Robert The

Usually in these posts I look to artists who work with text in their work. I kept doing that but realized that I had used a lot of the artists already and wanted to see if there were any other artists that I could relate to that used other objects as the subject of their work. I went looking around and realized that there were probably some artists that used books in their work like I am currently doing. That is when I discovered Robert The.

Robert The is an artist who works with books. Often, his work is made out of old books. He uses old books that he finds and sometimes makes objects out of them. He either cuts objects out of the books or uses the rest of the book with the object cut out as the piece, if that makes any sense at all :)

I believe that this relates to me because of the book I am working with right now. This is inspiring because it reminded me that there are so many other things that I can be doing with my book. I realized that maybe I should be trying to get some tips from this artist's work and do some cutting or something. Maybe I can find some objects that relate to our friendship and cut it out of the book or something.

Books (many culled from dumpsters and thrift store bins) are lovingly vandalized back to life so they can assert themselves against the culture which turned them into debris." - Robert The 1995

I really liked this quote by Robert The regarding his work. It made me think about my book project in a way I had never thought of it before. i realized that even though it feels like I am ruining the book because I have had to tear some of the pages out and paint the pages over, I am also restoring it. It was a book that was going to be thrown away, but I have restored it into something beautiful because of what it represents.

Tying Everything Together

At the beginning of the year my statement for this blog said that I was centering my posts around my artwork and the main idea of my artwork, which is using text in my work in a variety of formats. I am still continuing this. Throughout the year, I have worked on several projects, all of which somehow had to do with text. I have explored different ways to form text on each project. I have painted words freehandedly, scratched words into plexiglass with a sharp object, used chalk, pastels, crayons, and graphite to write with, and also have burned words into one of my wood pieces with a wood burner. I have also surprised myself and have ended up working on several different "canvases" this year also. The craziest one was definitely a suitcase. I am currently using an old book as a canvas which has been an adventurous experience, because with that many pages there is so much opportunity! I have loved this project so far because I feel like I never run out of room to add things onto since there are so many pages. I am glad that I have stuck to my original focus point because I just love words and text, and it would be impossible for me to part with it.

All of the artists I have blogged about this year all have one thing in common, and it is that they too all work with text in the artwork. I have enjoyed learning about these artists and their work and seeing how they relate to my work as a whole, too. I have found that some of their ideas were also similar to mine in some of my pieces. My favorite thing about the artists that I have blogged about for inspiration is that a few of them put their inner thoughts into their art. They literally turn the small thoughts in their head into beautiful pieces. I have also done this in a few of my pieces, such as the flower and the two word walls. It is a nice way to free yourself of your jumbled inner thoughts but without having to fully reveal yourself. Although the artists and I have used different media in our pieces, (a lot of them used lights to project their pieces) I thought it was neat how well I could relate to them and to get ideas from them. 

Tyler Knott Gregson

Tyler Knott Gregson is a poet, photographer, and artist who resides in Montana. He mainly writes poetry. He has several poems that he has typed on a typewriter, supposedly without even thinking, just typing whatever comes to his mind. I really like this because I feel like I can relate to this also. The project that I am working on currently as a little bit of this in it. I am going to be writing some things in it that are just my thoughts about my friendship and am going to put those thoughts into letters to go into my book.

Also, some of his pieces are just what appear to be just notes that are simply jotted down. I really like this idea of a simple thought that comes to mind immediately going to paper right when thought of. I may try this in some of my pieces.

Book Continuation

I have been continuing to work on my book for Lindsey. I ended up painting the outside purple and the first part of the inside page yellow. I have decided to use bright colors for the majority of the book because this is a HAPPY project! I have officially decided to make each section of pages that I glue together different. I am probably going to have 8 or 9 sections of glued pages and will use a different technique to incorporate words into it in each section. So far, I am thinking about possibly burning some words into the pages, sewing (once I actually learn how), and painting of course. Also, I am probably not going to paint over every single page of words. I want to go through a few of the pages and maybe circle or highlight the words to make a message or something. I think it would be neat to be able to use some of the words in the book that were already provided to make it more creative. I think that I am also going to write a few small letters in the book for her. For example, like "when you are sad" or "when things don't go as planned" or something. I really want this to be something that she will enjoy and can take to college.