I just won BEST OF SHOW with this mixed media piece!
After working on this project for a month, I finally completed my DOORS entry for the Turlock Library opening competition. I made 26 ink drawings from real doors around the world. Some doors are old, some new contemporary, some from countries far and wide, some quaint, some historic, some rustic, and some traditional. I discovered that doors are true works of art!
Then using the door drawing as a cover, I created a book to match a letter from the alphabet. For example A = ART HISTORY, B is for BOTANY, C is for CASTLES, etc. I tried to imagine a student doing research in the library and what fun things they might discover in those library books.
My display is an interactive display, meaning you can touch the books and open the doors to be surprised by what is inside. They are not in alphabetical order, so you never know what might be on the other side of that door! Some of the books feature paintings I have created over the last 20 years. I chose a frame that looks like a carved door. The covers are black and white like the letters on a written page. Inside is bright and colorful like the joy you find inside a book. And I wrote a short paragraph describing the alphabet letter subject. Each book has a cloth binding too and a black bead sewn in place for a door knob! There were lots of challenges making those 26 little books!
Title: BOOKS OPEN DOORS
Opening Doors is a juried exhibition sponsored jointly by the Friends of the Turlock Public Library and Turlock’s Carnegie Arts Center, celebrating the grand opening of the newly renovated Turlock Public Library. Artists from throughout the Central Valley were invited to submit work that is influenced or inspired by the many ways that libraries “open doors” and, as a result, enrich lives.
