will be posted about this here.

See you then,

Laura