Umm - a collaboration

Umm - a collaboration

It has been an engaging and inspiring winter working with artist/writer David Holzman collaborating on a handmade book for the biennial Word Art show at the Gallery on the Green in Canton, CT.

Dave's work is unique and evocative. It has a clunky charm. Dave is a prolific visual artist who carves wood from which he creates sculpture, puppets, architectural pieces, woodblock prints, paintings, etc, etc....AND he writes haiku-like poems to accompany some of his woodcuts. He has an extensive series of drawings, paintings and woodcuts that he calls "The Book of Umm".  When Dave asked if I'd be interested in working with his words - I was flattered and excited at the possibilities.  He generously shared 10 Book of Umm images and poems with me to work with for our collaboration.

I began by looking at Dave's woodcuts, reading the words, making large writing and by tracing shapes in his images that might be able to be used as letters or just provide inspiration. This project has come after a couple of years of looking at Hans Joachim Burgert's work, and studying with Thomas Ingmire at Camp Cheerio in May 2018. I used ways of working that I learned while working at Cheerio as a way to get myself going in a direction. The large lettering I was working out and referring back to Burgert's work helped me decide on a compressed book hand with thin, angled cross bars and the occasional fat, gestural o or s.  After looking over Dave's images, I decided a traditional accordion fold book could work with text on the left and woodcuts on the right.


Once I figured out the letting and the correct spacing that would allow for a maximum of 16 lines of text on the left page, I got down to lining the pages. I was only making 2 books, but it took several days diligent measuring and drawing lines. Tedious, but music helps and I was really clear and focused on getting it done to move on to the lettering.

Of course, once I got to the lettering I knew I wanted and easy flowing, dark black. So I mixed W&N ivory black gouache with distilled water and semi ink to the desired flow feel. Since I was working on Arches Text Wove I had a nice pad of paper under my paper, and I worked flat. The area for the text was small enough that I didn't feel like I couldn't see properly.

I took Arches Text Wove paper, precut to 8.5 x 11 inches to Paradise Copies in Northampton, MA to have Dave's woodcuts copied. They are such a professional shop! They are always happy to copy my calligraphic creations onto fine paper that I bring - such pros! I can't say enough good things about that place.  After I finished all the writing in both books, I "tipped" in the images on the facing page to the associated haiku. It looked great! 

I finished off the writing with a colophon. I had to look up the format and what I wrote fit perfectly and to end the book as I started with a snippet of one of Dave's images. Both feature a flower.

Now on to the covers. Dave had given me some cotton muslin his had printed some images on - some from the Book of Umm, some other images, and a little bit with big, graphic circles and triangles. I choose the graphic circles & triangles, but there was only enough to cover one set of covers......so I hauled out some black fabric paint and added some black acrylic and painted some more fabric for the second book. I just played with a flat brush and circle and triangle shapes in pattern and got something I liked pretty well.

My painted fabric on left, Dave's printed fabric on right

Dave's printed fabric

My printed fabric

Covering the boards went well - the whole time I tried to keep in mind all the lessons I'd learned from master calligrapher and book maker, Suzanne Moore. Before I cover the book boards, I spent a couple of days exploring my options for a closure. I finally decided on a magnetic closure that was 30 mm wide used for jewelry - I made a fabric strap with the fabric I painted for both books, and ran it around the top and bottom of the book along the back cover. Worked very well!

I learned a lot from this project - it was one of the most engaging and Dave gave me such a vote of confidence by letting me run with my ideas. It's funny, both covers look like flowers to me.

Finished books

This books part of the Word Art exhibit which runs today through April 14, 2019 at the Gallery on the Green, Canton, CT.