Thursday, May 1, 2008
Plunder Book: Hot 'n Spicy
In our last class for bookbinding we made plunder books. All of us gathered up a bunch of useless crap that we had stored up in our studios (old prints, proofs, wire, candy wrappers, etc.) - each of us picked out a bunch of stuff from the piles and had to make a book or "book-like structure" using only the things that we picked out. I made a book out of some old prints from my friends Bobby, Rob, and Erin...along with a bag of potato chips, a Subway wrapper, and some other random stuff. This is what I came up with:
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2 comments:
hey, i checked out your blog again and it was really cool to see how your year went in school. it looked like some fun projects but was it stressful? looking back how did it go for you and your classmates? i am taking some book arts classes here where i live and having fun but i am sure it is different in a full time program. like we have critique and i don't even know what to say. i liked your mona letterpress book, that is a class i am really enjoying. thanks for your blog. jamie
Hey Jamie!
Thanks again for checking out my blog - my projects were a lot of fun. School can be stressful at times, but it's totally worth it. I figure it's a pretty rare and is also great opportunity to be able to completely focus on my work for two full years and to be surrounded by other artist's doing the same thing. Everyone is very supportive and helpful - so I try to take advantage of that and for this opportunity where, really, my only obligation is to be in the studio working.
UArts has a really great program and is unique in that, it's the only MFA program specifically for Book Arts. I'm sure that other printmaking programs will tailor to your individual wants and needs, but we have a great support system and are pretty well known in the book arts community - you can make a lot of great connections. Our program is designed so that you take courses that teach you about the history of book arts, and really question the possibilities of the book form. Each semester we have a bookbinding course that is taught by Hedi Kyle (I don't know if you are familiar with her or not, but she's famous in the book arts world for pioneering the flagbook structure) - anyways, she's fabulous and offers a great learning experience. It's also a lot of fun because i have classmates from all different areas (graphic design, sculpture, bookbinding, drawing, printmaking, etc) and you can really learn a lot from one another.
As far as critiques go we have a couple of different styles - there's some where it's just you and the 5 or 6 main professors, and then there's some with the profs and the rest of your classmates. Anyways, the best advice that I can give you is what one of my professors told me and that was "Your the boss" It's your work and so you can direct where you want the critique to go. If you have questions about how people are reacting to your work or what they think is working/not working then direct those questions to your audience. You should try to question the decisions that your making while creating your piece so that when you're confronted with something in the critique you'll be prepared to defend your work. But also be open to criticism - I often learn the most about what's going on in my work by listening to the responses of others.
I don't know, I hope that's helpful. Keep me updated on how things are going, and let me know if you have a blog or anything, I'd be interested to see what you're working on.
Also, another shameless UArts plug - we have a "book party" at the end of each semester where the students display and sell their work, so if you happen to live near Philadelphia you should come check it out. It's May 15, 4-7, 320 S Broad Street - Hamilton Hall. You can see what the rest of my classmates have been up to.
Take Care!
Amanda
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