Layers of Meaning found in a Book, 2017.
11"x15" Collage of red conte' drawing, vandyke brown and cyanotype prints on assorted paper.
READING
An interaction with a book can be a physical matter, or something cerebral and engaging. Such simple material can hold the emotions, desires, knowledge and experience of humans from any perspective; why do we loose the sense of magic in books?
In a technologically advanced society, reading mostly comes from monitors, screens and sounds. But if you have ever been engaged in a book, you know how the words on the page become sounds in your head, and if your visual cognition is vibrant enough, those words create whole worlds which engulf your sight.
Before movies and television, people would get lost in the environments of books. in an extended reality that constantly presents objects and ideas as abstract things to visualize, the book is a living interaction with our minds.
As one continues into a book, whether it be non-fiction or fiction, it constantly references the would we live in, but as we read are no longer engaged with. As we get further into the pages, more layers are added and they soon begin to reflect how we witness these ideas, in the book and in our real world.
COLLAGE
In this collage I wanted to share how it feels to unveil the knowledge and wisdom I find in books, and how that ultimately reflects my perspective. How do books and writing continue to develop new ideas within us, when they are old ideas in themselves?
How does the reality that a book is referencing compare to the reality we are familiar with, interpreted from our surroundings? What is the role of the reader: a passive observer, or active interpreter?
Is the active engagement of the book, and the transfer of experience, what ultimately makes it a book? When I look at a shelf of books I have read, they seem much heavier than the ones I haven't read. New layers of meaning are added to every book, every artwork in the world, and it is carried with us as well as in the pages.
Revealing these layers is the excitement of a book. What you might learn about yourself, about how the world may interact with you, about the potential of knowledge is found buried in the patterns of words, and layers of meaning.