Creative Process:
In a recent conversation, an artist told me of the work she was doing that was a kind of homage to the book; she felt the book was endangered since younger people today were used to scrolling on their devices. That alarm has been ringing since the mid 1990s. I wrote then, in a brief article for ArtWeek (a Bay Area art magazine that ran for 40 years—and then again in a blog post on July 4, 2011), that the computer is a tool, that it is useful and has a place, but that the tactile nature of the book cannot be duplicated and will still be desired. The book lives.
When I mentioned this conversation to another writer/artist, the second person reminded me how frustrating it is when the devices change and you cannot get at your content anymore.
Recapping the two discussions with a third person, I expressed my frustration with the changing technologies and having to copy things over into new programs, transfer to other devices, etc.. He said people are used to the changes, but the importance of the paper book is still valid.
As a whole, the three conversations sparked the idea for the letterpress and reduction linoleum block print shown above. (More about reduction prints here.)
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