Here are some images of the altered books I have been working on. I am practicing up for teaching a workshop in February/March for Teens and Adults.
I began with a book I treasure, Anne Morrow Lindbergh's GIFT FROM THE SEA. I had a portion of this book read (by my gifted public speaker sister, Lisa Frazeur) at my 1991 wedding to hubby, Don Fick.
Here you see the altered cover - I have bleached and sanded a sepia toned photograph I took of our daughter, Lauren, when she was 3 - she is wearing an antique family heirloom of a muslin slip/petticoat and a floppy white sun hat . . . I caught her in a moment of discovery as she let sand sprinkle through her open fingers at Crystal Beach, FL.
Here is an opening page from the altered book - I have added my husband's and my initials from antique oak-tag and doodled on and around them, then inserted our wedding date.
One of the main goals in altered books is to collaborate with what is already there - by eliminating words, you enhance the ones that are left . . . by altering and joining any illustrations with your own theme/artwork - you make them become your own, without stepping on any 'copyright' issues.
Here I have altered an image of a shell. By adding a glint to the eye (using watercolor pencils) and creating an eye (using gray tone prismacolor markers) I transformed the literal image into a surreal visual.
Other aspects of altered books include: use of old photographs, collage from illustrations, distressing with inks and paints, aging with an emery board or sandpaper, gluing, tearing, sewing . . .
These following images are from a drawing book "Abstract Art" by Bernard Gollwitzer from the 50's - his illustrations are on the right hand side, on the left page I painted out the printed images with gesso, then cut out a female dress template from card stock, painted with acrylic then wiped off with a paper towel, using an embroidery needle/thread I stitched around the pattern, glued on a button with YES glue and voila, a finished page!
Altering books for me has become a very meditative event - I get to reminisce, create, journal, paste and glue, sew, a little bit of all all favorite things - and I get to use text and visual imagery together - I can be as sentimental as I want to be.
Hope you can pick up a discarded book and transform it with some of these techniques - even if you only are a few pages at a time . . . you will enjoy the process as much as the resulting artwork!
Read MoreMother Delonda's Cherry Red Pants Certificate
Created as a Thank You in honor of Mother Delonda
"Spirit of the Cherry Red Pants"
Encaustic collage, with attachments, finished size, 8h x 10w, created December 14-16, 2008.
Your unstoppable spirit has inspired all who read of your heroics adventures. Your willingness to face life headfirst (ehem, even if over the bars of an unbraked 10 speed) kept me driving to and from college (a 70 mile trip) three days a week while still being a somewhat attentive mother of 3 and wife of 1.
Your ingenuity (and adaptation of the cherry red pants) is appreciated by all resourceful fellow pursuers of knowledge.
As an icon of 70's feminine liberation, I honor your accomplishments and your mincing steps.
Your life has touched me to my very core and I am a better person for having persevered and have been known to exclaim, in an hour of despair that "If Delonda can do it, so CAN I".
May you have many more days of love and laughter, as you have provided the same for me and countless others.
"Congratulate yourselves if you have done something strange and extravagant and broken the monotony of a decorous age."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The original is on its way. Wait, you ARE the original, this facsimile of your indomnitable spirit is on its way!
For Art's Sake,
& With Great Appreciation,
Sher
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