Book Iceland Reports

Land & Texture: Exploring Iceland for Content in Artist Books

The directors at the Gullkistan Center for Creativity in southern Iceland invited me to teach a workshop on “something related to books and texture”. The invitation prompted me to reflect on my travels and experiences there, and my impressions & thoughts about its landscape of unique textures and colors not seen elsewhere on this earth. The two words, books & texture, guided me in shaping the workshop.

Last summer I returned to Iceland to teach the workshop, Book Iceland. On April 2nd, I will report back on it in a talk entitled, Land & Texture: Exploring Iceland For Content in Artist Books at the San Francisco Center For the Book. Book Iceland was inspired by the natural energies that shaped Iceland’s landscapes. Participating artists explored materials, tools, and processes — forming content for their artist book projects.

The talk is one of several public programs offered during the exhibition, Posted/Unposted, an exhibition of artist books, letterpress & printmaking from the Nordic collective Codex Polaris of the greater Scandinavian book arts community.

Date:
Tuesday, April 2, 6 - 8 pm (Talk @ 6:30 pm)

Location:
San Francisco Center for the Book
375 Rhode Island Street
San Francisco, CA

SFCB is open to the public 10am to 5:30pm every day

BACK TO ICELAND 2018

Ready to leave, now that I know that my boxes of supplies have arrived safely.  I am returning to Iceland this week to teach the workshop, BOOK ICELAND at Gullkistan Center for Creativity in Laugarvatn.  This will be my fourth trip to Iceland and my third visit to Gullkistan. I am excited to put my ideas in this form for others.

IMG_3833.jpg
BOOK ICELAND  workshop materials have arrived.

BOOK ICELAND  workshop materials have arrived.

More about BOOK ICELAND:

It's a rare visitor who is not touched by Iceland's natural energies and diverse landscape. A wild island of the north with massive glaciers exposed to wind and ocean currents, is located on two tectonic plates with a fault line running at an oblique angle from its north to southwest.  Energies of wind, fire and water below and above its surface shape the landscape, leaving unique textures and colors not seen elsewhere on this earth: glacier ice fields and lagoons, rumbling volcanoes, waterfalls, vast lava fields--moss covered and raw, contorted basalt walls, geysers, thermal pools, deep gorges and fjords.

This land of extremes has also shaped its people and language. Steeped in a history of isolation and hardship, the Vikings who first settled this island in the late ninth century, recounted their stories in folktales, poems, oral histories and song.  Two centuries later, those stories were captured in writing--leaving handwritten manuscripts that are treasured and valued today.

The Icelanders' love for both their land and the book has inspired this workshop. We'll explore Iceland's varied landscape; we will look at how the natural processes have shaped it and explore ways to express those energies through artistic experimentation.  We will develop content for two books (from our field studies) and learn two book structures (drum leaf & coptic binding) to contain it.

Source: https://brookeholve/blog/2018/6/3/book-ice...

BOOK ICELAND 2018

BOOK ICELAND _ JUNE 18 – 29,  2018
Application Deadline: February 1, 2018
www.gullkistan.is/book-iceland

IMG_7340.jpg

BOOK ICELAND; TEXTURES OF LAND

& textures of BOOK

At Gullkistan Center for Creativity in Laugarvatn, iceland

Still 2 spaces available.  Apply Now for Feb 1st deadline:

www.gullkistan.is/book-iceland

Gullkistan Center for Creativity and I invite you to take part in this Book Arts seminar in Iceland during the summer of 2018. Participants will explore Iceland's varied landscape; look at how the natural processes have shaped the landscape and explore ways to express those energies through artistic experimentation.  Those experiments will be content for two book structures taught during the workshop - the drumleaf binding and coptic-bound cover book.

The workshop is for artists of all levels interested in exploring the book form and learning about Iceland, its book culture & history, weather, and diverse landscapes.

For specifics, check out:  www.gullkistan.is/book-iceland

 

 

 

 

 

Book Iceland 2018

BOOK ICELAND _ JUNE 18 – 29,  2018
Application Deadline: February 1, 2018
www.gullkistan.is/book-iceland

IMG_6573.JPG

It’s a rare visitor who is not touched by Iceland’s natural energies and diverse landscape. It’s this land of extremes that has shaped its people & language, and has inspired this workshop.

Now more than half-filled, but space available for those interested in exploring Iceland’s
landscape for content— for two book structures that you will learn in the class: the drum-leaf binding and a coptic-bound cover book (examples below).

Drumleaf binding book structure

Drumleaf binding book structure

Coptic-bound cover book

Coptic-bound cover book

The workshop is for artists of all levels interested in exploring the book form and learning
about Iceland, its book culture & history, weather, and diverse landscapes.

For specifics, check out:  gullkistan.is/book-iceland

*This will be my fourth trip to Iceland.  I recently reviewed some old blog entries with early impressions.  Thought you might be interested in what I wrote:

“What a deceptively still place with its vast expansive open spaces—panoramic views of horizontal blue ribbons of sky and sea. I sometimes found it difficult to discern the horizon between the two. And I was struck by how much of the land is barren with minimal traces of human habitation.

Iceland is a small country but full of geological wonders that gave me a glimpse of what the earth might have been like when it was newly formed. Everywhere I looked I saw evidence of the new with it lava beds, glaciers, ice, geysers, craggy scree slopes, natural waterfalls, basaltic columns, black sand beaches and glacial carved rocks jetting out from green grass covered mountains. Surreal. I have experienced few places in the world, like Iceland that offer this unique kind of space. Surprisingly serene on the surface, especially when one realizes that it is a land of the verb with underground rumblings of the wild that can spew out at any time as steam, lava or rock through pockets of the earth.

I met a few Icelanders and if they are representative of the whole, then I am impressed. So much open space, yet their connection to their land is intimate. I saw this in the way that they name their places; names with endings like vatn, foss, vik, and jokull that offer clues about the landscape. Their connection went beyond words, however. I witnessed many who embraced the land with vigor and pride, some easily scrambling up a hillside of scree, hiking on the vast lava fields or up a mountain between 1am and 5 am, or swimming in the ice cold waters of lakes and sea. And I identified most with those who relaxed and socialized in the geothermal heated pools, found throughout the country.”

Gullkistan and the Residents

Four years later

returning back to Gullkistan in Laugarvatn,

a new location and accommodations

IMG_1601
IMG_1601

Eight residents this time:  some here longer than others

with the stay group of four:

13932944_10208425357764372_8774029736691908919_n
13932944_10208425357764372_8774029736691908919_n

I have savored my time here.

14192028_10208503773844725_6895962185107560978_n
14192028_10208503773844725_6895962185107560978_n

To the Westfjords

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:

Westfjords; our itinerary
Westfjords; our itinerary
Linda on ferry
Linda on ferry
western most point in Europe
western most point in Europe
Latrabjarg Cliffs
Latrabjarg Cliffs
Raudasandur Beach
Raudasandur Beach
Black church
Black church
driftwood
driftwood
Kleifakallinn - varda like sculpture who guards travelers
Kleifakallinn - varda like sculpture who guards travelers
vardans
vardans
varda 2
varda 2
hermit's view
hermit's view
cod heads for the fish soup market in Nigeria
cod heads for the fish soup market in Nigeria
seal by ocean's edge
seal by ocean's edge
camper by glacier
camper by glacier
westfjords view
westfjords view