Holding Ground: Artist’s Books for the NMWA

I am honored to have been one of nine book artists invited to complete a commissioned work to commemorate the grand re-opening of the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, DC. My proposed work, History of a People traces African American history and culture through scent.

Each of the six bottles (or chapters) holds a custom blended scent that corresponds to the cultural landscape of selected historical periods: Roots, Journey, Arrival, Harrow, Protest,Visioning. The scents symbolize the complex layering involved in the creation of a new culture.

Holding Ground: Artist’s Books for the NMWA, will be on display until October 2024. The celebration is year-long and the museum is planning several events. 

Back to Front: Artists’ Books by Women

Inheritance is on view in the 112th Annual Exhibition: Back to Front: Artists’ Books by Women, at Randolph, College in Lynchburg, VA. It is one of several on loan from the Cynthia Sears Collection at Bainbridge Museum of Art, in Washington. Ancillary to the exhibition are viewer engagement opportunities, including the repository of one-page books in the Quarantine Public Library, to which I contributed 2020, a book honoring victims of police violence. The exhibition will be on view through April 11, 2024.

In This Moment: The Book as Witness

History of a People, deluxe edition, closed

History of a People will be on view in In This Moment: The Book as Witness, curated by artist Julie Chen at the Environmental Design Library at UC Berkeley, January 10 – March 3, 2024.

Paper is People

Lineage

I’m pleased to announce that my textile work Lineage is on view in Paper Is People: Decolonizing Global Paper Cultures, at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA).

The exhibition “offers a new definition of paper­ within a global and decolonial framework, and will be on view at MCBA until August 12, 2023. A reception will be held Thursday, June 22, 7–9pm.

The exhibition is free and open to the public. Additional information can be found here.

Layers and Narratives

New work exhibited at Tarrant County College

I’m happy to announce that five of my books, including two new works, “Things I’ll MIss” and “Loci” are on view in “Layers and Narratives,” an exhibition at Tarrant County College, Southeast Campus from October 17 to December 2. This is the first in a long while that I’ve exhibited work locally and I’m excited to attend the opening tomorrow, Thursday, October 20 from 204pm. More information here.

Boundless @ Bainbridge Island Museum of Art

Emergence

Inheritance is one of the works featured in Boundless, an exhibition that “…celebrates the visionary ideals of the artist’s book which often challenge, in the best of ways, our preconceived notions of what a book can be. Boundless explores the vast field of artist’s books, but also the thinking of book artists. Each work reveals the mapping and laying bare of uncomfortable, surprising, or unexplored terrain.”

The exhibition is open from Mar 4 – Jun 22, 2022 at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art in Bainbridge Island, WA. Click here for details.

Every Day & Special Days

Interwoven Alphabet, open

Interwoven Alphabet, a collaborative abcedary created with Diane Jacobs, featuring various themes including relationships, nature, the senses, time, and the environment, is on view in Every Day & Special Days at the Bainbridge Island Art Museum, Bainbridge Island, WA..

Co-curators: Cynthia Sears and Catherine Alice Michaelis present Every Day & Special Days taking viewers on a journey from daily delights and mundane activities to once-in-a-lifetime events.

Between birth and death, we string together memories of dailiness: the view from a window, the route we travel to school or work, the rhythm of mealtimes and seasons, or cultural messages that inform our interactions, to name just a few.

Special days lift us from the mundane and predictable. They might include a trip to the ocean, birthdays, a marriage, or immigrating to a new country. A special day may signal a change in our life or even our world, and become the new every day."

Interwoven Alphabet , and edition of 2, consists of 26 half-inch thick square felt pages. Each page features imagery on the larger sides and words are stitched along each narrow edge. Imagery and words correspond to the letter of the alphabet assigned to the page. New messages are revealed as the blocks are turned.

Fiber Stories - Craft Boston

I’m pleased to announce that I am showing a variety of mixed media textile collages at Fiber Stories, a virtual showcase sponsored by The Society of Crafts, Boston from July 16 through August 29. Fiber Stories is an online celebration of fiber arts, fiber-inspired techniques, and storytelling featuring more than 45 contemporary craft artists. The event will feature artist interviews and demonstrations, conversations with experts in the field, and the chance to shop for one-of-a-kind fiber-based art.

I am scheduled for a virtual interview Thursday, July 22 @ 2pm CT. The event is free, but registration is required, Click here for the link to register.

Art in Embassies - Spring's Promise

Spring’s Promise is currently on exhibition at the Ambassador’s residence at Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso as part of the US State Department’s Art in Embassies program. Spring’s Promise features plants from my garden hand sewn into a medallion format surrounded by pieced and appliquéd silks, and text.

Water Is...

Water, my book from the Elemental series is featured in Water Is… an exhibition at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art through June 27, 2021.

Water can move from solid to liquid to gas and exists on, in, and over the earth in these three states. In religion and mythology, water symbolism relate to creation, passages, wisdom, and purification. It not only has the potential to heal and to quench, but also to cause devastation. Water features stories about passages, purification, knowledge, and wisdom.

in Water, each accordion page features a story and together they unfold to give a waterfall effect. The first story is an account of a swimming lesson. The second story features a story of the transformative power of touch in the form of hair washing. The final story is an abstract account of passages.

Water is an edition of 4.

Read more about the exhibition here.

Exploding the Codex

Book art exhibition and lecture at LSU this fall.

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Poule Aye will be featured in Exploding the Codex at LSU Libraries Special Collections in Baton Rouge August 19 – December 13, 2019 at Hill Memorial Library. Celebrated artist Julie Chen of Flying Fish Press will present a talk at 5pm, Thursday, October 24 at the LSU School of the Arts. The exhibition and lecture are free and open to the public.

Poule Aye consists of one page, part of which is folded to form a “shotgun” style sharecropper’s home and part of which contains a “field” of text. A backyard chicken coop and be viewed through the front door when the book is open. The façade is an image of one of the homes that my dad lived in as a boy. Poule Aye examines ones relationship with place and identity. I am happy that this edition of Poule Aye is so near Ventress, LA, the place that inspired the story.

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