New Years project: Week I

No, I have not forgotten, though the end of the week is fast approaching.

After a lot of thought, I decided to center the yearly project on personal creative maps.

In a workshop I took part in, Sarah Salway spoke about the importance of discovering your own internal creative landscapes--of mapping out the spaces that formed you, the emotions, places, images or experiences you keep returning to again and again.

These spaces might be formed of the rooms in which we grew up, the games we played, our family history, and all the debris that is hidden somewhere beneath our conscious level of thinking. Last year, I was surprised when my teacher, Bill Jensen, pointed to the repetition of a certain arching shape in my sculpture, and connected it to the way I spoke about the architecture in my childhood home, the Old City of Jerusalem. It was a "ta da" moment.

Task-Week I

So, for week of the New Years project, hereby renamed the Book of Maps, I'm going to prepare 12 paper surfaces of equal size, but different color and texture.

I originally was going to sew them together with a Japanese staff binding to create an artist book, but then reconsidered, thinking it would be easier to work on each separately, and attach them all when they are done. That way I have more freedom with the order, and can also choose to expand the book.

Though perhaps it would be better to have the strict constraints of a prefabricated book. Any thoughts on the matter?