The Faery Gardener is a father-daughter collaboration between poet Hearthstone Firetender and artist/illustrator Chandler O’Leary, and the third artist book publication of O’Leary’s moniker, Anagram Press.
The Faery Gardener is a tale of modern witchcraft set in a Maine community garden; an overview of pagan spirituality (complete with gardening tips) conveyed through a story of growing kinship with a secret admirer.
The Faery Gardener comes in a deluxe edition and a chapbook. The deluxe edition is a functional Jacob’s Ladder, with printed ribbon, housed in a nested box. Also included is a packet of full-color original illustrations. The chapbook is sewn into a Yamato-toji binding, with a printed paper wrapper. Both editions are numbered and signed by the author and artist.
Chandler O'Leary (BFA, Rhode Island School of Design) is a book artist, graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, and the proprietor of Anagram Press. A former artist-in-residence at MCBA and 2005 Minnesota Book Award winner in fine press, her work is collected and exhibited nationally.
Artist statement:
I spent my junior year of college in Rome, Italy. It was a big leap, relocating to a foreign country for such a long time. I knew that to immerse myself in Italian culture, I’d have to shed my current “self” for the time being. I left my friends, my family, my interests, and all of my belongings behind, and lived for nine months out of one carry-on bag. I was no stranger to this sort of detachment: raised in an Air Force family, the two earliest lessons I learned were how to say goodbye, and how to avoid accumulating “stuff.” I had always been taught to let my roots grow deep rather than wide. I discovered a similar philosophy in Italy; Romans, especially, felt very comfortable in small, compact, but valuable spaces.
My experience of Rome was very inward. Every morning I would set out with a small shoulder bag containing my portable (and well-worn) box of watercolors, a film canister filled with water, a handful of pencils and pens, and a small sketchbook. I learned to dress like a local, never carried a map or advertised my nationality, and spoke only when necessary. I wanted to project as little of myself as possible onto my surroundings, much like a documentary filmmaker who doesn’t want to interfere with his subject. I wanted to absorb what I saw, heard, tasted, and felt, and pour
my heart and my thoughts into the small book I held in my hands. I didn’t acquire many souvenirs; if it couldn’t be pasted into my sketchbook, I didn’t keep it. I compressed and distilled my whole life into those books; in the first three months alone, I filled over two hundred pages.
This was how I fell in love with the book. I respect and admire the book for its ability to hold an immeasurable experience in one small, unassuming package. I discovered that by using the book as a vehicle, I could turn my art, my response to my world, into an experience all its own. I could carry a simple object in my hand, and unleash the world just by opening the cover.
These days, while I do occasionally create single pieces, one image is often not enough to contain all that I wish to convey in my work. I am becoming increasingly obsessed with the book as a container, as a reward for curiosity. The sense of that reward is what makes me house my books in simple, even nondescript, bindings and casings. Just like the layered world that lies behind the façade of a city like Rome, my books are patient, waiting quietly for the reader to explore and discover their contents.
For the first time in my life, my surroundings aren’t inherently temporary (like at school or on a tour of duty). There is no specific limit on my stay here in Minnesota. I am still governed by my semi-nomadic instincts, however. I live with relatively few possessions in a tiny, urban space. My work tends to be small in size, for both practical and aesthetic reasons. But I fill my space, my body of work, my life, with books. And within each book are the questions, the reflections, the mementos
of my world. My roots go deep.
The Faery Gardener is available at The Shop @ MCBA. For more information, please contact
the shop manager at 612.215.2520 or email
us with
any questions.
HOURS:
Tuesday: 10 am to 9 pm
Monday, Wednesday - Saturday: 10 am to 5 pm
Sunday: Closed
