Shared Spaces Bookmaking is my name for special group-bookmaking experiences that allow even for long-distance collaborations. Handmade books lend themselves beautifully to collaborative creative processes, and I enjoy encouraging bookmaking with a variety of groups and in multifaceted ways. Through these projects, I can guide groups who live far from my North Carolina studio, including ones with widely scattered members, such as families, groups of friends, or enthusiasts who share a particular focus. (This is a great way for me to widen my circle of book-art acquaintances, too.)

Through Shared Spaces Bookmaking projects, your group and I can work together to plan a project ideally suited to your interests, schedules, and budget. I can help you choose the type of book to do—an accordion book, a flag book, a pamphlet-stitched book, or an origami-style book (as shown below, clockwise, starting at the upper left). We can discuss which form might fit best with a certain theme your group members have in mind or a certain overall look you’d like to create.

Here are my two main Shared Spaces Bookmaking approaches:

o The first process is ideal if you and several friends live far apart but want to create an artists’ book collaboratively, with each of you ultimately receiving a book that contains not only your own content (writing and/or artwork) but also that of every other group member. You each create pages and mail those to me, and I then assemble all the pages and create a book for every person.

We’ll start with detailed discussions about the book form that best suits your group’s idea and then determine whether you’d each prefer to select, purchase, and prepare your own materials or have me handle those steps. If you each supply your own materials, I’ll provide specific suggestions about such things as the weight and type of paper that work best for the group’s selected book form, and I’ll give you details about what size to cut the pages.

For this collaborative project, you’ll each be completing one or more pages, depending on the chosen book form, for every member of your group. I’ll suggest ideas for your creation of the content (writing and/or images) or simply let your imagination take flight, whichever you’d prefer. Since the books are small (5″ x 7″ or smaller), the creation of multiple pages doesn’t require complex techniques or lots of time, and the process can be flexible. For instance, you can either finish one page at a time or prepare one large sheet of writing and/or artwork and then cut that into the needed pages. I’ll be available to guide you through all stages of the process. And if you don’t think of yourself as either a writer or an artist, I’ll be glad to offer suggestions about simple techniques you can use to create special pages.

After you’ve each completed your pages, you’ll mail those to me. Once I have all the group members’ pages, I’ll assemble those; craft a book—by using the appropriate binding techniques and creating the covers, complete with special touches—for every group member; and mail a finished book to each of you.

o The second approach is perfect if your group (such as a reading group, a number of friends, or a group of family members) would like to get together and create blank journals or certain simple but intriguing book forms (such as an origami-style book). I’ll provide detailed instructions, specify the materials you’ll need to purchase, and guide you through all of the bookmaking stages by answering any questions that may arise. To make this a memorable Shared Spaces experience, I’ll also suggest ideas for your collaborative creation of unique covers and other book features. People who are learning how to make books often find that working along with others allows them to benefit from the shared insights and progress.

All Shared Spaces projects can be planned for a wide range of materials—from inexpensive, recycled ones (I encourage “green” bookmaking!) to unusual handmade papers to expensive art papers—and I can suggest sources for all of the materials your group prefers and needs. As you might guess, your group can control many of the costs by selecting and buying your own materials or gathering your own recycled ones.

Although Shared Spaces Bookmaking projects often work best for groups with twelve or fewer members, I’ll gladly talk with you about the possibilities for including more people. Also, if your group would like to make a book larger than the typical ones, as described earlier, we can make the appropriate adjustments.

Please e-mail me to begin our discussion of your group’s Shared Spaces Bookmaking interests. I’ll need for one group member to be the main contact person throughout our Shared Spaces planning and project completion. Please let me know how many people are in your group, which of the previously described approaches you prefer, and when you hope to start your project. We can then discuss more details, and I can cite a price range for your consideration.

I look forward to exploring Shared Spaces Bookmaking possibilities with your group!

A Cabinet of Mammoth Cave Wonders: A Set of Five Artist’s Books Created for Mammoth Cave National Park by Sharon A. Sharp, 2009 Artist-in-Residence

From my Boone, North Carolina, home, I drove a winding route to the Mammoth Cave National Park realm of incomprehensible complexity—south-central Kentucky’s sinkhole-pocked karst landscape and the labyrinthine, multilevel system of cave passages it harbors. During my October stay I participated in ten cave tours and spent a total of about twenty-six hours in the cave, yet I still saw only a minute portion of this cave system—the longest known one in the world, at almost 400 miles and counting.

A lifelong rockhound, I relished learning about Mammoth Cave’s multi-million-year-old layers, its relation to the Green River’s carving power, and the “roof” of protective rock that keeps the cave dry and allows vast chambers to form. I also came to appreciate the bats, eyeless fish, and other creatures uniquely adapted to the cave, and I enjoyed hiking many of the park’s trails, which led me by springs and sinkholes, sycamores and pawpaws, turkey and deer.

I learned, too, about humans’ more than 3,500 years of connection to this place, from the native peoples who once sought gypsum to the Cave Research Foundation members who are still finding cave passages. The legacies of enslaved African Americans who became world-famous cave guides especially intrigued me, as did the contributions of other early mapmaker-explorers who painstakingly recorded complex routes and a plethora of place-names.

Day by day, my interest grew in creating a set of artist’s books, rather than a single book, to celebrate this complex environment and its history. While at the park, I did extensive journal writing, sketching, and photographing as groundwork for the books. Soon after returning home, I completed a project separate from the planned set—a large “star-tunnel” book for the December Cave Sing celebration, an annual tradition in which visitors decorate a cedar tree and sing carols inside the cave. Descriptions and photos of that book appear at the end of this page.

For the set, I wanted to portray cave and park features through varied book forms and a range of topics. The title, A Cabinet of Mammoth Cave Wonders, came to mind for several reasons. The word cabinet is part of two place-names in the cave (honoring renowned 19^th-century scientists), and it reflects centuries-old traditions of keeping room- or case-sized collections of specimens and objects, referred to as wonders or curiosities, before the rise of modern natural history museums. My books became explorations of selected marvels from this cave and park. To house this collection, I created a compartment for each book inside a purchased, archival, black-cloth-covered storage box, which also displays the set’s title.

The set includes the following:

• Beyond Compare—a 96-signature, soft-cover, sewn-binding book that moves like a Slinky toy and incorporates extensive painting and handwritten facts about the cave, as well as a complete wall-sized U.S. Geological Survey topographic map of MCNP cut into the book’s 3” x 3” format (22″ long when fully extended)
  

• Carver, Sustainer—a 9-signature, soft-cover, Coptic-stitched book about water’s effects on the park’s karst landscape and on cave formation, as depicted through laser-printed text on clear acetate pages encased in multicolored-paper pages with hand-torn designs (5 1/2″ wide x 3 3/4″ high x    1 1/16″ deep)
  

• Chiropterans of This Karst—a 9-section, origami-style, multifold book about the park’s bat population that incorporates extensive drawings and handwritten facts, plus sections from another USGS topographic map of the park (5″ wide x 5″ high x 1 1/8″ deep; fully opened—forms a multi-angled circle 11 1/2″ in diameter)
  
• Descent into Particulars: The Maps of Bishop and Kämper—a 14-page accordion-style hard-cover book with clear acetate pages that contain laser-printed information about the explorers and mapmakers Stephen Bishop, Max Kämper, and Ed Bishop, along with their photos, the place-names from their maps, and portions of their maps (closed—11 1/2″ wide x 3 7/8″ high x 13/16″ deep; opened fully—approximately 45″, with less extension providing different multilayered views)
  
• Notes on the Tiny Fraction—a hard-cover book with a collapsible “fishbone-fold” interior that depicts the tour routes in relation to the cave’s currently known length, represented through paintings and extensive handwritten notes about the cave and my tour experiences (5 1/4″ wide x 9 1/4″ high x 3/8″ deep; opened fully—approx. 24″ long)
  

To offer the park rangers a first look at the set, I displayed the books in a Visitors Center conference room and answered questions about the bookmaking process. I hope that in future displays at the park, these books, as part of the interpretive programs and archives, may nurture appreciation of this vast, mysterious, essential part of our daily world.

The residency experiences gave me an inexhaustible store of book-art ideas and a certainty that Mammoth Cave’s wonders are indeed boundless. I deeply appreciate the support of Ranger Eddie Wells and all of the other MCNP staff members who so generously encouraged my work, and I thank the National Park Service for its visionary partnerships with artists.

As noted above, I also completed an artist’s book for the park’s celebration of the holiday tradition known as Cave Sing. On December 5, 2009, people gathered at Mammoth Cave’s Historic Entrance and retraced the steps of a group who, in 1883, had carried a ten-foot cedar into the so-called Methodist church area of the cave (where a congregation once met), decorated the tree with ribbons and popcorn strings, and merrily sung carols. Cave Sing: Mammoth Cave National Park is a “star tunnel” book—that is, a book in which four multilayered tunnel sections are connected so that the book, when fully opened, forms a star. The book’s imagery and words center on 19th-century customs, and each tunnel section contains layers with silhouettes, historical facts and quotes, and collages with many different papers. When opened into the star, Cave Sing is 12″ high and 18″ from one star point to another. Here are two views:

Every step in the process of creating this book pulled me more deeply into Mammoth Cave’s rich history. So many more stories, facts, and imaginings to be explored . . .

Thanks to the park experience, I gained an even deeper appreciation for the remarkable, award-winning poetry collection Ultima Thule, by former MCNP ranger Davis McCombs. Also, I joined the National Speleological Society and learned about its wide range of research, education, and conservation activities, as well as the activities of its speleoartist members. Now, I look forward to supporting Mammoth Cave National Park’s unique role in educating the public about fragile, complex cave environments and their broad ecological significance.

In the summer of 2010, I drew again on information gleaned from my Mammoth Cave experiences when I created two books about bats for submission to the National Speleological Society’s Fine Arts Salon exhibition, at the NSS annual convention. How Bat Entered English deals with how the word bat entered the English language, and I used a “flutter book” structure (developed by master book artist Hedi Kyle) because it fit with early references to a bat as a “flutter mouse.” Great Good/Bad Fortune portrays the sharp contrast between Eastern and Western views of bats, and I used both text and colors to highlight the differences. The movement inherent in this “flag book” form (also originated by Hedi Kyle) provides a sense of the bats being in flight. For anybody interested in these unique, important—and now, endangered—mammals, I’d like to suggest one especially valuable resource: the Bats Conservation International website.

Letters, words, phrases, pages of text . . . some variants of these ways to shape meaning inevitably find their way into my artist’s books. Even when I create books that contain only a word or two, the text has some vital connection to the imagery and to my overall expressive intent. I’m haunted, therefore, by the fact that approximately 20% of adults (one in five) in the United States are functionally illiterate. Reading at or below the fifth-grade level, these adults face difficulties with everything from reading prescription labels to applying for jobs to reading with their children.

Like many other artists, I am eager to help address these dire needs by supporting the countless adults determined to read and the literacy programs committed to serving them. Various literacy programs for children have already recognized the empowering, multifaceted value of making books by hand, especially since this process allows for creative variations in size, shape, and materials. I firmly believe that adults who are learning to read also can gain fresh, revelatory language experiences as they create unique containers for words—whether those are single words with special meaning for them, accounts of their own life experiences, or text they’re exploring in a literacy program.

I’m seeking to form effective partnerships with literacy organizations, literacy tutors, and adults who are learning to read, and I’m eager to share ideas with others about how book arts can support literacy efforts. In working with literacy organizations, I use a partnering model similar to that developed by the A+ Schools program, through which I’ve received training. In this arts-integrated approach, I plan bookmaking activities that fit with a particular group’s learning goals. My approach is also informed by my teaching experience and academic background, which includes a B.A. in English and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in human development and family studies.

If you would like to discuss workshop possibilities for your literacy program’s learners and tutors, please contact me: sharon@sharphandmadebooks.com.

Here are some valuable literacy resources, including approaches that integrate book arts and some book arts guides easily applied in various settings and with different age groups:

Artists for Literacy

ArtsEdge, Kennedy Center

ArtsLit, ArtsLiteracy Project, Brown University

Better World Books [This online bookselling organization has the specific purpose of supporting worldwide literacy programs.]

Cherryl Moote, books on bookmaking [She is one of many talented book artists with excellent guides to bookmaking. Her books contain specific directions that may be especially helpful to literacy tutors or others wanting to teach bookmaking to adult learners.]

Comic Book Project, Center for Educational Pathways

Literacy Volunteers of Atlanta’s annual Edible Books Festival

LiteracyWorks: Multiple Intelligences for Adult Literacy and Education [This site offers many suggestions for applying Dr. Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory. This focus is of special interest to me because, as a freelance editor for BasicBooks (HarperCollins), I worked on Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century, plus three other books by Gardner.]

National Institute for Literacy

New York Times, “Guggenheim Study Suggests Arts Education Benefits Literacy Skills”

On-line Resources in Adult Literacy Research

Paul Johnson, Literacy through the Book Arts and A Book of One’s Own: Developing Literacy through Making Books [Johnson is a leader in using bookmaking to promote children’s literacy.]

ProLiteracy

San Diego Museum of Art, Lesson Plans for Making Artistic Books

Sue M. Nespeca and Joan B. Reeve, “Making Movable Books,” Reading Is Fundamental

Susan Kapuscinsky Gaylord, Making Books with Children; see also her other excellent bookmaking resources and teaching tips, as well as her insightful comments about book arts and literacy at the Book Arts Web listserve

Thinkfinity Literacy Network

This I Believe radio essays, National Public Radio: Chameli Waiba, “The Magic of Letters”; Daniel Flanagan, “The Choice to Do It Over Again”; and Judith [?], “I Know Why I’m Here”

Wallace Foundation, The Knowledge Center

The following poems are dedicated to all adults who are learning to read, whether English is their primary or their secondary language:

Taking the Steps

Been faking it
for forty-five years.
Got good at hiding
and pretending and
leaving the room
at just the right time.
Looked for shapes and lines
and colors I could say I knew.
But only I knew
what I had struggled
to learn, what had pounded
through my dreams and
made my pulse race
when I feared being caught.
Was caught, a few times–
was called stupid, slow.
I’ve cried and prayed
and lost enough sleep
for a thousand nighttimes.
Guess this is all I can do,
what I’m doing right now:
pushing the door open,
walking in, saying
I want to learn to read,
telling myself I can.

“Taking the Steps” first appeared in Award-Winning Poems, North Carolina Poetry Society.

Everyday Transformations

I came seeking a country
to love and now long
for a smile from any
one of those I see
each day, those who
never try to say my name.
Daytime: lifting their children,
scrubbing, ironing, cooking,
watching people laugh
at my awkward tongue.
Nighttime: lifting my children,
scrubbing, ironing, cooking,
repeating taped phrases
until I fall asleep.
No one knows that before this
I stitched wounds and read daily,
saved money for seventeen years.
But I came with no experience as
an outcast amid plenty.
Were I to dwell on yesterday’s
dreams, I would go mad.
At least now my children
speak two languages and belong
in this place I hope to call home.

“Everyday Transformations” appears in the chapbook Personal Effects (Carthage, NC: Scots Plaid Press, 1998).

While completing a two-month Penland concentration in book- and papermaking (see About Sharon), I spent much of my free time visiting other studios and watching other artisans at work. My favorite haunt was the hot-glass studio, where the intricate dance of each glassblowing team mesmerized me and I came to appreciate the organic, fluid nature of glass. One of the glass studio members, Karola Dischinger, had traveled from her Swiss home for this experience, and she and I quickly became friends. That studio, like some of the others, had two instructors; in this case, the first, Hugh Jenkins, was to finish his teaching after the initial four weeks. Karola approached me on behalf of the glass studio members and asked whether I would make a large journal/album with blank pages, which the studio members could then fill, as a present to the instructor. Naively, I agreed . . . and the experience became one of the most memorable parts of my Penland stay.

I learned Coptic stitching by tackling this large project–with much help from Julie Leonard, my books instructor! The journal’s cover featured Mexican bark paper and studio members’ glass pieces (murrine). I had the great pleasure of seeing the pages after they’d been filled with writings and drawings. In the exuberance of getting the book done just in time, I failed to take good photos of the finished journal/album, but I do have a snapshot:

					The studio members, in turn, gave me an overwhelmingly generous surprise: a newly made glass piece from almost every person, including the instructor and his son and studio assistant, Evan. And Karola gave me a whole group of her creations.

After the concentration ended, I wanted to use several small tree branches around which I’d wrapped some of my handmade flax paper while it was still wet. The resulting sculpted branches evoked a certain melancholy, so I pondered that feeling for a while and then found an excerpt from Thoreau’s Walden that relates to winter. That page exactly fit the mood I was seeking, and I found the perfect container for both the page and my sculpted paper: one of Karola’s hand-blown vessels. Another opportunity to link my bookmaking to Karola’s talents came when Karola sent me several beautiful, intriguingly shaped pieces she’d made, with the suggestion that I try those on book covers. The first one I chose became the centerpiece of the cover for a large journal/album for Karola. This friend’s generosity and creativity continue to inspire me.

My fascination with glass has kept growing, and I’ve written many poems that deal in some way with the history, lore, and mundane but miraculous properties of this substance. Actually, some of the poems have ended up being “non-glass” ones, such as . . .

Fairytale Revisited

Glass Slipper (of Cinderella). A curious blunder of the translator, who has mistaken vair (sable) for verre (glass). —from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable

Reading that tale of cinder-salvaged
hopes, we could play a game—
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?—to see
whether the vehicle for the perfect
match mattered. The fairy godmother
must have known something
the translator didn’t. Sable, rich
black or dark brown, would have
conveyed a creature comfort
to those cold, dainty extremeties
and instantly signaled the royals
that the radiant waif suited
their class, the only wearers
of this regal weasel’s silken fur.
How much quieter the ballroom
with animals against minerals:
Handsome Prince and Cinderella
gliding on pelts over polished stones,
warming to skin-on-skin pleasure.
Otherwise, what clatter. Heels
vanquishing melodies. Broken soles
drawing blood if he’d raised her
high but not properly slowed the
descent of mineral onto mineral.
Or blisters. Her poor flesh after
hours of obedience to unyielding
form (healed by some medicinal
vegetable concoction, perhaps).
In the original, a different focus.
Fates resting not on reflective
surfaces but on animal essences
acknowledged happily ever after.

With thanks to Pembroke Magazine, where this was first published.

What sparks a book idea? What leads me into a collaboration? What interests dovetail with my bookmaking? Such questions lie behind these tales about selected bookmaking projects. The tales are woven from snapshots of my creative process, glimpses of friends whose talents have shaped my interests, reflections about memorable places, and tidbits about experiences that have flowed into my books. You’ll also find images and related poems, either from the books discussed or directly associated with them.

American Craft Council, craftcouncil.org

Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, arrowmont.org

Asheville BookWorks, ashevillebookworks.com

Blue Barnhouse, bluebarnhouse.org

Guild of Book Workers, http://www.guildofbookworkers.org/

HandMade in America, handmadeinamerica.org

Heritage Letterpress, heritageletterpress.com

John C. Campbell Folk School, folkschool.com

Lark Books, http://www.larkbooks.com/500 (hear Steve Miller’s comments about his book arts pathway and the jurying process for 500 Handmade Books)

Lucia Harrison, Visual Arts Faculty Member, Evergreen State College, luciaharrison.com and evergreen.edu (Lucia and I have collaborated on several projects, and I greatly admire her artwork.)

National Park Service, Artist-in-Residence Program, nps.gov

North Carolina Arts Council, ncarts.org

North Carolina Poetry Society, ncpoetrysociety.org

Paper & Book Intensive, paperbookintensive.org

Paul & Florence Thomas Memorial Art School, http://florencethomas.org/

Penland School of Crafts, penland.org

Poetry Council of North Carolina, ncneighbors.com

Southeast Association for Book Arts, www.cas.sc.edu/art/SABA

Southern Highland Craft Guild, southernhighlandguild.org

University of Alabama, M.F.A. in Book Arts, www.bookarts.ua.edu

University of Iowa Center for the Book, www.uiowa.edu/~ctrbook

Watauga Arts Council, watauga-arts.org

Western North Carolina Woman magazine profile of Sharon, wnc-woman.com/may07/page20.html

Please print and fill out the order form.

Since this order form is in PDF format, you may need Acrobat Reader from Adobe.

Training

Paper & Book Intensive, Machias, Maine:
Three classes at this annual national workshop (held in various locations), taught by Emily Martin, David Wolfe, and Melissa Jay Craig; July 2010

Garage Annex School Workshop, Easthampton, MA:
Wire-edge-binding workshop, taught by Daniel Kelm; June 2008

Paper & Book Intensive, Gatlinburg, TN:
Three classes at this annual national workshop (held in various locations), taught by Hedi Kyle, Matt Liddle, and Cheryl Porter; May 2008

Southeast Association for Book Arts Workshop, Columbia, SC:
Design, writing, and image production for artists’ books, taught by Julie Chen; May 2005

Cheerio Workshop, Roaring River, NC:
Calligraphy and painting techniques for book artists, taught by Laurie Doctor; May 2004

Penland School of Crafts Class, Penland, NC:
Letterpress-printing and bookmaking class, taught by Steve Miller; summer 2002

Penland School of Crafts Concentration, Penland, NC:
Eight-week paper- and bookmaking class, taught by Julia Leonard and Ann Marie Kennedy; spring 2003

Paper & Book Intensive, Tooele, UT:
Three classes at this annual national workshop (held in various locations), taught by Barbara Mauriello, Mina Takahashi, and Cathleen Baker; May 2003

Printmaking Workshop, Banner Elk, NC:
Printmaking techniques for visual artists, taught by Noyes Capehart Long; autumn 2000

Painting Workshop, Boone, NC:
Watercolor and gouache painting techniques, taught by Noyes Capehart Long; summer 1997

Residencies

Mammoth Cave National Park, Mammoth Cave, KY:
This national park’s 2009 Artist-in-Residence; October 2009

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Grand Marais, MI:
Joint residency with book artist Lucia Harrison (Evergreen State College) as this national park’s 2006 Artists-in-Residence; August 28-September 13, 2006

Publications–Works Included

500 Handmade Books: Inspiring Interpretations of a Timeless Form
(Asheville, NC: Lark Books, August 2008); two photos of artist’s book Primary Melody

News of the Visual Arts-Seattle Edition
(May-June 2008); two photos of artist’s book The Ups & Downs of Mountain Life, included in “The Book as Art: Beyond Words” exhibition, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, May 14-July 13, 2008

Exhibitions

The Bascom, Highlands, NC:
Remnants Gathered, artist’s book selected by juror Carol Sauvion, executive producer of the Craft in America PBS series, for the “American Craft Today Juried Exhibition”; October 2–December 18, 2010.

The Bascom, Highlands, NC:
One artist’s book in “Small Works Challenge,” a Bascom members’ exhibition; August/September 2010.

National Speleological Society Annual Convention, Fine Arts Salon Exhibition, Essex Junction, VT:
Two artist’s books on the exhibition theme of bats; August 2010.

Design Gallery, Burnsville, NC:
Three artist’s books and two blank books in “Mountain Mosaic” exhibition, in conjunction with the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival; September 2009

University of South Carolina, McMaster Gallery:
Dreams, artist’s book selected by juror Bea Nettles for “Intimate Curiosities: 2009 Southeast Association for Book Arts National Juried Exhibition”; May 5-29, 2009; online SABA exhibition catalog will be available; exhibition traveled to Upstairs Artspace, Tryon, NC, June-July 2009

Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts, Raleigh, NC:
Remnants Gathered, artist’s book, selected by juror Dr. Kimberly Rorschach, Director of Duke University’s Nasher Museum of Art; one of 57 entries chosen from approximately 400; exhibition sponsored by Raleigh Fine Arts Society; March 1-May 3, 2009

Old Rock School, Valdese, NC:
Three blank books in holiday arts show hosted by the Rock School Arts Foundation; November 30, 2008, through January 9, 2009

BookWorks, Asheville, NC:
Collaborative artists’ book set (completed with Lucia Harrison) and an artist’s book in “BookOpolis” exhibition; September 2008

Design Gallery, Burnsville, NC:
Two artist’s books in “The Beloved Community” exhibition, in conjunction with the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival; September 2008

Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, WA:
Two artist’s books in “The Book as Art: Beyond Words” exhibition, curated by MalPina Chinn and including the works of eleven book artists from Washington, North Carolina, and New Zealand; May 14-July 13, 2008

Southeast Association for Book Arts traveling exhibition:
SABA members’ works in exhibition “More Than Words Can Say: A Celebration of Book Arts”; Columbia and Spartanburg, SC, and Oakland, CA; 2005-2006

Guild of Book Workers traveling exhibition:
Works by members of the Northwest and Southeast GBW chapters, “NW x SE Exchange Exhibition”; Atlanta, GA; Tuscaloosa, AL; Pocatello, ID; 2004-2005

Design Gallery, Burnsville, NC:
Handmade books in Slow Book Salon exhibition “Words in Place,” in conjunction with the Carolina Mountains Literary Festival; September 2006

Market Street Books, Chapel Hill, NC:
Solo exhibition of handmade books, handmade papers, letterpress-printed broadsides and books, and poetry with paintings; March 2006

Watauga County Arts Council, Boone, NC:
Solo exhibition of handmade books, handmade papers, letterpress-printed broadsides and books, and poetry with paintings; October 2005

BookWorks, Asheville, NC:
Handmade books in “Bookopolis” exhibition; September 2005

Watauga County Arts Council, Boone, NC:
Handmade books in exhibition “Plays on Words”; March 2005

North Carolina Poetry Society meeting, Southern Pines, NC:
Presentation involving handmade books, handmade papers, and letterpress-printed broadsides and books; January 2004

Evergreen State College, Olympia, WA:
Collaborative two-volume altered-books project with Evergreen State College art faculty member and book artist Lucia Harrison; October 2003

Grants

Finalist for North Carolina Arts Council Craft Artist Fellowship:
One of 20 finalists from among 109 applicants during the first year in which this fellowship category was offered; June 2008.

Regional Artist Project of Northwest North Carolina (Arts Councils of Alleghany, Ashe, Watauga, and Wilkes Counties, in partnership with the North Carolina Arts Council):
Grant to support launching of a book arts website; October 2006

Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South, Durham, NC:
Grant to support completion of The Breath of One Heart, an artists’ book on meditation practice; book created by Pam Noble, Betsy Brown, and Sharon Sharp, and handbound by Sharon; edition of 32; 2004

Professional Organizations

Guild of Book Workers (national and regional)
Slow Book Salon & BookWorks Co-op (western North Carolina)
Southeast Association for Book Arts

Teaching

Paul and Florence Thomas Memorial Art School, Glendale Springs, NC:
One-day workshop on pamphlet-stitched books; August 2010
One-day workshop on stab-bound books and haiku writing; September 2009

Avery Middle School, Newland, NC:
Teaching Artist bookmaking residencies with 6th- and 7th-grade students, coordinated by the A+ Schools Program; February and April 2009

Alger County Historical Museum, Munising, MI:
Miniclass in conjunction with Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Artists-in-Residence presentation with Lucia Harrison; September 2006

Burt Township School, Grand Marais, MI:
Bookmaking classes for third- through sixth-graders during Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore joint artists’ residency with Lucia Harrison; September 2006

John C. Campbell Folk School, Brasstown, NC:
Assistant instructor, book arts class taught by Debbie Ogle; August 2005

Juror

Mammoth Cave National Park, Mammoth Cave, KY:
One of the jurors for this National Park’s 2010 Artist Residency program

Commissions

Wedding album and blank journal as wedding gifts; 2006
Journal/photo album as class gift for instructor of Penland Glass Studio; spring 2003

Meditative, explorative, playful ways of merging form and content lie at the heart of my handcrafted books. The bookmaking process allows me to meld so many things I enjoy—writing, paper textures, image-making techniques, and printing processes. With each new project, I experience the word book unfolding in unanticipated, magical ways.

I thrive on following an idea from hazy visions and broad sketches to book prototypes and the first finished form—”finished” in the sense of whatever feels vibrant in some hoped-for way. With every book, I seek to create an elegant simplicity by selecting beautiful materials, meticulously crafting each feature, and incorporating distinctive details. One-of-a-kind and small-edition (for me, 30 or fewer copies) artist’s books are my specialties.

Since this art form holds such rich possibilities for personal expression, I enjoy teaching others how to make a wide variety of book styles. Most recently, I offered a class on pamphlet-stitched variations at the Paul and Florence Thomas Memorial Art School, in beautiful Glendale Springs, NC. Our group had a delightful day full of bookmaking!

I’m open to ideas about and requests for other workshop opportunities, and I offer unique group-bookmaking experiences, called Shared Spaces Bookmaking, for    people who would like to create a book together—even    if they live far apart.

Various one-of-a-kind and editioned books are described elsewhere on this site: Artist’s Books and Books & Tales. You might also like to see the two photos of my artist’s book Primary Melody that appear in 500 Handmade Books: Inspiring Interpretations of a Timeless Form (Lark Books, 2008).

One of my books, Remnants Gathered, has been selected by juror Carol Sauvion for inclusion in an October 3–December 18, 2010, national juried exhibition at The Bascom, in Highlands, NC. Ms. Sauvion was the executive producer of the PBS Craft in America series, and she founded both Freehand Gallery and the nonprofit organization Craft in America. I’m honored by this opportunity!

Because poetry writing is another passion of mine, I weave poetry into many of the Books & Tales descriptions, in which I share the experiences that inspired particular books.

I offer two types of blank books—a small journal that incorporates a brief original poem, along with the blank pages for your writing, and a miniature book that can be tucked into a pocket or purse or worn as a necklace.

In October 2009, I had the great privilege of serving as the artist-in-residence for Mammoth Cave National Park, where I experienced many aspects of the world’s longest known cave system and its distinctive karst surroundings. My rich experiences there have already inspired one artist’s book project, for donation to the park. On the Mammoth Cave Wonders page, you can read about and see images of Cave Sing: Mammoth Cave National Park, an artist’s book I completed for the park’s December Cave Sing event, an annual celebration with 19th-century roots.

Also on the Mammoth Cave Wonders page, I describe a five-book set, A Cabinet of Mammoth Cave Wonders, I recently completed for the park. Complementing the book photographs are my reflections about the residency, the labyrinthine cave system, and the great Mammoth Cave National Park rangers and other staff (many thanks, everyone!).

A wealth of information about this park—a national and world treasure—appears on Mammoth Cave National Park’s website. Fortunately, my stay at the park coincided with the airing of Ken Burns’s beautiful series The National Parks: America’s Best Idea (which at least gave a nod to MCNP’s history); Kentucky Educational Television’s broadcast of the fascinating documentary Mammoth Cave: A Way to Wonder; and the release of Grand, Gloomy and Peculiar: Stephen Bishop at Mammoth Cave, Roger Brucker’s absorbing historical novel (which reflects the author’s experiences as a renowned cave explorer) about the 19th-century African American who, while enslaved, gained international fame as a Mammoth Cave guide and explorer. Also, just after I returned home, an interview with Ranger Jerry Bransford—the great-great-grandson of legendary guide and explorer Mat Bransford, also enslaved and a contemporary of Bishop—appeared in American Profile. All of these factors, combined with my park adventures, deepened my sense of having had an immersion experience that will inform my bookmaking for years to come!

Welcome to book arts journeys with me . . .

Miniature books hold a fascination all their own and seem to draw people toward them. Each blank book measures less than 3” high x 3” wide and contains special, decorative papers. You may choose from two book styles and select the cover color you’d like. The photo shows, from left to right, a pamphlet-stitched book and an origami-style book. Either type is $20.

Each Little Things book can be created with a small loop that will allow you to make the book into a necklace by adding your own chain, cord, or ribbon. When I’m wearing one of these, I inevitably hear at least one person say, “Look at that! It’s a little book—and you could even write in it!” These books, with or without a loop, also fit neatly into pockets and purses.

Since I write poetry, I like to incorporate some of my shorter poems in books that are otherwise blank, thus collaborating with each book’s eventual owner. In a Poet’s Touch journal, one complete poem is presented by having a single line precede every signature, or group of nested pages. All of the books in this series have a double-needle Coptic stitching pattern that shows nicely on the spine.

Currently, a book with the following poem is available:

Awakening

Into the mug of morning
pour yourself, warm
and dark, your aromatic
presence hugging the hand-
formed divide between
inside and out. Ease
from empty into full
until, brim-level, you
rise and swirl, a steamy
mist rejoining its source.

I plan to add other poems for this series, so please check back on the site or contact me directly if you’d like to discuss another possibility. Please note that I don’t publish other people’s work, even in this book form.

Each Poet’s Touch journal is $45. If you have a color preference for the cover, please note that on the order form.

“Awakening” first appeared in Expressive Arts Therapy: Creative Process in Art and Life. More information about my poetry activities appears on the North Carolina Poetry Society’s website (as the 2009 honoree).

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, 2006 Joint Artists’ Residency

My first experience with National Park artist residencies came in 2006, and I’d like to share the tale behind . . .

THIS STRETCH OF RICHES

a set of seven books by
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Artists-in-Residence for 2006
Lucia Harrison & Sharon A. Sharp

In the early fall of 2006, I flew to Michigan to meet my friend and book-arts collaborator Lucia Harrison (of Olympia, Washington), so we could begin our joint artists’ residency at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. We had met several years earlier at Penland School of Crafts and collaborated long-distance on some projects, but this was our first onsite collaborative venture. We were especially excited about getting to work creatively in a national park.

For almost three weeks we lived in the historic Coast Guard Station at Grand Marais, where spectacular sunsets and sunrises often framed our days and lured us to Lake Superior’s stone-strewn beaches. We pored over maps and field guides before, during, and after our hikes and drives throughout the park’s long, narrow expanse. New to the Upper Peninsula, we were captivated by patterns in the park’s diverse habitats—its forests, dunes, wetlands, streams, waterfalls, lakes, beaches, and windswept cliffs. We took photographs and made extensive notes on those, and we wrote and sketched in journals. As we learned to identify native flora and fauna, our amazement grew at the variety of species that have adapted so well to the harsh conditions along Lake Superior. On a cruise near dusk, we saw how the lake has relentlessly carved the multihued Pictured Rocks cliffs, and as the cliffs’ glowing russets danced across the lake’s brilliant blue surface, we understood even more fully why this area had been set aside as the first national lakeshore.

As our explorations broadened, we began envisioning a set of books that would reflect the complexity and richness surrounding us. The park’s unique shape and astounding diversity, along with the winding routes for our hikes, inspired us to plan the long, stretched, undulating form of the Slinky-type book, All in Stride. We created more than forty original pieces of artwork, which were then converted into the archival inkjet prints filling All in Stride and forming the covers of the accompanying haiku books. In that collection of small books, our observations and musings fan out in accordion forms. We wanted each book and the set as a whole to convey a sense of unfolding, as with the park’s cycles of change and with our own growing appreciation. For This Stretch of Riches, we each created half of the artwork, Lucia scanned and printed the pages and crafted the box, and Sharon wrote the haiku and stitched the larger book.

Throughout our stay we were welcomed and looked after by park employees, park volunteers, and local schoolteachers. We remain deeply grateful to the PRNL staff and the National Park Service for the rare opportunity we had to explore this realm and share our impressions of its abundant beauty.

The preceding description varies slightly from the artists’ statement we included with the set, which was donated to the park for visitors’ enjoyment.

Edging Deep Blue, a book of my original poems and photographs related to the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore experiences, evolved as a separate, complementary project for donation to the park. You can see the cover of this book, read more about the poems and accompanying photographs, and read two of the poems below.

Photo by
Charles M. Kreszock

As noted in the Resources website section, further information about Lucia Harrison’s artist’s books, paintings, and teaching activities may be found at Lucia’s website, luciaharrison.com, and at the Evergreen State College website. Throughout her work, Lucia has focused on ecological issues in multifaceted, intuitive, insightful ways. Our PRNL collaboration deepened my appreciation for her remarkable talents and her great generosity as a friend and colleague.

Immediately after the residency I had no plans to write much poetry beyond the haiku, but the images and observations from the Pictured Rocks time remained so vivid that I eventually completed Edging Deep Blue, a hand-bound book with twelve poems and twenty-seven photographs. This book became an additional donation to the park, and here is one of the poems:

First Evening at Home Base, Grand Marais
(August 28, 2006)

My suitcase zipper strains against bulges
of thermal underwear, turtlenecks, wool socks
I was certain of needing in the Upper Peninsula’s
waxing autumn. On the drive to Grand Marais,
the park’s easternmost point, we have shed our jackets,
lowered car windows, commented on green leaves
not yet tinged with fallish hues. At our home base,
a former Coast Guard station (circa 1938), I store
my bounty in a bedroom closet one floor above
the bathroom–once–radio room where, in 1975,
a guardsman sent the last land-based message to
the doomed Edmund Fitzgerald. Years of hi-fi, then
CD rounds of Gordon Lightfoot’s song surge
to my throat, linger. For sixteen nights we will rest
not a tenth of a mile from Lake Superior, from harbor
lights, inner and outer, that have saved other sailors.
This first afternoon settles
into pale grays above
sand dunes, dune grasses, a forty-foot cottonwood
still in full leaf that define our kitchen’s northward
lakeside view. After dinner we stroll past
the park ranger’s residence, follow a sand path
abutting the jetty, read a sign about teens swept away
as they ventured too far on the storm-whipped breakwall.
We step onto it, saunter far toward its tip, sit with backs
against the concrete that holds us over Superior’s
gently lapping waves. As waning rays gather in the west
and slate gray pools in the east, the sky around us
glows pink, then explodes into neon coral that rims
and tinges charcoal, blue-gray, white altocumulus
clouds, billowing and spreading. Mercurochrome light
dances atop shimmering aqua of the placidly
undulant water. To the northwest, black silhouettes
of tree-lined islands stretch far along the horizon,
then slowly rise, shift, disperse: our first mirage.
No cameras, no sketchbooks in hand, we stay fixed
until night has claimed all colors, unveiled the stars.

Several months after returning home from the residency, my family and I visited the Monet in Normandy exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Mesmerized by certain paintings, I wrote this poem and included it as the final one in Edging Deep Blue:

Indelible Impressions

Étretat! Monet always preserved the memory of . . . the wild cliffs . . . the great unchanging waters under the cloudy sky. –Gustave Geffroy, Claude Monet’s friend and biographer

At the Monet in Normandy exhibition,
among the more than sixty paintings,
I stand transfixed as crowds press on all sides.
The Cliff, Étretat, Sunset and three views
of the Manneporte, the Great Portal, hurl me back
to Superior’s shores, Pictured Rocks scenes.
“As for the cliffs here, they’re like nowhere else,”
wrote Monet of the almost-three-hundred-foot
rock faces. I, on a boat tour, had similar thoughts
while peering at multihued, mineral-streaked
heights much the same. The blazing arch-interior
warmth in The Manneporte, Étretat, the two figures’
tiny scale near the arch base, mirror Grand Portal’s
sunset glow, my place amid vastness. How to capture
blasts of wind and water, centuries’ sculpting–
Michigan sandstone, Normandy limestone?
In bold, swirling strokes Monet’s vibrant blues
whip against corals, golds, browns, gray-greens
and cast me into his late-1800s palette, into my
four-month-old memories, into thoughts
about words’ legacies. Earliest Ojibwa names
for the arches, the streaked cliffs, remain hazy,
and I can merely wonder whether today’s labels
were scribed by some French or British canoeist
who, swept by wistful awe, exclaimed, “Étretat–
le Portail, the Great Portal!” Had Monet’s brushes
brought me the scene explorers admired before
the painter’s birth, one they summoned when
surveying an unfamiliar land? As I scan
exhibition notes and settle again on paintings,
my reflections drift toward the aged Monet,
soothed by Giverny’s gardens, water lilies,
who in his last forty years spoke ever fondly
of what he revisited only in memory, those
soaring realms so close to his childhood haunts.

My one-of-a-kind books generally incorporate materials or techniques not readily adaptable to editions. At any given time, various books in this group may be in exhibitions, and some are already in private collections. I would like to share the photos and descriptions with you because these books offer special glimpses of my themes and bookmaking techniques. Each book description contains specific notes, but please check with me if you would like additional information about any of these one-of-a-kind books.

In late August and early September of 2006, the Washington State painter and book artist Lucia Harrison and I served jointly as the artists-in-residence for Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, along Lake Superior’s southern shoreline. As we encountered this area’s stunning beauty and intriguing history, our catalog of ideas for artists’ books steadily grew. Eventually we decided to create a set with an expandable Slinky-style book and six books of haiku, which I describe in the National Park Residency part of this website. Immediately after the residency I had no plans to write much poetry beyond the haiku, but the images and observations from the Pictured Rocks time remained so vivid that I eventually completed Edging Deep Blue, a hand-bound book with twelve poems and twenty-seven photographs. This book became an additional donation to the park, and here is one of the poems:

First Evening at Home Base, Grand Marais
(August 28, 2006)

My suitcase zipper strains against bulges
of thermal underwear, turtlenecks, wool socks
I was certain of needing in the Upper Peninsula’s
waxing autumn. On the drive to Grand Marais,
the park’s easternmost point, we have shed our jackets,
lowered car windows, commented on green leaves
not yet tinged with fallish hues. At our home base,
a former Coast Guard station (circa 1938), I store
my bounty in a bedroom closet one floor above
the bathroom–once–radio room where, in 1975,
a guardsman sent the last land-based message to
the doomed Edmund Fitzgerald. Years of hi-fi, then
CD rounds of Gordon Lightfoot’s song surge
to my throat, linger. For sixteen nights we will rest
not a tenth of a mile from Lake Superior, from harbor
lights, inner and outer, that have saved other sailors.
This first afternoon settles
into pale grays above
sand dunes, dune grasses, a forty-foot cottonwood
still in full leaf that define our kitchen’s northward
lakeside view. After dinner we stroll past
the park ranger’s residence, follow a sand path
abutting the jetty, read a sign about teens swept away
as they ventured too far on the storm-whipped breakwall.
We step onto it, saunter far toward its tip, sit with backs
against the concrete that holds us over Superior’s
gently lapping waves. As waning rays gather in the west
and slate gray pools in the east, the sky around us
glows pink, then explodes into neon coral that rims
and tinges charcoal, blue-gray, white altocumulus
clouds, billowing and spreading. Mercurochrome light
dances atop shimmering aqua of the placidly
undulant water. To the northwest, black silhouettes
of tree-lined islands stretch far along the horizon,
then slowly rise, shift, disperse: our first mirage.
No cameras, no sketchbooks in hand, we stay fixed
until night has claimed all colors, unveiled the stars.

Several months after returning home from the residency, my family and I visited the Monet in Normandy exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Mesmerized by certain paintings, I wrote this poem and included it as the final one in Edging Deep Blue:

Indelible Impressions

Étretat! Monet always preserved the memory of . . . the wild cliffs . . . the great unchanging waters under the cloudy sky. –Gustave Geffroy, Claude Monet’s friend and biographer

At the Monet in Normandy exhibition,
among the more than sixty paintings,
I stand transfixed as crowds press on all sides.
The Cliff, Étretat, Sunset and three views
of the Manneporte, the Great Portal, hurl me back
to Superior’s shores, Pictured Rocks scenes.
“As for the cliffs here, they’re like nowhere else,”
wrote Monet of the almost-three-hundred-foot
rock faces. I, on a boat tour, had similar thoughts
while peering at multihued, mineral-streaked
heights much the same. The blazing arch-interior
warmth in The Manneporte, Étretat, the two figures’
tiny scale near the arch base, mirror Grand Portal’s
sunset glow, my place amid vastness. How to capture
blasts of wind and water, centuries’ sculpting–
Michigan sandstone, Normandy limestone?
In bold, swirling strokes Monet’s vibrant blues
whip against corals, golds, browns, gray-greens
and cast me into his late-1800s palette, into my
four-month-old memories, into thoughts
about words’ legacies. Earliest Ojibwa names
for the arches, the streaked cliffs, remain hazy,
and I can merely wonder whether today’s labels
were scribed by some French or British canoeist
who, swept by wistful awe, exclaimed, “Étretat–
le Portail, the Great Portal!” Had Monet’s brushes
brought me the scene explorers admired before
the painter’s birth, one they summoned when
surveying an unfamiliar land? As I scan
exhibition notes and settle again on paintings,
my reflections drift toward the aged Monet,
soothed by Giverny’s gardens, water lilies,
who in his last forty years spoke ever fondly
of what he revisited only in memory, those
soaring realms so close to his childhood haunts.

Shared Spaces Bookmaking is my name for special group-bookmaking experiences, ones that allow even for long-distance collaborations. Handmade books lend themselves beautifully to collaborative creative processes, and I enjoy encouraging bookmaking with a variety of groups and in multifaceted ways. Through Shared Spaces Bookmaking projects, I can guide groups who live far from my North Carolina studio, including ones with widely scattered members, such as families, circles of friends, or enthusiasts who share a particular focus.

Another group-bookmaking area that particularly interests me is projects that support literacy programs. These include not only projects designed for literacy learners and program providers but also ones designed for groups who would like to support local literacy programs by, for example, creating handmade books that could be used in fundraising activities. On the Book Arts for Literacy page, I explore these ideas further and suggest some valuable links and other resources related to literacy issues.

I offer two types of blank books: miniature books and somewhat larger journals incorporating a brief original poem. For the blank pages, I select papers with surfaces especially well suited to writing, drawing, and other work with dry media. The covers are crafted of fine papers, including some handmade ones, from various places around the world, and I embellish each cover with unique accents.

When you order a blank book of either type, we can discuss the cover color, as well as any special touches you might like for your book.

Many people ask whether I sell larger hardcover journals, photo albums, wedding albums, and so on. I don’t, but I’ll be glad to refer you to other book artists.

My artist’s books are invitations into small worlds where you often can invent your own pathway and pace for exploration. Especially in these books, I enjoy trying out nontraditional forms—books with different shapes, books that move in various ways, books containing other books—and learning about each one’s potential. While some books originate with form-related ideas, others stem from curiosity about materials: how do unusual papers, threads, beads, and natural objects relate to themes I’m pondering? Still other books start with content-related questions: how can certain writings, artwork, and photographs spring to life differently in book form?

No matter the impetus, my initial clear answers give way to better ones as I handle the materials, settle into the bookmaking process, and welcome serendipity. And that leads me to the name of my new imprint . . .

Curious Pursuits Press

With this updated website, I’m launching the Curious Pursuits Press imprint for my artist’s books. Why that name? Mainly, several meanings of curious, as cited in my treasured and dog-eared Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, are what I seek to combine in my books: “made carefully . . . precisely accurate . . . marked by desire to investigate and learn . . . exciting attention as strange, novel, or unexpected.” That rather odd mixture speaks both to how I craft books (carefully and precisely) and to how I let curiosity lead me into book subjects and forms (through surprising twists and turns). As for pursuits, bookmaking is certainly my “vocation, profession, or avocation”—a way of chasing, following, and finding form for my visions . . . or of finally awakening to potential forms for ideas that have been haunting me.

In our frenetic world, the very act of making books by hand often feels like a curious pursuit indeed. One of the most enjoyable challenges lies in reimagining the nature of books, and one of the greatest pleasures lies in finding kindred spirits equally enthralled with this multifaceted art form.

My artist’s books created since May 2008 bear the Curious Pursuits Press imprint, whereas those created before that time contain my name only. With either designation, each artist’s book is solely my creation, unless I have specifically noted any collaborative roles.

Limited Editions, Open Editions, and One-of-a-Kind Books

I offer two types of editioned books—limited editions and open editions. Most of my artist’s books are created as limited editions of 30 or fewer copies. With open-edition artist’s books I craft multiples of a specific book, one by one as orders are received, without limiting the total number to be made. Every book contains some combination of distinctive artwork, unusual papers, and handwritten or printed text, and every book is numbered.

The type of edition, price, and, for limited editions, the total number available are indicated in the descriptions accompanying the larger photos you will see after clicking on the Editions album photos.

Because of the artwork, the book form, or the fit between all of the features I have in mind, I sometimes design one-of-a-kind books. The currently available ones and their full descriptions appear with the larger photos you will see after clicking on the One-of-a-Kind Books album photos.

With any artist’s book purchase, you will receive an artist’s statement and a colophon (that is, a description of the materials and processes), along with a receipt for your distinctively crafted book.

My lifelong love of books led me to a new creative pathway in 2002, when I completed a Penland School of Crafts summer class on letterpress printing. In that class I learned to handset metal type letter by letter, as well as create collographic and photopolymer printing plates. I then printed the type and the images using a Vandercook press—a favorite among book artists, I learned. One of my projects involved printing three of my original poems and three accompanying images for a pamphlet-stitched book (Natural Ways). By the time I finished that book, my relationship to writing and my appreciation of books as aesthetic objects had changed, and I knew that I wanted to explore the realm of artists’ books much more deeply.

In the spring of 2003, I returned to Penland School of Crafts to complete an eight-week concentration focused on making both books and paper. I soon found that I especially enjoyed learning how to create a variety of book forms, many of which were based on centuries-old practices, and experimenting with ways to present text. I remain grateful to the generous teachers I had in those Penland classes—Steve Miller (University of Alabama’s M.F.A. in Book Arts program director) in the summer, and Julia Leonard (University of Iowa Center for the Book faculty member) and Ann Marie Kennedy (nationally known papermaker and paper artist) in the spring.

photo taken by Mary Beth Hege

Since taking those Penland classes, I’ve attended Paper & Book Intensive and completed a number of other workshops, served as an assistant instructor in a John C. Campbell Folk School book arts class, and completed an artist’s residency at Mammoth Cave National Park and a joint artists’ residency at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore with visual artist/book artist Lucia Harrison. I’ve also become active in book arts organizations such as the Southeast Association for Book Arts, the Guild of Book Workers–Southeast Chapter, and the Slow Book Salon (an association of western North Carolina book artists), and I am an associate member of the American Craft Council. My local arts council, the Watauga Arts Council, has also offered me invaluable support by hosting my first solo exhibition and encouraging my artistic development. The launching of this website was partially funded as a cooperative venture of the Alleghany Arts Council, the Ashe County Arts Council, the Watauga Arts Council, and the Cultural Arts Council of Wilkes, with support from a Regional Artists Project grant of the North Carolina Arts Council, a state agency. I am very grateful for these agencies’ support.

Many of my artist’s books reflect my interests in editing, which I focused on for twenty years before delving into book arts. As a freelance editor, I’ve worked primarily on nonfiction trade books for publishers such as BasicBooks (HarperCollins), Newmarket, Addison-Wesley, and Kodansha America. I’ve also edited scholarly books and journals, college textbooks, foundation reports, conference proceedings, newsletters, and special reports. In addition, I’ve taught editing at Appalachian State University, at the Carolina Publishing Institute, and in private workshops. Editing has opened many avenues of language-related interests for me, so in artist’s books I often return to that facet of my background. (Details about my editing experience are available upon request.)

Since I also write poetry, I incorporate original poems in a variety of my books. My poems have appeared in numerous journals, a chapbook, and various anthologies, as well as on the North Carolina Arts Council’s website among poems featured by the state poet laureate. I’m a past president of the North Carolina Poetry Society and an active supporter, as well, of the Poetry Council of North Carolina. I’ve long been interested in links between the literary and the visual arts, and creating artist’s books has offered me an ideal avenue for exploring those links.

You can read more about my background and my approach to book arts in a Western North Carolina Woman magazine profile at wncwoman.com/may07/page20.html.

For more than twenty years, the beauty of Boone, North Carolina, has fed my creative activities and fueled my explorations. With an elevation of almost 3,400 feet, Boone is part of an area known as the High Country, where the natural splendors rival those of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Here are a few glimpses of the place where I’m fortunate enough to live and work.

Mountain Twilight

Azure afternoon fades
into a light line rimming
the ridges. With the sun’s
parting blaze, gold
and coral swirls yield to
blue-gray hills meeting
blue-gray skies. In the moment
of merger, eyes strain for
one last assurance
of separateness and find
only unity’s affirmation.
After darkness obscures
vision, we seek location
markers and home in on stars.

“Mountain Twilight” first appeared in Moonwort Review.