Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art and Writing

Books as art repositories.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I'm finding that more and more I draw and create art on a small level, and in books. After years of drawings and paintings piling up on shelves and slowly moving out the door as orders come in, I've come to prize the limited space I have for driving me into creating a library of books full of art and writing and collage that I can go back and look through for memories or ideas. I still work on a larger scale, but find that working small, in a book, allows me to work through ideas better without having ten huge drawings end up on a shelf so that I get to the one I really wanted.

I have had people want to buy the books but I've yet to sell one. For one thing, the hours I've put into them, with the art and writing, can't possibly be met with a dollar figure that most people are willing to consider. The other aspect is that these books, often done during travels or serving as some kind of cohesive collection of ideas for a specific moment, are rather personal. I love showing them to people, but I'm wary of selling them.

They are, essentially, a mini-gallery. No frames, no walls, no admission fee. Just a way to experiment with images and writing and collage on the safety of a page where, if it doesn't turn out, I simply turn the page and start again.

I have quite a stash of blank journals, and it's not because I'm such a big-time writer and need book upon book to write my thoughts in. It's because I'm always looking for blank books that I can write and draw and collage and deconstruct in such a way that the book itself becomes part of the art. I check to see if the binding is one that keeps the book from opening flat (I hate that). I check out the weight of the paper and decide what kind of media and abuse it can take, I avoid books with overly decorated covers and pages meant to "inspire" those keeping a journal (I just want a plain cover and paper) -- these are just a few considerations.

Instead of putting a bunch of images or a gallery into this post, I've got a few small video clips of a few of the books. I'll add more to this post as I have clips.

Books:

Deconstructed Books: