9th Street Women
Assemblage (4.25″x8.375″×4″) includes abstract art on handmade papers of cotton, acrylic painting on canvas, letterpress, accordion book, Japanese bound book with poem by John Ashbery with painting on canvas board on the box cover and quote by Elaine de Kooning digitally printed on handmade paper with collage in the inside cover. Unique. 2025. NFS.
Inspired by the book, Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel (2017)
Zia Clara, Italian Heritage
Assemblage (8″ x 4.5″ x 4.25″) inclusions are family artifacts, images printed on handmade paper of beaten and hand-dyed linen & Japanese fibers, poem written by this artist. All document the life of a woman who had a profound & positive influence on our family. 2025.NFS
Greenwich Bay Kites
This assemblage honors the Buttonwoods community, located on a peninsula in Warwick, Rhode Island (US). Constructed using a former cigar box it is meant to be an interactive book. The format is upright with the schooner stamp at the top; the cover slides up to reveal the following: attached kites that remain flying in the background; map of the peninsula which unfolds using the pull tab; a ceramic lighthouse, inside a small bag, is to be removed and placed at the tip of the peninsula. The poem, located on the inside of the lid, was written by the artists during short stay one summer.
The text and artwork were created by Beth Curren and Tina Hudak. Original art created with acrylic, color pencils, watercolors, and pen & ink; some is digitally scanned. Kites consist of up-cycled maps assorted handmade papers constructed with three-hole bindings. The porcelain lighthouse is a prize from the Red Rose Tea “Nautical Wonderland Collection, 2012.”
Created for Material World Exhibition located in the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, first floor, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) and sponsored by the Delaware Valley Chapter of the Guild of Book Workers. Open to the public, September 4 – December 9, 2024
NO MORE BULLSHIT!
Materials incorporated are as follows: letterpress broadside created in a workshop environment with Jesse Kirsch at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in 2021 in collaboration with Michael Graul which is reformatted into an accordion style artist’s book with calligraphic lines; family photographs of the U.S. Capitol (1934) printed on handmade paper; family ticket to the Democratic National Convention (1948); found flag, political buttons “Pat for First Lady” along with “We Made History”; digital print “VOTE” by this artist.
Garnered The Washington Print Foundation Award 2024 and is one of 36 works from over 200 selected for National Small Works-2024 Peggy Doole Competition and Exhibition at the Washington Printmakers Gallery in Washington, D.C. August 1-25, 2024.
No longer available for purchase.
The Seashell Thief
This assemblage – (4″x6″x4″) with a plexiglass cover – is a tribute to nature for allowing me to collect seashells over the countless visits to the sea! Materials uses are monoprints, three-hole bound tiny book, accordion pages along with original pencil images and of course, shells. The poem, “The Seashell Thief” was written by the artist and is enclosed in full, in a small envelope on the back of the wooden Cuban cigar box. NFS.
25 Griffin’s Prestige & Private Stock #6
Private Stock #6 can be viewed at the “Emergence” Exhibition, sponsored by the Philadelphia Center for the Book, from February 24, 2025-March 11, 2025 at the Moore College of Art & Design in Philadelphia, PA.
Cuban cigar boxes create an environment for artist’s books and assemblages. Materials incorporated are paintings, monoprints & letterpress on handmade paper by the artist along with two varieties of book formats – three-hole & hinged bindings. Each is unique.
- 9th Street Women – 4.25″x8.5″×4″ (2025)
- Zia Clara – 8″ x 4.5″ x 4.25″ (2025)
- Buttonwoods Box – 8″x4.75″x4″ interactive (2024)
- The Seashell Thief – 4″x6″4″, includes artist’s poem (2024)
- No More Bullsh!t – 4.25″x8.75×4″ (2023)
- 25 Griffin’s Prestige – 8″x4.75″x4″ (2023)
- Private Stock # 6 – 6″x4″x4″ (2023)
These are amazing!