Drab Reality

Drab Reality - artist book made by Judith Hoffman, 2022. Pages 1 and 2. Collage, drawing, gelli plate printing.

                                

Drab Reality, handmade one-of-a-kind artist book, 2022. 3.75 x 5.25 x 1 inch. Drumleaf binding. See still photos of all the pages on my website. I have been struggling to explain this book. Its version of reality is definitely not drab. But it's also not explainable. This book evolved from some experiments. I tried preparing the backgrounds with the gelli plate. I have also been experimenting with drawing on transparent papers for collage. There are more details on my website. 

Drab Reality will be in the Puget Sound Book Artists Member's exhibit at the Collins Memorial Library June 4 to August 1, 2024. And at the Evergreen State Collage, September 29 to December 20, 2024.

Yes, I made this book two years ago. I have been slow to get my photography set up back in place. I'm not good at photography, so it takes me hours and hours to set up, take some sample photos, make adjustments, re-learn the camera settings, etc. etc. I think I just wanted to go ahead and start another project when this book was finished. 

Effie Wood Goes on Holiday

 

Effie Goes on Holiday, accordion fold book by Judith Hoffman

Effie Goes on Holiday, ©2021. 3.5 x 4 x .75 Collage on watercolor paper, drawing, family photos scanned and printed on Epson SC P-700 printer. See the whole book on my web site. When I was a kid we had many family holidays at my grandparents house in Cincinnati. There was an assortment of ladies that seemed very old to me. I had two living great-grandmothers on my mom's side. There was also my Great Aunt Anna and her roommate, Effie Wood. When I was a kid I was told Aunt Anna was an old maid, Effie lived with her and they were close friends.

Effie Wood, possibly on holiday

It wasn't until several years ago, talking to my cousin, that I found out they might have been a couple. It was a moment for me, I never questioned the story. It must have been hard to be a lesbian couple in those days. It seems the women in our family didn't know they were a couple but the men did. Would they have been shocked? What a sad situation. Effie was a family member but she was always considered as somewhat outside the family. There are very few photos of her, she isn't in the genealogy records. She does appear in some short videos my granddad took. Luckily my uncle put them on a cd. You can see more views of the book on this web page.

Effie Wood on holiday. 

This is the photo that inspired the book. It looks like a seaside resort to me. The story in the book is  conjecture.

A finished book

Where are they now? by Judith Hoffman, drum leaf accordion, Arches cover paper, collage, paint, ink. About 3 x 4 inches.

It's the same old story - I had a dozen pages left from a book I made years ago. I wanted to use them, and started playing with some mark making and collage. The dozen collaged pages seemed to divide into two themes, so two books. But I needed to make more pages so I could finish each book. I ended up making about 30 more pages. Both books are experiments with family photos. The photos are scanned and printed on an Epson SC-P700 printer, so it's supposed to be good ink.

Where are they now? First half of drum leaf accordion fold book.

Here is the first book - Where are they now? The other book is finished, but I have no photos to show you. I had to put my photo set up away last week to have some work done in the basement. They didn't show up, now they are coming next week. It's an odd coincidence that the title of this book fits the current problem with scheduling workers. Note: all photos will enlarge.

Where are they now? Second half of drum leaf accordion fold book by Judith Hoffman

I am hugely enjoying the drum leaf accordion construction. I learned it from Andrew Huot earlier this year in an online class from Book Paper Thread called Books for Photographers and Printmakers. He is also teaching at FOBA this summer.

I will include some knitting news here - read on if you are so inclined. I needed some fingerless gloves for my cold hands. Looking through my yarn I found some almost finished ones I started years ago using yarn I spun myself. It's a thrill to spin yarn and then make something. As I finished knitting the gloves I got the urge to spin again. So another project has begun.

Finished fingerless mitts. Unknown fleece, sort of sock weight, chain plyed.

I never was that good at spinning, what I used to know has come back to me. Also all that I don't know. There are some good classes at Craftsy.

Mistakes and all here are some singles, the fleece is End of Innocence from Into the Whirled. It's lovely fleece.

See those tails sticking out of the singles on the left? Those are all mistakes. They may straighten out when I ply. Still it is relaxing most of the time. And I am delighted to be making yarn.

I hope you are doing well, keeping safe, and getting your booster. These are difficult times, it's good to find things to occupy your mind, other than the news. Thanks for reading and take care. 

Jude

In Which Our Main Character Has a Revelation of Wonderment

 

In Which Our Main Character Has a Revelation of Wonderment, 2019, 5.75 x 4 x 1 inch. Materials: Eco dyed Bagasse paper, eco dyed linen thread, architect’s tracing paper, found papers, acrylic paint, ink. Techniques: eco dying, collage, drawing, rubber stamping. I took good photos a few months after finishing this, and then forgot to post them anywhere, so here they are at last.

 

I have had a few moments in my life when I felt connected to the universe, as if I could see everything all at once, and it all made sense. We can all have those moments, where we feel joy and are free from our daily worries and routine. It is, in a way, looking out at the world, seeing the beauty and reality without the overlay of our worries. But it's also looking in, seeing and feeling the space inside. I'm not saying life is always wonderful, because it's not. But allowing space for the good moments is important.

I enjoy the collage mixed with drawings, rubber stamping and the eco dyed marks. As I work I become absorbed in some internal story. On this page Benjamin Franklin is studying a huge moon. There had to be a small building to delineate the earth, and in the end I added a large stamp of a bird to have a weird change in sizes.

The pages are so wonky from the eco dye process it's hard to photograph the book. They also spring open however they want to.

When she saw this page, my friend Elise said "He is hoeing the earth and the mountains are growing. 

Here an amazing thing is happening just behind the photographer. He's so absorbed in his flower he doesn't notice.

Our life can be so amazing, and then suddenly it's over.

Artist Book: Seeing and Seen

 

Seeing and Seen, front and back cover. 2.5 x 3 inches, artist book by Judith Hoffman

Seeing and Seen, pp 1 and 2

Before the book I want to tell you Feedburner is going away. If you are getting email notification when I post a new blog entry, that will end in July. I have downloaded the email addresses from Blogger and will send you an email when a new blog post is out. If you want me to email you directly, you can let me know at judithDOTzDOThoffmanATgmailDOTcom. Of course change the capital letters to the appropriate symbol. That is a "z" as in zebra. I will also announce new blog posts on my Facebook pages and my Instagram. I have two Facebook pages - I prefer to use the personal one but I will keep posting notifications on my "business" page also. Please note - you can't count on Facebook showing you my posts. It may help if you add my feed to your favorites. My Instagram gets more love than my Facebook page, but not many reposts. 

I made this book in 2020 and apparently never took photos or posted about it. Images should enlarge.

I am happy spending most of my time alone, but during the pandemic I realized how important it is for me to spend some time with my friends. I want to see them, to understand them in their complexity (or at least try) and to be seen by them.

Seeing and Seen artist book pp 5 and 6

My art energy was on pause last year, but one thing I did was look through old, unfinished projects.

2.5 x 3 inch old painting/collage tests, sanded to be glued back to back

Among many other things, I found a stack of small mixed media collage experiments on 300 pound watercolor paper. I love small! And because the paper was already used, I didn't feel bad making some experimental collages on the back sides. Above you see the old painting experiments, sanded before gluing them back to back with PVA. They did get interesting didn't they? Sanding turns out to be an awesome technique.

Seeing and Seen artist book by Judith Hoffman pp 7 and 8

I started the experiments by collaging found images that reflected my scattered mind. Then I added drawings of faces to the results. The drawings are on architect's tracing paper, which is fairly transparent.

Seeing and Seen artist book by Judith Hoffman pp 9 and 10

As some of the collages came together I spread them on my work table and made pairs of pages. I realized some of the people in the images were trying to connect with each other.

Seeing and Seen artist book by Judith Hoffman pp 3 and 4

Some looked away, connections were not made. But a few were able to see each other and make contact. 

Seeing and Seen artist book by Judith Hoffman pp 11 and 12

To assemble the pages I glued the collages back to back. I drilled small holes in each page and bound them with Keith Smith's singe sheet binding method. The original paintings are not seen, except for a small bit around the edges which you can see that most clearly in the first photo of the front and back cover.

new book - A child's introduction to the wonders of space

I think I finished this book in January, but it took awhile to get the photography stuff set up and then to figure out how to use my camera. For a photographer's daughter, and someone who loves pinhole photography, I am certainly bad at using cameras. This time I made notes.

(All these images enlarge) Jim and his younger brother Alan were close when they were kids. Jim has memories of making Alan laugh when he started crying. As they got older, they took different life paths, seeing each other mostly for family gatherings and holiday dinners. Alan died suddenly at 51. When we cleaned out his apartment, we were sad to realize we didn’t know him well.

A year after Alan died their mom went into residential care, so Jim and I cleaned out their childhood home. Among many other things, we found a copy of The Golden Book of Astronomy that had drawings and scribbles in it. Jim has his childhood copy, which is worn but not marked up, so this must have been Alan’s copy. Jim supposes that Alan scribbled in his book so their mom got Jim another copy, and the marked up book went to Alan.

I saved a lot of stuff when we cleared up, mostly old books and comic books. Most of the books were added to a pile of old books I keep for collage. They were mostly geology texts and some field guides. When I was making sketch books and didn’t have enough book board on hand, I thought I would use covers from some of my the old books. I don't normally make altered books, so I thought the covers wouldn't be needed.

After cutting down the cover of The Golden Book of Astronomy there was a horizontal piece left over that contained the title. Things lie ignored on my work table until I feel I must pick up. Seeing the scrap sitting there day after day made me think the long shape with the title would make a very appealing cover for a book. From there I made pages to fit the cover. The obvious content was the marks Alan made in the book and his old comics. Preserving these childhood marks makes me feel more connected to Alan. Of course I had to add a lot of collage and my own marks to the pages, but the scribbles are all Jim and Alan's.

In this last page it looks like Jim wrote his name and Alan's for Alan to trace over. Under the flap on the right hand page is just a shortened version of this blog post. It ends with "Good bye Alan - we'll look for you on the dark side of the moon."

How to make a one sheet book

Here's a little book you can make that shows you how to make the little book. Download the pdf here and print. Or you can use a blank piece of paper and make your own book. Light paper like inexpensive printer paper works well. You also need a bone folder or table knife or even your thumbnail to go over the folds. And you need an exacto knife or a pair of scissors.

If you download and print a book from my blog or website, trim off the white margins. If you are starting with a plain piece of white paper you won't need to trim the margins. Note: all these images will enlarge.

Fold the paper in the long direction. For all these folds I go over the fold with a bone folder to tighten it. Is it necessary? Probably not.

Open the paper out and fold in the short direction.

Fold a short side up to the center fold.

Turn the paper over and fold the other short side to the center. Your paper makes an "M" or "W" if you look at it from the end.

Flatten your paper and find the points where the center fold crosses the folds across the short direction. You want to cut between the two points indicated with red arrows in the photo above. You can cut with a straight edge and exacto knife as I did, or fold the paper in half and cut with scissors. I like to put two small dots at the intersection of the folds to make them easier to see.

Now fold the paper the long way, with the slit you made at the top. Push the two ends together to bow out the center.

Keep pushing the ends toward each other to make an "X."

Find the front cover of your book. Fold all the pages around in a book form. Go over all folds one last time with a bone folder or the handle of a kitchen knife. If your book is blank now you are ready for the fun part.

Stolen Shadows revealed at last

Stolen Shadows ©2018 Judith Hoffman - cover

If my search abilities and labeling are working correctly, I have not blogged about several finished books. I finished Stolen Shadows in 2018. Why is it not on my blog? Maybe I didn't have my photo set-up and was waiting for good pictures? I should blog about that some day. For a person who professes to love photography my photo knowledge is very slim.

Stolen Shadows ©2018 Judith Hoffman pp 16-17
"here we have the woman who is a  tree"

Anyway, here it is. Stolen Shadows, 2018, 4.125 x 2.875 inches. The drawings were done with a Micron pen. Coptic binding. Eco dyed watercolor paper, one-ply museum board and linen binding thread. I used some local leaves and rusty bits. There are photos of a similar eco dye process in my Flickr album, although the Flickr photos were taken in San Mateo. I am using Portland plants now. There are many instructions for eco dyeing on the internet. The ones I have seen aim to make clear leaf prints. This is not what I want. My goal is to have a shadowy, spotted, aged look. The paper reminds me a bit of old bones you would find in the forest. All the pages are cockled because of the eco dye process, so the book springs open. I really like this.

Stolen Shadows ©2018 Judith Hoffman pp 14-15
"they live in an all-white house I visit in my dreams"

The drawings are done from photos of people in my family who have died. And I included a cat because several cats have been major people in my life. I wanted them all to look "alive" in the silhouette, as if they might turn around and speak to me. Many of the captions come from my dreams, a few are found text.

Stolen Shadows ©2018 Judith Hoffman pp 2-3
"we thought we knew him but didn't know him well"

This book started when I drew a skeleton to test drawing on a piece of eco dyed paper. I had been drawing a lot of skeletons at that point so it was a no-brainer. The watercolor paper looses some of its sizing in the eco dye process so it can be a little strange to draw on. In places it's absorbent, in other places not. The linen thread also looses its waxy coating but that's easy to fix with bee's wax.

Stolen Shadows ©2018 Judith Hoffman pp 10-11
"now he is covered in little lights"