Redaer's Art 12: Jamie Weaver

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home


Jamie Weaver

West Virginia in Quilts recalls my childhood memories of growing up in rural Appalachia.  My family has long been involved with folk arts and crafts, and I was encouraged to explore these creative outlets both at home and in school.  Looking back, I realize that much emphasis was placed on West Virginia as a center for Appalachian crafts and tourism, and larger issues affecting the state, like mountaintop removal and rampant meth use, were swept under the rug.  When I was in school, we weren’t taught how to be socially, financially, and environmentally loyal to our state – we were told that to be successful adults, we’d probably have to move out of state.  So, with West Virginia in Quilts, I wanted to use a traditional Appalachian craft, quilting, to bring awareness to more serious issues affecting West Virginia. 

            I chose an accordion fold structure so that the book unfolds and spreads out like a quilt.  The title of the book works on a couple of levels:  It is a glimpse of West Virginia through beautiful quilt patterns, and it is also a state in quilts, or covered from view.  Since the truth rarely remains hidden, I let the ugliness underneath peek through the quilts on the surface; when the quilt unfolds, the whole story is revealed.  The front and back are covered with handmade paper that reminds me of quilt batting.

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home
March 16- April 26, 2012

Reader's Art 12: Jennifer Vignone

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home   Jennifer Vignone

Fall 2011

Kitakata, Gampi, encaustic, linoleum cut, gold leaf, pencil, original text, ink, nails, wood. 

Following is the text of the book.

"Let me die," he says. 
He is yelling it at Mom,
at the nurse, there in his room, 
at me at the long end of the phone 
and at God -- hovering, 
as he'd like to hover, 
freed from his stagnant frame.
"I'm old and want to die in peace."
All the yelling doesn't seem peaceful 
but I know it is what he wants.

We had to remove the gun and knives 
after we caught him with 
the .22 in his mouth. 
Were his hands too arthritic 
as he fumbled for the trigger? 
Or was he, even then, 
thinking it over?
I wondered what it would have been, 
over the phone, to hear the silence after the blast?

"Why didn't I find you on the floor?"she demanded. 
He had threatened to throw himself 
from the bed in an effort 
to kill himself.

In the delicately gnarled strands 
of their life together, 
they felt out the hereafter. 
Mom negotiated the exit 
as he struggled in his unresponsive shell.

Their conversation was peppered 
with allusions to the great beyond.
Its smell was in the air. 
She said to him, ìI thought you'd 
be more of a man," 
in the way he dealt with age 
and what followed.

I think of the time that I cannot grasp.
And what if I could, 
but grasped the wrong moment?
Mother. Father. A woman and a man, 
in time, and running out of time.

A flicker of light suddenly blinding gold and yellow 
and white in hand-to-hand combat with Darkness. 
A bird wing glide suspends briefly before free-fall.
Are there miracles?

I'd never understood the things 
that seemed so important to him -
ancient not-working timepieces, 
tie clips, old radios that he described 
as brand new, his Hathaway shirts 
with their three-hole buttons - until now. 
These were the things he had to offer 
after so many years. These were his legacy, 
not of typical fortune, but of a life.

I have an image of him in my head 
from a photograph of him
as a young man, before knowing my mother. 
She sits now by his side and holds his hand. 
She dials me with her free hand 
and rasps into the phone. 
He sleeps and when he wakes, he gasps. 
I think he is surprised to find himself still here.

Rich laughter chimed like 
heavy glass but I couldn't tell 
what caused such a sound. 
Spirals held me enthralled, 
rapt, terrified. 
I wandered about, 
hoping not to burst, 
but not afraid to die.

Will I, in my final moment,
hear my own thud? 

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home

March 16- April 26, 2012

Reader's Art 12: Judith Strom

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home  

Judith Strom- This book is an exploration of our acreage here in Montana.  All the materials for book except the thread for binding & stitching and the computer inks came from our property as did the images.  The paper is handmade from yucca.

As with most of my work this piece grows out of my love of the natural world and most especially the beauty of our home here in Montana.

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home
March 16- April 26, 2012

Reader's Art 12: Marilyn Stablein

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home

Marilyn Stablein - An ongoing series of artist books Notions and Accessories explores an artist’s whimsical narrative history of needlework, notions, and women’s antique fashion and fabric accessories.  By utilizing actual found antique objects I hope to honor and celebrate everyday women’s historical tools and handiwork. Current completed artist books in this series include works devoted to The Bias Tape, Needles, vintage Handkerchiefs, and vintage nylon stockings and a stocking bag.


Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home 
March 16- April 26, 2012

Reader's Art 12: Maryann Riker

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home  Maryann Riker

Maryann Riker is a mixed-media artist whose artist books and collage works convey a visual narrative to remind one of the past and journeys through which we all travel throughout our lives.  Her works incorporate digital images, Victorian iconography, and other symbols to convey a sense of memory and time as one opens and unfolds the work.   

Her works have been exhibited both nationally and internationally and are in the Special Collections of:  The Brooklyn Museum of Art, The Walker Art Center, the Art Institute of Chicago, The National Museum for Women in the Arts, Yale University, Mills College, University of Iowa, Rhode Island School of Design, Lafayette College, Rutgers University, Newark Art Museum, Newark Public Library and many other private and public collections.

When not creating, Maryann is writing grants, reading mystery or historical fiction novels, practicing to be a wild wannabe or working on becoming a legend in her own living room.




Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home
March 16- April 26, 2012

Reader's Art 12: Carol Morris

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home   Carol Morris-The place is the exotic landscape of childhood in rural Ohio. Where tigers and lions could co-exist with squirrels. While doing the book I was enchanted by feelings of beauty and safety. Altered  books are my favorite medium. I love books and love discarded books. By altering them,  I preserve  them.

Bio:     I try to remember it's not about me so I will talk in the third person. Carol is a poet, video film maker, and visual artist.  Painting, assemblage and altering things are her favorite mediums. In the last year she's been included in exhibits in Michigan, California and Colorado.

She continues her decade long work of bringing art to women in prison. She lives in Ann Arbor Michigan and loves her grandsons abundantly, as  her grandmother did her.

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home

Reader's Art 12: Mary Ellen Long

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home

Mary Ellen Long was born in Los Angeles, California and lived in the North San Diego County for 22 years.  A multi-media artist  who now lives in Durango, Colorado, her work includes mixed media drawing and assemblage, collage,  indoor and outdoor environmental installations, and artists’ books. 

"I live in a mountain setting and work directly in nature on surrounding lands, intervening in subtle ways with what is found and observed;  using handmade paper to mark, wrap, and expand natural form and elements;  burying paper under winter snows to document process and transition;  and arranging indigenous elements in symbolic forms. "

 Her environmental art projects can be seen at weadartists.org and greenmuseum.org

The artist has exhibted widely for over thirty years and her collage and artists’ books are in numerous public and private collections internationally.

   

Her blog is a good way to find out her current projects.

<maryellenlongart.blogspot.com>

She had a solo show at Susan Hensel Gallery in 2007

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home
March 16- April 26, 2012

Reader's Art 12: Sun Young Kang

Reader's Art 12:Longing for Home   Sun Young Kang

Most people experience the situation of being a “fish out of water.” As a foreigner far from my country, the meaning of this phrase has become painfully evident to me. In my experience, homesickness has not merely been a feeling of melancholy but something more like the suffering a real fish out of water might experience. I have struggled with my identity as an outsider, lost the ability to express myself because of language barriers and struggled in a different culture. The fish in this book represents me: I have not been able to escape the feeling of being an outsider badly missing my home. However, the true focus of this book is that if we have patience and are willing to make an effort, there is always hope in even the most desperate of situations. For fish, water is their home and gives them life. Although the fish out of water could not survive, at the end of this book it creates its own water. We can never permanently leave or lose our home because our true home is what we create throughout our life no matter where we are.

Reader's Art 12:Longing for Home
March 16- April 26, 2012

Reader's Art 12: Irene Chan

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home  Washington, DC artist Irene Chan is continually confronted by stereotypes concerning Asians: Her book,  The Asian American? Project is made from business cards with text that respond to comments and questions that strangers ask Asian Americans. Every week since age 12, I am asked one to ten of the same questions. Since these questions and comments are common to other Asian Americans as well, I created a set of business cards to flash or hand out for the appropriate moments. Through the interaction of questions and answers, lasting racial stereotypes and myths of the concept of the “Asian American” are revealed.




Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home
March 16- April 26, 2012

Reader's Art 12 : Stephanie Carpenter

Reader's Art 12: Longing for HomeI  Stephanie Carpenter wants to challenge the viewer to interact with the book through more than the text by engaging the physical presence of the book itself. Through deliberate physical action with the entire piece, the viewer is asked to slow down while in- teracting with my work. Thus each book is a tangible reminder of how the journey is an important and relevant part of any interaction. Each printed piece was created with handset type, hand-cut illustrations and traditional bookbinding methods. The time that it takes to create the piece is then mirrored in the action the viewer must take to reach the entire content of the book.

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home

March16- April 26, 2012

opening reception, Friday, March 16, 7-10 pm

Reader's Art 12:Mary-Ellen Campbell

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home New York artist Mary-Ellen Campbell is no stranger to Minnesota.  I met her when she was doing a residency in Red Wing, Minnesota.  Mary-Ellen did a lot of residencies that year while she was taking a sabbatical from teaching.  One of the hallmarks of Mary-Ellen's work is her ability to come into a new environment with few materials and few pre-conceived notions.  It is a creative challenge that seems essential to her work practice.  She gathers materials and ideas from her environs and allows them to tell the story that needs to be told.

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home
March 16- April 26, 2012
opening reception, Friday, March 16, 7-10pm

Reader's Art 12 :Mary Bergs and Beth Dorsey

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home  Mary Bergs and Beth Dorsey are Minneapolis artists who collaborate. For the Reader’s Art Exhibition they are creating a collaborative book. Using the structure of an accordion book they plan to visually explore the concept of home as: 

·      A place

·      A state

·      A building

·      Something within us

·      A memory

·      A history

·      A facade

·      An emotion

·      Something familiar

Reader's Art 12: Longing for Home
March 16- April 26, 2012
opening reception, Friday, March 16, 2012

Reader's Art 12 opening soon

Changing Landscapes by Elizabeth Carls

LONGING FOR HOME: Reader’s Art 12

March 16-April 26

Susan Hensel Gallery, 3441 Cedar Ave S, will take a break from retirement for the annual book extravaganza, Reader’s Art 12: Longing for Home , Friday March 16 with a reception and celebration for the artists from 7-10pm.  

This long running show is a national/international survey show of artists books originated by Ms. Hensel when she lived  in East Lansing, Michigan. Now in its twelfth consecutive year, forty two artists form the US, Canada and France responded to the call for artists books that considered the following questions:

What does home mean to you?

Is home a place, a building, a feeling, a belief system,a family, a way of being in the world?

What do you long for?

Not surprisingly, in these transitional times, many artists dwelt in nostalgia for a past time that may or may not have been their own.  There are also political pieces dealing with immigration, and environmental destruction of the planet.  There are pieces that deal with the body as the ultimate home, with identity.  There are beautiful, ethereal books; crudely natural books; creepy books; humorous books; elegant books.

Among the forty two artists are many local folks:  Carolyn Halliday, Phillip R. Luoma Anderson Elizabeth Carls, Maggie Miller, Mary Bergs and Beth Dorsey.

Most of the books may be handled and read. After all, what’s a book if you cannot read it?

Come join the fun, Friday, March 16, 7-10pm.

§  Reader’s Art 12 : Longing for Home

§  March 16- April 26, 2012

§  Susan Hensel Gallery

§  3441 Cedar Ave S., Minneapolis, MN 55407

§  

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About installing art

 Jeff Rathermel is a master!  His show, project gutenberg project, is a series of groupings around a topic.  The green sheets are the titles of the series.  The red sheets are cut to the precise size of the artwork being installed.  They are laid out in their precise grids before any artwork actually is hung.

project gutenberg project

by Jeff Rathermel

September 23- November 18, 2011

Opening Reception Friday, September 23, 7-10pm

An orderly procession

Project Gutenberg, the online archive of literature, ironically destroys printed books in order to salvage the information. Ironically, the process turns well ordered, collated text into a collection of dis-bound, chaotic materials that may or may not convey conventional information to us.With the project gutenberg project Jeff Rathermel has collected this discarded material and compiled and re-oredered it into comprehensible collections of information. He has reconsidered the book in all its parts and has chosen attributes to highlight.

project gutenberg project

by Jeff Rathermel

September 23- November 18, 2011

Opening Reception Friday, September 23, 7-10pm

Gotta Love that Laser Level!

Jeff has the coolest tools!

What a cool laser level!

Without a laser level, this is how I would have hung the show!

project gutenberg arrived today

Boxes upon boxes and bags upon bags of artwork arrived today.  It is always hard to believe that a well ordered show comes out of the chaos of an install...But then there are people like Jeff Rathermel who are so organized and so experienced that anything other than order is unimaginable.

project gutenberg project

by Jeff Rathermel

September 23- November 18, 2011

Opening Reception Friday, September 23, 7-10pm

Trees in the windows

June 9th the gallery was a featured stop on the gallery tours of the Surface Design Conference. Carolyn and I greeted attendees from all over the country.

The conference was amazing, exhausting, over-stimulating! The post conference workshops continue.

My Father's Religion

June 4-July 12

Opening reception June 17, 7-9pm

(Psst! There will be cake!)

shown in conjunction with:

It is a process

Carolyn Halliday loves process. She emailed me last week about how much fun she was having in the studio, knitting trees, getting ready. Of course, that was before the usual pre-show panic that all of us artists experience....the sense of running out of time, the self doubt, the tired body, weird dreams.

The main exhibition is complete.The temporary hooks are removed, the lights are adjusted, the shadows are cast. This week, in the run-up to the Surface Design Conference visits on Thursday, Carolyn will be working on the window installation of silver trees.

And I will be ironing muslin to drape the table and the various distracting aspects of the studio. And, making ice for the hot days ahead.

Susan Hensel Gallery is open on Mondays, 10-5. Other days it is wise to call ahead and make an appointment.

The gallery will also be open Thursday, June 9, 10-5.

Open Now: My Father's Religion June 4- July 12 Opening Reception: June 17, 7-9pm

shown in conjunction with:

Reader's Art is ready to be seen!

It is always exciting! The work is hung, the labels are attached, the lights are balanced! It's another opening! Another show! Sing, everybody! Sing! All that's left to do is a little housecleaning!

Reader's Art eleven opens Friday, March 4, 7pm!