The pop-up wall got me thinking about how much I love pop up books. They are like puppet books to me. I love this pop up book video by Juniper Albert Tangpuz--the black and white color, the movement of the book parts and hands plus the groovy music--it does remind me of a puppet show!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Juniper Albert Tangpuz (continued)
Juniper Albert Tangpuz also makes great paper sculptures as well as interesting videos. Visit his website and look at his gallery section. His stencil images in gallery one and his wild life images in gallery 2 are amazing!
Stencil No. 6 (Homage to the Tree of Knowledge) Juniper Albert Tangpuz
Slow Spiked Crawler Beast Juniper Albert Tangpuz
Monday, August 27, 2007
Pop-up Jungle mural
Now talk about interative book...er...wall. How amazing to step in to a life size pop up book! This kid will be the next Robert Sabuda from being around pop-up structures from birth!
CALL FOR ART: ALTERED BOOKS
I came across this call for book arts. Get your scissors out and sculpt those old books!
CALL FOR ART: ALTERED BOOKS AT MINNEAPOLIS CENTRAL LIBRARY
Minneapolis Public Library announces a national call for U.S. artists to submit digital images of altered books for a juried exhibition January-March 2008 at Minneapolis Central Library’s Cargill Hall exhibition gallery. The exhibition will be juried by Betty Bright, Ph.D., former curator at Minnesota Center for Book Arts and author of No Longer Innocent: Book Art in America, 1960 to 1980, (Granary Books, 2005). The exhibition will be part of a city-wide series of workshops, exhibitions and programs capped by the annual convention of the Public Library Association, in Minneapolis, March 25-29, 2008. According to the International Society of Book Artists, an altered book is any book, old or new, that has been recycled by creative means into a work of art.
Submission Fee: $20 (make checks payable to Minneapolis Public Library) for up to 5 images on CD. Images should be saved in JPG format, 72 dpi, no more than seven inches (or 504 pixels) along the image’s longest dimension.Works must be original in concept and execution and have been created since January 1, 2003. Note that this exhibition is open to working artists only.
Application deadline: October 15, 2007. Final selection is November 1.
Get application details
Please direct questions to: Melinda Ludwiczak at 612-630-6246.
CALL FOR ART: ALTERED BOOKS AT MINNEAPOLIS CENTRAL LIBRARY
Minneapolis Public Library announces a national call for U.S. artists to submit digital images of altered books for a juried exhibition January-March 2008 at Minneapolis Central Library’s Cargill Hall exhibition gallery. The exhibition will be juried by Betty Bright, Ph.D., former curator at Minnesota Center for Book Arts and author of No Longer Innocent: Book Art in America, 1960 to 1980, (Granary Books, 2005). The exhibition will be part of a city-wide series of workshops, exhibitions and programs capped by the annual convention of the Public Library Association, in Minneapolis, March 25-29, 2008. According to the International Society of Book Artists, an altered book is any book, old or new, that has been recycled by creative means into a work of art.
Submission Fee: $20 (make checks payable to Minneapolis Public Library) for up to 5 images on CD. Images should be saved in JPG format, 72 dpi, no more than seven inches (or 504 pixels) along the image’s longest dimension.Works must be original in concept and execution and have been created since January 1, 2003. Note that this exhibition is open to working artists only.
Application deadline: October 15, 2007. Final selection is November 1.
Get application details
Please direct questions to: Melinda Ludwiczak at 612-630-6246.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
One more Paper Studio BoyFriend
Alrighty, then...I'm almost done with posting about our boy friends.
Today was a papermaking pulping day--making chocolate pulp and cleaning up lots o' stuff from our marathon papermaking adventures of late.
While I was out there I decided to tackle moving the 150 lb bale of hesperaloe (for papermaking) that was plunked in the middle of the courtyard which ultimately became the bottom of the mountain of crap. I'm only 5'2" and the bale was about as tall as me when I turned it upright--I succeeded in dragging it over to the wall although from the looks of the bale compared to my scratched up arms, perhaps it won that round.
Banana tree leaf plant fiber makes the most lovely paper! Now at least is in one place and I believe this fiber IS multiplying in volume.
Today was a papermaking pulping day--making chocolate pulp and cleaning up lots o' stuff from our marathon papermaking adventures of late.I've needed to tidy up our papermaking courtyard for weeks but once it started being 110 degrees for days on end, I just didn't feel up to it and I swear piles of stuff breed and multiply in the night! However, with several more days of marathon papermaking looming large, I needed to get out there and rinse off about 100 pellons to get ready for our next round of papermaking.
While I was out there I decided to tackle moving the 150 lb bale of hesperaloe (for papermaking) that was plunked in the middle of the courtyard which ultimately became the bottom of the mountain of crap. I'm only 5'2" and the bale was about as tall as me when I turned it upright--I succeeded in dragging it over to the wall although from the looks of the bale compared to my scratched up arms, perhaps it won that round.From this shot, you'd think I bagged a ton of garbage...wrong! This is not garbage but fabulous banana fiber that Larry from the arts and cultural center brought us for papermaking.
Banana tree leaf plant fiber makes the most lovely paper! Now at least is in one place and I believe this fiber IS multiplying in volume. Once I got the courtyard relatively organized, I looked at my planting beds which have totally gone amok--come out, come out, come out where every you are!--my bird of paradise plants are buried under nut grass that completely taken over. I thought to myself, Vynnie the gardener, would be quite dismayed at the sad state of affairs of the whole situation. Especially since he and Robin added the great pots to one side of the courtyard. But after being outside for 2 hours in 109 degree temps cleaning pellons, wrestling with the hesper bale, moving tables and corralling all the banana fiber, I decided the weeding could wait till next week.
It was like the universe was eavesdropping. When I got home this evening, I got an email saying that our good friend, Vynnie the Gardner is in the latest issue of Popular Mechanics! I thought that magazine was about cars....they should have a subtitle that says "we are NOT just about cars". Anyway, Vynnie McDaniels is there on page 64--The Xeriscape Artist and he definitely is!
We met Vynnie through art functions, not gardening (we just pester him with planting questions now). Robin and Vynnie will be in an upcoming Paper Studio video talking about visual journaling. They have coordinated our October Under the Covers journaling show for the past 3 years and are prolific visual journalers, drawers while being the most amazingly creative and fun people. The Under the Covers 3 show will be up from October 1 - 31, 2007 so stay tuned. Congrats Vynnie on the Pop Mech press!
We met Vynnie through art functions, not gardening (we just pester him with planting questions now). Robin and Vynnie will be in an upcoming Paper Studio video talking about visual journaling. They have coordinated our October Under the Covers journaling show for the past 3 years and are prolific visual journalers, drawers while being the most amazingly creative and fun people. The Under the Covers 3 show will be up from October 1 - 31, 2007 so stay tuned. Congrats Vynnie on the Pop Mech press!
Saturday, August 25, 2007
More Paper Studio Guys
Okay, now here are they guys you'll see regularly at The Paper Studio. It really does take a village to run a studio. Now I'm actually the only one here "full time" which is apx 80-ish hours a week but these are key guys that are here throughout the week and help make the studio work. (I'll do a post on the key gals as well)
Gary is the co-founder and owner of the studio. The studio is really his 2nd full time job where gets to come after working all day to hang out with us in the evenings and weekends either teaching classes or running the shop. He is an accomplished bookbinder and photographer whose work has been exhibited throughout the state. Gary is a great collaborative partner in artwork whether as a subject or as an engineer. A huge 6' x 4' cyanotype image on silk organza, of Gary swimming in a full business suit was plastered all over Chicago during the Manifest Urban Artfest in 2004 and now swims in our classroom. (It took a lot of convincing to get him into that water the day before Christmas eve--what a good sport!) He gets to put his engineering skills to fine use with all the hairbrained installation schemes we seems to dream up at the studio or in our own artwork. Here's a pic of him printing--until recently he's only had time to move and fix the presses but I think he's got the printing bug now!
Mike is our letterpress guru. He teaches our letterpress classes and collaborates with us on our print jobs. He has been involved in letterpress printing since he was a teenager. He trained two years after high school to become a printer but a sudden career change found him as publisher of a community newspaper in Minnesota until he retired and moved to Arizona. He has a print shop at his home and has been active in letterpress printing, including publishing two books. He is a co-founder of a national letterpress group (founded in 1958), the Amalgamated Printers' Association…an organization composed of letterpress printing enthusiasts—hobby printers, typecasters and letterpress collectors. Mike has also started a way cool publication called Galley Gab. What every you do, don't promise this man cake unless you mean it...he still holds it against us that we invited him to a birthday party and we accidentally held the party earlier & ate all the cake before he got there...oops!
Adam is our photo and web guy who also is fine printer and bookbinder as well. Adam has a BFA in photography from Arizona State University is a fabulous fine art photographer. See more of his work on adamdraper.net. Besides helping us he also works with KAET Channel 8 at Arizona State University. He's getting married this fall so we keep reminding him to get busy printing this invitations!
Matti Matterson comes to work with me at least twice a week. You'll only see him on the web and never out in the shop because he is very, very shy. He sleeps on the shelf in the office or in the closet and chirps at birds out the window.
Gary is the co-founder and owner of the studio. The studio is really his 2nd full time job where gets to come after working all day to hang out with us in the evenings and weekends either teaching classes or running the shop. He is an accomplished bookbinder and photographer whose work has been exhibited throughout the state. Gary is a great collaborative partner in artwork whether as a subject or as an engineer. A huge 6' x 4' cyanotype image on silk organza, of Gary swimming in a full business suit was plastered all over Chicago during the Manifest Urban Artfest in 2004 and now swims in our classroom. (It took a lot of convincing to get him into that water the day before Christmas eve--what a good sport!) He gets to put his engineering skills to fine use with all the hairbrained installation schemes we seems to dream up at the studio or in our own artwork. Here's a pic of him printing--until recently he's only had time to move and fix the presses but I think he's got the printing bug now!Mike is our letterpress guru. He teaches our letterpress classes and collaborates with us on our print jobs. He has been involved in letterpress printing since he was a teenager. He trained two years after high school to become a printer but a sudden career change found him as publisher of a community newspaper in Minnesota until he retired and moved to Arizona. He has a print shop at his home and has been active in letterpress printing, including publishing two books. He is a co-founder of a national letterpress group (founded in 1958), the Amalgamated Printers' Association…an organization composed of letterpress printing enthusiasts—hobby printers, typecasters and letterpress collectors. Mike has also started a way cool publication called Galley Gab. What every you do, don't promise this man cake unless you mean it...he still holds it against us that we invited him to a birthday party and we accidentally held the party earlier & ate all the cake before he got there...oops!Adam is our photo and web guy who also is fine printer and bookbinder as well. Adam has a BFA in photography from Arizona State University is a fabulous fine art photographer. See more of his work on adamdraper.net. Besides helping us he also works with KAET Channel 8 at Arizona State University. He's getting married this fall so we keep reminding him to get busy printing this invitations! Matti Matterson comes to work with me at least twice a week. You'll only see him on the web and never out in the shop because he is very, very shy. He sleeps on the shelf in the office or in the closet and chirps at birds out the window.
Friday, August 24, 2007
The Paper Studio BoyFriends
In working on the next few posts, I had to laugh when I thought back to a comment last year made by a mixed media instructor here from CA who said she was surprised at how many guys she saw in our shop during the weekend she was teaching. Of course, there are guys in our shop--they are artists, designers, printers, etc. So the next few posts have to do with some of the terrific guys we know.
First up is Kjellgren Alkire (pronounced shell grin). Kjel's show Pulpit is up at eye lounge gallery in Phoenix through September 1st. Kjel is pretty amazing because he is having his MFA show in printmaking at ASU later this year, he's a brand, brand new dad, it's his first year at eye lounge (a terrific gallery where I'm also a member but taking a year off) and his show has been quite the buzz! I'm not surprised at all the buzz because when his work has been in our gallery shows at The Paper Studio, his religious themed pieces from his bible paper airplanes that overflow wastebaskets to his bible pages rolled in gelatin capsules for ease of swallowing have evoked reactions from from laughter to confusion. Kjel is truly one of our favorite characters we have met through the studio and we can't wait to see one of his performances at the gallery tomorrow night. Also, a huge congrats to Kjel for being featured in the Phoenix New Times for the Arist Studio Visit for August. It's an pretty cool honor to be selected since they only feature 12 artists per year. Whoo Hoo!
Next, the very talented and amazingly nice guy Matt Connelly's group show opens at the Mesa Center for the Arts in the project room on September 14th - Jan 6th (Matt's the blue guy on the right :) Cel Mates features Arizona artists influenced by animation. Artists Matt Connelly, Mike Maas, Dave Quan and Roy Wasson Valle will transform a gallery into a humorous & animated world of 2-D and 3-D characters and landscaping. We can't wait to see this show getting a sneak peak at some of the material Matt is working with for his landscape part of the show.
Also at the MCA at the same time is Beyond the Cel--The Influence of Animation on Contemporary Art is in the South GallerySept. 15th - Feb 10th. Beyond the Cel brings together some of the most influential and significant graphic artists of our time, including Ron English, Gary Baseman, Sket-One, Anthony Ausgang, KRK Ryden, Andrew Brandou, The Brothers McLeod, Ryan Bubnis, Michelle Valigura and Amanda Visell. A cel, short for celluloid, is a transparent sheet of plastic (usually acetate) on which objects are drawn or painted for animation, allowing for several layers of composition. After the worldwide launch of RabbitHoles™ 3D Motion Art at Comic-Con in San Diego last month, MCA will be the first venue to showcase this new image technology as part of the Beyond the Cel exhibition featuring Ron English’s Cathy Cowgirl.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Ah...the smell of freshly dried paper...
...it is almost like the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies...NOT! 
But after you make the paper, you are always crazy antsy to open the dryer the next day because you can't wait to see the paper! This paper is going to look luscious letterpressed printed in a warm chocolate ink. (the color, not the flavor :) Donna and I continued on our papermaking marathon today. We left the studio with pulp-y arms & legs as well as completely exhausted. Only a few more papermaking marathons days and we should have the paper part of this project wrapped up...then on to letterpress.
But after you make the paper, you are always crazy antsy to open the dryer the next day because you can't wait to see the paper! This paper is going to look luscious letterpressed printed in a warm chocolate ink. (the color, not the flavor :) Donna and I continued on our papermaking marathon today. We left the studio with pulp-y arms & legs as well as completely exhausted. Only a few more papermaking marathons days and we should have the paper part of this project wrapped up...then on to letterpress.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Looks like oatmeal...tastes like paper!
Hmmm....it even feels like oatmeal... 
This oatmeal looking goo is 100% recycled post consumer rag board turned into pulp.
We added cooked pine needles to the pulp to give it some texture and a slight brown color. Those pesky, brittle pine needles that fall all over your yard turn into to lovely thread-like fibers when you cook them for a few hours.
Donna and I are making recycled paper like manics this week for a large suite of invites for a nature organization. We need to get enough paper made for about 500 6" circles of this color then shift gears to make more pulp in green and the brown colors--enough paper for about 2000 more pieces this week. We definitely will be up to our elbows in pulp!
Saturday, August 18, 2007
It's amazing what you find out in the world when you have insomnia! I came across this lovely work by Abigail Glassenberg who is an artist, mother and teacher. Take a peek at more of her images on her flickr site and see her blog www.whileshenaps.typepad.com to follow her crafting adventures.(Looks like one annoyed bird!)
Monday, August 13, 2007
A Modern-Day DaVinci Genius?
I've been dying to post this piece by Sculptor Theo Jansen but I decided to wait because I got Gary the DVD of his work for his birthday and wanted to surprise him! He was as blown away as I was by the work. It is unbelievable--an amazing combination of art and engineering. Now I want to make building-size paper structures that move...
Friday, August 03, 2007
We feel really fortunate to have Teesha and Tracy Moore teaching at our studio in October. This is our third year for a fall Visual Journaling weekend (more about that later) Their work is absolutely terrific. I remember meeting them at a show in the 1990's. I really believe that they are the catalysts that got visual journaling into the mainstream and also the ones who started the trend in the weeklong art retreats. A friend of mine from Washington used to tell how much she loved going to this way cool alternative arts fest that they used to hold in Seattle years ago.
I remember finding their zine--the Studio at issue 8 (way before "zine" became a mainstream word). I was devastated when they stopped publishing it and was over the moon when they started Art and Life. They are so creative and amazingly prolific.
They also run an amazing art event called Artfest. Gary and I took a vacation in 2001 and went to Vancouver Canada for a few days then to Art Fest. It was one of the first years they held it Port Townsend. I was on creative juice overload. I just wanted to stay up all hours of the night and create things--after taking classes all day! Registration for the 2008 Artfest is going online on August 1st--I know several of our customers will be on their computers as the clock strikes midnight so they can see the cadre of fabulous workshops they will have to offer.
While Teesha's classes are full, there are still some spots in Tracy's classes for all of you bookbinders and journalers out there! See their website to learn more about them and get inspired! http://www.teeshamoore.com/
There are a couple of classes that you just must know about! Carol Panaro Smith is teaching a mixed media Artist Books Class at Scottdale Community College this fall. For those of you who may not know Carol, she has her MFA in Photography from ASU and is an amazing artist and equally gifted instructor. You'll produce work you never knew you had in you! Here's the scoop on the classes:
Mixed Media Artist Books
MONDAY EVENING: 6-10PM
(Two Saturday labs TBA)
Instructor: Carol Panaro-Smith
8/20/07-12/12/07
Room: AB 122
This course is designed to introduce students to techniques, concepts and formal issues surrounding the book form as a vehicle for artistic expression. Class includes two Saturday labs to be announced on the first day of class. Instructor has waived prerequisites.
ART 295HC/SECTION 6212/ 3 CREDITS(ART290AC/SECTION 6219-advanced section)
Instructor: Carol Panaro-Smith
8/22/07-12/14/07
Room: AB 133
This course is designed to introduce students to both historical and contemporary techniques and concepts relating to alternative methods beyond the silver gelatin print.
ART137/SECTION 6198/3 CREDITS
TO REGISTER:Call Scottsdale Community College: 480-423-6000
For information on courses contact Carol: carol@alchemy-studio.net
To see more of Carol and Jim's work see Alchemy Studio
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
(hand-pulled prints from Barbara Burton's moth series)
I think you should meet some of our talented local artists. We feel really fortunate to have Barbara Burton teaching with us this fall. She is a print maker, bookbinder and painter. The first time I heard about Barbara was about 10+ years ago when a friend of mine and I ran out for lunch to see a group show at a nearby gallery. There was a great print with an equally interesting title: I Need a Good Mechanic that Barbara had done and my friend purchased. I kept crossing paths with Barbara in various art circles over the years which culminated in us having a 2-person show in few years ago. It was amusing how the gallery coordinator informed me about the show. She said that there was this other artist--Barbara Burton--and our art would really work well together. She asked me if I knew her--and of course I did and our show went off without a hitch. Her landscape paintings are now on exhibition at Tempe City Hall. You can see more of her work at her site http://www.bburtonart.com/. Barbara will be teaching the solar plate etching workshop with us this fall. The images above incorporate the solar plate techniques.
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