i really enjoy looking at this work, at first I didn't recognize that the marks were letters, they looked to be scratches, then "aha!" which made more sense with the title. the built up density is really satisfying as is spying the whited over words, like The Forbidden (backwards), wish I could see it closer.
that is so freaking fantastic! (I had so much of that letterpress type sheets, I think I gave them all away many years ago ;( I would donate them to your cause!
I use rub-on letters, too. I've always called them transfer type. You must have A LOT of them! I find them kind of hard to come by. Where do you get yours? Do tell!
hi Erin! wow. that is amazing you noticed The Forbidden words backwards, considering that it is barely barely noticeable. thank you for such close observation. makes me feel so worthwhile to have done all that tedious scanning. i was wondering if i should post up larger images but then on the average 17" screen, you would only see sections of it. so i opted for being to see the whole image without scrolling. :\.
Grace, it's fun with the rub-on letters. i originally bought them to use for adding text to my work and then found that i really just like rubbing out those letters.
hi Eero, thanks for stopping by. i first got them at Staples and then found more sizes/fonts and colors at the Pearl Paint art store in NYC. they are kind of hard to find because a lot of times they are out of stock and then you get some of them that are stale (letters drying up not sticking too well). Presto, Rub-On Letters and C-thru are the brands, i think.
hi Kim! love your comment. you're so kind and generous. too bad i did not know you then!! :).
awww...Claire, the little guy did not make it. :(. i was quite unhappy about it. but thanks for remembering about him. i'm glad i at least got to share about him with somebody.
Your work again touches me deeply. Seeing the first image, the black book marked with two x’s I was filled with trepidation, it looked to me like a kind of doomsday-book, the book where one’s sins are listed to be read out at the end of times (how interesting that such concepts should be on my mind when I don’t believe). And then those beautiful pages, one metamorphosing into the next. The first one reminds me of a kind of dream I had just a little while ago, of an insect hanging from a spider’s thread, twirling around its own axis with tiny dew-drops scattering from its legs. Looked at in close-up it all changes of course. I love how you create a thread from one page to the next in different ways, how they connect and how they change. Even before I saw that most black marks were created by letraset letters I had a sense of language, attempts at communication, fuelled by the sense of translation and movement between pages and materials and shapes. Also a sense of migration, of bursts of energy, traces left and overlaid and erased. Of wounds, of skin scratched sharply. Of shouts and cries and whispering and silence. That obsessively letrasetted page – a swarm of letters, I can almost hear a hum, ha, now I’m feeling a bit scared again. And on that last page that little big word that makes me turn back to the beginning and look at everything all over again. PS re: moms and names see my blog.
Marjojo, thank you for taking me through the work through your eyes so thoughtfully and closely. i am so pleased by your feedback, especially the immediate first reaction and then coming to the part about seeing the word at the end and wanting to go back and see it again.
Ph&-Railleurs, thanks for stopping by! your photographs are hauntingly beautiful, especially shown in sequence on your blog. some of them are quite freaky too.
Thanks, Paula. :).
Uschi, funny you mentioned flipbooks because i have tried to make one a couple of times and it just doesn't work. i just don't have a good sense of timing or something. :/.
wow, I've been missing a lot of new work, I love this book so much, am really sad I can't hold it in my hand to turn the pages one at a time. Everything about it, the letters, lines, and wrinkled ripped pages all fit together to tell a story that is maybe a silent story? It feels like a story I know well, but don't have words to put to it.
I only now read your comments on marjojo's blog - your question about when I talked about ideas being pushed was about how sometimes it's easy to try to link things up so that they all fit into a neat little system, but it can end up limiting things and just making them predictable, and closes up the opportunity for new directions in the work that don't seem to fit initially into that one system. (is that more unclear than ever? I tend to write abstractly but it also means I'm often not very clear...)
(so funny that your brother thought my boxes were scary, that's definitely the first time I've had that comment!).
i really enjoy looking at this work, at first I didn't recognize that the marks were letters, they looked to be scratches, then "aha!" which made more sense with the title. the built up density is really satisfying as is spying the whited over words, like The Forbidden (backwards), wish I could see it closer.
ReplyDeleteCool. That's a lotta work! I don't think I've ever worked with rub-on letters...
ReplyDeletethat is so freaking fantastic! (I had so much of that letterpress type sheets, I think I gave them all away many years ago ;( I would donate them to your cause!
ReplyDeleteI love this book!
ReplyDeleteI use rub-on letters, too. I've always called them transfer type. You must have A LOT of them! I find them kind of hard to come by. Where do you get yours?
Do tell!
Excellent book.
Inspiring.
E.
Ohh that looks like it was a lot of fun to make. I love the forms and shapes you were able to achieve with just the letters. Cheers Claire
ReplyDeletePS how's that little fish going?
hi Erin! wow. that is amazing you noticed The Forbidden words backwards, considering that it is barely barely noticeable. thank you for such close observation. makes me feel so worthwhile to have done all that tedious scanning. i was wondering if i should post up larger images but then on the average 17" screen, you would only see sections of it. so i opted for being to see the whole image without scrolling. :\.
ReplyDeleteGrace, it's fun with the rub-on letters. i originally bought them to use for adding text to my work and then found that i really just like rubbing out those letters.
hi Eero, thanks for stopping by. i first got them at Staples and then found more sizes/fonts and colors at the Pearl Paint art store in NYC. they are kind of hard to find because a lot of times they are out of stock and then you get some of them that are stale (letters drying up not sticking too well). Presto, Rub-On Letters and C-thru are the brands, i think.
hi Kim! love your comment. you're so kind and generous. too bad i did not know you then!! :).
awww...Claire, the little guy did not make it. :(. i was quite unhappy about it. but thanks for remembering about him. i'm glad i at least got to share about him with somebody.
Your work again touches me deeply. Seeing the first image, the black book marked with two x’s I was filled with trepidation, it looked to me like a kind of doomsday-book, the book where one’s sins are listed to be read out at the end of times (how interesting that such concepts should be on my mind when I don’t believe). And then those beautiful pages, one metamorphosing into the next. The first one reminds me of a kind of dream I had just a little while ago, of an insect hanging from a spider’s thread, twirling around its own axis with tiny dew-drops scattering from its legs. Looked at in close-up it all changes of course. I love how you create a thread from one page to the next in different ways, how they connect and how they change. Even before I saw that most black marks were created by letraset letters I had a sense of language, attempts at communication, fuelled by the sense of translation and movement between pages and materials and shapes. Also a sense of migration, of bursts of energy, traces left and overlaid and erased. Of wounds, of skin scratched sharply. Of shouts and cries and whispering and silence. That obsessively letrasetted page – a swarm of letters, I can almost hear a hum, ha, now I’m feeling a bit scared again. And on that last page that little big word that makes me turn back to the beginning and look at everything all over again.
ReplyDeletePS re: moms and names see my blog.
I love it ! really
ReplyDelete(www.phe-no.blogspot.com)
ReplyDelete(undeplus on flick)
Yowsa! That is fantastic! It seems to move as you go from one page to the next...
ReplyDeleteYes! Like Paula says: it seems to move! How much fun to do this!!! Did you ever consider making a flip-book??
ReplyDeleteI like this a lot!!!
Marjojo, thank you for taking me through the work through your eyes so thoughtfully and closely. i am so pleased by your feedback, especially the immediate first reaction and then coming to the part about seeing the word at the end and wanting to go back and see it again.
ReplyDeletePh&-Railleurs, thanks for stopping by! your photographs are hauntingly beautiful, especially shown in sequence on your blog. some of them are quite freaky too.
Thanks, Paula. :).
Uschi, funny you mentioned flipbooks because i have tried to make one a couple of times and it just doesn't work. i just don't have a good sense of timing or something. :/.
wow, I've been missing a lot of new work, I love this book so much, am really sad I can't hold it in my hand to turn the pages one at a time. Everything about it, the letters, lines, and wrinkled ripped pages all fit together to tell a story that is maybe a silent story? It feels like a story I know well, but don't have words to put to it.
ReplyDeleteI only now read your comments on marjojo's blog - your question about when I talked about ideas being pushed was about how sometimes it's easy to try to link things up so that they all fit into a neat little system, but it can end up limiting things and just making them predictable, and closes up the opportunity for new directions in the work that don't seem to fit initially into that one system. (is that more unclear than ever? I tend to write abstractly but it also means I'm often not very clear...)
(so funny that your brother thought my boxes were scary, that's definitely the first time I've had that comment!).