Best of Show Award: My Little Book of Suicides by Susan Collard

It is often said there is nothing new to create. I don’t believe that. Not for an instant.  Beginning as young artists we are sent out with the missive, paint your world. But too often we become jaded or cynical of that world, or worse complacent.   We paint, we sketch, we create, but something is missing.  Perhaps there are times when we must use our art to make a point. Goya created his body of work, Los Desastres de la Guerra.   Picasso was moved to paint his masterpiece, Guernica after the bombing of the village by Franco, aided by the German Luftwaffe in 1937.

Can books make a difference? The obvious answer is yes, of course, but it is more difficult than is seems. We already know it takes creativity to make a work of art. Add color, contrast, and composition to catch their eye. And above all courage. To an artist, their work is an extension of themselves. It takes a particular type of courage to put your work in a public forum. It takes an even greater amount of courage to expose yourself in public forum and take a stand at the same time regardless of whether that stand is controversial or not.

Just because our battles may seem smaller, they are no less important.  Our world evolves with or without us, but perhaps the book as art can help accelerate those transitions for the better. After all, the purpose of art is not just to enjoy.  It is also to make us think, to contemplate, and to understand. Add to that, the power of the book, and you have a powerful means to initiate change. We just need more courage.

To learn more on how books can be instruments of change, visit the Book Power Redux exhibition  currently at Collins Memorial Library, The University of Puget Sound, through October 15^th, 2014. To find out more about the exhibition, visit the University of Puget Sound website.  The complete online catalog of the exhibition can also be viewed on the 23 Sandy Gallery  website.

Blog by Mark Hoppmann
Photo: courtesy of the 23 Sandy Gallery

My Little Book of Suicides by Susan Collard

It is a great pleasure to announce our award winners for Book Power Redux. Jane Carlin, library director at University of Puget Sound Collins Library and MalPina Chan, an independent curator based in Olympia spent hours agonizing over how to select just four of the 61 books in this “powerful” exhibition to be singled out for awards. Let me tell you–this was a very tough job!

Winning a Best of Show Award is Susan Collard, for her heartbreaking book, My Little Book of Suicides. In this very personal book, Susan works through the daunting grief of her brother’s suicide. The text of the book, scratched into black paint on the small wooden pages, reveals her feelings and emotions as she works through her grief. The book includes statistics about suicide by gun shot and it’s devastating consequences. Unwrapping the threads that wrap round and round the book with a sewing needle and unwrapping the canvas wrapper make you feel as if you are witnessing Susan unraveling the grief that pervades her days.

Mix and Match Family by Jaime Lynn Shafer

Our second Best of Show Award goes to Jaime Lynn Shafer for her book, Mix and Match Families. This innovative horizontal accordion structure is a brilliant take on the classic “exquisite corpse.” Acting like a flip book you mix and match four sets of photographs of mothers and fathers and children of all persuasions and ethnicities, creating and celebrating the many variations of our modern American family.

I Have a Name by Patricia Grass

Also receiving Best of Show is Patricia Grass for her book, I Have a Name.  Wile living in the Philippines, the artist grew weary of being called “that white woman” instead of by her name.  This book has an unusually creative stitch that binds together pages that flex and twist in a slink-like snake.  The pages are made to look like paint chips colored with skin tones and each labeled with those silly names that paint companies give to paints.  Contained in a terrific red leather covered box, the book is paired with the von Luschan chromatic scale method of classifying skin color.  It is a terrific book about race and identity.

And last, but not least, Emily Chaplain receives the Collins Library Purchase Prize for her sculptured accordion book titled Amalgam, which is about what “inherent gendered brain difference could have on our lives and on obtaining gender equality in our society.” This compelling work will be purchased by 23 Sandy Gallery and donated to the artist book collection at the University of Puget Sound Collins Library.

Amalgam by Emily Chaplain

Congratulations to these four very talented artists for their remarkable works. We are honored to have these works included in this very powerful exhibition.

blog and photo credits: Laura Russell :

Read more of Laura Russell’s blogs or visit her website: www.23Sandy.com

The Puget Sound Book Artists 4^th Annual Members Exhibition

June 5^th-July 31^st 2014
Collins Memorial Library,
The University of Puget Sound

The evening of June 5^th, 2014 marked the opening reception for the  4^th Annual Puget Sound Book Artists Members Exhibition, featuring 57 extraordinary handmade books created by 39 artists from Puget Sound and beyond.  Held annually at Collins Memorial Library on the University of Puget Sound Campus, the exhibition represents the growing diversity of ideas constantly challenging the question; What is a book?    in this exhibition, using various media ranging from photography, printmaking,  drawing, painting, calligraphy, and digital means, and employing a variety of materials including wood, handmade paper, fabric, and cordage, the members of the Puget Sound Book Artists strive to answer that question.

Aside from the artists, the success of this year’s exhibition rested squarely on the shoulders of the curators.  Taking on a vast scope of responsibilities, several months of planning and last minute alterations, the curators who made the 4^th annual PSBA Members Exhibition possible were Puget Sound Book Artists,  Patricia Chupa, Deborah Greenwood, An Gates, and Elizabeth Walsh.  Let it be said, they did not disappoint.

Three awards were conferred last night by the curatorial team of Deborah Greenwood, An Gates, Pat Chupa, and Elizabeth Walsh, and by guest jurors  Margaret Bullock,  Katie Henningsen, Hilary Robbeloth, Peggy Burge, and Julie Christoph.

Collins Library Award:
Laura Russell, Anything Helps

photo credit: Laura Russell

 Anything Helps is a limited edition artist book surveying the hand-scrawled cardboard signs used by the panhandlers and Homeless people on street corners everywhere.  These folks can be found on city intersections and highway off ramps in cities large and small across the county.  It is so very easy to keep driving and avert our eyes as we pass by.  Over the last three years I have been collecting these signs, some purchased for $5, some found.  Many of the signs are works of art-clever, eye-catching words and illustrations designed to garner our sympathy and our coins as we speed by at 35 mph.

Laura Russell

Curators’ Choice Award:
Mari Gower, An Alchemist’s Lunch Box

photo credit: Mari Gower

 I see many parallels between scientists who research GMO crops today and medieval alchemists.  To explore these parallels I decided to create a lunchbox for an imaginary alchemist.  The accordion book combines my interpretations of ancient alchemical symbols and processes with images and information about the most common current GMO crops; including quotes from experts (both pro and con) on the GMO debate.  The tulip fold book is a riff on old botanic illustrations with a Frankensteinian twist.  The pamphlet book contains my poems, using the four alchemical elements as a starting point.

 Mari Gower

Award for Excellence:
Lucia Harrison, Old Growth

photo credit: Lucia Harrison

When standing in an old growth forest, you feel a false sense of stability.  Beneath your feet are layers o moss, hemlock and cedar needles, lichen cones, fern fronds, and elk droppings.  Interpreting the text of a soil profile reveals layers of old growth forests altered by geologic forces: fire, flood, volcanic eruption and lahar.  Even the bedrock lies upon shifting tectonic plates.

Lucia Harrison

Without the strength of membership,  the Puget Sound Book Artists  would not be able to attain its mission to further the knowledge, practice and understanding of the art of the book by means of educational activities including lectures, workshops, and exhibits.  Congratulations to  all of the participating artists for a beautiful exhibition and Thank you to the entire membership for your contributions to the organization.  We would not be here without you.

Below are a few of the  photographs taken during the night of the reception, June 5th, 2014.

A birds eye view of the 2014 PSBA Member’s Exhibition at Collins Library
photo credit: Mark Hoppmann

Katie Henningsen (left) poses with Laura Russell, recipient of the Collins Library Award.
photo credit: Mark Hoppmann

Margaret Bullock poses with Lucia Harrison, recipient of the Award for Excellence.
photo credit: Mark Hoppmann

Curators (from left to right)
Pat Chupa, An Gates, Deborah Greenwood, and Elizabeth Walsh.
photo credit: Mark Hoppmann

(From left to right) Jane Carlin, Director of Collins Memorial Library stands with MalPina Chan and Laura Russell
photo credit: Mark Hoppmann

Jane Carlin speaks to a Girl Scout troop in the rare books room of Collins Memorial Library the evening of the reception for the PSBA Member’s Exhibition.
photo credit: Mark Hoppmann