Word | Image | Object is an exhibition of contemporary artists’ bookworks through December 29, 2019. It’s in the Gates Reading Room on the fifth floor of the Denver (Colorado) Public Library’s Central Library at 10 West Fourteenth Avenue Parkway.

This Saturday, October 5, 2019, Alicia Bailey and Brian Trembath will hold an “open case” talk from 1 pm to 3 pm.

Alicia writes: “A downside to showing off artists’ books in public access spaces, such as Denver Public Library’s (DPL) beautiful Gates Reading Room, is that the books must be exhibited behind glass; their tactile qualities underappreciated, their fine-tuned engineering less evident, much of their thoughtful content hidden from view.

“So that Denver metro folks, and visitors, have a chance to appreciate the works in Word | Image | Object, DPL Special Collections Curator Brian Trembath and I will be hosting an Open Case Talk. This will be an informal presentation, giving an overview of the exhibit, highlighting select works from the exhibition, followed by a Q&A session and removal of several books from the cases, allowing attendees a chance to experience the works without a glass barrier.”

To see the works, visit http://abecedariangallery.com/store/product-category/exhibits/word-image-object/

BAG member Elizabeth McKee will lead a pastepaper workshop on Saturday, November 9, and Sunday, November 10, 2019, from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm in Albuquerque. The fee of $150 includes 4 full sheets of Arches Text wove, all paste, paint, and “miscellaneous cool stuff.”

Pastepaper had its origins about 450 years ago when printers, wanting a less expensive decorative paper for endpapers than marbled paper, added paint to their paste and made patterns on paper with it. Many of us were first introduced to pastepaper in primary school where it is known as finger painting. More recently calligraphers realized that paste makes an excellent surface on which to write.

Day one: Participants will systematically prepare pages with assorted pastes and tools to create personal pastepaper reference books.

Day two: Pastepaper clinic. Participants are invited to bring in unsuccessful pastepaper pages and apply new layers or techniques to enhance and improve them, thus turning them into successful pastepapers. OR participants may choose to continue to work on their samplers with inspiration from the other participants. OR participants may choose to work on new paste paper with their knowledge gained on day one. OR all of the above.

At the end of day two students will bind their books   and make simple pouches for them using some of the fresh pastepapers.

Click here to download the registration form.

The Santa Fe Opera Costume and Prop Sale

Hundreds of costumes, fabrics, accessories, props, and furniture for sale, and just in time for Halloween!

This event is free and open to the public.

Saturday, September 14, and Sun,day September 15, 2019

10 am to 4 pm

The Santa Fe Opera
Stieren Hall
301 Opera Drive
Santa Fe, NM 87506

Come see the work of the 53 BAG members who made color come alive at the first exhibition of the Pantone Postcard Project | BAG Mail Art: 2018-2019.

We’ll kick it off with an opening in the Axle Contemporary Mobile Art Space on Saturday, August 24, 2019, from 4 pm to 7 pm (perhaps beyond). This is in the Santa Fe Railyard near the Farmer’s Market Pavilion, across from Site Santa Fe (near Paseo de Peralta and Guadalupe Street: https://www.railyardsantafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/RAILYARD-MAP-2018-.jpg

The cards will be on display until Sunday, September 8, 2019. Please check the website for daily locations of the van: https://www.axleart.com

Many thanks to Axle Contemporary, which was founded in 2010 by artists Matthew Chase-Daniel and Jerry Wellman as a collaborative work of art and an innovative vehicle for arts distribution.

Axle Contemporary is an art gallery on wheels; it’s housed in the back of a custom retrofitted 1970 aluminum stepvan. The 6′ x 10′ exhibition space features high wood ceilings, exposed beams, track lighting, and a magnetically based system for displaying unframed works on paper. Axle Contemporary exhibits installation art, performance, works on paper (including photography, drawing, and painting), and occasionally sculpture. The van’s mobility allows the gallery to visit both typical art venues and unusual ones, such as schools, empty lots, restaurants, grocery stores, and city streets.

Axle Contemporary has grown beyond the confines of the mobile exhibition space to include book publishing and alternative methods of creation and dissemination of contemporary arts in the public sphere. It is supported in part by Axle Projects, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation that is made possible by donations.

Thanks also to Douglass Rankin and Gail Murray for their tireless energy in creating new challenges and implementing BAG’s mail art program, and to mail art guru emeritus Linda Zwick.

And thanks to book artist Emily Martin, who gave permission to Santa Fe BAG to replicate her 2013 mail art project with Pantone’s colored postcards and 100 artists.

2019 Collaborative Book Project

Participants: Participants must be BAG members in good standing.

Dates

• Friday, August 30, 2019: Deadline for members to notify Linda Zwick (lindazwick55@yahoo.com) or Julie Filatoff (julie@jirafstudio.com) of their intention to participate.
• Friday, September 6, 2019 (or earlier): Participants will be notified how many pages to make for exchange and will receive detailed instructions. On this date you will also be able to pick up the Arches Text Wove paper (for the interior pages) at the Rotunda Exhibit Reception, 4 pm to 6 pm, from Julie Filatoff (or contact us to arrange another time).
• Saturday, October 5, 2019: Meeting for exchange of pages for the book and for construction of participants’ books at La Cienega Volunteer Fire Station (Rancho Viejo).
• BAG Annual End-of-Year Meeting, early December 2019: Participants will bring their collaborative books to show off.

Theme: Your favorite alphabetic character.

Book Structure: Crown Book as described in Hedi Kyle and Ulla Warchol’s book, The Art of the Fold. The finished book will be approximately 5½” tall x 3¾” wide. If you wish, you can purchase the book here: https://amzn.to/2YXVKDS

Color Palette: Limited to black, white, metallic silver, metallic gold, metallic copper, shades of gray. Please resist using any other colors.

Paper and Other Materials: For $12 participants will be provided with Arches Text Wove 120gsm white for the interior pages, and French Paper Company Construction 70 lb. white for the spine/accordion/cover. NO SUBSTITUTIONS ARE PERMITTED. On September 6 you may pick up the Arches Text Wove paper at the Rotunda Exhibit Reception, 4 pm to 6 pm, from Julie Filatoff (or contact us to arrange another time).

Each Participant Will Bring to the Compilation Meeting:

• Approximately 24 decorated (painted, drawn, printed, collaged) sheets, decorated on both sides with the limited palette described above, and on the paper specified.

Each Participant will be Provided, at the Compilation Meeting:

• A page from every other participant.
• A title page listing the participants.
• Paper for the accordion/spine/ cover.

Questions? Contact Linda Zwick at lindazwick55@yahoo.com or Julie Filatoff at julie@jirafstudio.com.

It Was There All Along: Intro to Pamphlet Bookmaking

Saturday, September 7, 2019, 9:30 am to 5 pm

Durango Arts Center, 802 East Second Ave, Durango, CO 81301 | 970.259.2606

Instructor: Frank Hamrick

Experience Level: All Levels

$135 for DAC Non-Members, $120 for DAC Members

Signup Deadline: Friday, August 23, 2019; https://public.durangoarts.org/public/AdultArts.faces?rst=1

In this one-day workshop, book artist Frank Hamrick will teach students how to construct a hardcover pamphlet style book in the morning followed by a multi-signature Coptic style book in the afternoon. The books made in class will be blank, and students will be able to fill them with their own content in the future. Frank will speak about different book structures, such as hardcover pamphlet, accordion, Japanese, Coptic, and case binding. The class will introduce participants to materials like bookboard, book cloth, PVA glue, Irish linen thread, and double-sided matte photo paper, which Frank uses in many of his handmade photobooks. The workshop will familiarize students with these materials as well as tools like awls, bookbinders’ needles, and bonefolders. Participants will leave the course with their own handmade books as well as a set-by-step process for how these books are constructed.

Frank Hamrick is an associate professor at Louisiana Tech University. His work mixes photography, storytelling, handmade books, and found objects. Frank received his BFA from the University of Georgia and his MFA from New Mexico State University. NPR has written about Frank’s handmade books and Oxford American Magazine listed Frank as one of the 100 Superstars of Southern Art. His work is housed in collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. http://frankhamrick.com/home/

BAG Members,

BAG is having a great year, and it is only the halfway mark! I hope you have enjoyed the programs and are ready for our biennial juried show in September. All signs are that it is shaping to be extraordinary.

I would like to ask you to join with the Board as we plan for 2020 and beyond. I am finishing my terms as BAG President at the end of this year, and we now need to start a search for someone to step into that position.

It is a job that has varied roles and responsibilities that keep BAG building on its rich past and readying the organization for the future. It is a job for someone to bring their ideas for the growth of the organization, and to support the membership as active book artists in the community. It is suited for someone who has had some experience with all-volunteer organizations and enjoys the behind-the-scenes work that supports the stability of the organization.

If you have an interest in serving and would like to talk to me personally or to someone on the Board, please email santafebag@gmail.com and we will respond quickly. More information about being a board member is at https://santafebag.org/become-a-board-member/.

Thank you for the opportunities I have had in my role as President of BAG. I do plan to stay on the Board for two additional years, and in that capacity can support the transition.

Regards,
Barb Macks
BAG President

The BAG Annual BAG Art Flea Market: Call for Vendors

To be held on Saturday, November 9, 2019, from 10 am to 2 pm, at the Meem Room of the Palace of the Governors, 110 Washington Avenue in downtown Santa Fe

An Art Flea Market so BAG members can declutter their artist studios. Members can sell any art supplies or tools that one would use to make 2 or 3D art*, to display art, or be inspired to make art. This includes (but is not limited to):

• Handmade papers
• Ephemera
• Paints, pastels, pencils
• Brushes, palette knives
• Tools
• Boxes
• Interesting rusty things
• Rubber stamps
• Fabrics
• Yarn
• Books about art techniques or artists
• Art or art supply storage items
• Frames and mats

You are also welcome to sell your own artwork.

This is not a garage sale. It is an art event that is anticipated by BAG members, the art community as a whole, and visitors to Santa Fe.

To participate as a seller: Please email Andrea Cypress beginning 6 am on Thursday, August 1, 2019, at amcypress@msn.com to reserve your table. She will confirm your reservation via email and will send additional instructions and information.

*Art such as: handmade books and journals, collages, mixed-media, assemblage, etc.

If you are relatively new to bookbinding, be sure to check out Pam MacKellar’s August class: https://santafebag.org/#august

Bookbinding Equipment for Sale

Click to enlarge photos. Use back arrow to return to this page.

	Excellent Dreadnought Sewing Frame designed by Tim Ely. Very efficient, sturdy and lightweight. Easy to use. 24.25 in x 16 in x 17 in high. Used and in good condition. $650 new, $300 now.
	Antique Cast-Iron Paper Press. Very good condition. 15 in x 10 in, 3 in opening. From Edinburgh, Scotland. Works like a charm! Very heavy. $150.
	36.5 in Rotatrim Rotary Cutter (12.25 in wide). Retails for $420; selling for $150. Used and in good condition. A wonderful paper cutter. Clean and sharp.

If interested, contact Raphiel Benjamin at 505-470-3647 or raphielbenjamin@mac.com

Friend of BAG Melinda Tidwell teaches collage-based workshops in her studio:
https://www.melindatidwell.com/classes?utm_source=so

The next three-day workshops are Friday, July 19, through Sunday, July 21, 2019; and Friday, August 16, through Sunday, August 18, 2019.

Melinda also has an online workshop that begins Friday, August 23, 2019 (see link above).

And Melinda is teaching at Artisan Santa Fe on Monday, June 24, 2019:
https://www.calendar.artisansantafe.com/