Altered Book

For me, the most satisfying part of doing an altered book is preparing the backgrounds, but I probably feel this way because I haven’t actually finished one yet! Still, there’s something very freeing about just slapping on paint and finding out where it will take you. I’m thinking it might be fun to do an altered book that is nothing but backgrounds – perhaps with one word to a spread. I’ve always liked Ed Ruscha’s word art, and want to explore the idea. Maybe it’s because words were originally pictures? However I don’t think this approach will work with the two projects I’ve got on the go right now.
In the past I’ve made several attempts to start an altered book, but I always get bogged down. After working as a layout artist for so many years, I think composition has become overly important to me. When faced with a number of collage elements, I often find it hard to make a decision. I want every page to be just right…not perfect, but “right.” I also like to have the whole project pretty much realized in my head, which is difficult to do when you’ve got so many pages to work with.
But on February 26th, I took the altered book class taught by my friend Mary Ambrose (again) and I really got hooked this time. Her exuberance and creativity is so contagious, I decided that I am going to keep working and finish a book.