Art Books

Pictured below, three of my hand made art books. The book pages are made of 100% cotton recycled deckled edge paper; front and back covers are cardboard covered with mixed media collage encaustic mono prints and watercolor paintings.

Middle book with wolf 7.25"x5.5"

Top and bottom books 8.5"x8.5"

Next week, spring term encaustic classes I teach end at both the Evanston Art Center and the North Shore Art League. At the end of a session, I like to teach how to create art using what may have been considered mistakes and turn them into something successful.... isn't the definition of art creating something new out of something else by altering, adding, and re-combining the materials? Sounds a bit vague, but this way of looking at the art-making process was one of the ideas I better understood after writing a thesis paper in graduate school.

From my thesis paper:
"The aesthetics involved in creating art is a reflection of the act of living. The art making process brings us fulfillment and pleasure from the individual process of creating something out of nothing. It is an expression of who we are and it amplifies the passions within each of us". 

These books will have collaged artworks inside each page, combined with poems I have either written or collected over the years (below left - Lotus book cover, below right - inside front pages of Lotus book).

 Sometimes I give art books as gifts, sometimes I make them for myself as an exercise of creative practices. Either way, I am always satisfied when I change what may have been a mistake into something successful and satisfying.