two of the books i've made

this is a one of a kind book made from a text i found in the alley that seemed to be from someones novel (the 128th page)
it was edited with lines through the words leaving some words exposed

the first bound copy of my other book (of which there are ten copies)

close up of the binding

inside the book

Chicagoville (or thirty new pictures)

a night when Shauna came to visit me, walking around the Art Institute had to take a picture of the building with the moon
the ceiling in the painting studio where i had my painting class

the first snow i encountered this season was on a Friday and looked really nice with this street lamp

a building near the school where there is some work being done to renovate, it caught my eye especially those great drips and the grime of the scene

more of the same place

and one more that is a close up of sorts

many of the street signs near where we live (and all over Chicago) have sticker grafitti on them

a pretty color from the bath tub. i took this picture as a reference for a color of paint i wanted to mix... haven't done anything with it quite yet but i will

the Michigan Avenue entrance to the Art Institute has these great decorative arches

the decay in some of the subway stations is so beautiful!!! i love it!

more decay and marks from workmen

and yet another view

this is a pretty paint stain from the floor of the painting studio (i didn't make it but i took the picture of it.. GRIN)

a picture of some of the Christmas lights that i saw while on the bus

from the bus station closest to our apartment

also from the train station, the view from where i wait for the train to go visit Shauna at work

one of my favorite walls on campus. i look at it almost everytime i go to the library because it is the view from the library window

the beautiful ceiling in a building on Michigan Avenue

more beautiful subway decay

mmmmmmm i love this one!

some Christmas colors amongst the decay

great ceiling in the subway

Welcome to Chicago's Chinatown (went down to lunch so i had to take some pictures before eating wonderful Chinese food)

pretty under the train (the stop at Chinatown the train isn't underground any more)

not sure if this picture is too cliche but i really like it

another view of those two buildings

one of the coolest buildings in Chicago, i think it makes me think of legos

our apartment building and a great line against a rich sky

Belmont shot from the train station toward our apartment

my favorite alley right behind our apartment, just a few days ago with the snow and dirt.

one semester plus 16 hours

besides painting and drawing i had one print related class this semester (an artists book class about text and language.) for that class i decided to make a book that relates to a big project that is mostly in my head for now, to make a million prints. for that project i am using words (the 365 most used words in the English language) and so for my book project i decided to use the same 365 words. i used the list to make the first section of the book with the words in order from most used to least. to make the other four sections of the book, i made 365 numbered pieces of paper and put them in a bag. i chose the numbers until the bag was empty and used those numbers to determine the order of the words for the second section... then proceded to use those same numbers to break down the second list into the third and so on.

above is a picture of my post for 13 hours one day and 3 hours another day laying out the book and printing it
these are some of the sheets of the printed 24 page impositions

i decided to cut down the impositions before folding them (it makes for a nicer folding process when there aren't so many sheets to fold so many directions)

the five impositions of the first bound book

i printed five pages on full sheets to make them kind of poem posters

a project that happened while painting

i was busy working on my three big paintings and there were janitors repainting walls in the painting studios (they were making them fresh and white for critiques). i went to get a drink and talk to my Mom on the phone, while out of the classroom i happened upon a number of gallon paint cans in the trash, opened one a little bit and found out that there was some paint in them. couldn't let that paint go to waste, so i dumped it on some wood panels:

these are out of order but i think you will get the idea.

this is what they looked like on the floor after putting on the found paint.

the next day i decided to paint on them some more with my left over house paint. after laying them out...

i decided to flip most of them upside down and add all of the other panels that i had collected before i put on the paint

these are my paint cans

after dumping on the paint i moved it with a brush until it was how i wanted and then i splashed some water on them

after drying for a while i stood them up to get some good drips

i ended up with 21 panels of various sizes

here are a few photos of the panels

next i took all of the panels down to the wood shop and cut them down to about 5x9 inches, ending up with about 155 panels

on Monday i hauled them all back down to the wood shop planning to cut them each into four pieces... once i started i realized that cutting them that small was too much (it would have made them too small) so i cut them all in half (to get them all the same i had to make 3 cuts on each piece) to end up with over 300 panels! i spent about 8 hours cutting. for my drawing class i displayed them like this:

for painting i tried another kind of display that really leaves them hidden. i put seven on the wall and the rest of them were installed on the floor in a straight line (if you look at one of my first blog entries you can see my installation of red books in my "repetition repetition" show and the relationship between that installation and this)