Process of writing a book...Contemporary Paper and Encaustic

Artist Mona Waterhouse in her studio in Peachtree City, Georgia  (Photo by Catherine Nash)

It seems that I am writing my book, Contemporary Paper and Encaustic, in a most unconventional way.  Through my preparation for my one on one time with each of the 28 interviewees, I do intense research beyond what they have sent me and on their personal websites, uncovering information and images 10 pages back in Google, searching in a variety of ways that includes reviews of their most recent exhibitions and mentions in varied articles and blogs. Then I compose a series of questions specific to them.  It takes me from 3-6 hours of research per artist.

The artists I have curated to interview have all conferred on what I intend on asking....and rarely do we need to adjust the questions although sometimes we think on our feet, so to speak, when in front of the camera...the interview is truly collaborative, creating the sets (at least 4 or 5 per interview) with lighting and their supporting artwork.  I make sure that they feel they have stated and covered all information that would reflect themselves in the manner they'd like to be "seen" at this moment in time before we are finished. 

Artist Michael Marshall in his Athens, Georgia studio (Photo by Catherine Nash)

Artist Lynn Sures in her Silver Spring, Maryland studio (Photo by Catherine Nash)

I just completed interview #16 or 28 with my trip to the Southern states Feb 14-28.  I'll complete 9 more on my next trip March 23 -April 11 to artists in NY, NJ, CT, ME and Montreal, Canada, with a final 3 interviews by skype in early May~

Because their interview is in lieu of writing, once the 28 interviews are all edited (I anticipate extreme editing focus this summer), the layout of this "portfolio" section should be relatively easy.  Of course, there still remains the job of organizing the 90 or so artists represented by one work each in the "gallery" section and indeed I will do some comprehensive writing to tie them together by content.
 

Artist Dennis O'Neil at Hand Print Workshop International in Alexandra, Virginia (Photo by Catherine Nash)

While some would find my schedule harrowing, I am deriving intense pleasure and fulfillment from it...learning so much.  Making connections with people/media/ideas.  Total kick!   I am not worried about when the book (i.e. the product) will be done but I do have a new goal to have it published by September in time for a joint conference by The Friends of Dard Hunter and the International Assoc. of Hand Papermakers and Paper Artists...

Artist Georgia Deal in her studio in University Park, MD (Photo by Catherine Nash)

Artist Jessica Drenk in her Clemson, SC studio (Photo by Catherine Nash)

I am so very grateful for the great success of my fundraising last Nov/Dec.  It has enabled me to pay for the expenses incurred in conducting these cross country interviews and more publishing related expenses. Working consistently on my book, I also must teach and earn money full time to pay my personal bills.  So I am not rushing this book writing... If I can't derive intense pleasure from the process, there is no point in undertaking a project at all.   I took a big leap of faith and am trusting that all will somehow fall into place with this huge idea I had....  My ultimate goal is to translate all that I am learning and absorbing and getting inspired from into a publication that will offer a unique perspective on artists and their ideas and process...written by an artist in the trenches herself~

Interview with artist Christel Dillbohner and...Still climbing to my higher financial goal

Christel Dillbohner,  The Black Pool,   2011

489 industrial filters made from pigment and wax, 5 encaustic painted panels.
photo courtesy of the Don Soker Gallery, San Francisco, CA 

106%!! Fantastic! A major milestone...and due to your generosity! Thank you.

With just four days to go in my fundraiser, I am still striving towards 130% which would see me truly and fully funded and able to realize all 28 interviews.

By reaching 100%, I am ensured of receiving all pledges made thus far. That was my minimum goal. I am now striving to be fully funded to my higher level of 15K that will enable all 28 interviews to happen as well as be able to hire a book designer to oversee the technology needed to create the embedded videos and help layout the publication...

I am writing you from the home of Christel Dillbohner in Berkeley as I am on the first short leg of interviews that I could afford myself...Christel and I taped her interview yesterday. What an amazing opportunity to spend time with her (we'd never met before), collaborate on our interview shoot, learn of her deeply committed ideas and aesthetics and gain insight into her creative process!

I can see how enriching this whole adventurous project will be. The process of collaboration with each individual artist interviewee will enable the most inspiring of information to emerge.

A conversational approach within the taping turned out just to be a natural extension of our preparatory talk at the table as we planned a sequential approach. Christel and I found that we just got better and better with each take. The questions shifted slightly, the answers got deeper and more to the core of her artistic intentions. What a gift to experience!

Thank you for considering upping your pledge (you can choose artwork on my blogpost below at http://www.papermakingresources.blogspot.com/2011/11/donor-rewards-art-for-your-pledge-usa.html#more

With $2615 more in pledges, I will reach my higher financial goal of $15,240 and my project Contemporary Paper and Encaustic will be fully enabled.

If you can help in any way, I would be most grateful. Pass the word, contact someone you know who would be supportive, choose an artwork for yourself or a gift....Go to http://www.unitedstatesartists.org/project/contemporary_paper_and_encaustic_international_trends and support this

But the bottom line is that I appreciate all of you, my supporters, so very much. Once again, thank you!!

Catherine

Gratitude~ ....0 days to go!!

I am so very grateful for the support that my colleagues have given me by donating art towards my fundraiser Contemporary Paper and Encaustic...touched at their generosity, giving of their creative work toward this very special project.  I thank them, and I thank you for your tax deductible pledge on the USA Artists site.  Go to that link to learn more about it and how to support my project.

You can view offered works in the blog post before this one as well...take a look, make a pledge, grace your walls with superb work and know that you are enabling me to undertake a huge year long effort...walking into the studios of 28 talented international artists across the United States to learn about their ideas and creative processes.

So much to discover and absorb.  I'll give back by videotaping and editing my interviews, and sharing them in a unique publication entitled Contemporary Paper and Encaustic.  But first I have to raise the funds so I can travel there!  The work below is offered by one of the 28 artists I hope to interview:  talented Mona Waterhouse of Peachtree City, GA and Sweden:

Mona Waterhouse of Peachtree City, GA and Sweden

Flow I: size 7"x 5", Medium:  Ink jet print on handmade paper, colored pencil and encaustic, mounted on board

Yours for a pledge of $200

Choose an artwork. (Find them in my previous blog post which I keep updated with all art available.) Make a pledge and then contact me (thru the USA Artists site once your pledge has been processed) with the artist/title of the work you've chosen as a donor perk.

I've grouped these 28 artists into 4 trips...all of which will be completed by April of 2012.
I'll interview 9 artists in the first one,  which will be accomplished before the end of this year:
# 1 trip Oakland > San Francisco > Santa Cruz > Redding > Seattle > Taos > Santa Fe

So exciting!  Please consider supporting my project!  You'll also support the 28 interviewees, master artists who will be included with their inspiring work in the "portfolio" section of Contemporary Paper and Encaustic.

Mona Waterhouse,  Pod VI - Cradle    

Wire, paper, dye, medium and wax.  6 1/2" x 16" x 5"

Yours for a pledge of $550

Thank you so much~  I am so grateful for your support!

12//11 It's a countdown!! 0 days left! Thanks so much for helping support USA Project Contemporary Paper and Encaustic

Contemporary Paper and Encaustic: A Fundraiser!

Fundraiser
*
Contemporary Paper
and Encaustic
an e-book
by Catherine Nash
*
Fundraiser

I am seeking funding 

to help me travel across the U.S. 

to conduct studio visits with 28 international visual artists: 

one-on-one taped interviews with inspiring and dynamic artists 

that will be incorporated into the portfolio section 

of my e-book Contemporary Paper & Encaustic.

For over 30 years, I've been enamored with paper and artist books and for the last 17 have avidly explored encaustic (painting with molten wax).  Contemporary Paper & Encaustic bridges these media worlds by presenting the work and processes of a full range of innovative artists from around the world in an e-publication, a brand new type of teaching tool formatted for use on the computer. 

Please help support my project!

To learn more about the project click this link
To view a portfolio of the 28 int'l artists I'd like to interview, click this link~
To see a step by step photo showcase of how I created the above cast paper sculpture entitled Sky Nest, a new work of mine from 2011, click this link~

A number of artists are offering works in exchange for your pledge.  I've uploaded imagery of their works in the next post.  Here's a link.


Thanks so very much for
your generous support!

Catherine Nash

This is a description from Lynette Haggard's blog:

Contemporary Paper and Encaustic

WHY IS CATHERINE NASH WITH USA PROJECTS? 

Catherine has been selected to participate in a new online community of America’s finest artists called USA Projects. This site was created by United States Artists to expand its mission of investing in America’s finest artists. USA Projects provides a platform for promotion and fundraising for individual artists projects. 


WHAT IS CATHERINE GOING TO CREATE?
She's got a big vision. Her book will be a full 200+ page e-book with "turnable" pages — a brand new type of teaching tool formatted for use on a computer. It will be available both on DVD or online. It will encompass both a gallery section that includes a work each from 90+ international artists as well as a portfolio section that includes a 4 page spread for each of 28 international artists with their embedded video interview within their pages. She plans to focus on how media corroborates with the expression of artists ideas and content.  

To see the artists Catherine plans to include in the portfolio section of her book, click  HERE.

When Contemporary Paper and Encaustic is published in DVD format by the summer of 2012,  it will be sold on Amazon.com as well as Catherine's site.

HOW CAN YOU SUPPORT HER PROJECT?
Catherine is seeking funding to help her travel across the United States to conduct studio visits and create one-on-one taped interviews with the twenty eight artists.

Her project fundraising has a countdown: If she reaches her goal by December 3rd, the project is a go!  Currently your tax deductible pledge will be matched by USA Projects.  Your credit card will not be charged until the results are in...

Kyoko Ibe at the LACMA thru Nov 29, '11

Ibe-Kyoko, Hogosho
129-x-147.5-cm
collection-of-the artist
©Ibe-Kyoko

"Paper is so beautiful. It shows its beauty texturally when it is between the eyes and light. When we see the fiber in paper it is alive, moving. Paper is light, weightless, freely floating in space. It is a gift from nature." - Kyoko Ibe

I visited Kyoko Ibe in her Kyoto studio in 1987 and it was a magical, inspirational opportunity. I've loved her work ever since...I deem her an international treasure for all.



Last week I was lucky enough to see Kyoko Ibe's solo show in the Japanese Pavillion wing of the LA County Museum of Art, (LACMA). One walks up the organically sinuous, spiraling walkway of Frank Gehry's design, past scrolls and screens that date back eight hundred years or more. The sumi brushstrokes and the sparing compositions have always called to my heart, not to mention that very particular 12thc. carved wood buddha statue that gives me chills every time I stand in front of it....which I do whenever I am in town.


The moving contemporary art of Kyoko Ibe is completely at home in this space of light and quietude, side by side with centuries of her heritage. There is a simplicity to the work that instantly draws one in and the poetic translation of her personal experiences resonate with me. It speaks of the transience of nature and relationships. In one work, "Once Upon a Time" Ibe has embedded letters from her mother and documents removed from the family Buddhist altar: documents that had accumulated within the altar since it was made in the 19th century. A museum label aptly describes this work to have"...an equivalently profound connection with past and present lives".



I loved what the museum wrote about her techniques in papermaking: "Ibe's purpose in making her works is to convey the miraculous strength of natural processes, allowing materials born of nature - plant fibers and water - to do their work with little direct intervention from her. Having decades of experience, she finds ways to encourage the pulp..." into her quietly moving, yet grandiose in scale works of paper.

"The power of nature is so often beyond what people can control. Harnessing that power is part of Ibe-san’s expression. Having laid bits of documents, chips of mica, flakes of gold or silver, recycled indigo paper, and other precious materials onto the paper screen, she then begins to apply paper pulp behind that surface. As she adds layers and layers of various colored pulps of recycled paper behind those, some dense with calligraphy so they take on the color of gray sumi, others pink from the vermillion of seals used to sign a document, colors merge onto the surface and fibers bind with the elements already applied. Layer upon layer of pulp is added with great quantities of water, and Ibe-san relinquishes control, allowing the water to rearrange paper fibers and draw pulp into various patterns. The power of water and the strength of plants inspire this work, while the people whose writings are merged into her paper she feels to be living again through traces of their words." - Hollis Goodall, curator, Japanese Art

This exhibition is part of a larger two year project entitled Recycling: washi tales, a performance installation that was commissioned by Krannert Center of the University of Illinois. If you had great fortune, you caught a performance entitled Recycling: Washi Tales, with four stories drawn from reuse of special paper, sets, and costume all by Ibe Kyoko on September 22 at Los Angeles County Museum of Art in conjunction with this exhibition of Kyoko Ibe's work. Through the whole performance washi is being made on stage.  Hiromi Paper's (Santa Monica, CA) blog is just wonderful for those of us unable to have caught such an exciting production.  Here is the link to their description of the LA performance with a more in depth description of the four stories and photos.

Japan’s Intangible Cultural Treasure otsuzumi drummer Okura Shonosuke from the Kanze Noh Theater, whose family has been performing noh drumming since the 16th century, were among the elite participants in this performance. Directed and written by Elise Thoron from New York, other performers include dancer/actor Karen Kandel, biwa lute player Arai Shisui, specialist in ancient chant and dance Sakurai Makiko, and actor Soeda Sonoko.

Washi Tales: The Paper Art of Ibe Kyoko
Pavilion for Japanese Art, Level 3
LA County Museum of Art
September 1, 2011–November 29, 2011

Black Sun being created. Images from Kyoko Ibe's website:





















Want to know more about Japanese papermaking techniques? I found this wonderful photo compilation : they are photos of paper maker Tamura Tadashi in Kyoko Ibe’s studio (Nishiyama, Kyoto) and at the Awagami Factory (Shikoku) taken by Elise Thoron on Asian Cultural Council fellowship May-June, 2009.

It is all about the Cape!

Sky Nest
Cast gampi and abaca paper fibers into a lashed armature of creosote branches, encased in encaustic, oil stick, white line transfer.
26"h X 40"w X 10"d


I am excited to have my work in two exhibitions this summer on Cape Cod:

Sculpture in Wax Invitational Show at The Truro Center for the Arts featuring 5 artists:
myself Catherine Nash, Miles Conrad, Kim Bernard, Laura Moriarty & Nancy Natale.
June 1st – June 10th (open Mon-Fri 9-5)
Closing reception June 9th, from 4 – 6pm.

and the Wax in Motion at the Bowersock Gallery, 373 Commercial St. in Provincetown
June 2rd to June 28th, 2011
Jurors Talk: June 3rd, 6-7pm
Opening Reception: June 3rd, 7-9pm


Tsunami: Spirit Boat 
 Cast handmade Japanese kozo paper into willow branch armature and encased in encaustic. Lashed creosote branches with pigmented encaustic. Broken wooden bowl as base.
 23"h X 42"w X 10"d



The shows run while the Fifth International Encaustic Conference is in full swing, which I am also thrilled to be attending for the fourth year in a row...as a "soakin' in all up" participant, a lecturer and a post conference instructor. I always learn so much...

So many great events and opportunities along with burying my toes in the sand!