 |
Notes from the secret fish society meetings ©1985, found notebook, watercolor paper, oil paints, watercolors, graphite pencil, collage. I believe this is the first book I ever made as an art project. I was doing a lot of automatic writing at the time, some of it I liked enough to put into this notebook. It's not here as a great example of anything, but to honor the idea and it's beginnings. At the time I was in a class at San Jose State that ended up being the most important art class I ever took, taught by Jacqueline Thurston. I'm not sure I can summarize Jacqueline's ideas correctly, but it seemed that the focus of the class was on finding that personal place where creativity happens. It comes out of our childhood, our innate tastes, our life experiences. It is important to nurture this source, which is different for each person. Not for Sale (neither the book nor the ideas are for sale :-).
|
 |
There were a lot of problems in re-using the commercial notebook. In the end I didn't like the ring binding in this very functional form and it didn't seem possible to disguise it. I was also not really happy with the cover, because of its blankness, although it seemed appropriate for the context. I guess I was already thinking about books, and their form - illustrations on the cover were important.
|
 |
Fish secrets. The text says: "Sept. 24, Fish go places we can't go and have access to secrets we can't know. Can they go into a place we think of as death? Can they return and tell their secrets to us?"
|
 |
Some blank pages, to make it clear that more notes are coming.
|
 |
The pocket in the back holds a proto-map and a "computer" for pilots. The map is blank, except for some washes of paint, so you can project anything you want there. Funny, I still remember some of the criticisms people in the class had. One woman didn't like the brown notebook with blue paper. There were always questions about the color on the paper - I was rubbing oil colors onto watercolor papers at the time.
|
|
home