Literature, and its ability to transfix and transport (even, I might say - since I’m on an alliterative roll here - transform) has served as the inspiration for my work for a number of years.  I am a booklover (to put it mildly).  I am also a person who has survived a long (long) battle with depression and the opportunity to escape into fictional worlds through books has been a very important lifeline for me. 

I pay homage to books by using them to create complex constructions, forms inspired by stories, pieces in which a viewer - hopefully - can get lost, as in a well-told tale.  These pieces can take dozens, even hundreds, of hours to create and the meticulous (tedious?) process of making them has become its own meditative, highly therapeutic, experience for me.

My bookworks began with me making small-scale pieces for the purpose of photographing them, the photo being the final ‘product’.  I set aside the camera, however, about nine or so years ago, and have focused since entirely on the making of the sculptures and installations themselves, wanting to see how they would morph - expand - without the resulting photo in mind.  Along with this new focus, I imposed on myself a strict set of parameters - that each piece had to be constructed from one book in its entirety, and in readable order. 

I find myself now drawn to ideas about the way literature makes impressions - vivid and powerful ones, but not necessarily with all details intact.  Just as with memories of life’s events, memories of books read can be piece-y, blurry, random.  You might even mix two or more stories together in your mind without realizing it.  I myself, especially, struggle with this.  I have always had a spotty memory, and I have long suspected there was some connection between this and my depression.  I learned recently that there are actual scientific studies proving this to be the case for many people with depression.  Sometimes I try to describe a much-loved book to someone and all I can clearly remember is how much I enjoyed it.

SO....now, instead of faithful (okay, obsessive...) re-creations of books in their entirety, I am going to draw from books - their words, themes, imagery, even illustrations and covers - as I create ‘impressionistic’ portraits..... of the book, the reader, and the reading experience.  I am going to loosen the hell up, toss that crazy restrictive ‘in its entirety and in readable order’ rule aside and see what happens.  I shall be slave only to my imagination.

The images above and below are from the first piece in this new exploration, entitled ‘arches, loops & whorls’.  It is a five-part drawing on plexi discs about 20 inches across each, the lines of the drawing created from lines of text cut from passages from short stories by my favorite writer, Haruki Murakami. 

Please feel free to let me know what you think of the new direction!