Things Becoming Something Else
Paper, books, and the work of making
Hello friends, this weekend I participated in the Monster Drawing Rally at SPACES.
It was lively and energetic. 75 artists rotating through, with people watching as you worked. It took a minute to settle into that kind of visibility. There was even a moment where I thought about Portrait Artist of the Year and what those artists must feel. Next time, I’ll come more prepared (and remember my embroidery tools).
I’ve been thinking about that experience since and how it changes the way you pay attention.
That feeling showed up again in my reading.
I just finished Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy, and I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s part biography, part autobiography, but really something more layered than that. The way she moves between personal story and the larger politics of India feels both intimate and expansive at the same time.
It’s one of those books that stayed with me while I was reading it and lingered after I finished. Do you ever have books like that, ones that don’t quite let you go?
Recently, journal-making has taken over my table. My coworker showed me how to cut sheets of Mohawk 80 lb Superfine paper with a paper knife (which felt very satisfying), and then I stitched everything together using a long stitch on a leather cover with eight signatures. I’m up to seven journals now. Seven!
There’s something about making your own book that makes you think about what goes inside it. Have you ever made something functional like that and found yourself seeing it differently?
Lately, paper itself has been on my mind, not just as a surface, but as something that carries memory.
Through the North American Hand Papermakers mail art exchange, I was paired with an artist in California. She’s already received the handmade paper I made from my kids’ old cotton pajamas. There’s something so strange and beautiful about sending something so personal out into the world and waiting to see what comes back.
Have you ever sent something handmade off like that, not knowing what it might become?
All of this is feeding into the larger projects taking shape right now.
On my work table, two bigger pieces are slowly coming together, including one for the upcoming All About Abaca show at the Morgan. We were each given a piece of abaca and asked to transform it. I’m still in the thick of it, figuring out what it wants to become, but I’m enjoying that part.
And then, as if I needed one more thread to follow, a new curiosity has taken hold.
Images of women skateboarding from around the world have completely captured my attention. There’s something about the movement, the confidence, the sense of place.
It makes me want to draw them.
Would you want to join me?
Right now it’s books, paper, and a few things on my table that I’m still figuring out.
What’s on your table these days?
Women skateboarding sounds like an excellent drawing subject!
Mohawk Superfine is my favorite paper ever! I was just talking about it in my class. It's amazing for soft inks like Akua inks. I love the image of you with all of your art studies spread out in front of you. Even if you forgot your embroidery. I don't know how people go on those art shows with all that pressure to produce something astounding!! And that Abaca paper! It's so sculptural!