Meditative, explorative, playful ways of merging form and content lie at the heart of my handcrafted books. So many things I enjoy—writing, paper textures, image-making techniques, and printing processes—come together, lead to surprises, and spark new ideas during the bookmaking process. Over and over, the word book unfolds in unanticipated, magical ways.
One-of-a-kind and editioned artist’s books are my focus. I thrive on coming up with ideas and pursuing them until they feel fully formed and vibrant, so I don’t find crafting large editions (for me, more than 30 copies of a book) appealing. With every book, I seek to create an elegant simplicity by selecting beautiful materials, meticulously crafting each feature, and incorporating distinctive details.
Various one-of-a-kind and editioned books are described in several parts of this site: Artist’s Books, Selected Book Tales, and Poetry and Book Arts. You might also like to see the two photos of my artist’s book Primary Melody that appear in 500 Handmade Books: Inspiring Interpretations of a Timeless Form (Lark Books, forthcoming).
I offer two types of blank books—one that incorporates a brief original poem along with the blank pages and another that can be tucked into a pocket or purse or worn as a necklace.
I enjoy designing group bookmaking projects that nurture rich, unique experiences. Tailoring projects to each group, I offer a wide variety of opportunities. For instance, you or another group member can act as the leader while I supply all needed instructions and materials, or I can complete books using text and images your group members create. Collaboratively planning such projects is a fun challenge!
Since poetry writing is another passion of mine, in the Poetry and Book Arts part of the site I offer glimpses into poetry’s influence on my ideas for and approaches to certain artist’s books. Some poetry-related tales also show up on the Selected Book Tales page, where I describe in greater depth the experiences from which particular books grew.
Welcome to book arts journeys with me!
