St. Brendan's Day

May 16 is St. Brendan's Day. St. Brendan is known as the Navigator or the Voyager. The Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis (the Voyage of St Brendan the Abbot) was written in the Middle Ages and presumed to be legend. In the 1970s Tim Severin recreated Brendan's voyage in a leather curragh and reached Newfoundland; he wrote about in The Brendan Voyage.

May we take inspiration from Saint Brendan as we navigate our way through this world.

About Saint Brendan

An English translation of the Navigatio sancti Brendani Abbatis

Artist Book News

Jill Timm of Mystical Places Press publishes a biannual newsletter promoting books by prodfessional book artists. The Spring 2008 issue is now available for viewing. The Spirit Book CD is featured in this issue along with wonderful work by Alex Appella, Karen Hanmer, c.j. grossman, Taller Lenateros, Ruth E. Edwards, Johanne Renbeck, Patrice Baldwin, Jamn Kellett, Fran Watson, and Laurie Spitz and Amee J. Pollack. You can download the pdf here.

The PoeTree Project

This year's Newburyport Literary Festival in Newburyport, MA honored local poet Rhina Espaillat. In honor of Rhina and the theme of poetry, I designed and coordinated The PoeTree Project, an outdoor installation of poems on trees near several of the Festival venues. I was inspired by an image of a folding screen by the seventeenth century Japanese artist Tosa Mitsuoki.



Students from the sixth and seventh grades at the Rupert A. Nock Middle School wrote poems on strips of tyvek with sharpie markers. They were tied to trees and bushes and were a beautiful sight fluttering in the breeze. The timing was perfect as several of the magnolias were in bloom.





In addition to the children's poems, participating Festival poets wrote poems for Rhina which were tied to the weeping cherry tree that is planted in front of the library in her name.



I was able to attend three of the poetry events: the opening evening with Dana Gioia, Rhina, Lewis Turco, and X.J. Kennedy, a breakfast with the poets with readings by members of the Powow River Poets, and the closing evening with a reading by Erica Funkhouser and Melopoeia: Poetry Recited with Musical Accompaniment with readings by Rhina and Alfred Nicol accompanied by John Tavano on guitar.

Women and Books: Contemporary book artists share their thoughts

Muriel Pierce has written a thoughtful and well-illustrated article based on her recently completed MFA dissertation at Dundee University, Scotland, and this article is an extract. It is published in the new issue of Bonefolder which can be downloaded for free. I was one of the artists she interviewed. Here is how she begins:

While researching artists' books; reflecting on my practice; and analysing the reasons why I choose to make books, I discovered that many book artists are women. (Men also make books but they appear to be vastly outnumbered by women.) I began to question why so many women make books, and what drives them to work so prolifically in this relatively new genre because artists' books are frequently misunderstood, difficult to exhibit, and laborious to produce. I didn't want to research this question solely through the answers found in theoretical studies by academics and critics, but rather to hear directly from women themselves who are active in the genre. I did this by emailing women book artists whose work I had seen at exhibitions, and those whose work I had seen on the Internet, in books on the subject and/or in exhibition catalogues.
I asked the simple question: “Why do you choose to make books?”

St. George's Day

is April 23rd. He is the patron saint of several countries including Catalonia in Spain, England, Portugal, Georgia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Macedonia. St. George's Day in Catalonia is especially rich as it celebrates three things: St. George who fought and slayed the dragon and the day of the deaths of Miguel Cervantes and William Shakespeare (April 23, 1616). Boys and men give their girlfriends and wives roses; girls and women give their boyfriends and husbands books.

The Creative Year has a simple book project as well as directions for making a paper rose.

Shelter

SHELTER: A Unique Vision of a Universal Subject Through Artist’s Books

SHELTER focuses attention on a universal subject and one of humanity’s most basic needs in all its manifestations: the home, the psychology of personal space, current issues in the housing market such as homelessness, the mortgage crisis and loss of historic fabric. 43 artists have been chosen to participate in SHELTER, an exhibition of artist’s books juried by Janine Wong, faculty member in the College of Visual and Performing Arts at UMASS/Dartmouth. This show is presented in partnership with Boston Book Arts, a group of artists dedicated to advancement of the book arts.

Yamawaki Art & Cultural Center
Myrtle Avenue
Lasell College
Newton, MA

The show will be on view 12- 5 pm until April 22.

Directions

Boston Globe article

The exhibition will travel to several venues including the gallery at Rhode Island School of Design, Pyramid Atlantic Book Arts Center, and Wells College, New York.

April

Of all the poetry I was required to memorize in school, this short bit from the Prologue of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is only thing I still remember. I always think of it when April comes especially when rain is falling. You can hear the Middle English being read here and read a translation into contemporary English here.

brush lettering with photograph of scilla