Seconds, Minutes, Hours...

On February 28th, we all received the new blog post from Alyson Stanfield from Art Biz Success “How to Decide Whether to Take on a New Project or Not.”

After reading the article and comments, I realized this post was very timely. A significant topic because of my overwhelming new life style as a nomad.

As I mentioned in past posts — a self-employed artist/entrepreneur wears many hats, which means you exercise the freedom to decide how to manage your chosen career. For some of us this creates a dilemma!

At this point in my life and career, it is critical to decide which activity/opportunity is for me. Superwoman, no way, and there are not enough hours in a day for me to accomplish everything I would embrace or require to achieve. How do you find time to write your blog posts in between your many activities? To the ones who do, kudos to you! I salute you!

In the past, there always seemed to be time to set up lots of activities to satisfy my life. Back in Canada, for many years, I was an art teacher at a local college; giving workshops and private lessons were also enjoyable. Every moment I would be in my studio or training our Topaz. When we moved to the US, I alloted lots of time to my work. This granted me the freedom to create and distribute my books; to participate in national and international exhibitions; and attend workshops to help advance my work. Subsequently, at the end of 2015, I started blogging to meet and communicate with other likeminded artists.

© 2017 Michael Sutton. Feeling my way around new ideas.

Does It Feel Right?

Being on the move constantly and with diligent work, favourable circumstances have come my way. For all we know, getting older, shortens time and the moments in between are non-existent, which intensifies the feeling of being pulled in many directions! With at least three artists’ books on the go, meeting artists and library contacts while traveling, writing Half Measure Studio Blog posts, blogging about my personal journey, and of course life in general. “Where to start?”, is often the question.

Traveling for almost two years, the decisions I make depend significantly on locals and timing. I feel overwhelmed and not getting any closer to finishing a recent artists’ book!

Half Measure Studio Blog may no longer serve my goals. Am I weary? Maybe! Or is life interfering with art again? — This is a puzzle.

Half Measure Studio Blog remains a great project. When I moved to Boise, Idaho, from Salt Lake City, Utah, blogging provided me a platform to express ideas and converse about studio activities, binding, concepts, and feature other artists...

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Balancing work on a new artists’ book Surveillance and writing this post.

Is This Aligned With My Goals?

After reading Alison’s questions, I’m unsure that blogging brings me closer to my goals. I’m reflecting on what my posts are conveying to fellow artists especially to myself? Continuing to share information could be done with enthusiaism if time invested would balance the creation of artists’ books. It’s been two weeks since my last post and I’m NOT particularly looking forward to writing another. Wait! That’s what I’m doing now, the article must be inspiring me.

I enjoy the communication and comments (online and/or offline), but my gut tells me this may not be the correct path. I wouldn’t want to give up on a long-time project which opened so many doors. But, a change of lifestyle (which has generated many creative ideas) and adding a monthly personal traveling blog has made it difficult to accomplish the realization of my ideas.

Reflection of my career goals for 2019 is in order: spending time writing, communicating or creating artists’ books? What project could offer me a connection with the art world as much as blogging did?

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Enjoying the development of Surveillance.

What is the potential for profit?

Earning a living is a priority, since I have been unable to publish new books, soon the inventory and the profits will disappear, the money is always part of the equation for me, but my inventory is whittling down. And, I miss the hands on projects. Could blogging offer some financial compensation? How does it work and are donations worth it?

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Image for my new artists’ book Surveillance.

What opportunities could it lead to?

At the moment, the most critical question, for me, is — “Would blogging once a month instead of weekly, allow me time to rethink my work, find different goals, dream of new concepts, find a new way of creating while traveling, re-organize a studio space?” Hopefully, the results will open doors to other opportunities. I trust I will benefit wholeheartedly from the time producing my books, which is my first love.

One should constantly be inspired and enthusiastic about their art career/work. Time is precious, we need to allow moments to flow, for life to bring good tidings our way.

Therefore, with all this introspection, Half Measure Studio Blog will be posted only once a month, till I find the balance needed for my work. See you soon... Louise

© 2015 Louise Levergneux. Sunset in Avimor, Idaho.

Obsession

I'm traveling to Austin, Texas, this week to work with another artist in the development of electronic interfaces for my next artist book with a working title of Surveillance. One of the specific things missing for me while traveling is the time to preoccupy myself over necessary details of a developing project. There is absolutely no time frame to be obsessive about anything on the road. Therefore, I’m looking forward to this interaction to stimulate me to re-create good studio habits and the passion for particular subject matters.

Developing and realizing a creative idea, for me, usually takes a degree of obsession. I suppose most artists choose to be engaged with compelling and motivating ideas to the point of being enthusiastic.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Manhole cover in Tucson, Arizona.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Manhole cover in Orlando, Florida.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Manhole cover in St Petersburg, Florida.

The allotted span of time it takes to wear the different hats (artist, creator, researcher, administrator, distributor...) does not leave much time for the creation — the fun part. However, I have not found the occasion to establish brief periods in my studio space and relate and connect to different subject matters. Traveling denies me the concentration time and fun of merely sitting in my space to reflect and work with my thoughts. Most of my time is taken by day-to-day activities of living and moving from one place to another. Traveling brings new ideas, but as a full-time traveler, shopping lists, balancing accounts, preparing meals, and... Life often takes over!

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Manhole cover in Orlando, Florida.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Manhole cover in St Augustine, Florida.

Yet, an idea might never leave your thoughts, and the obsession continues. Back in 1999, on a Scotland trip, when my project City Shields began, I collected many hundreds of images of manhole covers. I never thought 20 years later I would still be obsessed in photographing an interestingly designed manhole cover I happened to find during my walks.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Manhole cover in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Manhole cover in Circleville, Ohio.

This might be a excellent example of a primal acquisitive urge — I built a whole project out of this creative fascination of photographing manhole covers. The collection continues, but the project came to an end when the jewel cases that contain the die-cut photos of manhole covers were no longer available. Being picky about how the project would be presented, I felt the need to maintain the same packaging because it was essential to the idea of City Shields.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Manhole cover in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

So, as I travel, I’m often caught searching the streets for the next beautiful manhole cover. The need to take the camera out and shoot yet another manhole cover cannot be denied! The obsession is still alive. What do I do with the multiple photos of manhole covers I’ve taken through my journey. Create an ebook, an on-demand book, an artists’ book...??? What obsesses me as an artist can enrich the viewer to interpret my work.

My critical questions are:

How do I inject passion into my work while traveling?

In a hectic lifestyle, through what force does one find time to create?

By what means do I create a studio space to bring thoughts to completion?

How does one balance the administration versus the creative side of art work?

Any ideas?

© 2017 Louise Levergneux. Manhole cover in Austin, Texas.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Manhole cover in Sugar House, Salt Lake City, Utah.

© 2012 Louise Levergneux. Manhole cover in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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Sarasota, Florida

I was very engaged in Florida, exploring studios and visiting libraries to present my artists’ books to Special Collections. My séjour facilitated contacting a few librarians and even had the opportunity to re-connect with an artists’ book that was previously acquired.

I reached out to the Florida Atlantic University, the Flagler College, Florida International University, Florida State University, Miami University, Ringling College of Art and Design, University of Central Florida, University of South Florida, and the Southern Florida University.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. The Alfred R Goldstein Library at Ringling College of Art and Design.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. The Alfred R Goldstein Library lobby.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Brizdle-choenberg Special Collections Center at the Alfred R Goldstein Library.

Showcasing my published books to the Brizdle-choenberg Special Collections Center was a distinct pleasure. Special Collections specializes in artists’ publication projects, prints, and rare books at Ringling College of Art and Design. Janelle Rebel invited the special collections assistant Ali Vargas-Fournier and the director of library services Kristina Keough to join us in the discovering of specific bindings and subject matter.

It was undoubtedly a successful meeting with the acquisition of Decades Apart, 26NOV2006, Xtraction and four flip books from the Outside of the Studio Series to the Alfred R Goldstein Library. The library selected books that would be appreciated in a research consultation by art, photography, animation, and film students and art and design practitioners.

© 2008 Louise Levergneux. 26NOV2006, last copy acquired by the Special Collections of the Alfred R Goldstein Library.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Decades Apart, copy 4, last copy acquired by the Special Collections of the Alfred R Goldstein Library.

© 2012 Louise Levergneux. Air.2 from the series Outside the Studio acquired by the Special Collections of the Alfred R Goldstein Library, Earth.11, H2O.3, and FIRE.3 were also purchused.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Xtraction, copy 1, last copy acquired by the Special Collections of the Alfred R Goldstein Library.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Desert Swatches was acquired in 2014 by the Special Collections of the Alfred R Goldstein Library.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Desert Swatches with its catalogue information.

© 2012 Louise Levergneux. Desert Swatches.

The Alfred R. Goldstein Library a state-of-the-art building that seeks to transform the way that users engage with library collections and services, opened in January 2017. Architecturally stunning, and an active physical and digital destination on the Ringling College campus.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. The Alfred R Goldstein Library lobby showcasing Julie Miller Kanapaux artwork, Momentum 2016.

One can find, broadsides, democratic multiples, documentation of time-based and performance projects, engravings, exhibition publications, experimental writing, fine press books, flip books, handmade editions, historic facsimiles, parlor toys, photo-bookworks, prints, rare books, and zines in the collection.

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© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Exhibition “Step and Repeat: Pattern in Artists' Publications” at the Alfred R Goldstein Library.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Detail of the exhibition, right: Josh MacPhee, Security Fear, 2017

During my visit I was experience the Special Collections' most recent exhibition "Step and Repeat: Pattern in Artists' Publications." The exhibit in the reading room excavates the pleasures of pattern in the coverings, interiors, linings, and details of thirty artists’ publications. Visually arranged into conceptual motifs (flora & fauna, power, psychedelic, geometric, experimental, liquid, figures, and security), these books aim to mesmerize, distract, propel, disrupt, and entice the reader.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Books in the show, middle: Clifton Meador, Kor 2007; middle back: Ral Veroni, Gabo Ferro, Flopa Lestani, Nada para el Destino = Nothing for Destiny 2009.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. left: Barbara Hodgson Mrs Delany Meets Herr Haeckl Radiolaria, Retracoralla, Pediastra, Ciliata, etc., Rendered in Paper Mosaicks, 2015; right: Sheryl Oppenheim, Sample Book 2017.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi Graphic Arts Future Corporeal Knowledge 2017.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. left: Chris Fitzpatrick and Karel Martens, Motion 2017; middle: Julie Peters and Karel Martens, Full Color 2013; right: Marianne Dages and Leah Mackin, Ultrices 2016.

It’s always nice to personally meet contacts/librarians of special collections and introduce my artists’ books particularly when an genuine interest is shown.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Ringling College of Art and Design building.

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Tampa, Florida

University libraries and artists where part of my research for my séjour in Florida. Therefore, I was prepared to visit local studios and collections. I arranged a meeting at Graphicstudio, which is an essential part of the University of South Florida Institute for Research in Art in Tampa.

Graphicstudio, founded in 1968, is a university-based workshop engaged in a unique experiment in art and education. Its philosophy to provide artists with the freedom to experiment and pursue new directions to advance their practice, is matched with an exceptionally talented faculty and staff. This combination has attracted world-renowned contemporary artists to the University of South Florida.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Graphicstudio printing room.

Since its beginning, the studio has invited over 100 emerging and established contemporary artists from around the world that have worked in a range of styles and media to produce more than 1,000 limited edition print and sculpture multiples.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Graphicstudio’s wall of paint.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Graphicstudio’s archival ink printers.

One of the first workshops at Graphicstudio was with Robert Rauschenberg. The artist, along with a dedicated group of faculty, staff and students, avidly experimented with forms and techniques — photo transfer, cyanotype, sepia prints, printing on cloth and ceramics, sculptures with new materials, a hundred-foot-long photograph — and ultimately completed over sixty editions. The studio’s reputation as a place where faculty and staff will eagerly pursue and collaborate with the artist’s every idea and inspiration was established in those early days. This innovative environment continues to be a major factor in its continuing success.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Tim Baker preparing prints for colour run.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Carlos Garaicoa, Terrasse St. Denis, 2011, 2-run photogravure with hand-cut folded elements, 17-3/8 x 14.25 x 5-3/16”.

Graphicstudio practices traditional printmaking techniques including intaglio, lithography, silkscreen, and relief along with photogravure, cyanotype and pigment prints. Sculpture multiples are produced in a range of media which include bronze, steel, aluminum, wood, rubber, and less traditional materials including lava (basalt) and pigmented resins.

Walking into Graphicstudio, I was greeted by Kristin Soderqvist, Director of Marketing and Sales. Kristin hosted a tour of the gallery and facility, explained Graphicstudio’s mission, and shared her knowledge about all the work that enrich the walls by artists who created works.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Kristin Soderqvist showing me around the studios.

The first prints I noticed were of Sandra Cinto, known for her large-scale, dramatic scenarios incorporating water, the night sky and billowing seas.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. top left: Sandra Cinto, Open Sea, 2016, Cyanotype, 22 x 30”; left middle: Esterio Segura, Homemade Submarine SJXXII, 2017, Cyanotype, 32.125 x 46”; left bottom: Sandra Cinto, Untitled, 2016, sculpture: Alabaster, 13.5 x 36 x 12”, base: 30 x 40 x 21”, Walnut Hardwood; right: Sandra Cinto, Chance and Necessity, 2016, suite of 5 two-run, two-color direct gravures with photogravure, 49.75 x 34” ea.

As one walks through a hallway, Mark Dion’s Herbarium, initiated in 2007, is noticeable. Herbarium is a suite of etchings printed in two runs. To provide the paper, an aged look, an acrylic wash was hand painted on each sheet of paper, then run with a spit-bite aquatint similar to the wash.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. right: Mark Dion, World in a Box, 2015, suite of 27 prints (lithography, cyanotype, digital, screenprint, etching, letterpress and woodcut) in a custom-made oak wood storage box with etching and letterpress cover image (on lid) and lithograph inventory list (inside lid), 13.125 x 10.187 x 1.625”. right top: Burt Barr, Wave.

Wave by Burt Barr was one of the first digital inkjet prints produced at Graphicstudio. You can examine the piece, Wave, that was installed as a continuous image, 38 feet long along the wall at ceiling height. I was intrigued about the process — Barr’s film August provided imagery for his project. Reoriented as a suite of five panels of three images each, Wave considers the perception of nature, pushing the boundary of its presentation through the scale of the project.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. left: Guillermo Kuitca, The Neufert Suite, 2002, suite of six cyanotypes
46.5 x 46.5”; right top: Richard Anuszkiewicz, Blue Tinted Star, 1991, Five-color lithograph / screen-print assemblage, 36 x 38 x 1.062”; on pedestal (H 33.25” x diam 33”): Esterio Segura, Submarine Homemade, 2018, bronze with applied patina and white oak pedestal, 12.75 x 26 x 29”.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Fred Tomaselli, Untitled (bloom), 2018, archival pigment print with 11-run screenprint, 58 x 46” being printed.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Fred Tomaselli, Untitled (bloom), 2018, archival pigment print with 11-run screenprint, 58 x 46” finished print.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Mernet Larsen, Raft, 2018, 13-color lithograph with collage elements, 33.75 x 34.25”.

Once I was shown Allan McCollum’s Lands of Shadow and Substance, I was intrigued. Allan viewed the original Twilight Zone episodes from 1959 to 1964 on his laptop computer, capturing screenshots of scenes that included landscape paintings. Images of those paintings were digitally edited, printed, and custom framed to create the series entitled Lands of Shadow and Substance. Each of the 27 works in the series are archival pigment prints that have been printed proportionally to its original televised incarnation and is in an edition of three. The series was printed using Epson UltraChrome HDR inks on an Epson Stylus Pro 7900 and framed in custom manufactured frames. Each piece is signed on a label on the back of the frame with a reference image and on the back of the print itself.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Allan McCollum, Lands of Shadow and Substance (No. 1 – 27), 2014, archival pigment prints, various sizes.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Kristin removes Allan McCollum’s Lands of Shadow and Substance off the wall to show me the signed label on the back of the frame.

In the back hallway you are confronted with a wall covered in psychedelic, black-light reactive wallpaper. This screen printed wallpaper with fluorescent inks was a 2008 project with artist Trenton Doyle Hancock and is called Flower Bed II: A Prelude to Damnation.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Trenton Doyle Hancock, Flower Bed II: A Prelude to Damnation, 2008, 10-color screen printed wallpaper with fluorescent inks, 27” x 5 yards

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Frame above table: Trenton Doyle Hancock, Wow That's Mean, 2008, suite of four etchings on black paper with chine colle, each: 10.5 x 14”.

Imagine what I was impressed with the most — Ed Ruscha artists’ books of course. Since Kristin new I was an artists’ book maker, she made sure, I viewed two of Ruscha’s artists’ books ME and THE and OH NO.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. On wall in background: Philip Pearlstein, Jerusalem, Kidron Valley, 1989, heliorelief with roulette on wood, 40 x 119”. Kristin opening the boxes that contain Ed Ruscha’s artists’ books Me and The, and OH NO.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Ed Ruscha, 2006, OH NO, colophon page.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Ed Ruscha’s OH NO, inside pages.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Kristin demonstrates Ed Ruscha’s artists’ book ME and THE.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Kristin demonstrates Ed Ruscha’s artists’ book ME and THE, when the gilt edge of the fore-edge is fanned the another way.

Well, I was here in Tampa 30 years ago when Graphicstudio was around the corner from the university art museum. It was a small operation and when I came back I had no idea what to expect. When I saw what was there, I was kind of stunned to see how fine everything was. You had this gallery and not only just the gallery and the space and the presses and the different rooms and the staff and all that, but actually had many work to back this whole thing up. I was just completely impressed and touched by everything I saw. It’s quite a facility.

Thirty years later in 2000-01 Ruscha returned to the atelier, this time for a suite of color photogravures and a limited-edition artist book. The early and late bodies of work share striking similarities in the interplay of word and image and in the exploration of the intersection of fine art and commercial printing techniques, and display an enduring commitment to the artist book form by Ruscha, a pioneer of the artist book movement in the 1960s. ME and THE (2002 cloth covered book with one-color fore-edge printing and gold leaf edges, closed book: 5-1/4 H x 7-1/2 W x 2-1/8 D inches, an edition of 230) and OH NO are fore-edge books, with printing that appears when the gilt edge is fanned one way or another. The pages of the book are blank, perhaps a commentary on the meanings we would ascribe, or fail to ascribe, to such seemingly simple words.

© 2019 Louise Levergneux. Abel Barroso, Tabaco con Ideologia (Cigars with Ideology), 2001, handmade Spanish cedar bas-relief “cigar box” with woodblock print (inside lid) and lithograph scroll-print (inside box) viewed by turning two hand-carved crank handles attached to moveable parts; TEXT by artist
9 x 16-3/8 x 3”.

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It was an amazing afternoon of exploring the various rooms for lithography, silkscreen... And witnessing all the excellent work that Graphicstudio and artists have accomplished together. If you are in Tampa make an appointment to visit this facility. A visit to Graphicstudio was an incredible sensory experience!

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The Holidays!

Happy Holidays to all my loyal readers!

Since the kickoff of the Half Measure Studio blog posts in December 2015, I have typically shared the Ottawa, Canada, Christmas lights. This year, I decided to produce a short video joyfully celebrating the holidays. Don’t forget to march to the beat of your own Little Drummer Boy!

To those of you who are continued readers of the Incessant Journey posts, sorry for the duplication, but do accept my good wishes.

Soon we say goodbye to 2018, a very active and busy year full of inspiration!

But as the horizon of 2019 draws nearer, I find myself looking back at my continuous travels and visits of artists and collections over the recent year. I’m appreciative to all who were generous in sharing their work through my blog post in 2018. It has been a time full of creative inspiration and wonder. Everyone has helped me to aspire to create more artists’ books and to continue writing my posts. I have been thrilled to meet and talk with all of you.

Let the magic of Christmas bring you peace and prosperity for 2019!

Too all, a good Night...

Austin, Texas.2

Next, on my tour of artists in Austin was handmade paper maker Yamandu Ploskonka. Yama makes paper under the distinct imprint Papel Texano. He is everything related to paper, but, in addition, a trainer, a fixer, a communicator, an inventor, and an innovator. He loves materials, arts, crafts, creative ideas, design, electronics, mechanics, people, prototypes, and tools.

In late 2017, Yama made a breakthrough regarding an ideal charcoal, pastel paper surface and achieved the Cinque Tooth Paper, Papel Texano’s specialty “finish.” A new/old paper; new because it’s being presently produced and old since it is a reinvention of the textured renaissance papers that the masters drew upon.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Yama demonstrating the pulp used for his handmade paper.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Yama demonstrating home made pulp beater used for his handmade paper.

These deep grooves of Cinquecento paper are ideal for charcoal, chalk and sanguine artists. Typically made by hand with 21st century methods in Austin, this very classic surface on handmade paper is again available to artists and everyone!

Why so much tooth in Renaissance papers?

Would you like to appreciate the history of paper?

Why so much fuss?

How to make paper pulp with a garbage disposal?

Have you ever asked yourself any of these specific questions, the answers are here at Papel Texano.

Visiting with Yama was a valuable experience! I had a delightful afternoon and evening. We talked candidly about paper and more paper. Yama’s humour is to savour as he endeavours to share his knowledge. We were shown around his outside studio with lots of homemade equipment which was fascinating. I naturally enjoyed the elaborate description and the key reasons behind his first artists' book entitled Touch This Art! The Book as Yama explained the intricate details.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Yama’s CNC router at work.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. The finished styrofoam mold.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. The result from the mold to create Touch this Art!

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Another cast paper print using the CNC router. Gorgeous to the touch!

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. The bookbinding design of Touch This Art! The Book is an accordion structure that reminds us of Aztec and Mayan codices. The 100% cotton, handmade cast paper pages in light pink/red hue is from iron oxide. The pages are mounted on a lengthy piece of amate (a type of bark paper) paper.

Yama also explained the machine that made Touch This Art! The Book, a CNC router — Computer Numerical Control machine — a computer-operated carving tool.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Yama joking as he prepares a lovely meal for us.

After much conversation about his studio, paper, and art, Yama made my husband and I a great pasta meal before we left. Yama was amazingly generous with his information and practice. Yama even took the time to gave me the excitement of making handmade paper, elbow deep in pulp. Before leaving, I purchased several sheets of paper to reproduce an image on my Epson Archival Ink Jet printer. I may have found a papermaker for the end sheets of my upcoming book on Live Oak (Quercus Virginiana).

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. My first try at stirring pulp with Yama’s help.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Yama showing me how to drip the water from the mold.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Seeing the results.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Yama’s vat with signatures of visiting artists to his studio. Recognize some of them?

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Yama laughing!

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Adding my signature to the famous vat.

If you ever find yourself in Austin, a stop at Papel Texano is a must!

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Minneapolis, Minnesota

Five years ago on my way back home, I visited Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the time Jeff Rathermel was Executive Director of the Minnesota Center for Book Arts in Minneapolis. I took the time to drop by and view the exhibition Directed: The Intersection of Book, Film and Visual Narrative exhibition. I was pleased to participate with my artists’ book Decades Apart in this juried exhibition. Jeff was kind in showing me around the show and the MCBA.

© 2012 Louise Levergneux. Decades Apart

With no knowledge at the time that Kate Burke — a Minneapolis artist who has a recognized career in both public art and painting — was chosen to design manhole covers for the Nicollet Mall in the city.

The Nicollet Mall underwent a redesign by James Corner, designer of the High Line in NYC in 2017. The original manhole covers installed in 1992 were removed, cleaned and reinstalled. Nicollet Mall is comprised of 75 covers with eleven unique designs each cast seven times. The new concrete walkway has an etched leaf, branch and a basket weave design. This is the new home of the manhole covers.

To my surprise, while researching streets on Google Map for City Shields, an on-going project, I noticed a wonderful manhole cover. What dismay! I had overlooked the opportunity to photograph some of the most uniquely designed covers for my series. I was devastated! Researching till I discovered the name of the artist and communicated with Kate Burke and later featured her work on one of my blog posts. It’s been a year ago almost to the day. I visited Minneapolis at the end of September 2018 and walked Nicollet Mall to find most of the manhole covers designed by Kate. I was thrilled! I photographed in late afternoon while walking in the drizzle most of the 13 blocks of Nicollet Mall.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Haralson Apples, manhole cover on Nicollet Mall, designed by Kate Burke.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. The Loon, manhole cover on Nicollet Mall, designed by Kate Burke.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Northern Pike, manhole cover on Nicollet Mall, designed by Kate Burke.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Lady Slippers, manhole cover on Nicollet Mall, designed by Kate Burke.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Wild Rice, manhole cover on Nicollet Mall, designed by Kate Burke.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Corn, manhole cover on Nicollet Mall, designed by Kate Burke.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Oats, manhole cover on Nicollet Mall, designed by Kate Burke.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Norway Pine, manhole cover on Nicollet Mall, designed by Kate Burke.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. The Walleye, manhole cover on Nicollet Mall, designed by Kate Burke.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. Wheat, manhole cover on Nicollet Mall, designed by Kate Burke.

© 2018 Louise Levergneux. The Timber Wolf, manhole cover on Nicollet Mall, designed by Kate Burke.

©2018 Michael Sutton. Walking over the famous Walleye on the sidewalks of Nicollet Mall on September 27, 2018.

© 2018 Kate Burke. Norway PIne, manhole cover, when it was first installed, designed by Kate Burke.

© 2018 Kate Burke. Oats, manhole cover when it was first install, designed by Kate Burke.

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Have you seen a unique manhole cover lately? If so, where?

Another volume? Not sure, I have other projects I would like to accomplish, but one never knows.

Phase Two

It’s a memorable summer, and this is the period to travel. Oh! Wait! I am traveling. 

It’s difficult to schedule work time, especially with the significant heat wave and our much-needed change of “home” from putt-putt to château. Even with the pleasant distraction of all the wonderful National Parks, the planning phase for the page's template of my ABC book has begun. In addition, the research on binding structures to enhance the content is on the way. 

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, White Sands National Monument

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park

The key theme is the alphabet via a sprained foot, properly introducing this subject matter by implementing elements and design that complement the content is important.

I’m favorably inclined or should I say having a penchant towards metal for parts of the binding, maybe Wire-O referencing the crutches. Should I use cloth covered boards or a printed photo to illustrate the cover? The big black boot remains an integral feature of the book on the cover—right—perhaps? 

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, ABC book's image/photo for content

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, ABC book's image/photo for content

For the substrate, could I apply various types of paper representing the phases of healing—differences in skin colour and texture. This might work since my inventory is filled with many types of papers. Using these soon would be good, because of the length of time since their purchase.

I would like to interject a distinction between the typefaces for the alphabet and the text. Naturally, there are 26 pages to think of and thick papers! I’m concerned about the weight of paper, double-sided pages will help but sheet registration can be monotonous. The gutter has to be calculated for facing-pages, details, details, details! What size? What orientation? Maybe the use of transparencies. Where to place the text or words that accompany the alphabet? Planning is the fun part or at least the beginning!

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, ABC book's image/photo for content

Varied structural types of binding for my published books include the accordion, perfect binding, spiral, supple binding sewn in Japanese style, screw post, hard-cover case-binding, saddle-stitched, French doors, Turkish Map folds, the new oriental binding, wrap-around case with a tray, explosion box,

© 2018 Louise Levergneux, ABC book's image/photo for content

The accordion is enjoyable and many alphabet books utilize the form, but because of the type of paper and the number of pages, I need a structure that would harmonize with its design, form, and content, in this creative expression of an unpleasant event. I want to take the time and pay attention to materials and their interactions on the subject. Once all these aspects are figured out, the path of production will be clearer.

I am so looking forward to the actual creation, being on the computer for the express purpose of an artists’ book instead of administrivia or other activities. How do you find time to undoubtedly create? How many hours in the day are spent in the studio? What phase do you prefer or do you enjoy all phases of producing your book?