getting acquainted with living things

These books are abandoned homes, once inhabited by memories. They are layered with mirages, text taken away from the original page, menageries left to howl at each other when the covers meet to close. 


Adaptation is a negotiation between two options; a binary decision of nature, leaving us with very little say in the matter.  Herbert Spencer called Charles Darwin's natural selection, survival of the fittest, perhaps prescribes too much meaning to a thing that has only recently acquired the ability to decide. Many people survive, without so desiring. We are struggling... between our realizations of the decisions we arbitrarily make, and being propelled forth by the ones we don't.
Getting Acquainted With Living Things is a system of order for my experience in these matters. The narrative is a tree, and any given interpretation is a branch.
In the book, each chapter starts with a stark page. The transitions may be neither mild, nor clear. For me, distinction is fading. And while we are more valuable through experience, we are no longer young, nor have as much time to experience.  Youth is wasted on the young?  It's not even trite. It's a semblance of a kind of local familiarity repeated over and over again, a little aligned, a little unspecific.
Order is human attribute to what's happening. And narrative and storytelling, which has always been mine, is slipping away.

Safe Travels: A Ritual for Those Who Love

To Abby and Mark: A ritual celebrating the journey of love bonded in the ceremony of marriage.

Here is a ritual for your journey. Take it literally;
The time for reflection and the figurative is in the future.
1. Place the butterfly in folded hands of prayer until the wings
can be spread across the land you leave behind.

                    2. Make a wish in a body of water that's new to you both,

casting the tokens far or close (as long as they stay behind
with any remaining apprehensions)

                    3. In the final dark before your arrival,

            scatter glitter like ashes and light your candles, so 

each reflection of light on gold manifests a glimmer of

creativity in your future together

Final cover and spine, with new details, typewritten titled

Plans for Abby and Mark's ritual, the book, the spine

The new cover, step one; details for cover and spine,
typewritten

Details for inside cover page: Safe Travels for Those Who Love:
                Abby & Mark

original and altered page one, with room for
notes from the ritual

original and altered page: May the next trip you take together
be the first in a series of memorable journeys
Safe travels to you both, and to the love between you two
a message to the traveling newleyweds

Title Page

Gluing the edges of the pages, after the first
pages, and title page, to prepare the book
block for dremeling compartments

Traces the ritual objects, dremel the shapes, create
a border with gesso, use a similar process to
embellish and unify the ritual objects page with
gold tissue paper

The Ritual

An Element Plus an Element

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

The Compound Umbel Looks Like a Leaky Umbrella

When the stalks all arise at the same level, the inflorescence is an umbel. An umbel is compound when it is repeatedly branched.

This book is coptic bound, and approximately 4x5". It's a blank book, inside, and was altered from less than one cover of a reader's digest book, some packing materials for a multi-tool, tracing paper, plant diagrams, and stamped text. Happy Birthday to Melinda, a bit late.

Adaptations of Birds: On Winged Things and Others in the Sky

I am disappointed in the quality of these, the only photos I have, of this book. I was meeting a deadline of sorts, and sacrificed documentation for detail. Left is before, right is after. The inside pages are collages, paintings, and blank pages paying homage to the beautiful things in the sky. I'm happy that my work is taking direction again. I moved across the country, and for the time before, and a little after the move, I was all over the place. This book took shape in a way that I am familiar with, but found me desiring cohesion apart from the context of the owner. Most of my books are gifts, and some of them turn into a more personal documentation of my relationship with the owner.
The inside pages are mostly new to the book, coptic bound, and glued by end pages to the cover. The folios consist of pages from the original book, tracing paper, gouache paintings of walking patterns of birds, pictures from old books, and so on. The cover is altered by an octagonal recess, covered with green graph paper, with a layer of tracing paper on top. On the underside of the tracing paper are penciled diagrams of war planes, and on the upperside is the stamped text of the title.

Beliefs: Rules for Behavior

The beliefs book is a coptic bound book, inside an old, leather, German religious book. The writing inside is hand-written, Gothic font. The pages are bound to the outside edge of the book, so it almost seems like it can't be opened when the covers are closed. You have a choice
To believe or not to
In either case:
The necessity for a willful suspension of disbelief may be rationed by the individual, but not ignored
Intimacy is an illusion perpetuated by the strangeness of infallibility
Sentimentality is the past tense of this
Sincerity
Honesty is the most tangible medium in regards to belief
Although the devil may not exist, he will do anything to get you to be dishonest with yourself
Do not be fooled
Some things to consider in regards to belief:
Conviction, History, Logic, Discretion, Documentation, Bravery, Love, Duality,
Experience

Some things to consider while not in regards to belief:
Vanity, Necessity, Fear, Conflict, Dogma, Heroism, Others' beliefs, Tradition, War, Credibility, Hope, Location, Politics, Semantics, Superstition, Death, Life, Karma, Five Senses, Parents, Science, Sex, Time, Words
Your beliefs are closely related to your self. You can't change that by changing your mind.
-it is not disbelief to change your mind
-Your altruism should not be an imposition on the beliefs of others
You do not have to be sure or right.
Your ethics don't either.
Cite your sources.

Manners: Rules for Behavior

Although a discussion on manners may seem an antiquated topic
You will find that it is the most progressive form of communication in its specificity to the individual
You parents will try to teach you
And hope you will try to learn
And at first you will extend great effort
After some time, it is completely up to
you:
Whether you practice or not
And how you do (or do not)

The majority of who we are is in the way we present ourselves
Manners are the intention behind this presentation, and the consideration of others in reference to our behaviors
They are the rules we set for these
considerations and for ourselves in order to mantain a consistency in reception
Let's say I hoped to be seen as a confident individual but did not want to be stereotypically categorized
I would amplify my personality in public, emphasizing my most unique or absurd characteristics
I would speak assuredly, but still listen
I would take an active stance on those things which I had read about and felt
confidence in
Or a stance on those things with which I most disagreed, but pretended not to
How I would shake the confidence of the opposition, knowing it as I know myself
My manners are te embodiment of those characteristics by which I hope to be represented
In this specific instance, my manners are:
unique or absurd personality traits
specific, convinced speech
and a little conflict for opposition's sake
These manners are used to achieve:
a personification of atypical confidence
Now you try.


This book is made of muslin, thread, yard, and printed fabric. The words inside were free-motion embroidered on a sewing machine, and the pages are bound in a buttonhole stitch. I wrote this in France, considering the cultural differences in social cues, and how they exist, but if you get down to it, everyone has their own social cues. There are some things which are socially acceptable, and are universal, but they can't be for everyone all the time.

A Capable Lover.

The insight behind the truth and the citation of past experience is best documented between the lines of the fiction it parallels. In great fiction, a balance is attained between these truths and the unbelievable to create an unquestionably enveloping story. We are not only our experiences, but the interpretations of these experiences amplified by the stories we tell. The truth of the moment is preserved by our stories. This book is dos-a-dos bound, double-sided, with three covers. The two outside covers are hand screen-printed and embellished. Inside of one side of the book is a short story that I wrote, and the other side is a blank book. A synopsis might be pointless. The whole story turned into a synopsis, sort of. Anyway, I heard an old movie has the same ending, but I can't remember what it's called...