Baltimore Sonnets

MnCO 3 Rhodochrosite layers of inspiration concentric bands of light   magnificent crystals textured beauty caught in a frame

through the mail Silkscreen postcard When I sent these postcards to my friend, she thought they were one of my abstract designs. Two color silkscreen postcards by Suzanne Coley  The bottom two cards arrived first and they made a really nice design when turned upside down. Sentimental Quadrilaterals (postcards)   When all four cards arrived she framed them. I wonder what the recipients of my six puzzle postcards think. . . 

Sentimental Quadrilaterals Many of my handmade postcards and postcards printed on watercolor papers  come in four parts. Back and front sides of postcards   Each week a recipient receives a different postcard with 1/4 of the image. When all four postcards are received a complete image is created. Three color silkscreened print sent through the mail.

I would like to introduce one of my favorite stores in Baltimore Charlotte Elliott and The Bookstore Next Door Established in 2001 in the Hamden district  of Baltimore this antique, fine art, vintage clothing, and bookstore is family owned and run by the Hays family. Located in two adjacent buildings, 835 & 837 West 36th Street, one store is filled with fine art, first edition, rare, and used books. The other store is filled with  beautiful linens, silver, and vintage items. I always say I am only going to browse their eclectic mix of art, books, and linens; However, when I leave, my wallet is lighter and my bags are heavier. 

I love visiting the Newseum in Washtington, DC Everything you want to know about journalism: recording, reporting, and  photographing information is there. Even the errors.

Milan by Suzanne Coley Just where my long road started out, it ends. I stand alone and see my childhood town Calling its kids and saying goodnight to friends. And now the ruffled window shades draw down. Old men and women, slumped in easy chairs, fold up their papers, yawn, and cease to talk. I know that only a tireless streetlamp cares Where I, a ghost with fisted pockets, walk. Shadow and I, we play a little game  Of hide-and-seek, as we have always done. Ten years ago I had a boy's nickname, Voiced in the streets and known by everyone. That name, those years, companions that I had -- Channing the fiddler and the girls next door, The roughneck gang that drove my father mad, Trampling his flowers in their relentless war -- Where are they now, so dear and out of date? Old men and women yawn but do not stir The burned-out embers, and the hour is late Someone is calling but I can't see her. "Sneakthief!" she cries. ...

I Never Thought I'd Be the One Tale #15

I love making custom made matching boxes for my artist's books.  Here are a few: Green book made for a wonderful lady in New York City, Liz.   I've been experimenting with various textures on the covers.  My goal: to create strong, sturdy, and durable textures that would allow years of  handling and  the books still look great. Restroom,  artist's book and matching box, 2013 Restroom's cover is created with fabric, acrylic paint, mulberry paper and dictionary pages.  A layer of methylcellulose (a glue and binder used to create paste papers as well as book conservation) was brushed on top to seal the design.   Invisible , currently part of the Art in Embassies Program The cover of Invisible  was also sealed with  methylcellulose.  I like this binder much better than acrylic mediums as they tend to feel sticky. Yellow Jazz , currently on exhibit at the US Embassy in Niamey, Niger. Yel...

at times life makes me cry.  poetry allows me to embrace these emotions. philosophy allows me to put them into a logical form. art allows me to record them. Artist's books and Broadside ballads Letterpress Broadside ballad,  Periwinkle I created broadside ballads with  left over pages from my limited edition artist's book Periwinkle. Why broadside ballads? Traditionally, broadsides were songs or poems printed on one side of a single sheet of paper. From the 1600s to 1900s, broadsides were daily  forms of street literature, and printers  used low quality,  inexpensive  papers.  "Sold in the streets by itinerant vendors, broadside ballads ranged in size from tabloid-sized and larger sheets to small 4"x 8" slips of paper. As a general rule broadside ballads were, like newspapers, intended to be ephemeral, and were usually printed on the cheapest,  thinnest papers." source: New York State Library St...

Sister Mary Corita    " Stop the Bombing" "Let's Talk" "Handle with Care" "Somebody had to break the rules" "The clue is in the signs" These are just a few titles of Sister Corita's printed posters.   Sister Corita designed hundreds of vibrant posters that reflected American culture in the 1960s. Come Alive! The Spirited Art of Sister Corita, by Julie Ault, 2006 Her silkscreened posters captured the social,  political,  and cultural milieux of the 1960s. Sister Corita incorporated headline news, stories, and advertisements into her art. I saw an exhibition of Sister Corita's art in Washington, DC at the National Museum of Women in Arts and I felt I was back in the 1960s  protesting  for peace and justice. Her work was powerful and beautiful. Sister Corita wrote: If we separate ourselves from the great arts of our time, we cannot be leaven enriching our society fr...

What do you  want, love. To be loved.  What, what wanted, love, wanted so much as love like nothing  considered, no feeling but a simple recognition forgotten, sits in its feeling, two things, one and one. Song by Robert Creeley March 1965

I do salute thee with my hand, Though rebels wound thee with their horses' hoofs. As a long-parted mother with her child Linocut and painting from artist's book Garden of Hope by Suzanne Coley Plays fondly with her tears and smiles in meeting, So weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth Richard II,  (III.ii.6-10) Wm. Shakespeare

   The spirit of creativity in children I love teaching children visual storytelling with the accordion book structure. Accordion books ready for art and stories Children enjoy folding and putting creases in the papers. Some draw from left to right.   Some right to left.   Some start in the middle.   It is their story and they tell it the way they want. I give them pencils, crayons, water colors, and lots of encouragement to create images and tales. Children are natural storytellers.  One easy lesson children enjoy  is creating inkblot drawings. inkblots created with watercolors They put ink drops on one side of the paper, fold down the other side, rub the paper with the back of their hands, open it and they have an image. Some accordion books drying Looks like the Rorschach test? Ask a child what it is and the stories are amazing, and sometimes, surprising!

Nature is my greatest inspiration Smile poster by Suzanne Coley https://www.etsy.com/shop/GrandmasPrintShop1 I love the colors, the shapes, the sounds strolls in the forest  mother nature's perfume lilies, lavender, longing all that is alive

Taking a break from making paper. Dedicating more time to working on my  relief prints and  upcoming videos. I feel as if I am going in a new direction . . .

Going through my old film negatives and Kodachrome slides.  I digitized one of my  Kodachrome slides and added text. I still like using film whenever I can, however film has become so expensive to process.  I miss having a dark room, but I don't miss all the chemicals.

There once was a little oracle . . . Linocut on handmade paper, Suzanne Coley

In Plato's Phaedo  Socrates had a dream to write poems (verse). After his trial, as he was awaiting death,  Socrates said,  "[...] I realized that a poet, if he is to be a poet, must compose fables, not arguments. Being no teller of fables myself, I took the stories I knew and had at hand, the fables of Aesop, and I versified the  first ones I came across" 61b.

Book of Contents  I finally found a form for my handmade papers.   artist's book by Suzanne Coley   I have been experimenting with different forms to exhibit my handmade papers. Even though the handmade papers  are sturdy and textured, exhibiting them without frames left them vulnerable. Exhibiting them with frames really didn't show  their intricately embossed designs  and textures. This week, I finally perfected the book binding forms.    In the past, all of my artist's books have had title pages, prologues, bodies or "signatures" with stories and poems  colophons, headbands, and  hand marbled  end sheets.       These do not.   However, these book structures  really enhance  my content and  I am going to call them  Books of Content.