P is for Plants

The complete book and an image of each page can be found on my website

The Marin MoCA's annual Altered Book Exhibition and fundraiser opens tomorrow and this year I have a book featured. I'll be one of 150 artists with a piece up for auction with the proceeds going to support the museum. It's the first time I've exhibited book art with content since college and I couldn't be more excited. 

As you know, I'm quite fond of upcycling, or taking something old, used or worn and turning it into something new. With this in mind, I jumped at the challenge of creating a piece for the exhibition. It all began with an orphaned volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica that I found at a SFPL book sale a few years back. I had been using it sporadically for collaging and wrapping paper but wanted to do a larger scale project with it. 

The volume I had was PLANTS to RAYM and, given my obsession with plants, it naturally seemed that that should be the subject for this book. 

I started out by making a list of plants I wanted to include. I won't lie, I chose ones that I liked, but also tried to have a mix of flowers, green plants, and fruit bearing plants. Then, with a decent amount of Internet searching for models, I sketched each page out in my notebook before moving on to the actual pages. 

I really love the botanical field journals of the 18th and 19th centuries so while researching, I took short notes about each plant I was drawing so that I could add notes, making the final book have a bit of a field journal air to it.

It was quite laborious given that I'm not known for my penmanship, drawing isn't my strong suit, and neither is coloring, but I wanted to push myself so each page was sketched, inked with Micron pens, and colored with colored pencils. I'm rather pleased with the results.

The final structure is an accordion, hinged with Lokta paper, with hard covers that have a mock half binding appearance. The backside of the book is lamented with un-altered encyclopedia pages. The book is unique and not editioned. More images, and artist statement, and the complete book layout can be found on my website. 

Botanical Gardens

Last Sunday we decided to go for a walk in the sunshine at the Regional Parks Botanical Garden. It wasn't the best day for flower viewing, it's technically still winter and, despite the warmth, not much is growing yet but, I was still able to enjoy the scenery.

American Museum of Natural History: Dioramas

Back to vacation pictures. One of the best adventures I had on the East Coast was my trip to the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City. It's full of interesting things, even if you're not a science nerd, and it's got a great mix of new exhibits and exhibits that look like they haven't changed since the 1950s or 60s. 
I took a lot of pictures while here (the place is huge!) so here is round one; the dioramas. I've always been drawn to dioramas. With my own artwork I hope to someday create environments, pieces and installations that are based on reality but are also an alternate. Dioramas do just that, they're installations that strive to be reality but can never fully achieve it.

The Story of Mint

Everything has a story and stories make even the most mundane stuff special. For me, one of those special things is mint. A few years back, when I was having one of those days where everything just seemed like it was going wrong, my friend invited me over for afternoon tea. The tea was made with fresh mint from her garden. After hours of chatting, and a lot of tea, I was feeling like everything was just fine. Ever since, mint, and especially mint tea, puts a smile on my face. You can imagine how excited I was when that same friend gave me some mint cuttings from her yard a couple weeks ago. After sitting in water, they sprouted roots and yesterday they were potted. Now I have my own extra special mint plants at home.