Open Book

Senior Exhibition: Kristina Collins - Stetson University, 2012

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I appologize for the lack of activity on this blog.

The project is done, so there's not much more to update on. This blog was made to document my senior project process, and while I'm ever so grateful for all the attention it's received, there just isn't any more content to post. I've been considering some new book projects, however they most likely wouldn't go up here. I've obtained a new url for the purpose of housing all my art from here on out, but there's nothing up there yet. If you don't mind holding out a bit longer, I should have it up and running by the end of the week, and if you'd like you can watch the new blog and get this one out of your hair. I'll make a new post when everything is set.

Thank you so much for all the support this project has gotten. It means more than any of you could possibly know.

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Little House Final Image

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Pictures of the final product, the last words, and another detail.

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As an an art student who enjoys working with words and abstraction, I'm really inspired by your work and enjoyed my trip through your blog. Best of luck with your show tomorrow. If I were in the area, even remotely, I would drop by and see it. Thank you for sharing your journey and I hope that after your show is over, you'll show finished photos of the work.

Pardon me for taking so long to answer this. I was being a little selfish and enjoying the message too much to release it from the inbox. Thank you so much, it really means way more to me than you know, and I can't express my gratitude enough! Pictures most definitely coming soon.

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It's Done.

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Taking a quick break from working, realized it had been a while since I uploaded a picture of this. These are already kinda old, I hadn’t started the “b”s yet. This is just all the words that begin with “a” in All Quiet on the Western Front.

Quick Facts

each row is 10 feet long

there are currently 20 rows, 19 in the pictures

there are over 18 feet of the word “a” and 50 feet of the word “and”

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When you realize the artist must have two copies of the book because the text is on both sides of the page.

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Indeed I did.

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What's the process of creating these art pieces from words from books, and what type of canvas are you gluing them on to?

Thanks for the question!

All Quiet started way back in October 2011, when I bought the books. Quite simply, I just started cutting out the words one page at a time. I had one book where I did the even pages, and another for the odds, marking the back side with a marker so you can tell the difference as you're looking at the word. I finished cutting the first week in January, that's when I started sorting out the words. The first pass was just for first letter, so that I had all the words that started with A separate from everything else, and so on an so forth. That lasted until beginning of March. I might have a picture somewhere of all my 26 baggies full with words. Then it started getting more specific, sorting out each letter group down to individual words and getting a list to paste up. I'm using simple Elmer's School Glue because it's easy to get out of brushes and washable. It holds the paper well, and dries clear allowing the beauty of the paper to shine through. I did A and B and to took nearly two weeks. Up to this point I'd been working alone and I realized I'd need some help. I've gotten most of my family and friends in on sorting out the rest, usually only getting two or three letters done, then going back to gluing them up. It's kinda hard to get too far ahead in the sorting because of sheer space each tray takes up, my studio space isn't that big, so we do what we can.

Little House is infinitely easier by comparison. For that one, I just cut out the words in the same way, but then cut the margins as well as they're what I've been using a lot more of. I laid down a loose sketch, then just went to town, translating the image as best as I could.

The canvases are just cotton duck that are unstretched, pinned up with thumb tacks, and one coat of gesso. I tried gluing on the raw canvas itself, but it didn't accept the glue very well. It roughs the surface up enough so that the glue has something to hold on to. 

If I had it to do over, I think I would have tried sorting when I was cutting them from the pages, but hindsight is 20-20 of course.

Hope that answered your question! Thanks again for the ask!

If anyone else has anything they'd like to know, feel free to send me your questions. Answering them is a nice break from sorting words. ;)

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These guys are probably my favorite part about Little House.

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Some insight on the alphabetizing process. The sorting is the most soul-sucking, and unsatisfying part of the project, by far. Thank goodness only six letters left to go.

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Oh wow, hey new followers! Let me say thank you with some progress shots, shall we? On the left we have All Quiet, where I'm working through O at the moment, and on the right we have Little House which is about halfway done in it's new size. Some detail shots to come a litle later. :)

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Forgot to get a picture, but I'm done with M now.

Still haven't reached 2 feet yet. at this point I'm doubting that we'll get to 3, much less 5. Hope it still looks cool though.

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A-H

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I have yet to take another picture, but I'm in H now. Finally passed the magical one foot mark. Things should start to go faster now.  (hopefully)

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Another progress shot. A-C done.

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Taking a quick break from working, realized it had been a while since I uploaded a picture of this. These are already kinda old, I hadn't started the "b"s yet. This is just all the words that begin with "a" in All Quiet on the Western Front.

Quick Facts

each row is 10 feet long

there are currently 20 rows, 19 in the pictures

there are over 18 feet of the word "a" and 50 feet of the word "and"

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Final Card design.

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New, New Artist Statement

Books, in particular the mass market paperbacks I’m using, have a presupposed order to them. Mass market books are the most abused breed of book. They are the ones sold back, donated, re-gifted, all with spines broken, dog-eared pages, while usually still bearing the names of the ones who abandoned them. This is why I chose these versions. These pops of color from highlights and annotations offer a glimpse into the past lives of these books, while accenting their new format. We expect certain things from books, even when they’re re purposed in artwork. I like to think these works break free of this.

Following in the tradition of the absurd started by the Dadaists, All Quiet was as much a performance piece as the final product is visual. All 62,000 words in Erich Remarque’s novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, were cut out from the paperback, then sorted and alphabetized to create the list. The book is about these young, German men who are sent off to fight and die in World War I. For me, the removal of these personal stories mirrors society’s way of dealing with war. All Quiet all but obliterates meaning while discarding nothing, only changing the physical order of the words.

I wanted to take an alternate approach with Little House.  This piece uses Little House on the Prairie, written by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The story’s about a young girl and her family during American westward expansion. I took one of Garth Williams’ illustrations from the novel, and recreated it using the words. I imagine this as the same visualization method the brain uses when it’s reading. Here the content is directly translated visually via the text rather than being taken away.

There are some who will be appalled because I’ve “destroyed” these books, but in my mind I’m just reorganizing what was there.