Pages dipped in fabric dye two years ago were waiting for the right words to land. The pages had been auditioned for a number of texts, but none of them were the right fit. As time wore on, the dyed pages travelled around the studio, lived in various files and drawers, and became dog-eared and dog-tired!

In April, I started a manuscript book class with Judy Detrick and chose a poem titled ‘High Flight’ for my final project. The painted pages embraced the poem!

Around the same time, my husband was writing the eulogy for his mother’s funeral and, unbeknownst to me, chose the same poem! My project evolved, and this artist book is now dedicated to the memory of his parents.

Drum leaf bound book measures 16 x 47 cm (6.3 x 18.5 in.)—it’s tall! I’ve always wanted to play with the 1:3 width to height ratio. I think it works well for this text. 

Below: could that be the face of God on the right, looking left and down? Serendipitous and mysterious!

Bob Reid, President of the Atlanta Friends of the Alphabet, and I had a recent discussion about how long to keep ‘art stuff’ around and how to know when it’s time to let materials go before the word ‘hoarding’ creeps in. How to gauge when undesignated raw material has passed its prime. We didn’t come to a conclusion.

However, I’m glad these orphaned painted pages lingered long enough to make it into this special artist book.