When an old book seems beyond any useful task, too old and yellow to read, with a crumbling cover or a loose binding, most of us will sigh and put it out to book pasture, either through a donation to Amvets (who can even make money off rags) or reluctantly throw it in the trash! (We’re not speaking of gently used books that should go to EPL booksales.)
Not so for Su Blackwell, a talented British artist who can make a scene from a book come to life directly from the book’s own pages. She clearly is a gifted paper artist, however, with the additional use of lighting, wires, and I don’t know what else, she produces a 3D sense of depth and even motion. Her delicate projects display birds flying or pieces of words floating in the air! See here for a fascinating collection of paper artists, including Blackwell.
I enjoyed her work more than some others who design bizarrely shaped “artwork” with old books. Certainly the range of art value as opposed to plain recycling is seen in these projects, too. I found some items quite unsettling or plain unappealing. Compare the images for yourself.
(Her work is similar to the sculptures posted on Off the Shelf recently, but she’s not leaving them around libraries–they’re too expensive!)
Shira S.
A watercolor portrait of Jane Austen commissioned by her nephew in 1869 sold for $270,000 at Sotheby’s on Tuesday. The anonymous private collector who purchased it called the portrait “the most important likeness of Jane Austen ever to appear on the open market.” The painting by James Andrews was taken from a pencil portrait by Austen’s sister Cassandra and is thought to be the “only confirmed portrait of Austen made before her death in 1817.” The pencil portrait is owned by the National Gallery in London. You can read more in this NYT article.
