Artwork and Design During the Pandemic, Part One

PLEASE NOTE: I am sad to report that the artist's book and box I show here was stolen from the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center in April of 2022 while on display with the Science Stories collaborative exhibit. The assumption was that vandals destroyed my work and that of 3 other participating artists. There has been no follow-up other than an email expressing sadness over the loss.

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In the early months of 2020, I accepted two dissimilar book design projects. Here is an overview of the first one.

Science Stories: A Collaboration of Book Artists and Scientists

In November of 2019 (it seems so long ago!) I was contacted by Tacoma's University of Puget Sound (UPS) and invited to participate in an unusual scientist/artist collaboration. I was paired with Dr. Rachel Pepper, a professor of physics currently teaching at UPS.

First: a note on what artists' books are. They are not necessarily pages bound into a cover. Book forms, as artists see them, can be series of images or structures whose parts are presented either separately or joined. They may or may not have words, even, but are typically sequenced as "pages."

Here are the six "pages" of my book presented as a folding screen with an historic side, and a contemporary side. The contemporary side features the research work of Dr. Rachel Pepper. The historic side features the work of the microscopist Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek of Holland.

Above are pages 1, 2 & 3 mounted in a screen format. These represent the work and words of Van Leeuwenhoek of 17th c. Holland. He discovered the protozoa Vorticella convallaria. The title page calligraphy is by me, but done in the style of his own writing. I imitated his drawings on page 2. On page 3 are my own pattern designs based on his drawings.

 

Pages 4, 5, & 6 represent aspects of Dr. Pepper's work on the same organism that Van Leeuwenhoek discovered under a primitive but powerful microscope of his own making. Dr. Pepper's work is significant now due to the remarkable filtration of water done by these tiny organisms.

Click HERE for the photos and video I provided for my artist's book depicting past and present research on the protozoa Vorticella convallaria. (My apologies for speaking so slowly during the video!) A video featuring Dr. Rachel Pepper is also included in this comprehensive website.

All of the artists' books in this collection are currently on display at Collins Library on the UPS campus until January 14, 2022. In March 2022 the exhibition will travel to the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center and in the fall of 2022, it will travel to Whitman College in Walla Walla. If you are interested in hosting the Science Stories exhibition, please contact Lucia Harrison (harriso[email protected]) or Jane Carlin ([email protected]). Click HERE to go to the home page for Science Stories.