¡Colores!; 1928; Suzanne Vilmain, Bookmaker, Disc 2

I almost just want to shuffle through so you get mostly the sense of color. That was the title of the show, Balanced Under the Influence. Right. That's easy there. It's making you pattern kind of. I did an alphabet book. So each letter got its own page. That rope cage looks like a butterfly, doesn't it? Back too, but yeah, I did. Oh, here's one that is. Butterflies were seemingly actually looking, reflecting the butterflies that I printed over. Now I get some greens. There's some printing over pictures.

That's Ansel Adams shot of Hernandez. You know, that one. I'll see the moonlight. All right. And as part of my qualifying, I always sort of tell you what book I took apart. So this is bound in dawn of civilization. And then I just put in the original spine that I took out. So you have a little providence of the book. What is that providence? Providence is, am I saying that word right? It's where something has, where it's gone. It's usually done for artwork. Like who's owned this piece of art? Or a museum. You know, where did it, where is it? Ben. Who's had it? So this is who's book was this before? You know, who's book, but what book was it? Oh, so here's a list of all of that. Sketchbooks that I did.

And now Soma. Let me switch to some kind of tape, ribbon, thread. I also use metal wire. I mean, I bind over all kinds of things. But I just left this open so you could see. This one is a book of fabric, essentially. And I also just left the cover that I had bound this to. But there are the three cords that I bound over. So I'm sort of letting you see this. This whole book is fabric, as opposed to paper. And I really wanted to show you how fabric has its own, what are you saying? Possibilities, I guess. I've been hugely influenced by Louise Bush was work. You know, and she did fabric books. She comes from a family of tapestry makers. So I suppose my kind of homage to her. And you

can see the binding through this. It's kind of it. This is the only exposed binding that I have. It's sewn through these pieces that are attached. This is actually an old album book. They used to have album books. So the centers are blank. So there's room for me to build up the fabric. Okay. So this is a completely redone book in that way. Nice. So Anthony, on a couple of these pages just to illustrate. Let me know if it's okay to turn. Okay. I love that. But

like very, very translucent. You know, one of the reasons I print white because you can't print white. Nobody in the digital world can print white. You have no access to white. Not that that's a great shame, but I love printing white. Because it is a color that we no longer have access to. Did I just omit it? No, you just assume everyone's printing on white paper. Okay. So yeah, you can't print on white paper. Yeah. Oh, and that's the color I just did yesterday. Okay. It's actually bright. This was a book of poetry that

I did for one I never met. She came to my bookstore, saw that I was doing Blood or Cress, and contacted me after going back home. She was on a road trip from Ottawa to Santa Fe. She wrote me an email and asked me if I would do a book of poems, a high coup. She did a whole 17 high coup on her trip. So it was one of the first projects I ever did, you know, where I had a customer, so to speak. So I should show you that book. It's kind of... I mean, that's just one of the prints, I think. Oh, I don't know where they are right now. Okay, well, that's not going to happen. That's

okay. I don't know where they are. That's a great... Oh my God. Yeah, Braille is definitely... Really amazing. That's like the layers of words there. Yeah. Is there anything that interests you about the layers of words? Like, I'm doing that. You know what I love is just getting off of the focus of words, and playing with... Because I have such a beautiful type, big wooden type. You know, I could spend the rest of my life just playing with that, and color, and I might never have to say anything else. Right. Unless somebody tries to put you on camera. Do you have a font that you love enough? Oh, I do. Gilson. I don't have it in type. But when I

was a graphic designer, that was my very favorite. Cool. Yeah. That's a group of designers. It's what's their favorite type. It has a really... I type, I'm very... It's not a secret or anything. Is it okay if I use it? Oh, no. I just don't... I want to have lots of kind of visuals, or just... I would say if you could leave me out, and just have voiceover... Here is a very favorite. I forgot to bring this out. I love that print. I had eight very large acupuncture charts, and so I tore them up, and then reconfigured them in this book, and then added other illustrations of the body. And then added the meridian list. And then I added the... This book is just continuously getting you to

look at the body, and it's called written on the body, because I would sketch over these images. I know other people find that very... Yeah. Peerous, perhaps. Look at that. Beautiful, trans. Seeing the body in different positions, sounds like that, or you can't even quite recognize what it is, or... Let me get to another great spread here. Like that. It's very abstracted. Yeah. I love how it does give you something more, though, you don't... I mean, that's like a library with a more book. Yeah. It's like a little library on... It has the whole body in various positions. But then with each thing, and

meridians and such. That's beautiful. Did you make that circle? I did. That was the letter O, and then I drew an instance. Okay, so let's look at summer. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, okay. So, can I just remove this? And show you what's inside. And then this is a book of... This is the eye fear, the loss of italic. It's just got great mark -making suggestions and a variety of papers. I have a lot of papers come with a black hole and just being in the book business forever in the day. So, I think that we make different marks on different paper. I think that in... So, having grid paper, having translucent, plastic paper,

having really fine paper. Can you talk about some of the marks in there too, and some of the... The old... Like, this is actually the book that I took apart, which inspired this whole series. The golden gems of... The inside. Penmanship. Yeah, look at that. So, back in the day, people practiced this. I mean, they practiced this. By writing over another book. So, I even put in some of my sketches, which is, you know, just making marks. There's some more of my sketches. Oh, and then I took apart old type books. I have a lot of type books. You can imagine. Yeah.

Can you say something to the fact that your favorite font is the Gilson? Gilson? That's too much. Oh, look at that. I'm going to show you the other side of that. It's a bird, actually. It's so fine. I'm not a butterfly. Oh, I stuck a body part. Let's look at the better type books. Can you get some of the mark making on that? Okay, I've looked at this one. So, we'll put that back here. We'll open it. And then I'm going to do a little cutaway. Okay. Close up. That, you know, the week that, that,

uh, Churchill keeps her head a show of Annie Leibowitz photographs, and she had taken a picture of her. And so, I just thought that was a great blue. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. I love it. Can, so could you kind of explain to us what you're doing? Well, I just wanted to make a suggestion of making marks. From smoking, you could burn charcoal, eyeliner. These are essentials here. Pastel. That's chalk. And I'm not sure what those two are. You know, I just, this is suggestion. The whole thing of what I'm doing in these books is suggesting that you enter this book in a different way than you have other books. And that sense it's, you know, if this was your book, you could mark this with any number of mark -making tools. Sometimes

it probably feels like a, like, almost like a focused pull -up like your book library. Oh, sure. About even if it doesn't show text. If it's okay, if I show titles or if it's not okay. Oh, yeah. I mean, you, this is part or my books. I think your books. Okay. Let's just say this. Workshop. And this was my teacher, Dolph Smith. And I set the whole book up as a stage with curtains. So you can get into the book. He was a great teacher. Is that lighting okay to me? Should I move it? That's why. Okay. Oh, yes. Here. And you don't have that, okay. That. Oh, yeah. Maybe not the top one as much as like this is just a nice, nice collection of... Is that the Geiger

counter? That moment thing? Where? That big gray, like... Oh, done there? No, on the top. That thing? Yeah. No. The friend gave me that. It's a weight system, actually. That is a, it has a needle that marks on that scroll of paper on there. Like I thought at the black hole. Cool. Fun, also. Oh. This was a book that I took a semester at the Community College in printmaking. You see, I haven't quite got over my white on black. And this was really just sheets of printmaking. So it's really turned into a book. So... Grover or whatever? Well, they actually are done with transparencies. Okay. That's a machine that they have at the Community College.

Nope. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. Just that word held on there. Granddaughter is one year old. And I first wanted to make her a fabric book. And then I just noticed one year old, everything goes in their mouth. So how do you design a book that's just going to be eaten? So I thought I'd wait a little while. But now that I know how to make paper, and that it could be eaten, then

it would not be any loss. I am going to design her book with hidey places in it. And that she will have to discover how to get into the different things. That's so magical. Yeah. Realist influences. Okay. Let's just frame this kind of like from this angle into a little bit. Oh, there's... Let's go. And then we'll go outside. So that's how you got to me was down in Newman. It is because of that book. That studio book. And so I've been researching some of the people that are in there, just because I'm coming at it from a different angle. Yeah. And I want to do things that I relate to you too. But yeah. I found that your name. And then

looking you up on the internet, the first thing I found was counting through. Oh, I have to talk to her. I don't show up tonight. Yeah, I was... That was a strange experience. I was completely hands off on that. I just... Yani is a... She's Bask. And she and her partner... Matt, who's Welch, came over here to work with Steve on the project. And... But they just, you know, got excited about the book show. So they came and helped us take it down. And before they took it... They only got here at the very last day of the show. I've hung the whole show with magnets. Oh. I got something like several thousand magnets. Tax and magnets. Which is how I could fill the space in a relatively short period of time. So then we went in with... Magnet... Were those... Showed out. Were all the papers are flying off the wall. So we did. We just took a magnet and just pulled. And they all just came falling down. It was pretty nice. But they didn't put that in the

film. I was gonna say I didn't... It was a great way to hang a show. I highly recommend it. So did you include magnets on two things? No, I just... No, the wall... No, the walls were all... So I just tax... Tax and magnets. Because paper is light enough. And they now make magnets. Very small magnets. They're very strong. I have them all over here. How do you do? I love those. Yeah. It's how I hang things in here. The tag is there. And they're gonna attach us some tags. Right. And you just put the paper underneath. I see. Okay. Cool. Newly invisible. I know I'm using it in books. In one of my books, I just put magnets to hold a page inside of my abacapages. Because they're so strong. Just to shut... Yeah. Totally holds. Right, right. Yeah. You know what I say? You can tell a lot about a person by their library. It's to try and get Steve's attention. Awesome.

The book of tea. Look at this book. I love that cover. I love the tape. I love the tape. Cheers. And this is the last book I made. And it's really my falling in love with what I'm now referring to. This... I marbled this paper while it was still on its pellon, so that it would be flat. Because once you take them off the pellon, I tried semi -negashine it. After it was off in it. Because the paper's not flat. The... You know, the kind of imagery, just didn't work. So I left it on the pellon. But this book is all just really scrap paper. It's what I wanted to show you. The one where I...

Court and a page. Oh, right here. With magnets. And this is an exquisite corpse with watch parts. And that's between two. So... You see one, I love the paper. I mean, this is just so candy. This is so much just what I love. So I'll tell you this story now that you're out here, and you're feeling really comfortable and safe. But a couple years ago, I was teaching a friend of mine at her grandson, a 10 -year -old, to do semi -negashine. And we were scheduled to come here and do it. And...

I was setting up, walking out, carrying a load of papers. And I hear this rattle. And I looked down at my feet. And there is a rattle snake in full strike position, like eight coils of a tail shaking at me, with the head next to it. I've never seen a snake... Like, that... ready to strike. I've seen rattle snakes there around. But I just backed up, literally. I backed up, ducking out of the tree. And got away. So I've been doing a lot of voodoo around here. I bring... Turn on the radio as soon as I come out in the morning. Just to let the snakes know that they can. They have to know I'm here. Yeah, right. They won't. Did you move slowly or quickly? You see, I

didn't get that very well. Oh, yeah. It was too dry. That's it. Morning, I can show you those. So you can even see how imperfect that is, that I didn't get that very flat. But this is how it dries, and then you just literally peel it off. I just got it wet again, so. Yeah. Voila. This

is the cotton in Africa. No, that's not true. This is that cotton in Africa. You can even see the strings. Beautiful. Just feel it by a leg. It's getting another shot. Just hold on just a second. When you're in, you're left hand alone, too. I'm loving the sound. Oh, yes. These papers do have a sound. So let's just... Actually, you know you should just know that this is like a... It's simply... Oregonas have paper made for them because of that strength of... You can make that sound. Look at that edge. I want to go into my yard and bring out...

All right. Can you see this? I love that cast of yellow. Which, you know, you might not really want it in the summertime, but... So this is my first shot set in the go. Freeze. Okay. Freeze. All right. And then this is cochineal or pink, actually. The indigo went to gray eventually. Okay. Beautiful. I love those two colors. It makes

gray look really good, doesn't it? Yeah. It's really pretty. I love all the different tones. Freeze. Okay. Ooh, and then you feel the... There's two sheets. You could just feel that paper. It's like a very rough... Something about that caching experience. That's compared to the translucency of the pink. That's my first color work. I'm going to bind this around a... Beated spine. I think I'll just let it show to rather than cover it up. I love the... It looks like boxes are really or something. Yeah. Is it okay if I show this space? I covered up everything that you couldn't see.

You know, there's a whole another... There's a whole another discussion. It's like, in what space do you work in? And how does space affect creativity? How does being in a contained space add to my ability to zoom in on a book? Whereas when I'm making stuff, I like to be much more expansive. I like to be outside and have no restrictions to the space. But when I'm thinking, when I'm making, when I'm down to the sewing and putting it together and figuring it out, I just want to be surrounded by all my possibilities. It's different states of creating. And they require different routines. I'm very fortunate that I can move in and out with as much ease without worry. You know, a lot of artists that really bend other artists studios, you know. There's a preciousness

that you just almost feel like, well, how do you make art with that order? And I'm obviously to the other extreme where I need a huge amount of chaos. I need to have everything kind of available to me visually. And then I get to zoom in on what I'm thinking about. It just somehow adds to my process. And I know it scares some people. It scares my house when he comes in here and just like, oh my god. No, it just feels like he's going to be consumed. Oh, here's my rain paper. Oh, yeah. I know, isn't it? That's so amazing. This you definitely want to show. And then the other night. I did this one. You can see we didn't get very much rain that night. This is like

my rain odometer or what? There are rain measurement devices. What are those called? Rain catchers. So just give us that story again. Just say, you know, you had this out. Oh, so the very first rains came on a Saturday. And I was making paper. And I was really at that point trying to figure out how to combine two sheets. So this is actually two sheets of paper that combined. And then it rained on it and almost separated it. But still, it stayed together. And then I came on an hour later and it was completely... I didn't think I would be able to have a paper. You know, I left it and then it came back in the next morning. And it completely lifted up off at the end. And I just lifted it off and there it was. Dry and filmy. It is paper lace. Rain lace. Oh, I wanted to show you...

Some other of the possibilities of what you can put inside. Or just a simple fold. Isn't that gorgeous? Okay, don't see any words. Okay. Just go ahead and go through it. Yeah. Freeze. Okay. Yeah. Just showing strength. Yeah, I think that's it.

Cool. Oh, here's one. I gathered up all the parts and beads and put it into a piece of paper. I thought, what am I doing? But yeah, look at that. It's amazing. It is. It's like a little treasure. It's like just a little piece of paper containing a treasure that means something somehow. Yeah. It makes you wonder. It makes you curious. Okay, but you don't have to say anything. I don't have to talk anything. Oh, I can just show it to you. Yeah, just show me. Maybe I don't really need this paper here. Then there's awesome with this freeze thing. Yeah. That's very helpful. Freeze. Okay. Oh, wait. Get that. Okay. Go

ahead. That's so beautiful. Freeze. How about go back one page and let me reveal this? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'll do it here.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Oh. I can go back. Oh, yeah. Sorry. I thought I told you to freeze, but it was kind of something you would do in any way. Sorry. Go ahead and move forward. All right. Okay. Oh, let's have you. Can I get on this side and you come from that water again? Yeah.

Into the shot. You don't actually have to visit the goal all the way. That's far enough. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. So what's going on there? There's so much.

You see how much smoother and like that was just like I didn't have to do anything to that. This is cotton. This is cotton. This is cotton. This is cotton. This is cotton. This is cotton. And that is? Wow. Wow.

All right. We'll do this again. All right. Let's take a little different. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Amazing. That

it sets up as pulp. Yeah.