process

Preparing for the Philadelphia Art Book Fair

:: a display portfolio for prints ::

I've been working long days and evenings getting ready for the Philadelphia Art Book Fair. All the little details for display, like pricing, packaging, etc. always take longer than I think they will, but it's starting to come together.

Mark Cohen will be speaking on Friday. He's one of my favorite artists. Seriously, you have to be pretty important to me and my practice to have made this little list below. There's some pretty heavy hitting programming scheduled, I suggest you take a look.


:: sketchbook drawings and list of influences ::

One day, the sea will overflow into the valley and roll over all...

I was working on an artist's statement today and writing,  "...paper; fleet and quiet carrier of words and questions...an intent to look with an eye that sees both the mystical and the negligible as valid and acknowledges their equivalents and connections."

Fleet sources and thoughts. Belief in world's beyond our own perceptions. Beauty in the ability in people to create their own realities for whatever reason.

I keep thinking about an illustration of a wave I found in an old children's book and its caption 

One day, the sea will overflow into the valley and roll over all...





Reading Variations

 :: gouache on paper ::

I'm working on a piece for an upcoming show titled Reading Variations. It's actually a collaboration with my father. We are both looking at the same piece of writing and responding to it. This drawing is part of my side of the project. 

Now I'm working on turning it into a print.

 :: hand-cut printing matrices on boxcar base ::

:: first layer, letterpress print in process ::

My Education

I fell asleep on my couch this afternoon and I dreamt that an older man sang me a song. He sang it in a very cheerful way and I remembered both the lyrics and the melody when I woke up, the lyrics were "She told me not to be afraid, but I am not afraid of the future." I have been thinking a lot of about dreams lately and also about oracles, and the cryptic nature of their utterances.

The dream also made me a recall a memory from childhood. I used to write songs on the piano. I brought a piece of sheet music with a song I had written to a party hosted by my parent's friends. There was a piano at the party and a musician, she said she would like to see my composition and would play it for me on the piano. But I didn't really understand musical notation, and the song came out odd and dissonant, like a piece of experimental modern music. I hadn't written any of the notes correctly. 

So much of my art has come from misunderstandings. These misunderstandings are a gift. Like dreams, they are glimpses at the oracle, and these little confusions end up being more profound than the intended message.

 :: My Education, William S. Burroughs ::

Blog Tour


Amy Tavern
http://amytavern.blogspot.com/

My friend Amy Tavern, a jeweler and artist, tagged me to participate in a Blog Tour and to tag three blogs that I like to read. Amy is one of the reasons I started keeping a blog. I was inspired by her commitment to her blog, and the way she posted about her process and artists that inspired her work. I've been keeping this blog since 2009 and if you go back to the first posts, you will see what feels like a completely different person to me now. That's what's so fascinating about these things, they're records of our transformations as people and artists.

I love reading artist's blogs, I subscribe to dozens of them and read them every day like a morning paper. These three blogs, I selected because they combine images of process and work with insightful musings on daily life and all the highs and lows of being an artist. They all also happen to be people I have known at some point through Penland School of Crafts.


Millions of People Happy - Michelle Moode
http://millionsofpeoplehappy.blogspot.com/

Michelle Moode is a printmaker and bookbinder who lives in Spruce Pine, NC. Her work feels like an ongoing collection of ephemeral visual experiences and thoughts. I recently spent two weeks with Michelle at the Paper Book Intensive, making paper, books, and generally having an incredible time. Her blog is a mix of process and personal reflections.


Sawdust and Tomatoes - Christina Boy
http://sawdustandtomatoes.blogspot.com/

Christina is makes gorgeous furniture and sculpture, primarily in wood. I got to know her when we were roommates for two years at Penland as Core Fellowship students. She is originally from Germany and lives in rural Virginia with her husband. Her blog includes images of her process and wood shop, and also lots of envy inducing images of things on the farm that she and her husband grow, can, and eat.






































Jean Fitz's Weblog
http://heartjean.blogspot.com/

Jean is an artist and educator who lives in Chicago. I met her in a class at Penland six years ago. She makes graphic novels, which are funny, honest, and truly unique, and somehow coaxes the most amazing Photoshop work out of middle schoolers I have ever seen. She is also a fearless traveler, and those experiences are recorded in her blog.

Learning Processes

I had a studio visit yesterday, a process that is at once terrifying, exciting, relieving, and question forming. It's terrifying to expose new work to criticism, but it's exciting to talk about it out loud to someone who cares. It's a relief to realize you have a place in the room, to ask questions and participate, to be seen and heard, but it's a process, at least when done right, that brings many new questions and challenges to the table. I feel grateful to have the opportunity to do this, and thankful to the people that gave me their time. It's a good thing, to have all these new things I have to think about.

:: Sea Grass and Storm ::

 :: Watching :: 

:: Studio Wall ::

Magical Notebooks and Clamshell Time Trials

This week, I made some books and boxes for myself, something I don't do that often. It's fun and good practice, I often make things for myself to try out something I don't normally do or brush up on techniques. I made myself a notebook with a "magical symbols" print I made while at Paper Book Intensive for end papers. 

:: egyptian inspired symbols, relief printed end papers ::

:: rounded spine with cloth headband, the cover boards are beveled to fit the curve ::

:: embossed leather, it was one of my samples from Paper Book Intensive ::

In order to solve my problem of not enough flatfile storage space, I've also been practicing my clamshell boxes, in various sizes and shapes, and seeing how fast I can make them. It's like doing time trials to qualify for the imaginary Bookbinding Olympics. 

:: Deep clamshell box for storage ::

:: ephemera storage problem solved ::

When I'm in between projects or not feeling the thunderbolt of inspiration, getting my hands moving clears my head and reboots the thinking process, and if not, I have a new notebook and some fancy clamshell boxes!

Reason





:: Marianne Dages, Reason, letterpress, lead, cord, fur, silk, found image, 2014 ::

Reason

In this life
there is no reason
but the heads of dolphins
diving, diving
burn the tree
to its bones
heap its wood
and sign to me
-
wood
wood
mouth
-
so we can remember
that there is no reason
but the heads of dolphins
diving
diving


:: Marianne Dages, Black Column, 2014, letterpress ::


:: detail of Black Column ::

The Great Expanses


:: The Great Expanses, Detail ::
 Painted and natural wood 

:: The Great Expanses, Process Detail ::
Ceramic, bone dust and volcanic ash on black paper

:: The Great Expanses, Detail ::
Ceramic, bone dust and volcanic ash on black paper


:: Marianne Dages, The Great Expanses, 2014, 50" x 60" ::
Paper, wood, ceramic, bone dust, volcanic ash, ink, animal fur, found hooks and cords