Part 1: Layout – The Artist’s Scrapbook

I have been buying about-to-be-discarded books from public libraries for years.  In San Francisco we have weekly sales plus two semi-annual events that are huge.  The typical price I pay is always $1.  These are books usually a step away from the recycling bin.  Sometimes I read the books but more often they get cut up for other mixed media projects.  In the last few years I have begun converting these books into artist scrapbooks.

This entire year I have been laying out a new artist book in an old copy of Layout: The Design of the Printed Page by Allen Hurlburt.  40 years on, the book still stands up as a good design book.  One might ask why I just did not add it, intact, to my own library.   There are no shortage of used copies available online for less than $5.  The book is not rare.  And, if you wish to indulge a delusional hoarder, you can buy the same book for $965.  I see these sort of dealers at library sales all the time.

 

The Layout Scrapbook  is now full.  It includes pages of my own work, ephemera old and new as well as some of the mail art I receive.   It includes things picked up at this year’s inspirational Codex Art Book Fair.  The book contains pages with contributions from the artists at the San Francisco Correspondence Coop.  There are two pages full of ticket stubs. Mostly from 2019.  It is like a diary of museum shows I saw.   Another page was inspired by my visit to Then They Came for Me — an excellent show about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.  My response to this who was to create a collage by adding maps of the U.S. Southern border where children are currently being forced into concentrations camps.  In the center of the collage is El Paso where a week after finishing the collage, a terrorist targeting Latinx people drove across Texas and murdered 22 people and injured 24 others.

 

Next — Part 2: Mail Art in the Scrapbook

Does the world need another book about van Gogh?

I love art books and have a substantial personal library myself.  They are costly and my space is limited, so I really take advantage of the award winning San Francisco Public Library.   It is the best!   

The other day I spotted a new van Gogh book on the shelves — Vincent's Portraits Paintings and Drawings by van Gogh by Ralph Skea from Thames & Hudson.  I asked myself, does the world need another book about van Gogh?  

The answer is yes!  This is the book.  

This rather small volume is well written with details that are both concise and organized focusing on van Gogh’s portraiture.  But the true reason I have taken the time to post about this book is the images.  With most art books about popular artists, you tend to see the same images over and over. Even though van Gogh’s body of work is limited due to his sadly short life, I have always had the feeling, you’ve seen one book, you have seen them all.  The brilliance of Skea’s book is that he has included so many portraits that rarely if ever appear in other books.  Our library has another book by Skea, I have requested it.  I suspect I will be asking the library to acquire his other art books as well.  If you don’t have access to a good library, go to your local, independent bookstore and get a hold of this one.

Letters to Myself

We are fortunate in San Francisco to have an excellent public library system.  It is one of the best in the United States.  Among the many great things they do, is act as a venue for special exhibits, large and small, on a wide-ranging variety of topics. 

The current show, Letters to Myself, at the Main Library is outstanding.  It is a collection of artist and calligrapher Alan A. Blackman’s hand drawn and addressed first day of issue envelopes he made and sent to himself over a period of more than 40 years.  Unlike the first day covers that stamp collectors normally receive, each envelope is a one-of-a-kind work of art designed by the artist.  He mailed them to himself and his son with the postage stamps and first day postmarks.  You do not need to have any interest in stamp collecting or even calligraphy to appreciate this amazing, museum-quality show.   

The show is up until October 11, 2015 and is simply a don’t miss!

San Francisco Eats

The San Francisco Public Library (Main Branch) has put up a great exhibit called San Francisco Eats. It takes up the two large galleries - the one on the 6th Floor and the Lower Level. A big collection of local restaurant ephemera including menus, matchbooks, photos, etc. They also have a flickr page with additional images. There also is a fun quiz to test your San Francisco restaurant knowledge to see if you know which restaurants appeared in which Hollywood movies. Now I just want to eat at the Pink Chateau!