A Book a Day? What's Up With That?


Hi, and welcome to this year-long project. So what's this all about and how did it happen, you might ask. In mid 2007, artist Noah Scalin decided to make a skull out of anything he could find, every day for a year. It stretched him in ways he never imagined, as an artist, a writer and a person. His experience turned into a blog that went viral, and then a book.

Others have picked up on the idea: 365 Hearts, 365 Masks, 365 Bears drawn on a cellphone, 365 paper napkin mustaches.
I wanted to play, too, and I chose books. I love books, I know a bit about making books (thanks to my talented book-maker sister, Marilyn Worrix), and they're broad enough in definition to give me a lot of creative leeway.

The whole point is not really the books. The idea is to stretch myself in many ways as an artist and a person, to set up a discipline, stick with it and see what that teaches me.

I hope you'll join with me and follow along on the journey chronicled here, and let me know what you think.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Day 65 - "Anthem" - A Back-to-Back Accordion Book

Once again, I chose this structure from Alisa Golden's "Making Handmade Books: 100 Bindings & Structures," (my new Bible), as something I liked the looks of and wanted to try. But I didn't want to make it blank. Most of the books I've made over the years have been blank journals. Finding content for some has been more of a challenge.

A few days ago, someone quoted the chorus of the Leonard Cohen song "Anthem" and I loved it. I looked up the rest of the lyrics and one stanza in particular spoke to me (and seemed eerily timely). I had my content.

The structure is basically two accordion fold books back to back, stitched together in the valley folds.On each side, I watercolored a long swash of fading color then hand wrote the lyrics to that one stanza on the first side and the chorus on the other. Here are the lyrics I used:

Can't run no more with that lawless crowd
while the killers in high places say their prayers out loud.
But they've summoned,
they've summoned up the thunder,
and they're going to hear from me.

Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
That's how the light gets in.




2 comments:

  1. I am a long time Cohen fan. I love what you created!

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  2. Thanks for the kind words from another long-time LC fan.

    ReplyDelete