"When a Book Becomes An Artist Book"

September 21, 2016

I will be presenting this talk at the Iota Printshop

on Saturday, Sept 24th from 3pm to 5pm.

Details below:

http://northbayletterpressarts.org/event/brooke-holve-talk/

cuts make you. burns too.

August 30, 2016

At the residency, I continued to work with tyvek, a high density synthetic
developed by DuPont in 1955—a 'barrier' material which covers, protects,
resists & stands up to elements, penetrated only through cutting. Inspired
by volcanoes of the Icelandic landscape, I shifted to another process—burning
and discovered that fire doesn't penetrate tyvek; it melts and shapes it.

[video width="202" height="360" m4v="http://www.brookeholve.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/cuts-make-you.-burns-too-Wi-Fi.m4v"][/video]

Gullkistan and the Residents

August 28, 2016

Four years later

returning back to Gullkistan in Laugarvatn,

a new location and accommodations

Eight residents this time: some here longer than others

with the stay group of four:

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I have savored my time here.

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skinningtexts

August 16, 2016

Back to Iceland:

Several years ago on my last trip to IcelandI purchased several kinds of tanned
fish skins including lax (salmon), wolfskin and cod. In New Zealand I purchased
possum skins — all covering materials for my constructions. But as things happen,
these materials took me to a deeper place; they became more than visual textures
from a country. I researched and also found language and stories about the skins.

The fish skins still hang on a line in my studio waiting for a place in my work, serving
as a memory of Iceland and now an inspiration for making my own skins here at the
residency with art materials —fluid acrylics. A few samples are displayed below.
While making them, I started gathering Icelandic & English idioms aboutskins and
in the process found a way to learn about the Icelandic people. Language has
become a skin that captures the character, history and cultural practices of a people.

About the Fish Skins:

I purchased the fish skins at the factory inSandarkrokur that processes up to
200,000 fish skins per year. Once tanned, the skins fromsalmon, wolffish, cod
and perch become strong, durable, thin and pliable — a flexible material to
work with.

Fish skins were used in Iceland for centuries, mainly by those who couldn’t
afford lamb leather. The untanned skin was considered poorer quality because
it was brittle and disintegrated easily. People would measure distance over a
mountain by counting how many pairs of fish skin shoes you would wear walking
over it.

Modern tanning techniques take advantage of fish skin’s unique microscopic
crosshatched pattern. When tanned, it’s stronger than most skin you can get, 10
times stronger than lamb leather of the same thickness.

Icelandic Fish/Skin Idioms: (literal translation and meaning)

pikkur á honum skrápurinn - tough skin; one can endure much

tröfaldur i rođinu - double in your skin; a shady character, two-faced
In English, we might say, "to talk out of both sides of your mouth"
which means you say one thing and mean another and implies
what you say is untruthful and contradictory.

rúginn ađ skinni - only the skin left; money or something lost
In English, we might say "only the shirt on one's back"

vera i ham - to be in a skin; energetically working with a focus

húđlafur - skin lazy; slept in bed all of the time in cow skins

skinniđ mitt - my skin; term of endearment to a child, my little darling

eigi einhamr - not of one skin, or shape

Ađ fara hamförum - to move from one shape to another, to
shape-shift, meaning to go beserk

Researching Icelandic idioms made me think of our own
expressions using skin as an image.

A few below:

skin deep

by the skin of your teeth no skin in the game get the skinny

skinflint

more than one way to skin a cat skinny dipping

skinny shiv

And then there are other kinds of skins, this one from a resident here at Gullkistan.

And and

more skins in Reykjavik:

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out to dry

August 15, 2016

As it turns, US hair dryers do not fair well here in Iceland (even with transformers).

To the Westfjords

August 14, 2016

An unexpected and wonderful trip with Aegir and Linda to the Westfjords,
a rugged, desolate & remote, sparsely populated region of Iceland where
fewer tourists venture. Some highlights below:

Kleifakallinn - varda like sculpture who guards travelers

cod heads for the fish soup market in Nigeria

Fall er fararheill to the Westfjords

August 14, 2016

There is an Icelandic saying "fall er fararheill" which means if something bad happens at the beginning of the trip, the rest will be great. This was our experience setting out for our unexpected adventure to the Westfjords. The rented SUV tire exploded minutes up the road from Gullkistan in Laugarvatn (where the residency is).

Back to Iceland 2016

August 14, 2016

Iceland again!?! The first time I visited, I was struck by the rawness of Iceland's land—a landscape of elemental forces (frumkraftur) in shape of volcanoes, geysers, glaciers, rivers, waterfalls, ice and wind, continually unmaking and making itself. It's relatively pristine and unspoiled still (in spite of the recent surge of tourism) and offers a great abundance of solitude where one can see and feel without. It's a place where I can get in touch with essence, washing away the distractions of white noise and visual disruptions: nothing is screaming for my attention—only empty spaces of blues.

Rebecca Solnit in her book, The Faraway Nearby, wrote that "These are the forces that will flourish no matter what goes extinct, where the poisons migrate, and how the weather changes. The sun will rise, the winds will blow, the waves will lick the shore, the earth will tilt on its axis so that there is more light in summer, less in winter, rains and snows will fall, if not as they used to, and the waters will turn to solid ice and melt again. This is the world that existed before life and will exist after us."

Beginnings and ends: to get a sense of what was and what is to come. This is the place to feel that whatever it is—is not readily at hand but is there nonetheless.

So I've returned to Gullkistan for another residency in Iceland to explore and develop thoughts and ideas inspired on earlier trips.

Some of those ideas & hopes:

*A trip to Vestmannaeyjar islands, formed by volcanoes 11,000 years ago except for Surtsey, the newest addition in 1963. Want to see a beginning. Heimaey is the only inhabited island. Its little town and shelter island lies between klettur (escarpments) and two ominous volcanoes, Eldfell and Helgafell. I continue to follow the winds of 'Eld'.

*A trip to Landmannalaugar, the largest geothermal field in Iceland. Its weird peaks are made of rhyolite, a mineral-filled lava that cooled unusually slowly, causing amazing colors.

*To revisit the land and stories of the beserkers on the Snaefellness Peninsula and relate to images of kami-kazi pilots of WWII and arctic terns.

*To search for evidence of driftage rights on beach shores (all the benefits of the ocean).

*To spot and photograph vardans, directional markers while traveling, walking, finding and sensing way.

*A navigational practice of the Vikings using icelandic spar (for sunstones). Some associations to consider: optics, light, refraction

*North American tectonic plate; relationship of Ca to Iceland on opposite sides (here(t)here)

*Collect basalt images.