Artist Talk: Book Arts with Mary Ann Sampson

virtual artist talk: book arts with Mary Ann Sampson and Holland Hopson

I’m pleased to participate in an online artist tomorrow talk highlighting the book artist Mary Ann Sampson. I met Mary Ann and saw her work at her current exhibit at the Wiregrass Museum of Art. Her artwork is inventive, playful, improvisatory, and full of characters as well as character (also it’s often on gorgeous paper…) She’s a delight to visit with, too, so this conversation promises to be plenty of fun.

The event is free. Registration is required.

Here’s more about Mary Ann from the Wiregrass announcement: “Masters in Book Arts from the University of Alabama. Is an active member of the Guild of Book Workers. Founder of the One-Eye Opera Company – which publishes limited edition letterpress books, custom bookbinding and unique editions.”

“Handmade books are a personal stage and a memory stick for a life lived…a field for random thoughts and imagination. Flat works and three dimensional pieces are mostly singular ideas that have fallen off the pages. It’s the plurality of techniques and materials that make them seem different.”

Mary Ann Sampson

Saturday in Inwood, My Eighth Birthday, August, 1977

YouTube player

I had a great time working with poet John Barger on this music to accompany his poem and family footage. John already has another book out, but don’t miss his Resurrection Fail that contains this poem.

I’m particularly fond of “At the Barnes Museum on a Cold Fall Afternoon” as a testament to the twinning and twining of art/poetry/life that happens so often in museums.

Book as Art

I’m excited that Half Premonitions of the Moon, the collaborative piece Sarah Bryant and I made, is included in this year’s Book as Art exhibit opening today at the Decatur Library in Decatur, Georgia. There’s an opening reception tomorrow, Friday, September 9, from 7-9 pm.

The exhibit is supported by the Decatur Arts Alliance, Georgia Center for the Book, the DeKalb Co. Public Library, and DeKalb Library Foundation.