I came across Su Blackwell's amazing book sculptures while perusing the July 2013 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.  And then, I had to find out more.

She takes old books and with a few scissor snips here and a few scissor snips there, magically renders them into fairy-tale scenes, butterflies soaring out of a book, enchanted forests, and highly expressive trees.

So stop reading and go take a look!

* Su Blackwell building a paper cabin video.
* Su Blackwell as a set designer.
* Su Blackwell's portfolio (not to be missed!)
* Su Blackwell's book, The Fairy-Tale Princess: Seven Classic Stories from the Enchanted Forest.  Click on the book cover below (affiliate link).

Gotta have more?  Check out a May 2013 article on the 15+ most innovative and creative book sculptures.  Be sure to scroll through all the images.  The 3D Karken Book Sculpture is a must see.

I recently enjoyed a crafting workshop sponsored by the Seattle Art Museum and led by Mandy Greer, a Seattle-based fiber artist. Materials such as yarn, old sweaters, boiled wool pieces, pom-pom templates, large needles, and scissors (be sure to use sharp ones) were provided.  

I made a few pom-poms and two wristlets (which are pictured on this blog).

So easy to do!  I bet you have a sweater that's ready to be repurposed into funky wristlets or perhaps a cool hat! 

And now a brief summary of what I learned in my online art class regarding the development of portraiture...

Before the advent of photography, statues, busts, and paintings were the means of sharing your image with others.  During the Renaissance, portraits by Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Raphael, and Titian were popular amongst wealthy Europeans.  The famous and powerful relied on portraits to capture their accomplishments and the likenesses of family and friends.

During the 1700s, less expensive options of self display came into being. These included miniature portraits which could be carried as pocket keepsakes as well as silhouette portraits. 

Silhouettes were made by projecting light behind a sheet of white paper, carefully tracking the shadow cast by the sitter onto black paper, deftly cutting it out, and then pasting it on cardstock to make it a bit sturdier.

Then in the 1800s, photography was invented and nothing has
been the same since.  

(Something we find strange today that was common in the 1800s
was to dress dead family members in their best clothes and pose them in front of the camera for a final photograph.  These were called postmortems. Check out the movie, The Others, with Nicole Kidman for a freaky feel of this.)

Two early forms of photography included straight photography (recording events and exploring the essence of people via their
facial and body expressions) and pictorialism (manipulating photos to achieve a painterly, impressionistic effect).  Alfred Stieglitz did both.  His photographs of Georgia O’Keefe are particularly well-known.

Dorothea Lange did straight photography.  She documented the suffering of Japanese-Americans at internment camps, farm workers and their struggles during the depression, and other people caught in injustice.  The image included on this blog is a copy of one of her most famous photographs.

Other photographers include Diane Arbus (photographs include the “outcasts” of society), Roy DeCarava (photographed the lives of ordinary people as well as jazz legends in Harlem), Cindy Sherman (uses herself in her photographs to reveal stereotypes of femininity) and Sebastian Salgado (a Brazilian photojournalist who has dedicated himself to documenting the lives of people around the world).


What is the name of one of your favorite artists who does portraits?