Nor The Towering Dead. Sullen Art. Collaberative Book Art with Marshall Weber.

 I think that I am lucky in many aspects of my life. Towards the top of the list is being involved in the creative world. I suppose, that for many readers, I am perhaps best known for bookbinding. However, my first love was and continues to be for the arts in general. Book binding is just one of the mediums with which I try to explore the expressive vein in my being.

 The joy of looking at other peoples work and sharing is never to be underestimated. Never. Which is why I delight in being able to collaborate with artists and maker working in similar and dissimilar mediums. Bookbinding and book arts is a curious area of the applied and fine arts, always changing and in constant flux. One such artist is  Marshall Weber

 How nice it is to get things in the post that excite and elicit response. The size of the text block is not so big, one can get a rough idea by looking at the small one cm squares on the cutting mat just visible around the left hand side of some of the posted images.

 The pages invite our gaze to linger and caress. The longer we look into the pages, the swirling lines and heavy blocks of worked wax  begin to release the text contained. With this particular text block the page content is from the streets of Manhattan (USA) as Marshall uses coloured wax blocks much in the same way  I used to. Mine rubbings were somewhat more archaic as I used to rub monumental brasses in churches and later in the Lincoln Brass Rubbing Centre... Perhaps more about that another time.

 It is often the case, that from the unforced or natural elements of my work I feel more at ease. Aspects of the unexpected and happen-chance, to be able to go with the flow as it were. So, you ask, where do I come into all of this ?... well this is a true collaboration,  though Marshall has done nearly all the text block he is encouraging me to work on the page surface, to integrate my thoughts etc so that the work I do with bringing the work together is not just en papers and binding.

There is so much more to this than meets the first casual flirtation.