Recommit

I have been browsing though a wonderful book entitled Altered Books Workshop by Bev Brazelton. After absorbing and reflecting on some of the information I went to my Borders Bookstore and happened upon what I think is the perfect starting place for my own altered book.

There are several things to consider when choosing the "bones" of your altered book. One of them is a binding which will allow you to add to the page's depth and still close. This spiral binding is my answer. Without that space the artist must remove pages to accommodate the bulk from added materials.

I decided to revisit the word commit.

I have always loved typefaces.Driving to the airport this morning at 4:30 a.m. I heard a BBC radio program about a show hanging at MOMA based on typefaces. The seed was planted.

It was time to begin:
1. I started with gesso, paint, sandpaper and Modpodge to refinish the front of my book.
2. I went through my computer to get some ideas for an assortment of fonts, then with paintbrush and a variety of acrylic colors I translated them to the word "commit".
3. Next my name was applied with a family of alphabet stamps and some metallic acrylic paint.
4. The fun with ink and arrows and dotted lines began.
5. My dear friend Laural took a picture of me at the beach several weeks ago. Today I had it jump through some Photoshop hoops and wound up with these images. I sized them according to the design in my head.
6. With my trusty ragged edge scissors I trimmed around the three different sized photos.
7. With Modpodge I adhered the photos to my textured cover.
8. With a little more ink, more arrows and lines I was done.

Clearly this is my book. My face and name are on the cover.

Now to recommit to my art journal. The newest copy of Somerset Studio's Art Journaling is at my side. When my own wains there will be inspiration at hand.