Instead of a name

Hidden Screw Post Portfolios
Japanese Linen Cloth

Many of my book binding clients are photography students at the the Art Institute of Colorado. It's a fun challenge to help my clients come up with a design that really represents their style. These are Sarah Overbeck's portfolios that I made early last year. Instead of her name on the front cover we blind stamped her logo in the bottom right corner. Sarah printed her name on decorative paper for the first page.

Instead of an album

4x6 print box
book cloth & decorative paper
holds 200+ images

My mom turned 60 in June 2008. We spent a week celebrating her birthday in Northern California. I made sure to document everything we did over the course of the week. Originally I intended to create a photo album of the images, but there were just so many that I was having a difficult time editing them down, plus I wanted to incorporate images that other people had taken. I decided to create a match style print box instead.

Customized boxes are an easy way to put a collection of images together...as easy as a shoe box (which is where most of my images wind up), but more unique and special as you would want a family heirloom to be. I was able to include many more photos in the box then if I had made a small album.

Four reasons why I love boxes:

• The images are easy to share with others, and who cares if they get out of order!
• Editing the images is less time consuming because you potentially can include more.
  
• It is cost effective if you already have the images printed!
• A custom box can be a beautiful and unique heirloom piece to pass on.
  

I am starting to have clients come to me who have images they would like to preserve or extra images that did not make it into the album. Put them in a box!

Memorabilia

Memorabilia
Leather, Plexiglas, Hair, Book Cloth
2009
11” x 9” x 2”

A new piece of art completed in 2009! Memorabilia is an artist book which will be included in Molten, an exhibition of erotic (not pornographic) artists' books. The exhibition runs February 13-March 29, 2009 at the Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, Colorado.

Much of my artwork concentrates on the cultural history of hair and why we place such importance on this seemingly superficial part of the body. My MFA thesis explored myths, taboos, cultural and religious beliefs and practices around hair. I am interested in what form hair is beautiful or acceptable and what form we find it grotesque.

In the Victorian era, before the invention of photography, people collected hair to make hair wreaths (similar to a family portrait), necklaces, earrings, and watch chains as a tangible remembrance of their loved ones. In 1839 the daguerreotype, the first photographic process was invented. Soon photographic images of loved ones began appearing in jewelry along with hair. But the coming of this new technology was the demise of hair objects due to the detail and “life like” representation of the person, and over time replaced it completely.

Memorabilia revisits this history of hair and its reference to a particular person. Similar to a photo album, this "album" holds and displays a representation of me collected over a period of 10 years.