the first version of The Crystalline Garden

It has been bound! (one, anyway) This is text-weight Mohawk: PVA perfect-binding with a blank black book-cloth cover.

There are four more sets of these prints on Mohawk cover-weight that will take on different forms this summer (one accordion, one flip book, one for the wall, one something else...), not to mention the gif animation once I finish scanning each page.

Here's a quick look at what's inside:

Peopling with Paper Pulp

These prints are made from a woodblock the size of my other pink-pearl figure stamps... Abaca pulp is scooped out of the bucket and slapped down on the intaglio-wiped block, then carefully peeled off. To be sewn or arranged somehow. This is what I have waiting for me when I return from Philadelphia.

For now, I need to pack.

coloring so far

INDIE BOOK PUBLISHING

Introducing:

GOD SPEED THE BOOK! PRESS

I have founded my own self-publishing press which basically means I came up with this name for it and created an email (gstbpress@gmail.com). Its 2010 and the technology for printing books or similar projects from digital sources is fairly easy and accessible. GSTB!Press will be an on-going project of mine as long as my ideas for books keep coming (I smell some summer

projects...) [see end of post...]. Basically, I'm designing layouts in InDesign and seeking out affordable ways of printing/binding them. My source right now is at the Marriott Library. They offer a self-publishing service through their miraculous little book-making machine called an Espresso Book Machine (mostly intended for rare/unavailable books from GoogleBooks to be printed/bound paperback-perfect-bound-style on the spot for around ten bucks...). But you can pay to upload pdfs and then pay as you need them so its perfect for someone like me who can't afford the overhead of a huge run or large-edition of books. So hopefully I'll be putting out a few more projects in the months to come.

As for the present:

COLORING BOOKS AVAILABLE NOW!!!

GSTBPRESS@GMAIL.COM

GSTB!Press's first publication is out and I'm ready to take orders on COLORING BOOKs I-III. The COLORING BOOK series is based on the idea of a words' meaning being decided ultimately by the receiver. Each book contains a list of some fifty words centered on the page in outline form, allowing coloring inside the letters or in the space outside. Yesterday I got back my first printing order of five copies of each book. They are being printed on an as-needed basis

through the Marriott Library's Espresso Book Machine which prints the textblock and cover, then perfect binds them and trims it down to size automatically. If I have to ship or take orders through email, I'll probably sell them through ebay or set up a PayPal kind of thing... I've set aside a copy of each for me and have already begun coloring NO. ONE. Some of these words are going to be hard to color (BREATHE, EXPEL, COMPLETE...???)! The price is $6.00 each and I'd like to eventually offer a boxed set in a nice hand-made all-white box that could possibly come with a pack of colored pencils or some compartment to house coloring utensils or something like that... The price on that will depend on just how deluxe it is and how long they take me to make.

For me the book is successful if people will actually take the coloring part of it seriously and participate in imparting their own meanings on the words within it. Also, people should doodle/draw/color more! Its good for the brain! But we will see.

Here's a brief look into COLORING BOOK NO. ONE:

Other book ideas or projects for GSTB!Press are keeping me thinking these days... Flip books/ simple animations, photo-essays, collaborative ventures with other admired artists, books documenting other projects (I want to build an obelisk at some point), a book about birds in flight (and their symbolic triangles), exhibition catalogs, cheap xerox zines...

Muchas cosas... We'll see what materializes.

Pictures of my coloring coming next!

Have a good day everybody (although I don't think I have any "followers" yet...); Here comes Spring!

THE CRYSTALLINE GARDEN

Ok, I started designing this promotional item for a project I did for a Letterpress class in the fall, documenting the carving of a block of linoleum from black to white. It is called THE CRYSTALLINE GARDEN and is 167 (no significance) frames long. I put "Coming November 2010" because that seems like a good date to aim for in terms of showing the piece's various manifestations: flip-book, accordion book, video... Where? who knows...

It may be shown in conjunction with another big project that I hope to be done

with by then: ABOVE THE FLOODPLAIN, a large fabric-mural piece. TCG is all black/white so the colorful aspect of ATF could be a nice counter.

Anyway, today I will be perfect binding my text-weight version of THE CRYSTALLINE GARDEN to take to Philadelphia with me next week. I'm hoping for a smooth binding process and no headaches.

Stay tuned for further developments...

INTRODUCTION:

This is the blogspot of John Andrews. I am an artist currently living in Salt Lake City and this is the place to find pictures or information about what I am working on (or thinking of working on) now, what I have done (as I will be hopefully providing some selected pictures of works already done sometime soon...), or what is coming in the future. I work in printmaking, painting, drawing, textiles, book-making, writing, and sculpture.

I am a member of the Copper Palate Press, a Salt Lake City printmaking studio. You can find out information on us at facebook.

Here is my email: jda1984@hotmail.com

I will share more soon!