RACHEL CURRY, book binder & illustrator.
www.curryillustration.tumblr.com
I had a long car drive with the amazing book binder, Rachel Curry. As we ventured through the freeways of Los Angeles, I asked her some questions about what it’s like to live and work as an artist.
why are you doing what you’re doing?
i make books because i realized when i started making books that the drawings i do in those books are better because i have care for the object and i draw with intent. i really struggle with myself with drawing because i don’t think i’m ever good enough and i’m really hard on myself so i’d start a drawing and immediately stop it like after one mark, literally one mark, and i’d rip it out of my book and throw it away and be like “this is shit! i’m no good!” but then when i started making my own sketchbooks i realized like, well, i’m not going to tear this thing apart because i made it and i care about it, so, i started sticking with my drawings and going through the whole thing and making complete works and i realized, you know, it’s sort of like an act of self-love and i’ve improved as an artist because of book binding. i love making books. it’s just super fun and tactile. it’s just creating things feels good and teaching that skill to other people is fun.
what is your favorite meal?
what is the purpose of your job?
my job? do i have a job? i don’t really have a job. i don’t know *laughs* i think i suck at this interview.
-no, you don’t! this is great! so, you don’t have a job.
no, okay that’s not true. when someone asks you, like, what do you do for work, it’s your automatic assumption to think like, something that you go to 9-5 and you make money, and you go home. right now i’m not in a position of like going to a job and making money and then going home. my work is like, you know, i dunno, art! i guess i don’t consider art work, but it is work! what do we consider work? is work something that you’re supposed to dislike? you know, what’s that saying of if you do what you love you’ll never work a day in your life, kind of a thing, but that’s sort of not true because you have to work at it. it doesn’t just come easy and it’s not easy, it is work, making drawings. it’s such hard work, it’s like the hardest thing i do and i hate it but i love it. its brutal, it’s like a battle with myself every time i draw a drawing.
this is something that i struggle with, everyday of my life because i dropped out of school and i don’t have any linear direction exactly right now. i struggle with the idea of what a career is and what my career is going to be and if i’m on the right path to having a career and a responsible adult life because i don’t have a degree and i’m concerned about that. my brother has a career. my brother went to school and straight out of school, he got a job and he goes to that job and he makes money and he’s gonna do that for the rest of his life. and me, i’m kind of all over the place, but a career, i’m not answering the question *laughs* - a career. a career is like, you know, it’s what you..it’s what you fall into, no, you don’t fall into. i would like to think i’m going to fall into my career. i’d like to think that if i just follow my passion and i don’t worry about it too much and i’m not trying to attain anything - well not not trying to attain anything, oh i don’t know..*laughs* oohhhh julie, ok - what is a career!? *ahem* okay, no - i can do this. let me think let me think, let me say something.
-i mean, a career is confusing, i don’t fucking know what a career is.
i think, okay, the general idea in society, what a career is is you know something that, a job that you have, no, it’s not that, a job is different than a career. i don’t know what a career is!! it’s a thing you go to for the rest of your life and you do that thing for a long time and you become good at it and you did that for a long time – it’s a job that you do for a long period of time,
-alright! i can see that!
but for me, like, i don’t know what my career is gonna be i have no idea and i worry about it all the time and i try not to worry about it and i think like, ok, just follow your passion, do what you love and you’ll fall into your career. but at the same time i don’t want to focus too much like alright, now’s the time i need to like search and find what my career is gonna be you know and then i’ll finally find “that thing” and a lightbulb will go off in my head and it’s here i made it! this is the thing i’ve been looking for, you know? because you’re always exactly where you’re supposed to be and i’m not worried about chasing something or attaining something and i’m fine with the fact that i don’t have a linear path and that i’m not exactly developing a career right now. i’m developing myself right now and that’s more important and a career will follow.
what have you done the last five years?
the past five years…i moved to new york to go to art school, dropped out of art school, worked as a cook, interned at letterpress places and book arts places, i went to italy and spain to work on farms, i came back to california, i went to city college, i took classes that had nothing to do with art just for fun like i took US history of women. that was amazing, that was really cool. for no reason, i was just like, that sounds cool, i’ll do that. i lived in the forest with lazarous and came back here, went to brazil, came back here. i’ve wandered, you know. if you want bullet points it’s you know, new york, art school, cooking, wandering.
what is your biggest accomplishment in the last 6 months?
6 months hmm, you know i felt really good about my thing at book show when i did my book binding class. that felt really good. i don’t know if that’s a big accomplishment it was like a small casual thing but it’s the first time i’ve had an independent work shop with a group of adult students. before i was doing an after school non-profit thing with little kids. so that felt good, it was good to do that and have people come and to have jen say, “let’s do this again”. i just felt so good after that. it was a really small simple thing but it was just the kind of thing that made me feel like, this is possible. i can do this. i can teach people what i’ve learned on my own and have fun and do what i love and make a little money doing it. it made me feel like it was possible and i felt good about that. even though it was a small thing it was a start and it was easy. well it wasn’t easy but it came to me easy.
what’s the last show you went to?
i went to the getty recently and i saw an exhibit about illuminated manuscripts. it was awesome, i think it’s amazing. i like book binding and those are the most amazing books ever. they were from the dark ages and these guys hand painted every single letter in gold leaf and apparently the pages are made out of goat skin. they took goat skin, aged it and stretched it as thin as they could for every single page. paper was uncommon during that time in europe. i think other places they had paper but, so that was amazing and the craftsmanship of those things and the fact that they’re so old and huge. that kind of craftsmanship is beyond me but it’s interesting to see.
what is one thing you’ve learned from traveling?
ahh yes, my favorite topic! i’ve learned that people are good. people are good. if you just stay at home and you live your life and you watch the news and you see all this shit about like twelve year-old kids murdering each other and stuff and people being robbed. you’re like god, people are just bad. somehow when you’re traveling abroad by yourself it’s just like this magical thing that people just open themselves up to you and they help you and they’ll take you into their home and they’ll feed you and they’ll guide you and they’ll welcome you. it happens all of the time when you’re traveling by yourself. it just strengthens your faith in humanity and reminds you people are good and they want to help you and it makes you wanna return that favor, that feeling - and help people that you see. that’s the best thing, that’s my favorite part of traveling.
what is your biggest inspiration?
i’m inspired by surroundings and by everyday life and seeing the beauty in that. seeing the beauty in every day life and what you’re constantly surrounded by but maybe don’t think about. usually i’m drawing on the go and i’m just drawing whatever is in front of me. i’m also inspired by my family. i have a really creative family my dad is a fine artist. he paints landscapes and my great uncle and my grandfather both were in animation and advertising and stuff and my uncle worked for disney. someone who really inspires me is my cousin. we’re kindred spirits, him and i. he travels, he’s kind of nomadic. he just draws on site, he goes to cafes and he draws people who don’t even know hes drawing them. they don’t even sit still and then like in a few minutes hes whipped out this amazing thing. hes got many years ahead of me and hes like a master, really. he is. when i get together with him, its always a treat to talk about art and about sketching and to draw together. also my dad, he’s a really good inspiration for me as far as art and having a life as an artist.
what is advice to anyone that’s stuck?
if you’re stuck, then do whatever you need to do to get unstuck. if you feel unhappy in your job, quit that job! you can get another one. if you feel unhappy in the place you’re living, move somewhere! if you feel unhappy inside of yourself, change the way that you feel because i really believe that as individuals we’re completely in control of ourselves and nothing else.
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