Friday, July 13, 2012

Book of Words Challenge



Several years ago an artsy friend, her friend and I set up a challenge to create "books" illustrating six topics, which we took turns suggesting:  RED, DOORS, TIME, SECRETS, FREEDOM, CIRCLES.  My book ended up very thick, I just couldn't stop adding pictures, word play, fibers, ribbons, paint chips, beads, a key, a Chinese coin, a mirror, fold-out pages...  Several topics overlapped or became interrelated.  Some of the DOORS opened up with surprises behind them.  (The screen door on the cover opens.)  For TIME I glued in a broken watch found while bike riding, and also made some "Time Flies" with clocks on their backs.  A small shredded flag found in a cemetary (probably caught in a lawn mower) is folded into the section on FREEDOM.  SECRETS was quite revealing and included a picture of people whispering in each others' ears.  We sent our books around to admire, then received them back. This was an inspiring and terrifically fun project which helped me through a period of grieving the loss of my father.

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