365: Make a Book a Day: Book 137 - Instant Book

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.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Book 137 - Instant Book - Just Add Water

You know what I really hate? Spending the entire night making a very complicated book... in my sleep. Then waking up and realizing it wasn't made. Last night was not the first time this has happened. It's depressing.

Oh well, moving on... this one was fun. Last night, I needed a snack and nuked up a cup of Maruchan Instant Noodles. As my hand reached to toss the empty cup into the trash, I paused. That certain light entered my eye as I stared at that perfectly mundane styrofoam cup. Hmmmm...

So here we have -- Instant Book: Just Add Water. To make the label, I tootled around with my fonts till I found one that was close to the original on the package and I recreated the label as closely as possible with my own title. The original print keep showing through the new label, so I had to paint the cup with a few coats of gesso first. Inside the cup are shredded pages from an old, waterlogged paperback book. I added a few red/green/yellow paper dots from a hole punch for the peas, carrots and corn. Then I made a card-stock lid, scored to fold back and printed with "Caution: Contains Literature."

This one makes me laugh.