Marin Museum Of Contemporary Art Altered Book Show

MMOCA has an annual Altered Book Show with around 150 entries.  I was fortunate to receive an Honorable Mention this year.
I have always been intrigued about how our minds can translate a portion of a letter and know what it is.  I used a discarded book of English verses and collaged them on small squares then placed portions of a Bodoni font that relected the letter in the verse.  I framed it with discarded book covers. I designed a new Hanko at the bottom right corner.  I called this piece Forms On My Mind.

Final piece with my red Hanko at the bottom corner.

Side view to see the 3 dimension using 7 different book covers to frame and support.

Got my handy drill out to put it all together...

The reverse side with the washers and screws and picture hanger.

Marin Museum of Contemporary Art Altered Book Show Piece

After spending hours thinking about this project and working the how to and what to to accomplish my idea, I finally began and then had to start again.  My first loom didn't work and I had to figure out how to make another.  Here are photos of the piece as it was being made.  I forgot to photo the weaving of the gold thread alone between the words.  The most difficult was attaching the piece to the backing and making sure the weave was floating above the book below.  The phrase I wrote took the longest to make and I wrote dozens of versions before I selected the final.  The piece won an Honorable Mention from 150 entries.

Sew a thread of golden words on weft and warp of a paper loom, then stitch a yarn to weave a tapestry of collected memories.  Final piece with added backing for hanging to display...

cutting out words from an old dictionary, aged patina....after mod podge brushed and dry....

my first loom to weave...was not working

New loom of board

Here is the new loom and also the small book I used... I found the page to be opened ...beginning of a new chapter and new scene....

weaving the words and definitions of principal words to my phrase.

finished weaving words and gold metallic thread...

stitching the words with needle and gold metallic thread to surround the weaving and book

close up of stitching...

close up of finished piece with a support on each side of the woven tapestry to float above the open book..

ALTERED BOOK

The MarinMOCA is having their 4th annual Book Arts Show/ Silent Auction April 20 to May 25.
Please check out their web site for more information.  Here is a photo of the postcards given to each of us to let our friends and family know about it...My piece is in the upper right corner.