Signed, sealed & delivered

Countless cubes and months later, my title for BookArtObject Edition #4, Mise en place, has finally been designed, printed, scored, trimmed, folded, packaged up & sent into the world.

The process of creating a finished book from that first tiny seed of an idea is always quite an undertaking. I was grateful for the loose deadline afforded by BAO; though I feel I somewhat abused it, the piece was able to take as long as it needed to find its natural conclusion.

I finished production of the BAO edition just before leaving for the US in early June, and decided I might as well send them from there since the recipients in my BAO group all live in North America. But I didn't actually manage to get them mailed until the day I flew back to Italy——too much going on, and too many people & places to see! Everyone should have received them by now, so here are some photos...

The image above shows what each artist in my group would have found once they loosened the kitchen string used to tie up the small package. (The wrapping is one of those papers encasing the odd orange here in Italy; these are always kind of special to find, so I collect them.) I also included a note written on a flat card printed with the pomegranate that appears on the first/largest little booklet-cube in the set. Via email each artist received instructions on how to assemble the accordion-folded booklets into a set of four gradated cubes ranging from 5x5x5 to 8x8x8 centimeters (just under 2" to a little over 3").

I am continuing to sort through the notes I kept during the project, so more on the process/evolution/method/media——plus photos of the cubes assembled——yet to come...

Violet in Seattle

A section of the wall in the EMP museum shop.

 

This month's edition of the ROY G BIV Challenge* was a lot of fun to photograph, and came together in a single afternoon during a recent visit to Seattle. After turning in the cute little Chevy Spark that had gotten us safely up the west coast of the US, we had a single night & day in Seattle before our red-eye to the east coast. Much of the morning disappeared in pursuit of sampling various downtown coffee shops, checking out the Pike Place Market and generally enjoying the city bustle before heading over to the Experience Music Project (EMP) museum.

While my daughter was there for the music aspect of the EMP——much of her time was spent in the practice rooms of the Sound Lab since she was missing her instruments by this point of our trip——I was especially looking forward to experiencing the architecture. And the fluid, multi-color metal surface and constantly changing reflections of the Frank Gehry-designed building did not disappoint. By the time we exited to a clear evening several hours later the center section had transformed into to more of a fuchsia color, but the effect was purple when we first entered under rain-threatening skies. Thus began my quest for VIOLET...

It wasn't hard to find. Just as the exterior of the building offered several glimpses of violet, so did the space within...lights & color joined and reflected on the metal panels that also line the interior. With its enormous screen, hi-tech sounds system and light effects, watching music videos in the Sky Church makes you feel like you could be at a concert (complete with lots of blue, red——& purple——lights; a few of the purple-y moments are shown below). In fact, I suppose you could say that (Psychedelic) Purple is pretty much ingrained in the spirit of rock 'n roll.

Umbrellas hang from the Sky Church's seventy-foot ceiling.

The sense of drama above this set of stairs (right) matched that of the Sky Church (left).

Intersecting ceiling panels/reflections

This ceiling/wall inside (left) could easily be confused with the building's exterior (right).

Another view of the intersecting ceiling elements

 

There is a general impression of letting go of a sense of time and place in this sculptural, ambiguous wonder of a building——a feeling that seems perfectly suited to the scope of the Experience Music Project. You can discover more about the EMP by following this link.

*

I still have some catch-up to do with everyone's explorations of June's ROY G BIV——I can never seem to manage much time on the computer while traveling——but am excited to see both the INDIGO and VIOLET discoveries. Also, I am sorry to not have replied yet to those of you who kindly took the time to leave comments on my quick "indigo" entry, but I look forward to reading them properly and finally answering il prima possibile.

*

The ROY G BIV photo challenge was created by artists Jennifer Coyne
Qudeen & Julie Booth. Each month is devoted to a different color of
the rainbow——red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo & violet——and
all are welcome to join in the search. (Guidelines are here.)