Book of Days

These months of COVID related social distancing have been oddly creative. Lots of things that I once considered important and necessary have been stripped away, paring me down to an essence, concentrating me into a centered place in which I have poured myself into my work. I spent my summer learning and experimenting with collage and a variety of mixed media techniques. I had been taking a video course with Crystal Neubauer, drawn to her emphasis on freeing the intuitive mind from the constraints of the thinking mind, when this book emerged one day as if it had a will of its own. In it I explore isolation and connection, and contemplate how life marches on in the face of every obstacle, how each of us marches on through challenges great and small, joys ordinary and sublime, each living out our books of days.

One of Crystal’s techniques involves giving yourself permission to do things that you normally shy away from. There are two examples of that idea in this book. First, I gave myself permission to cut shapes by hand without regard for how regular they were. A simple thing, but one that I struggled to allow. Once I finally let go, I played like a child, cutting all sorts of misshapen circles, triangles, rectangles, and trapezoids with abandon.

The second permission I gave myself was to hand write the text, something I still cringe about a bit, even as I write this description, but that I am happy to have done. Perfectionism and control gave way, a looser self emerged, and I consider that a victory.

John Doone’s poem, No Man is an Island, was my inspiration for the work. The poem has long been a favorite and so appropriate to the times. The text of the book is in three parts, corresponding to the three expanding sections:

I am not meant to be an island / a clod washed into the sea

I am part of the main / any death diminishes me

I know for whom the bell tolls.

Technical Notes

Mat board and cloth accordion main structure; Rives paper accordions sewn as pamphlets into the main structure; collaged pages made of cut paper, acrylic paint, and parts of old books sewn as pamphlets into the Rives accordions; bits of old almanac pages used throughout; button and bead closure.