sunshine and cool

october weather today, and the sun is showing off the new color scheme. i once hiked cascade and porter mountains in the adirondacks this time of year, just after getting glasses and couldn't find my feet. the whole hike i was confused about where the leaf covered ground really was, since it was the same color as the brush and trees. out on top, though, the bald peak of cascade had me holding on to the ground. scary. wonderful. outrageous. 

all week i have been enjoying several new books, from carol, and from rebecca goodale. i have been thinking about what IS an artists' book? what is it that makes me want to hold on to books? why is the whole concept of the haptics of books as compelling to me as the haptics of textiles? what is important about the substrate that i write, draw, print on?

i removed a piece of silk from jude and a shifu square from the viola ice flower vat. the shifu was wrapped around a bloodroot rhizome and tied and immersed in the vat. tiger pattern.

rebecca goodale is an amazing book artist who delights in color and the natural world. island dog is a modest book with a huge color and story presence. while this is a trade edition i bought through amazon, she makes small editions, mostly, about the endangered species of maine. they are books you want to get into, and i wonder how her illustrations always invite me into the book. maybe because she is a textile designer as well. a bit of that desire to wrap it around my skin.

i love how the pages open to reveal a bigger story.

and carol's funny funny book about menopause.

 i notice that carol wears gardening gloves...a practice i am poor at.

a menopausal woman. poor thing. poor pic (sorry). you get the drift, though.