Binders Guild Book Arts Group Open House, April 27, 2013

If you live in the Milwaukee area and are interested in anything related to handmade, handbound and/or altered books, the Binders Guild book arts group will be having an open house for folks interested in joining the group on April 27, 2013 from 10 am to 12 noon at Mount Mary College. You don't have to be an expert book artist to join.

The group meets in Room 446 of Notre Dame Hall. You can find a map of the campus here: http://www.mtmary.edu/pdfs/purplebars/visitors/campusmap.pdf Enter from 92nd Street and park in Lot B. Follow the sidewalk to the covered walkway between buildings #1 (Notre Dame Hall) and #2 (Caroline Hall) on the map. Turn right to use the side entrance to Notre Dame Hall and take the stairs or elevator to the 4th floor. (Room 446 is near the elevator on that side of the building.)

Among the projects that group members are working on with a goal of putting on a show at Mount Mary in the fall of 2014:

• Abecedarium (ABC book)
• Curiosity Box
• 12 x 12 Canvases for the theme "Opposition & Unity"

You can find the group blog here:
http://www.bindersguild.blogspot.com/
And a Pinterest board for inspiration here:
http://pinterest.com/vintagepix/binders-guild/
And see photos from our 2010 show "Books Unbound" here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintagepix/tags/booksunboundreception/

(And after the meeting stop by Artist & Display, just a block away, for their April in Paris Art Event from 12-3 pm.)

Very Tiny Art

This winter my friend Mel Kolstad invited me to participate in an exhibit she was organizing to benefit the Foundation Fighting Blindness, entitled "Through Mia's Eyes." In 2011, Mel's niece Mia was diagnosed with Stargardt's disease, a hereditary condition that left her legally blind in a very short time. She is still able to see color, shapes and light, and Mel asked artist friends to make quarter-inch square art, the tiny size giving viewers a sense of the difficulty Mia now has in seeing her world. Just working on the tiny squares was a challenge, and when Mel first handed me the 1/4" chips, I asked, "What the heck am I supposed to do with these?!"  (When we were looking at these at the March Milwaukee ATC meeting, someone dubbed them "quinchies" for quarter-inchies.)

I finally decided on collage using the smallest faces I could find, portraits cut from postage stamps. I used my thinnest paint brush to add some lines and color, and I cut fine print text from a vintage book to glue around the edge. The hardest part was not being able to see clearly what I was doing, not to mention dropping my tiny pieces or having them stick to my fingers while I was working. (I ended up manipulating everything with with the tip of an X-acto blade, because my fingers were just too big and clumsy!)

The portraits and text from left to right:
Lucy Stone - "don't keep quiet"
Queen Elizabeth II - "not an old lady"
Grace Kelly - "look in her eyes"

The show "Through Mia's Eyes" will run April 16-June 1, 2013 at the Gallery & Frame Shop in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.
Here's an article about the show in the Fond du Lac Reporter.
And the Pinterest board featuring some of the art that will be in the show.