Re: My Neurosis, and It's Merits

So, my personality is a little bit obsessive-compulsive in nature. I derive a very real pleasure from making lists and planning things, and I think one of the reasons I enjoy fall so much is that it calls for the procurement of new calendars and planners that I can organize and fill with information, and I LOVE FILLING IN INFORMATION. (You should see the transaction register for my checking account. No, you shouldn't.)

Anyway, so I was perusing etsy.com, because as an art-lover who is also a poor college student with a tremendous love for organization, the only time I can really justify purchasing art is when the art fulfills a practical need! So, I am always excited to look at all of the calendars and planners and journals that independent artists or collectives of artists are putting out and making available because I get to give artists money, and get a creative art piece that also functions as lots of blank space I can do my information printing on. Anyway, I started looking at planners and then I started thinking about this cool screenprint of bicycles my friend at work has in her cube, and so then I was looking at screenprints, while I was doing the readings on concrete poetry in another window, and then I found all these cool lithographs and book art stuff that coincided with what I was reading about, and, and, and, THIS! I FOUND THIS! LOOK AT THIS NOW:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?ref=vl_other_2&listing_id=15039208#


This person makes pictures out of letters. Really cool pictures. Out of letters. LETTERS.

A thought that has been in my mind: is animated writing book art? According to my old boss Max who is the senior academic librarian here at UWM that is really into the book arts, a book is anything that opens and reveals something...so...yeah? You open a flash animation. You open a webpage. You choose to enter and discover.

Anne, if you are reading this, might I suggest a field trip to the Special Collections library? They have a fabulous book arts collection. I know because I used to pull and re-file all of Max's favorite artist books like eeeevvverrrryyyyy dddaaaaayyyyyyy.

My personal favorites are "A Box of Longing With Fifty Drawers (A Revisioning of the Preamble to the Constitution)" by Jen Benka and "Quintessential Questions" by Jody Williams.

Just sayin'.