Artistic Weekend

Other than the time I spent watching Ohio State football, I spent the weekend in my studio. The bird book (Man's Fate) is done. I photographed all 43 "spreads". (Spread is still a "new" word to me! It refers to two pages of a book, one beside another as if SPREAD open on a table!

I had problems with the digital camera. I think it is DYING! I get "corroded data" messages and the camera ceases to operate after about ten or so images. I fought with it until I managed to download all the pictures I needed. Then, I contrast and color corrected each, wrote a statement, and handed the project off to Alex. He's making another mini-video of the book. He even found the perfect music. The mood is slightly haunting. The melody and tempo are pleasant. The instruments give it a multi-cultural feeling.

Here's my statement (for the video, spaced over two different slides):

This altered book was created using André Malraux’s 1934 novel Man’s Fate. It is a reflection on the destiny of mankind, asking timeless questions about our culture. Will we endure? Is our future predetermined or unfolding by chance? Seeingly bloodied pages turn over a gilded timeline, passing “Bird Lotto” playing cards from a 1928 children’s board game. Issues of extinction mingle with reminders of lost civilizations.
Destiny?
Chance?
What is man’s fate?
This altered book will be part of a larger installation of artistic relics of an imagined past civilization. The exhibition, “Stone, Bone and Fiber: Excavating Lost Civilizations of the Mind”, will be on view for the month of January 2007 at I. Pinckney Simons Gallery, 1012 Gervais Street, Columbia, SC. It will feature the work of Susan Lenz and Janet Kozachek. A reception with both artists is scheduled on January 18 from 5:30 to 8 PM.

I worked all day on Sunday. Two of the three "Elements of Architecture" pieces are completed. I finished several "paper pieces" for the Archeology Project and started two new books. I've also submitted for an upcoming juried show at Woman Made Gallery in Chicago: Sham to Shame. I did it on-line as the images were required to be e-mail attachments at 72 dpi, which is just how I have them. I submitted the pieces I did honoring Mukhtar Mai, the Pakistani woman who was gang raped by a tribal council as a punishment for her brother's unsubstantiated offense (later, it was proved he never did anything anyway!)

Yesterday, Monday, I dropped off my entries for the State Fair and entered another juried show: Craftforms 2006. There was a Vista Studios meeting at noon. I didn't go. I've finally quit as that group's secretary.