Making books

I had a great week of making accordion books with clear instructions and thoughtful prompts organized and hosted by Vintage Page Designs. I’ve always loved books and paper, and it’s been so much fun creating some of my own. I went down a bit of a video-watching rabbit hole while I was stuck home with COVID (mild case, thanks to vaccines and boosters, but still a kick) and am grateful that I’m feeling better, back to making stuff at the studio, and for finding yet another creative outlet. I credit art-making pal Kat Kirby for guiding me this direction.

An 8-pocket accordion book with ribbon closure with mixed media collages for each pocket. Lots of fun with watercolor, a medium I hadn’t used much in years and had great fun getting reacquainted with!

a four-panel accordion with insets that spin — this whimsical design called for festive watercolor and ink doodles

Before the challenge began, I put together a few simple journals with pockets that I made with covers from handmade prints by Amy Haney, who showed off the beautiful wood grain in one print and inked up ears of corn to create the other.

a trio of handmade journals with a belly band and ribbon around them — one of my first attempts at making books.

and what one looks like inside

Connections and intersections

After several days working in the studio during my residency at Cedar Point Biological Station, I was eager to pedal a few miles. I loaded my trusty commuter, Sage, onto the rack on the back of my van and drove over the Kingsley Dam into the state recreation area around Lake McConaughy. I pedaled along the lake road, grateful that much of the Independence Day crowd had left the area. It was a warm, windy morning and the route offered a few small climbs on the way to the LeMoyne entrance into the park. I enjoyed seeing blooming wildflowers, waving grasses and a single mule deer watching me from under a canopy of trees. After my ride, I drove around the Lake Ogallala state park, seeing a girl running to launch a rainbow-fish kite and watching the spray at the Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District facility.

As I drove back toward Cedar Point, I turned to look around the Hilltop Inn property. As I was reading the marker noting the dates of the dam’s construction, I realized the view was very close to that of the Ogallala camera taking photos for the Platte Basin Timelapse project. As a longtime admirer of Michael Forsberg and Michael Farrell’s photography, videography and prairie advocacy, I was excited to know I was near a camera that was gathering images for this interesting compilation. I looked for the camera and found it. It felt like a celebrity sighting! I suppose it just shows what a geek I can be about the Great Plains.

Plaque at Kingsley Dam noting it was completed as a public works project in 1941 when Franklin D. Roosevelt was president. The view was familiar.

and there’s the camera, mounted on this tower, taking images for the Platte River Basin Timelapse project

On Saturday, I left Cedar Point and stopped in Kearney for lunch at Tru Cafe, strolled down a few blocks downtown and into the Museum of Nebraska Art to see the exhibit “A River Runs Through It.” For so many reasons, including my ongoing collaboration around river themes with Marcia Joffe-Bouska and Tom Quest, I was interested in seeing the exhibit. And what a treat it was to see photos by Michael Farrell as part of the main exhibit and an entire adjoining gallery devoted to the Platte Basin Timelapse project.

During a storm earlier in the week, Kearney saw intense rainfalls and resulting flooding. This year has been filled with stories of rivers overflowing their banks in Nebraska, and those images and ideas will certainly affect future art-making, although I’m not quite sure yet what shapes they will take. Look for some of those explorations in an expanded exhibit of “Rivers,” which will travel to Norfolk Arts Center in December and will be on display through February 2020.

Riverstones and collaboration

Because we had such a good experience collaborating a couple of years ago to create a substantial artwork, Marcia Joffe-Bouska, Tom Quest and I are doing it again. We three continue to explore rivers in this new work. The resulting collaborative work will debut in the Omaha Public Library's Michael Phipps Gallery as part of Omaha's First Friday art celebration in November and will be on display through December. 

The large collaboration will feature an undulating line of "riverstones" made of ceramic, plywood and mixed media and ranging in size from about 4x5" to 5x8". Panels that are each 24" wide and of varying heights will hang above and below this line. We expect the final piece to be complex and interesting, with multiple textures, materials and ideas to consider. Individual works will support and amplify our themes. Here are samples of each of our stones, as well as "Rivers, Roads, Remains," the artwork we made together in 2015. 

Mosaic riverstones by Marcia Joffe-Bouska. 

Ceramic riverstones by Tom Quest. 

Painted riverstones by Lori Elliott-Bartle. 

"Rivers, Roads, Remains" was a work and a show we did in 2015 when we all were members of the Artists' Cooperative Gallery. 

"Rivers, Roads, Remains" is a 3-panel (each 20" x 40")  mixed-media artwork, portraying ideas connected to the Missouri River. It includes old maps, found objects and the mosaic path echoes the line of the Bob Kerrey bridge that links Omaha and Council Bluffs. 

Small paintings and bits of progress

Getting into the studio has been a challenge with our summer commitments, but I was able to spend a few hours today working on paintings intended for a show in September. I'm still unsure how they'll all develop, but here's one of the 8x8" panels I'm working on today. It may change a lot before it gets to the gallery. 

Painting in progress; 8x8" panel