New Work, New Inspirations

I've been busy and very inspired lately...this is a portfolio project The Book of Time, India ink and walnut ink washes on cotton rag papers of varying sizes and irregular shapes.

The Book of Time with Maps of Time

 I'm in the process of the photography element of this portfolio, it is my intention to do multi-process work, incorporating painting, photography, and writing.

The Three Maps

 The maps are intended to be distressed, folded, unfolded, refolded again (but like the way of road maps, they never fold back the same way!) I'll have them ride around in my purse, glove compartment, and backpack to become more tattered.

One map unfolded

The Edges

Detail of open map

The intersection of folds and creases

Eventually creating limited edition portfolios of photographs...

More images to come, and more portfolios too!

Compositions, Arrangements, Marks, Edges, Corners, Layer, Pages, from The Book of Marks

 Part of the fun with this project is after the creation of it, there's opportunity to continue the creative process with arranging and photographing the compositions as I shuffle through them, the edges, the marks, the shapes, the layers are an ongoing visual conversation...

The Book of Marks

The Folio Cover

 I spent a sunny Sunday afternoon piecing together this folio together, all the papers were made a couple of months before, they were waiting their turn while I worked out the shape of it.

back of the folio cover

 The paper covering was the papers that absorbed the ink washes from the sketches as I made them, so they are consistent to the marks and the flowing stains of the sketches.

The folio open

The folio the inner wings for keeping the sketches

The folio wings open showing the sketches

The Sketches the contents of The Book of Marks

The folio will be used as the back drop for the photographing the arrangements of the sketches.

The Book of Fragments, and Fragments in a Bottle

The Bottle of Fragments with the Book of Fragments

I bound everything I made last week in a book, some of the bits of torn edges I saved in a bottle, it just felt right...

The front cover of the Book of Fragments

Opened, all sheets are loosely bound with a suede cord, the smaller pages are tied in a separate packet and tied to the center cord.

a few things

Opened to the first page

Open book with the bottle of fragments

I'm still working on Fragments a little bit, fine tuning, and I have a third one in progress!

Fragments

Pages from Fragments, 2017, India ink wash on torn papers of various sizes, artist book

Many of these fragments have a stone/geological feel to them, some have a topographical map feel to them (rivers, roads, mountains, forests, urban), and they have an ancient artifact quality about them…it’s the bits of this and that I’ve been looking for when I set out to make them, there it a crudeness to them, asymmetrical and imperfect, raw and rough. Photographing them, shuffling them around in a pile and exposing layers, edges, corners, and textures is allowing me to overlap from the tactile creation of the objects to the recording them digitally and creating images that are not permanent, like the tide on a stony beach, everything is rearranged by time and force. Loosely binding these pages in a book keeps them together, a record of the day they were made, and like all collections of things, objects, can be taken out, examined one by one, and then arranged and rearranged.

I like that. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time.

One of the things I love about India ink is how it reacts to paper, wet or dry, it can come up warm almost brown, and sometimes cool, nearly bluish, and the blackest black areas are not totally opaque, there's still a shimmer of light in the surface...it's a gorgeous, simple medium to work in and I've always loved it...

When I was tearing up the paper I left this long tail on this one, figuring, "why not?" It bugs me a little bit, but I keep it there because it would look odd if I tore it off now. If it came off on its own by accident, that would be okay...

I love this spotted piece!

I'm a paper hoarder so I've been taking the opportunity to dig around in my studio to unearth these bits and pieces of papers that I've saved for "something someday." I keep finding more (and buying more) so it's seems like I'm set for a while...

What I do love about these, there are some that are perfect on their own (both sides), even the ones that are not as interesting, the plain ones, are part of the support structure of the group, adding dimension, tone, texture, contrast...some of the more bolder, eye catching, pieces are often most interesting when partially exposed within the layers, an edge, a corner, or somewhere in the middle and only a sliver of it is showing through a fissure.

I'm extremely happy these days...

Going with the flow...

Going with the flow, sketches, 4/23/2017

 I made an artist book last weekend...I have a feeling that I will be making more...

A pile of pages

 I used various rag papers, torn edges, India ink wash, a white sharpie, and archival boards and paste to piece it together - I had so much fun making this, it was very random and going with the flow.

My "toys" (tools)

Inside cover

 I wrote in the poem "Little Things" by Julia Abegail Fletcher Carney on the inner back cover.

the stack of pages

 The page on the left is my selfie...my left hand print (cuz I'm a lefty.)

My artist statement side one

Going with the flow…a Sketchbook (subject to grow more) Handmade book – archival boards + India ink, rag paper - hand torn – brush – ink wash - rubbings on wet to dry paper (often sheets

Used as blotter paper made interesting marks.) Random mark making – these are the things I have no words for- 4/23/2017 Laura J. Wellner

 

Artist statement side two

There is a lot of energy while making art – raw experimentation. Looking, waiting to see what will

happen – impulsive – there is no right or wrong – no up or down – no top or bottom – no right or left.

Inspiration asks no questions it just is –

Loosely bound

Just because...

Falling Stars...

The Falling Stars series, 2015, collage, acrylic wash and rice paper on Stonehenge paper, 8 x 8 inches

They fly and dance, they swing and sway...I made these little beauties on the evenings of 12/21 and 12/22...instead of icing the Christmas cookies...sometimes the brain gets an itch and it needs to be scratched...it's been a long time since I puttered with paint...I've needed a break to generate new ideas, now I have so many of them they're going to overflow! I'm in the process of working on my 2016 contribution to the Sketchbook Project and it will be full of stars, I have the stars cut out, the pages are in the process of being painted, soon I will be attaching the stars to their "sky"...it's going to be lots of fun, layers of paint, layers of paper...I'm quite happy with the idea...and the new artwork that will come of it...

Yes, the Christmas cookies did get finished!

Latest photos...

I've been busy looking through the lens again...Frost is my latest thing.

I'm really enjoying my camera work...

Will have a new bunch of drawings soon...and the Sketchbook Project is coming up!