Blank books & Stuff to Buy book

Here are some more books I made. In class we always made a demo book step by step so that we knew what to do for homework on our own. These books were usually blank, so Laurie would call them “gifts” as opposed to “art” or “artists’ books” because there was no content. These books I will use as sketchbooks or notebooks.

The above pictures are of the demo books from the following assignments: Album binding (green), Coptic binding (purple with multicolored paper) and Case binding (Italian paper and blue book cloth). The long purple one is Stab bound with brown butcher’s paper, the sketches are from when I went to Dr. Sketchy’s a live model drawing session at a bar in Baltimore. For some we painted our own paper for the covers.

One assignment I found fun was the Stab binding project. This type of binding is a traditional Japanese binding and is typically made with very long, thin Japanese paper in the inside for flexibility. The paper is cut very long and then folded over and bound on the open side. I thought about the idea of the long, thin paper and what kind of project would lend itself to this type of binding. Finally I decided that I could bind all of my old shopping receipts in a book which I aptly titled “Stuff to Buy” the front and back cover is simply the back of various cardboard food products that were in the apartment. I wrote out my usual shopping list in red colored pencil and bound it with red thread. I wanted to keep the color palette black, white, brown and red. I find it kind of diaristic and somewhat autobiographical in that you can probably tell a lot about my personality through the products I buy (mostly food and art supplies) If you took the time to read you would notice patterns, like the fact that I eat a ton of Mac n’ cheese along with various blueberry products. I don’t eat meat, I prefer to buy more expensive fresh mozzarella and I spend a lot more money on art supplies than clothing. Along with the fact that I’m a pack rat and I have actually saved all of these receipts in the first place!

So I'll be a busy bee this week, which is really good because I spent the last two weeks basically in my room because it was rainy and I was super lazy. My brother just graduated H.S. (congrats Alex!!) and we're planning a duel graduation celebration/family get-together. Also one of my favorite gals, Jasmine, is in from California and there's going to be an amazing Glam Rock themed welcome back party in her honor. I'm throwing a dinner party for some of my guy friends where there will be lots of win, Scene It and Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. And then, hopefully I'll be working on some freelance stuff and working for Aurora again, which is super-awesome (and lucrative!)

That's all for now, I've taken more images, which will be up soon, so hold tight for more book art stuff!

Pamphlet Books!

So I finally got around to documenting my work from Laurie Snyder’s Photographic Book class. I’m going to do posts for each book so I can show multiple views and talk about each one individually unless they are related, in which case I’ll group them. These images of the books are not scans -- so they’re not perfect and there’s a lot of glare in some.

So these books were from one of our earlier assignments. It’s just a simple pamphlet fold, the first kind of book we learned to make, and they have 16 pages including the front and back covers. On our first day we had to make a book about out feelings about Barack Obama’s inauguration, which was the same day. The Obama book is about 5 ½ x 4 ¼ inches and is a collage using newspaper images, pencil, ballpoint pen and marker.

For homework we had to make a book with the same binding, the subject of the book being up to us. I decided to make a book about the different meals I like and foods and drinks that I enjoy and I bound the book with dental floss. The book itself is about 5 ¼ x 4 inches printed on the laser printer in the print lab. It came out all right I took pictures and used older images that I had taken before of different yummy foods and made a book. I didn’t like how the color print came out, the color is way off and it looks kind of gross so I decided to do a line sketch version of it, which is kind of unfinished. I’m not sure I really like how either of them turned out that muchbut I like the photographs I did for the food book, it's really too bad the color and print quality isn't better… Never the less, they're making me hungry just looking at them!

The Labors of Hercules

These images are from my series “The Labors of Hercules” which was also a part of my Senior Thesis. This series basically took similar ideas from the “Family/preservation of Heritage series” (tradition, cultural values, etc.) and made them more focused on cultural identity as opposed to personal identity. The pieces depict the individual labors in a very simple way, the slaying of the creatures or the action of the labor is not shown directly but I wanted the observer to understand as much of the myth as possible without the paintings being overly explicit or literal. The order of the images is actually backwards because the Lion is supposed to be first and Cerberus is last.

Cerberus- Spray paint and acrylic on panel.
The Cretan Bull- Gesso and pencil on wood.
The Stymphalian Birds- Oil, tin foil and shellac on wood.
The Golden Hind- Spray paint, pencil, acrylic and shellac on wood.
The Nemean Lion- Oil and shellac on wood.

On a different note, I'm trying to figure out why my default language/type on this blog is Hindi...
व्त्फ़? = WTF?

Some Older Work (First of the Family Series)

These pieces were done during the Spring of my sophomore year at MICA. This idea of the Family / Preservation of Heritage Series was germinated in my Collage & Assemblage class for the assignment of "Ageing and Distressing" in which we had to take new materials and make them look old or worn.

Work

More Work

Here is some more work my Senior Thesis, (from September '08 through right before I graduated.) These pieces are from a body of work titled "The Preservation of Heritage," I'll give you the abbreviated artist's statement:

These pieces reflect my interest in Family and Heritage themes. I have been using old family photos and photographs that I’ve taken myself that I feel represent some aspect of my family life or my experiences growing up and using them in small pieces usually on wood, canvas or panel. I use my family’s snapshots because I find interest in forgotten people and events; this holds an element of mystery for me. I feel like I am reclaiming part of my heritage by re-appropriating these images in my art. I use a myriad of materials, spray paint, oil paint sand, shellac, matte medium, acrylic and whatever else I can find.

I really enjoyed working on this series and will probably continue using more stuff found in the basement. I've also been meaning to root through some of my mother's old photographs since most of photographs I've used so far have been from my dad's side.

I'm going to try to get some decent images of some of the photo work I've done this year as well as images of the books I've made. Hopefully they'll be up for your viewing pleasure before long.

First post

I've just graduated college at MICA and I've finally got my BFA...now what? Well, first thing's first-- Get a site to display work. So check that off on my list! Now I've just got to find a job, get a business card, and a driver's license. So here's an image that I'm thinking of using for the postcard, tell me what you think. I'll try to update and add more pics over this week. Ciao for now! ~C