| Filling Open Book’s Cowles Literary Commons with fresh, exciting artwork, MCBA’s Spring 2007 Advanced By Design teen artists prove once again that the book arts are not only relevant, but also continue to evolve. The Spring 2007 session exhibition features eight By Design students who were selected by proposal to continue their experimentations into the book arts and work with mentor artists to complete an elaborate independent project. The students’ By Design experience included intense studio work as well as opportunities to volunteer at community events and meet numerous working artists in various disciplines. This session also marks the farewell of Anna Tsantir, MCBA Teen Programs Coordinator for almost two years, who guided the students through the semester-long journey.
The students’ works vary in scale from enormous to intimate, and engage visitors in a variety of ways. At the top of the stairwell, Adam Selon’s huge marbled paper collage mural welcomes viewers with a vision of tragedy and resolve. Adam worked with mentor Lori Brink to push the limits of traditional paper marbling, using the technique not as decoration but as the basis of his imagery. Collage materials also include photographs and an X-ray, actual artifacts of the life-changing events (car accidents, hospitalizations, heartbreaks) that inspired the work.
Two artists recognized music as an inspirational force in their artwork. Sophie Alfano’s Box Set identifies songs and lyrics representing strong memories or influences from the past decade of her life. Working with mentor Monica Edwards, Sophie designed and produced an envelope and CD for each song utilizing a variety of printmaking techniques including linoleum cuts, polymer plates and collographs. Sophie says the printed images “convey a single moment or a place or feeling associated with the song,” and each image is juxtaposed with an evocative phrase from that song. The collection of CDs is housed in a handmade box, just as individual pages are contained within a book’s covers.
Stephanie Kunze also acknowledged the influence of music on her work, but in a different way. After deliberating with mentor Cathy Ryan and researching the influence of music on the work of artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Stephanie used her own poetry to create a metaphorical “album.” The poems translate to a series of nine visual “songs” telling the story of a serial killer called “The Merry Pet.” Stephanie’s use of cartoon-like imagery is in sharp contrast to the dark narrative unfurled in her poetry “lyrics.” A common palette of bright but moody colors adds to this emotional duplicity and also helps tie the individual panels together into a cohesive series.
Other students also used narrative as an organizing device in their projects. Ivar Hendrickson had been frustrated trying to condense his ideas into single drawings. His mentor, illustrator and artist Chandler O'Leary, introduced Ivar to a variety of book art approaches to telling his stories, and, as he says, “It was like a fog being lifted.” Ivar created two bound comic books that tell very personal narratives illustrating the challenges of certain social and familial relationships. Selected pages from the books are enlarged and hung on display for the exhibition.
Kellie Schweich’s The Last Dirt Road reveals the keen eye she keeps on her surroundings. The series of three tunnel books, developed with her mentor Sarah Christenson, documents the evolution of Kellie’s hometown from a farming community to a bustling suburb, and provokes a larger dialogue on the notion of progress itself. The tunnel books, with profiles reminiscent of antique camera bellows, are fitting containers for Kellie’s photographic narrative. Kellie is a multi-session By Design veteran, and the level of craft and attention to detail exhibited in her work testify to her admirable dedication to the book arts.
Jamie Mosel’s books mark the end of a project, but also a beginning. After reading a news article about one local school’s attempts to revive dying Native American languages, she was inspired to create works that could assist in this effort. In collaboration with teachers at All Nations School and mentors Paulette Myers-Rich and Denny Ruud, Jamie is creating storybooks in the Ojibwe and Dakota languages to be published and utilized as classroom materials. These works will be a wonderful resource for teachers striving to rekindle the use of these languages.
Language is of particular interest to Javier Corral. His previous By Design experiments involved combining graffiti and typography; this session’s efforts continue that exploration. Javier says that while investigating existing digital graffiti fonts with his mentor, typographer Kent Aldrich, he noticed “the majority of these fonts were being displayed as a selling tool rather than a work of art.” This realization drove Javier’s explorations; he combined traditional influences with unique elements of graffiti artwork to create a new and original alphabet functioning as both typeface and work of art. Javier’s techniques of applying ink to paper, and the formal qualities of the end result, recollect Jackson Pollock’s drips and express the immediacy of graffiti painting.
“A Japanese legend states that whoever folds 1,000 paper cranes will be granted a wish from the gods.” So begins Mairead Herson’s artist statement, and so begins her extremely ambitious project: to carry out this legend. In this contemporary take on the legend, the wish is not used for personal gain; here, Maisie’s done the hard work, but passes the wish on to her viewers. As they walk through the passageway created by the strings of cranes, viewers take in a beautiful variety of colorful papers, Upon closer observation, one will also notice some non-traditional materials: comic book pages, recycled office paperwork, even candy wrappers. Once through the passageway, visitors are invited to make their own wishes.
Minnesota Center for Book Arts is proud to provide opportunities for teen artists to explore, nurture and develop their own individual artistic visions. In fall of 2007, By Design will continue to offer mentorship and exhibition opportunities plus expand to offer multiple entry points for teens. For more information on MCBA’s teen programs, visit the By Design page or call Emma Allen, Adult and Teen Programs Manager, at 612.215.2533.
Directions
to Minnesota Center for Book Arts at Open Book
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Mesoemo
Adam Selon
"When I conceived the project my goal was to use marbling in a contemporary form on multiple levels. For example, I drew pictures with the marbling, which was a literal approach. I also combined marbled paper with collage. The marbled paper is not used just as a decorative pattern but in this case is used as the base of imagery in an installation piece. I went into the project with a conscious effort to not create visually pleasant, traditional marbling pieces."
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Box Set
Sophie Alfano
"Box Set is the soundtrack to my life. Ever since burnable CDs have been available I have been making mixes for my friends. Each song has a specific memory that goes along with it. The songs I chose span my life, from when I was a seven, sitting in our hot van, driving through Idaho, to last summer, spent in a cabin in Ely Minnesota.
I burned these songs onto separate CDs and created separate envelopes for each because I want the piece to be suggestive of a book, where each CD becomes a page in my autobiography. The images I chose are not narrative, they convey a single moment or a place or feeling associated to the songs. Instead of using the title of each song on each CD cover, I chose one evocative phrase from the song." |
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The Merry Pet
Stephanie Kunze
"Despite being more of a visual artist, I consider the most profound influence on my work to be music. Music, unlike any other form of art, does not ask of the eyes, but of the imagination. No image presents itself gleefully before the viewer of a music piece. Instead, sounds present themselves, and these sounds leave the listener to respond.
A little while ago, I ended up responding to a new line of music, a kind of music that favored the surreal over the real. This music left me awestruck and dumbfounded, for its quirkiness was unlike anything I’ve ever heard. The new sound eventually inspired me to create my own musical album, through visual art." |
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My Stories
Ivar Hendrickson
"Before I entered the By Design program, I found myself at a crossroads in my art. I was having difficulty creating any one single piece of work that I could accept as finished. Nothing I did seemed adequate to express the ideas I was trying to convey. All my ideas took the form of stories, and I couldn’t find a way to condense my ideas into a single drawing. Being introduced to book arts was like a fog being lifted.
By putting my art into books, I no longer had to condense my ideas onto a single sheet of paper. I could now use multiple drawings and multiple pages to tell a story and still have a single cohesive piece of art as the end product. Of course as soon as I made that connection I began seeing illustration and comics as beautiful new ways to tell my stories. I try to use art and comics as a method of self-examination. I developed myself as a character in my art as a way for me to discover more about who I really am." |
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The Last Dirt Road
Kellie Schweich
"Our society is fascinated with progress. It is no wonder then, that dirt roads are disappearing under waves of development. But where will our society be when the last dirt road is paved? In our haste to cover up the old, we lose ourselves beneath the tar. Having lived in suburban Lakeville all my life, I have witnessed progress firsthand. The Last Dirt Road documents the changes in my town and reflects upon the historical and cultural impacts of this “progress”.
By photographing within the limits of Lakeville, I was able to capture the mixture of the original town and the new developments. The dirt road is now one of the last reminders of our farming roots. In this piece the dirt road represents movement and connection, visually tying the viewer to the past, present, and future.” |
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Story Book
Jamie Mosel
"A while ago, I was given an article in the Star Tribune titled "New Life For Dying Language," about the Dakota and Ojibwe languages and the immersion schools attempting to preserve them.
As an artist, I have always felt as though my work lacks something, some vital element that manifests itself in the work of other artists, but never in my own. When I read in the Star Tribune article that there are few books in Dakota or Ojibwe I wanted to do something. I realized, "Now books! That's something I know a little bit about!" As a part of By Design, I have access to the world of book arts. I realized that I could do something and that I could use what I know to help. This is what has been missing in my art, a use."
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My Temporary Status
Javier Corral
"In the typeface Ink Blots, I took the approach of expressing the motion of graffiti and how the paint has to make its way onto any given surface as soon as possible. I envisioned slapping a brush of paint onto a surface, then created this typeface around that effect."
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One Thousand Cranes
Mairead Herson
"I was drawn to this legend because it is such a seemingly simple approach to a wish. Later, however, I began to understand the true effort that completing such a task requires. Folding the cranes evolved into meditation, and allowed me to be productive while at the same time contemplating what I do and do not want.
The hallway forces a person to pass through, temporarily being sheltered by the space and transforming a person from viewer to participant." |
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By Design artists and mentors discussing the exhibition in the final stages of installation.
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