The snow is gone and the brown colours are back in Avimor.

© 2015 Louise Levergneux, Avimor warming up.

Time is flying by fast and since the start of January, I am knee deep in Tinkercad, typefaces, colours and design for my next artists' book. I thought it best to take a breath and visit the BAM, no, not the Brooklyn Academy of Music but the Boise Art Museum.

Incredible how acronyms have become part of our language. When I moved to Boise, the locals asked if I had visited the BAM—what’s a BAM? For newcomers trying to figure out the lay of the land these abbreviations said à la queueleuleu, remind me of a song.

BAM BAM ROM MoMA,

CoCA GAM IMA,

MAMbo MASS MoCA,

MIA MICA MOCA,

SAM YAM OCMA

Everyone has danced à la queueleuleu, if not this video explains the term

Oops, I’m digressing!

Last Saturday, at the BAM, I saw the exhibition: Paper: the Infinite Possibilities of Origami. This exhibition explores the history of folding and origami as fine art. The pieces in the show were created by 45 master folders from around the world and showcased the power and potential of contemporary origami. Paper is endless creativity in these artists’ hands. I met Alexandra Monjar a friendly and dedicated docent able to give us lots of information on the exhibited works.

The koi by MichaeI G Lafosse caught my eye. The koi were delicate yet strong. Back at home I could not wait to explore more origami work on the Internet, I’m intrigued.

The next video is an introduction to Sipho’s project White Elephant–a life-size 3 metre high origami elephant.

If you have time the 6 part video on White Elephant is worth it even though it takes nearly an hour to watch—all of them! I'm sure you can speed view at times!

WHITE ELEPHANT Part 1 (8:56 min)

WHITE ELEPHANT Part 2 (13:26 min)

WHITE ELEPHANT Part 3 (4 min)

WHITE ELEPHANT Part 4 (13:48 min)

WHITE ELEPHANT Part 5 (10:03 min)

WHITE ELEPHANT Part 6 Final (9 min)

These videos brought to mind other artists who create with paper. A good friend, mentor and artist, Francois X. Chamberland, gifted me the bible seen below at the end of the eighties. I still regard it as one of my favourite pieces in our home. I tried my hand at folding and never had the patience to continue.

Canadian artist Cathryn Miller’s altered books are sometimes filled with Froebel stars–a form of origami that combines folding with weaving. Cathryn’s love for paper can be seen in her altered book Universe / Starry, Starry Night inviting you to play and dream.

© 2008 Cathryn Miller, Universe / Starry, Starry Night — © 2008 Cathryn Miller, Universe / Starry, Starry Night

In Cathryn’s Universe: Foundation Trilogy, a series of altered books made from the pages of Life Nature Library volume "The Universe" pays homage to Asimov's iconic science fiction trilogy. The patience to fold several hundred stars for a project is amazing!