Open Studios Photos

The forecourt of the Zymoglyphic Museum. The Museum is in the yellow shed at the right, my studio is through the gate.


Another view of the forecourt.


My studio.


Some of my dinosaurs and Godzillas.


Some of our visitors. I loved getting to talk to people about the book arts. I have a new, and supposedly better camera, but it's too much for me. . . In these indoor shots I got a lot of noise, and I have no idea what I did wrong.





This was a very successful year for us. The weather was nice, there were lots of people, all in all a great weekend. There is a set of photos on flickr with more views.

Open Studios Part 2

Bird Life ©2009 - 2.75 inches high. My original drawing was scanned and resized in Photoshop. I used a Canon Pixma inkjet printer to print it on either Wassau Cottonwood or Balsa. The cover is museum board and Thai banana paper. $10. Click on either book title to see more views of the book.

As part of the BABA book share meeting, we exchange simple books. The only requirement is that they are (sort of) under 3 inches in any direction. This has inspired me to think about making fairly quick, paper books. Of course, nothing I make is really quick. Whether I spend many hours in Photoshop or actually cutting out parts, they seem to be time consuming. I will have a few of these books for sale during Open Studios this year.


Where Am I? ©2009 - 4.25 inches high. This book was inspired by my 64th birthday. I used a Canon Pixma inkjet printer to print it on 100% cotton paper. The cover is cardstock. $5.

In my previous post I omitted the most important piece of information: a location. So here it is:
A map to Studio 19 is here.

Photos of our previous open studios here.

And check out the Zymoglyphic Museum curator's blog entry for Open Studios. I love his poetic writing.

Open Studios and Free Stuff

The members of Studio 19 (myself and the Zymoglyphic Museum) will be participating in Silicon Valley Open Studios May 16 and 17, between 11am and 5pm.

I will be giving away 20 copies of my one sheet artist's book, "My Studio" (shown above) to the first 20 people.

We will also have some interesting stuff to give away: old books, found objects, old comic books, magazines, basically the kind of junk artists collect.

Added 4/27: You can find a map for Studio 19 here. And photos of our previous open studios here.

Making a brass box for a pinhole camera

I'm working on this box. It's 3 inches tall and 2.25 inches on each side. At first I couldn't get enough heat from my acetylene/air torch to solder on the bottom.


Here's the solution. The walls and base are solderite pads. I can build a lot of heat around the back left corner of the brass box.

Another take on Spirits under glass

Recently we went to the de young museum to enjoy the ethnographic collection. Jim is particularly a fan of the New Guinea works. I have come to appreciate them more and more by seeing them through his eyes. I took my Gameboy camera, and he took our "big" digital camera. Photography is allowed, but no flash or tripods.

My de Young flickr photoset is here.

Jim wrote a very thoughtful blog entry about the visit. An excerpt:

"Encased in the sleekly modern architecture of the museum we see organic figurines, made of wood, clay, stone, or feathers, once living spiritual objects, extracted from dying cultures, forever frozen in action in their vitrines."

Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day

World Wide Pinhole Photography Day is on April 26th this year. This poster will be available on the website for download.

Now is the time to make sure you have your gear together. And it doesn't have to be a film image, you could make a solargraph. There are lots of links on the WPPD site under "resources." A few more links:
Solargraphy on Flickr
Diego Lopez Calvin's beautiful solargraphs.


Memory 436 - the image I submitted to WPPD two years ago. It was made in my MemoryCam. I used a paper negative which was developed and scanned into my computer. It's semi-digital.

Free For All!

Dreaming made Easy, included in Free For All, an exhibit of downloadable artist's books at Fiji Island Mermaid Press. If you have a computer and a printer, you can have, for free, books made by eight talented artists. It's a fantastic show - wonderfully varied and inspiring. Below is Marc Snyder's press release:

"The Fiji Island Mermaid Press is proud to present “FREE FOR ALL”. This online exhibition of artist’s books invites the viewer to download and assemble the books on display. The eight artists who have created books for this exhibition are Pati Bristow, Ginger Burrell, Warren Craghead III, Marti Haykin, Adele Henderson, Robert Hirsch, Judith Hoffman, and Marc Snyder. The exhibition will remain online indefinitely.

Each book in the show is available as a downloadable file. The viewer typically prints no more than one or two pages of artwork and text, which are then trimmed, folded, and cut to create miniature books. The artists have provided instructions for the viewer for the entire process.

The exhibition explores the boundary between cyberspace and “the real world”, as the show is only finished when the visitor to the site has downloaded and assembled his or her own books. Essentially, the exhibit exists wherever someone creates their own collection of books.

Brief biographical and professional information about each participating artist accompanies the artist’s book in the online exhibition. Links to view more of his or her artwork are also included.

For additional information about “FREE FOR ALL”, please contact Marc Snyder at marc@fimp.net"