Category: Artist Books

Art, Artist Books, Collage

The Grammarian and His Material

Shelly

The Grammarian and His Material
The Grammarian and His Material
collage (library catalog card, yearbook photos, old book spine, child’s dress pattern, sandpaper, and map) on Arches cover paper
7 1/2 x 11 inches

This book is a little bit bigger than the bed of my scanner, so the left-hand page was cut off, making it look a little uncentered. I’m too lazy to scan each page separately then stitch them together. If I’d been paying closer attention, I would’ve shifted it so that the right-hand page was the one that got cut off, but I wasn’t, and I didn’t, and I am also too lazy to re-scan it. Oopsie!

Altered Poems, Art, Artist Books, Collage, Poetry

Span the Wide Chasm

Shelly

Span the Wide Chasm
Span the Wide Chasm
collage (altered Polaroid, 35mm photo, inkjet print, blueprint, child’s dress pattern, and page from history textbook) on Arches cover paper
7 1/2 x 11 inches

Span the wide chasm, and by a single bound
We trace the life and almost hear the sound.
What echoes haunt thy resurrected walls!
When lurid night engulfed thy stately halls.

I really like the way this one turned out. I sat there for a couple of hours, looking at a pile of things I’d gathered together, and suddenly it all took shape.

Altered Books, Art, Artist Books, Bookarts, Collage, Found Poems, Poetry

The Story

Shelly

I finished the poem and painting part of this months ago, but didn’t like where the collage was going, so I got stuck. It’s been sitting on my coffee table since, um, January. Oops!

The Story
collage (leaf, yearbook photo, ribbon, coin, buttons, map legend, and raffle ticket) with watersoluble crayon and found poem in altered book
9 3/8 x 11 3/4 inches

The Story
(a found poem)

The story was a riddle
pointing to a shimmering surface
to hidden depths
to inner experience.

The story
neither sought nor found
like a melody continually improvised
full of blasphemy
for many generations venerated
should not be read simply.

The story
found in the garden
between the infinite and finite
above the abyss that separates
the failed and perfection
depends upon the divine
hidden deep within
as well as outside.