as you can read in the post right below this one, I’m finally making public my invitation to participate in my roadtrip project, and boy oh boy is the response already (excitingly!) overwhelming!
I’ve got a lot of great suggestions for places to visit, for people to see, for food to try;
some offers for hosting (thank you thank you thank you!);
some regrets that I’m not making it out west (yet! ;) );
and some questions about why I’m not kickstarter-ing.
(for that last part: it’s just that I hadn’t had a particularly relevant idea about it, until recently. otherwise, I am selling handmade paper cards on my etsy, but maybe selling handmade paper to a bunch of paper artists isn’t the brightest idea I’ve ever had…)
I’m still sorting through all the dozens (!!!) of emails, and I haven’t finished respond to everyone yet (though I will). but I wanted to send a shout out to everyone who’s here so far — this is the beginning of an exciting journey!
As is, I had my first interview about a week ago with the fabulous Steve Woodall, director of the Center for Book and Paper Arts here at Columbia College Chicago. Steve has not only been the director of the CBPA here in Chicago since 2008, but had a hand in the upbringing of the San Francisco Center for the Book.
Steve Woodall, Director for the Center of Book and Paper Arts at Columbia College Chicago
We talked about these places’ history, alongside Steve’s own personal transition from an artist to a director. Steve has a strong interest in the advancement of the art form of books, paper, and the way that words and pictures work together–he even drove taxis part-time for years in order to spend time working on his art and then later working for the SFCB.
I’m fascinated by people’s personal accounts of making and how they relate this to a larger audience, but a director’s unique role in the discussion of arts and community is, of course, very beneficial; these directors have dedicated their time to making sure the larger making and artistic community can function in the smoothest way possible.
Me: I imagine just the day to day functioning of running an organization that works like this (the CBPA) is so consuming.
Steve: It is. And it takes away all the time I have for making my own art. But I figure the time I spend doing this is more important in a way, even though it’s frustrating – because it’s advancing the art form in a way that I couldn’t specifically do on my own. Not to get all “fuzzy” but it’s an art that in one form is about telling stories in a very effective visual way. And I’m really interested – in both a gut level and a theoretical level – in how words and pictures work together, and how they can be contained in a structure of some kind.
Even in this final statement from him, he illustrates the importance of having both the visual and the community interact: he starts off discussing the importance of his place in advancing the community, but relates it directly to the visual and artistic implications and importance of this.
Steve also talked about his interests on book artists as a community, and he brought up one of the many reasons I’m interested in meeting more of the community:
These are great people! That’s why I’d do it – I love the people who makes book – a self-selecting group of folks. … People come to it from all kinds of different directions. Personally, I can be very critical – I can put on my critical hat – but basically anybody who has the idea to make a book – immediately, they’re an awesome person to me. That’s kinda my religion – the book.
As this journey begins, I am looking forward to proving him right.
