A bit of a late post...but better late than never! On one very rainy Saturday at the beginning of November I wandered down to the Holden Gallery at MMU to have a nosey at the Artist Book Fair. The space was packed with lots of different things going on, on every table ( I really wish I had remembered to go to the cash machine before hand, £10 didn't get me very far!!) I was really inspired by everything I saw, and definitely intrigued to discover how many artists create beautiful books as a form of self expression. I loved nearly everything although somethings were just a little too 'conceptual' for my liking and I found a bit of it was 'art for arts sake.' There were so many wonderful things to absorb, and I wandering around some of the tables my inspiration grew and I wanted to start designing and making straight away. Previous to the book fair, Graham had been in to lecture us on 'Self-Promotion,' so I began to gather a sample of buisness cards of the artists (to be honest I just picked some of my favourite)
My favourite pick of the buisness cards was the one in the centre which is for illustrator Mary Lundquist. The beauty of the simple card reflected the very simple amd delicate aesthetic of her work, I loved the attention to detail Mary had applied to the way her stand was displayed even down to the vintage typewritter ( of which I was very jealous and was told it was not for sale!!) Her work was lovely and I really wish and hope that I could make work just as nice. It was the hand drawn elemants of the work which drew me in, such simple illustrations have such a powerful visual impact that blew me away.
Another stand which really caught my eye belonged to Sarah Morpeth, who as a result I am now in correspondace with in regards to my dissertation. Her work was just fascinating, working with paper Sarah creates wonderful papercuts and layerd artist books, I asked her for some advice for making such neat and perfect cuts, her response was simple 'Just change your blade after every 10 single cuts.'
