Day to day journal of installation, embroidery, and fiber arts created by Susan Lenz
Saturday, June 04, 2016
Friday, June 03, 2016
The Book of Memories
(The Book of Memories, an altered vintage photo album with anonymous images and letters clipped from old magazines and sheet music. Shut: 7 1/4" x 11 1/2". Click on any image to enlarge.)
Yesterday I photographed and posted Nameless People and Forgotten Faces, the other vintage photo album that I bought here in Fergus Falls that couldn't be taken apart in order to collage images and words on the individual pages. Sure, this album looked as if the cord could be removed and the pages would come apart ... but it was also bound. I did five pages at a time and hung them with the clothespins I rigged from the bottom of a work table.
(Above: Drying system for the bound pages.)
This vintage photo album still had the original paper label inside the first page that actually states the volume is "loose leaf" ... but it really wasn't. I couldn't take the darn thing apart. I think something happened to the telescopic tube through which the cord runs. They wouldn't budge. I went ahead and collaged the label onto the title page. I had fun selecting pictures that suggested a special occasion or activity ... memories from the past. The scenes are still indicative of the way we form memories today. Below are photos, each with four pages. Enjoy!
Thursday, June 02, 2016
Nameless People and Forgotten Faces
(Above: Nameless People and Forgotten Faces, one of two title pages. Altered, vintage photo album using anonymous family snapshots and letters clipped from old magazines and sheet music. Shut: 7 1/4" x 10 1/4" x 1". Click on any image to enlarge.)
(Above: Nameless People and Forgotten Faces, from top to bottom and left to right: cover, first title page, second title page, and written preface.)
There's an antique mall on the next block from my art residency studio space here in Fergus Falls. I bought several things there ... including two, never used, vintage photo albums. I tried to settle on a simple title for this one. I had two in mind. So, I used both and spread it over the first two pages: Nameless People and Forgotten Faces.
The next page reads: This is a book of fiction. Once Upon a Time, each character had a name. They got forgotten. This is a story told the second time. With this altered book, I expressed my own questions when confronted by so many unknown portraits. Who were these people? What would they say about my work? How should I introduce them as art? Well, I'm guessing that if given the chance to speak, these people would all start by saying, "My name is ...." So, why shouldn't I give them names? I googled "most popular names ever in America" and found all sorts of lists. I used THIS ONE. It is admittedly not a stickler for precise statistics but that isn't the goal for my book. (Susan is #8 on this list but I didn't use it in the book!) I liked more of my "girl" images and thus used more of them. What is important is the suggestion that all these faces actually did have real names ... once upon a time.
Many vintage photo albums have pages that are held in place with a cord. These can be taken apart, altered, and put back together again. Unfortunately, these two were had pages bound to the spine. I had to either 1) collage one page at a time and wait for each to dry or ...
2) figure out how I might rig up a system for multiple pages to dry at the same time. Naturally, I went with the second option. While collaging five pages, I could manage to keep them apart well enough to prevent the matte medium from adhering to the reverse of the former page ... and then I used clothes pins tied to various places under my studio table. Five pages were done in the morning, the afternoon, and in the evening before returning to my provided apartment.
Nameless People and Forgotten Faces had a a couple fewer pages than the other album. It sat under a bag of sand (weight) last night. Right now, the other book is under the sand. I'll share it tomorrow.
Of course I'm not sitting around watching photo album pages dry! I'm working. Over the past few days I constructed and stitched six new, small In Box Series pieces. They will be melted, mounted, and framed after I've returned home. Below are all the pages in Nameless People and Forgotten Faces. Enjoy!
Wednesday, June 01, 2016
Anonymous Ancestors, an altered Victorian photo album
(Above, Anonymous Ancestors, cover. Shut: 10 3/4" x 8 1/2" x 2 3/4". Victorian photo album with pages altered using anonymous vintage photographs and letters clipped from vintage sources. Click on any image to enlarge.)
My art residency proposal called for the creation of a series of artist and altered books made using anonymous vintage photographs. My upcoming solo installation at the University of South Carolina-Beaufort campus gallery calls for a setting that emulates the feel of a nostalgic sitting room in which viewers are surrounded by anonymous images that are highly suggestive of unknown lives. I will include an original Victorian rocker (courtesy of my parents), a grand old chair, a foot rest, a dictionary lectern, a period end table, an Oriental rug (yet to be found) and an ornate floor lamp (also yet to be acquired). This comfortable area will include the altered vintage photos on which I've been working ... individual images placed in small boxes, scrapbooks on the end table, and also this Victorian photo album. In my mind's eye, the Victorian album was exactly my vision ... for both the art residency work as well as the exhibition. The scrapbook and the loose images are just "extra". So, I'm very pleased with this altered book. It is exactly what I wanted to make during this month of uninterrupted work time.
(Above: Anonymous Ancestors, title page.)
Because it so perfectly fits my mental plans, it seemed only appropriate to give the book the same title as the upcoming exhibition: Anonymous Ancestors. I enjoyed collaging, ironing (very low heat), and waxing every page. Below are the spreads. The last few pages have no additional words. I thought they'd be too cramped. I also like the idea that viewers can bring their own imaginative story lines to the scenes from the past. Scroll down. Enjoy!
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