Fanciful and Functional Artist Books: Create, Writ...
During the first session, I introduce the artist book concept by showing and explaining various types of artist books, explaining how the content of the writing can be incorporated into the book construction. Following, I teach students how to decorate paste papers, which they will use for book covers and collage inside their books. During following sessions, students learn how to fold an artist book, such as an origami book, a secret room book, or a spiral book, and add paste paper covers. Afterwards, we brainstorm a topic, which has either been requested or approved by the teacher, such as being thankful, my special place, Christmas, my timeline, or even abstinence, and then students pre-write personal prose/poetry based on the topic. When applicable, I include art images, for example memory paintings by Minnie Reinhardt for the special place topic, as well as related music and poetry into the discussion process. After completion of the first draft, I introduce various writing activities, incorporating elements of writing, to encourage students to practice better writing skills. These activities include poetry writing, e.g. the cinquain, diamante, or amulet, as well as finding descriptive synonyms for hackneyed words. Toward the end of the residency, students complete their books by transposing their revised prose or poetry onto the book pages and illustrating it with drawings, collages, or photographs. On the last day, students share their work with classmates.
In addition to the book arts program, I also teach papermaking by recycling scrap paper and adding inclusions, such as flower petals and yarn fibers. Each student will create at least one piece of recycled art paper during those visits.
