Openings Connecting: the GYPSY WAGON bringing bookmakers to town

Sunday, September 26, 2010

the GYPSY WAGON bringing bookmakers to town

our local Kalamazoo Book Arts Center hosted Peter and Donna Thomas from Santa Cruz this weekend...It was great fun taking their miniature book workshop. . .resulting in two 2x3inch books...Here are my pop-up accordion book and the box/scroll book! (please note my handmade knobs for turning the scrolls, a real challenge to my fine-motor skills!)

17 comments:

Caterina GiglioSeptember 26, 2010 at 8:16 PM
just fabulous.. the wagon and the books... love your scrolls and handmade knobs... is the wagon for their travel? looks like a great time ....
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SethSeptember 26, 2010 at 8:30 PM
The wagon looks so cool. And your books are great...love the knobs!!
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chiccorealSeptember 27, 2010 at 5:29 AM
Dear Nancy: What magic; A gypsy wooden wagon from Santa Cruz lands in Kalamazoo! Very inspiration this travelling minstrel show of books and scrolls; loves those fancy wooden knobs too, love those glass ones too, the crystal ball kind. Recently found out I was born the Queen of the Gypsy's died! That's why I love travelling I suppose. GReat Pics! Ohohhhoooohhh yEAH!!!
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ShaylaSeptember 27, 2010 at 5:33 AM
Very cool!
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ArtPropelledSeptember 27, 2010 at 5:40 AM
The box scroll book is ingenius and how can one not be captivated by the gypsy wagon!?
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sukipoetSeptember 27, 2010 at 6:45 AM
Love the wagon. I own one of their books about bookbinding. I think the scroll book is in there. What fun to take a hands on wkshp with them. Lucky you.
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S. EtoleSeptember 27, 2010 at 8:51 AM
this makes my heart smile ...
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Blue Sky DreamingSeptember 27, 2010 at 9:16 AM
Your books are stunning! Love the cover on one and the scroll on the other!
Nice to see hometown Santa Cruz artists doing there creative 'thing' out there in such a wonderful wagon. How clever!
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Lucky Dip LisaSeptember 28, 2010 at 2:14 AM
I love the wagon and your handmade book! I really like the idea of scrolls you can turn and to roam like a gypsy is a dream of mine. A perfect pairing!
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Renee HowellSeptember 28, 2010 at 6:27 AM
Lovin' em! Now THAT would have been a fun class to take together. You live in a wonderful, art-supportive community! Keeping my eyes peeled for a wonderful wagon like theirs, now that I know they exist.
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ValeriannaSeptember 28, 2010 at 7:00 AM
I just discovered the wandering book artists and am excited to try to get them to the university where I teach when they are traveling through. I love the caravan and dusting of enchantment they must leave on the roads as they travel around!

Your books look lovely, too!
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LauraSeptember 28, 2010 at 5:45 PM
the colors of the wagon are amazing! I love your book and the craft-woman-ship and care you clearly put into creating it! Very cool!
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Poetic ArtistSeptember 28, 2010 at 6:19 PM
I love the wagon..Gypsy at heart. Love your little creation.
Katelen
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layersSeptember 29, 2010 at 2:33 PM
love your scrolls in your book form-- I have been making scrolls for my paintings-- scrolls are wonderful.
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DebrinaSeptember 30, 2010 at 5:41 PM
Ooo this is a feast for the eyes...that wagon is immaculate and so gorgeously whimsical! And I love your scroll/book! I love the fact that you turn this little scroll of yours with handles. How perfect!
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rivergardenstudioOctober 2, 2010 at 9:08 AM
The wandering art wagon is so whimsical and fun, and your book with the turnig scroll is wonderful. How fun and intricate this all is! Have a beautiful weekend. roxanne
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ELKOctober 14, 2010 at 4:41 AM
this is just fabulous neva...what a delight in color!!
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FOUR DIRECTIONS/FOUR VISIONS: Two Graces: First showing for me, JUNE 3, 2011

With no directions home, I found Taos in the late 60s. It felt like home immediately. It still does. I know this sentiment is familiar to countless others.

The mountain stopped me in my tracks, and I stayed for several years. Since that time, I circle back annually.

To me, that circle is symbolic of this body of work at Two Graces. This is a time in my life when I've been fortunate enough to experiment with art making. Not surprisingly, I found myself drawn back to the images in the Ektachrome slides that I'd taken in the early 80s of Chaco Canyon, the San Francisco de Asis Church, dusty roads, and the ever changing skies of Northern New Mexico. The spirit of this adobed land lingers in my core and manifests itself within these works.

This past Michigan winter was spent creating enlarged negatives from my thirty year old slides, pulling part of my past into the present via today's tools of scanner and computer. Using traditional silver-gelatin darkroom processes, these resurrected and modified negatives acquired a new life. The majority of these prints are the result of this mediated reincarnation.

The smaller images took me into photographic processes from the mid-1800s. These handmade platinum/palladium prints are created coating vellum, for translucency, with these metal salts and exposing them to ultraviolet light. They are then bathed in the alchemy of the darkroom. The tonal qualities are unique in each print. Finally, 24k gold is layered to the backs of the prints, emanating the warmth, glow, and depth of these beloved places.