“The mission of the Puget Sound Book Artists is to further the knowledge, practice and understanding of the arts of the book by means of educational activities including but not limited to lectures, workshops, and exhibits.” Lofty words, but how do we best set out to accomplish those goals?
Once a month, the Puget Sound Book Artists board of directors, all working as 
volunteers, meets to discuss business, provide updates, share ideas, and perhaps have a laugh or two. But even more important than our monthly meetings is the one time a year, where for a few hours we escape to regenerate, restore a sense of purpose, and plan for the upcoming year. This year, Lakewold Gardens proved to be the perfect sanctuary where, surrounded by our haystacks of materials, laptops, notebooks, and binders, we exchanged ideas, generated new ones, and slowly but surely over the course of four hours developed a plan for the rest of 2014 and beyond.
It seems a paradox, to realize one must retreat to move 
forward. It may be an enigma for some to consider before coming closer to your goals, you must first free yourself from them. But that seems to be what happened. Perhaps all it takes is to be under the watchful eye of vigilant moss covered statuary, or to experience the simple fragile beauty of discarded flora floating in a reflecting pond.
We look forward to presenting our new Roundtable and Between the Cover events in addition to lectures, field trips and of course, Work Shops!
Blog: by Mark Hoppmann
Photo Credits: Mark Hoppmann