Autumn Newsletter 2016

Dear Rocky Mountain Chapter Members,

Greetings to you this autumn day. Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a
flower. Albert Camus. Each October I look forward to a drive through the
mountains to marvel at the sight of the Aspens shimmering in gold. And I try to get
back to my hometown in the Midwest where the trees are a kaleidoscope of color
my favorite time of year. Cheers to this magnificent season!
With this newsletter, I begin a series of interviews with book workers who are
members of the Rocky Mountain Chapter. I love hearing stories about book workers
lives how they got interested in book arts, what led them to the work, the kind of
work they do, and their lifestyle as they live as book workers. Sammy Lee is the first
in this series. If you would like to recommend someone for me to interview for this
series, please contact me. I hope you enjoy their stories.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv
Interview with RMC member Sammy Lee, October 2016
by Pamela Leutz
Sammy is a book artist member of the Rocky Mountain Chapter who also served as
RMC Events Chair for the Denver area for several years until 2015. After moving
from Dallas, I reached out to Denver Rocky Mountain Chapter members to find a
book arts community in Colorado. Sammy was one of the first people I met, and she
was welcoming and enthused to have another book worker in the area. She was
instrumental in bringing well-known, talented binders to the area to give
workshops, and I signed up for as many as I could. I admired her own book arts
work and discovered her paper art sculpture when I took her class at the Boulder
Museum of Contemporary Art where she taught felting and casting with Hanji, a
Korean mulberry paper. Her works are shown in museums and galleries in the US,
Spain and S. Korea.
Sammy works in her home studio when working on book arts. She has two spaces
there, one of which is located in the home she shares with her husband and two
boys. It has room to spread things out and houses her 33 board shear and a couple
nipping presses. There is a 180 square foot building in the backyard that is home to
her laser cutter and etching press and where she executes steps that create dust and
fumes.

Sammys home studio

Recently I visited Sammy at her other working space: a studio at RedLine

Contemporary Art Center, in the RiNo arts district of Denver. This fall she was
awarded a two-year artist residency. RedLine fosters education and engagement
between artists and communities to create positive social change.
(http://www.redlineart.org/redline/)

Sammy in her RedLine studio, surrounded by her paper art.

During my visit, students from an art class at Metropolitan State University of

Denver stopped by her studio to learn about book arts. Sammy showed some of her
works and explained the thought process that went into coming up with the
concepts and designs. Her education in the fine arts, book arts, and architecture all
contribute to her art. A student asked why her works are 3-D (several include

enclosures that open to tell the stories through images and objects). She responded
by saying that she had been a nomad much of her life. By the time she was 33 years
old, she had moved 26 times. She had no permanent childhood home or place. She
was drawn to creating art pieces that portray spatial-ness, narratives, and memories.
For example, in an artist book titled My-Bheda, she collaborated with Joshua
Bergeron, who took the photos narrating the Bengali holiday of Durga Puja in
Kolkata, India. Sammy bound them in a folded book with Indian tassle handles and
housed this in a structure depicting an old 1888 Kodak camera. Check out her
website to see images and explanations of her artwork:
http://www.studiosmlk.com.

Sammy showing students some of her book arts works.

Soil by Sammy Lee, completed 2011, open view

How did you get interested in bookbinding?

I was in architecture school, and my professor took me on different field trips. One
place was Daniel Kelms bookbindery. He showed us many books, very innovative
and crazy books. My heartbeat went up and I knew right away that this was
something that I wanted to do. I asked for an internship on the spot, and Daniel
asked me to come back. That is how I started my internship. I still wanted to get my
degree, so I did a double amount of projects for my thesis. I did an architectural
project that incorporated book-like qualities in it; and I also designed an artist book
that had spatial qualities. Dans bindery was in East Hampton, about a 20-minute
drive from my school in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Yes, Ive been there.
Do you remember all the Kotex boxes?
Yes! So many of them up there on shelves.
I didnt know how to ask him, but when we were all done, I stayed there when
others left and asked him, Hey, Dan, whats with all these Kotex boxes? By the
way, do you need an intern? Thats how we got started.
Ive had workshops with him. He is such a good teacher.
Yes, indeed! And to be in that buildingthere are other bookbinders and artists in
the building. I worked with him two and a half, almost three years, while living in
Western Mass. My husband and I were moving out to Boston, and I was potluck
organizer. He did a lot of potlucks with the other artists in the building.
How fun. I think of him as someone who values relationships and cooperation.

He is a good collaborator, with his projects too. In addition to publishers and

printers, he worked with a seamstress, woodworkers and many others in the
building. He is very generous with his knowledge, materials, teaching and with
food.
Was Daniel the most influential teacher for you?
Yes, in bookbinding he was. I was always kind of creative in my mind. I always had
projects going in my mind, but I didnt know how to actualize them. Thats why I
was intrigued with architecture. Dan really helped me with how to figure it out
mechanically, and how to approach it from a crazy idea to something real.
As you are becoming more well-known, I feel like it is for incorporating architecture in your
artist books. You build things its more than just making a book. You use engineering skills
too.
That is definitely something that I learned from both architectural training and Dan.
Also, just watching Dan demonstrate his projectshow he opens it and tells a story.
I was always impressed by the kinetic and interactive aspects, the books narrative
qualities, the sequence of opening, how it invites viewers to handle it, how things
drop and pop-up, and all that.
As you go forward in your bookbinding career, what do you foresee for your future? Will you
continue in the same vein, doing similar styles?
Yes. Another thing I love about bookbinding is that nothing is wasted in art. I feel
like I took some detours and went round-about with different practices. I was a fine
art and media art major during my undergrad. Then I worked with Vitra, a Swiss
chair company, wanting to be a furniture designer; then I went to architecture
school. I ended up coming back to art and book making. Bookbinding brings in
everything creative thinking, design skills, model-making Im using everything
from my past experiences. I think Im just going to continue it and discover. Im also
doing the paper felting and collagingthats one type of work I do; artist book
projects are the other thing. Im kind of balancing. The common thing is using paper
and working with its innate quality, story-telling. Im using a lot of Korean mulberry
paper called Hanji. With this felting and collaging, most of the process involves
wetting the paper, and beating it, and kneading it, and massaging itkind of
making the paper fall apartdestruction, and get felted and built to a new form
regeneration. That process is laborious and story is more deconstructed and
released from the process. On the other hand, bookbinding is putting it togetherI
gather every fragment and bind it. Also, bookbinding requires a lot of processes and
planning and measuring up to a 32nd of an inch (partly because of Dans influence!).
But the paper felting is very spontaneous, emotional, and sometimes very cathartic,
so it balances. I really enjoy doing two things simultaneously.
You have collaborated with some interesting people. How do those projects come about?
Sometimes I have to be proactive, like when I asked Dan to take me as an intern.
Most of the time its not planned, but it happens. I enjoy taking the journey and
discovering things along the way. The photographer I worked with was
commissioned by a museum where I exhibited my work. He was commissioned to
take photos of me that day, and then we became Facebook friends. I ended up doing

a project about India at the same time he was in India taking photos, which he
posted on Facebook. I approached him saying, I am very interested in India. Lets
do a photography book together. I observe the sequence of events that are
happening to me and take a leap of faith. I know something is happening, and I
need to do something about it. Projects with other artists that I collaborated with,
too, have come about in a similar way. I run into them somehow, and find we have
something going on at the same time. Things happen.
What would you say, up to this time, has been your most interesting project?
What I am working on now is always the most interesting project to me. Currently I
am working on a breast project. It is really interesting to me because I just went
through becoming a mama again, having a baby that I nursed, getting up at 2:00 in
the morning to feed, and pumping, and a lot of thoughts comes to mind. I am doing
the content of the book, like in most of my projects, and Im very interested in being
involved in that part so I can make the book be more integrated. I want to be there
from the beginning stage. Im gathering content, casting the breasts - I actually got
breast imaging from a radiologist, a consultation, and got my own mammogram
doneto see how the whole thing will influence this project. This is going very well,
and Im having lots of fun.
I love that part about projects like thesethe researching and learning. It adds new
dimensions to life.
Research is good and fun, and it influences my design decisions. It shapes the whole
project.
What is your favorite part about the work that you do?
For artist books, the whole early process of the researching, gathering materials and
making mock-ups is my favorite. I love seeing how story is forming during this
process, and I really want to know every aspect from different perspectives as much
as I can to tell the story.
What would you tell someone who sees your work and is inspired and tells you they want to
do the kind of work that you are doing?
Thats wonderful, but I think that person will do something different than what I do
according to who that person is and the experiences and exposure that person has
gone through, and the influence that person provides will be different. I would love
to work with that person and see the different ways that person will evolve.
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Recent Events:
Forest Stories: Book Arts from the Environmental Studio of Mary Ellen LongOF
Thru November 28 | University of Denver Anderson Academic Commons, Upper
Level, near main staircase
To artist Mary Ellen Long, the forest outside her Colorado home is her library, a
place to gain knowledge of the world and catch up with the latest news. She
presents the results of her research through woodland installations and symbolic
volumes made from natural and found materials which explore themes of nature,
ritual, process, and time.

5

This exhibition showcases Long's "forest stories," both from her personal collection
and from the University Libraries' Fine Press and Artists' Books Collection. For more
access to these materials, contact Special Collections and Archives.
Learn more about the artworks and the artist in this video presentation given by
Mary Ellen Long at the University of Denver Libraries in September 2016.

Coming Events:

ROCKY MOUNTAIN CHAPTER MEMBER SHOW

The show is currently up in Arizona. See images of the show at

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipN_f6lbJzwQ_fC2-WQXcV8tthoKyGzJDTQqNkrprjuwqXGSpA6gJ621W_977wLew?key=YUFERXRRT292anRKbmtwMFlhbXJxUWpD
aDUzSGZR

Dates and locations for the exhibit are:

Phoenix, AZ Phoenix Public Library, October 3 December 2, 2016
BYU in Provo, UT: January March 2017
Denver Public Library: April 1 June 30, 2017
Laramie, WY, University of Wyoming: July September 2017
Online catalog http://rmcgbw.blogspot.com and click the link to Souvenir

UTAH
Print Appreciation Drop-in Session! November 11, 1:00PM-8:00PM
University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library, Book Arts Studio, Level 4
Come help the Book Arts Program celebrate letterpress printing! With a variety of
printing plates and type locked-up on the presses, guest printers (that's you!) can
create cards from modular elements overprinted to match individual taste. We
invite the public to drop in and print as many cards as time or wallet will allow at
$5/card or $3 for $10.00.
First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare
The First Folio is the first complete collected edition of Shakespeare's plays,
published in 1623, seven years after his death. Compiled by two of Shakespeare's
fellow actors, it preserves 36 of Shakespeare's plays. Without it, we would not have
18 of those plays, including Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night, The Tempest and
Antony and Cleopatra.
Shakespeare First Folio Exhibition in Utah
When: 8 31 Oct 2016

Where: Salt Lake City Public Library, Salt Lake City, UT, United States
COLORADO
The American Academy of Bookbinding announces OPEN SET 2017 Exhibition
venues!
The OPEN SET exhibition is intended to be a recognition of the beauty of the craft
and a commitment to the public toward a better understanding of this art form. The
exhibition will showcase 50 books and will recognize excellence in craftsmanship
and design concept interpretation. Each venue may offer an Opening Reception as
well as a Peoples Choice Award, encouraging viewers to cast their vote for the
binding they find most intriguing in both the OPEN and the SET categories.
Denver Denver Public Library mid-winter
San Francisco San Francisco Center for the Book mid-winter
Iowa City University of Iowa early spring
Telluride Ah Haa School for the Arts late spring
Boston North Bennett Street School mid-summer
Austin Austin Public Library late summer
Seattle Seattle Public Library fall
Salt Lake City University of Utah early winter
Letterpress Depot: Upcoming Poetry & Letterpress workshop
Aurora, CO
A two-day Cento Poetry and table-top printing workshop will start on November 5 .
Check out the details at this link.
http://www.letterpressdepot.com/events/cento
th

Book Launch in Edgewater, CO

Sister/Brother team, Carmiella and Ilan Salzberg invite you to the book launch
of When the Little Engine Couldn't at the Happy Leaf Tap Room at 5700 West 25th
Avenue, Thursday December 8 from 7:30 PM to 10 PM. This spin on the classic tells
a story of grit and self-reliance using a printmaking process that incorporates found
and recycled materials to illustrate the story. The original prints will be on display
along with a demonstration of the printmaking process. Learn, enjoy and support
this amazing new book!

Upcoming Classes/Workshops:
COLORADO
Dos Rapporte in Stone Veneer - Two-day workshop, November 5-6 taught by
Coleen Curry at Denver Bookbinding Co.
The RMC is pleased to host member Coleen Curry, who will teach Dos Rapporte, a
flat back binding sewn on tapes with attached boards and lift off spine with basic
sewing. Students will use unique Stone Veneer paper as cover material. Coleen
earned a degree in Fine Binding as a graduate of the American Academy of
Bookbinding. Register online: https://gbw.formstack.com/forms/dosrapport
Workshop through Art Students League of Denver
Alicia Baileys MOXIE U PEEP SHOW BOOKBINDING on Saturday Dec 3 from
10am-3pm
https://asld.modvantage.com/Course/CourseDetail/10265/moxie-u-peep-showbookbinding

Judith Cassel-Mamets TRAVEL JOURNALS on Saturday Dec 3 from 9am-12:30pm;

and
https://asld.modvantage.com/Course/CourseDetail/5715/travel-journals-amixed-media-approach-to-packing-light-and-filling-pages
Judith Cassel-Mamets INTRO TO MIXED MEDIA: ART JORNALING on Friday
Dec 9 from 9am-1pm
https://asld.modvantage.com/Course/CourseDetail/5717/intro-to-mixed-mediaart-journaling
Save the date:
4 Week session - Innovative Folded Forms begins Tuesday, January 10, 2017
6-9pm (meets Tuesday evenings)
2 week session - Miniature Diorama Boxes begins Wednesday, February 20,
2017 6-9pm (meets Wednesday evenings)
Flag Book and variations Saturday, April 29 9am-4pm
Breckenridge, CO
Pastepaper open studio:
Saturday November 5, 2-6PM, at the Robert Whyte House in Breckenridge (127
South Ridge Street, Breckenridge, CO)
Alicia Bailey will be giving demonstrations and guidance to studio visitors; those
who drop in are welcome to make some of their own pastepapers. FREE
BreckCreate: Breckenridge Creative Arts
Tunnel Books for Families with Alicia Bailey, November 9, 5:00-8:00 PM
<http://www.breckcreate.org/event/miniature-diorama-boxes-with-aliciabailey/?instance_id=24123>
Innovative Folded Books with Alicia Bailey, November 19, 10:00-4:00
<http://www.breckcreate.org/event/tunnel-books-for-families-with-aliciabailey/?instance_id=24189>
The Art Studio of the Center for the Arts, Crested Butte, CO
Bookbinding for Beginners
Alicia Bailey
Date: 11/11/201611/12/2016
Time: Friday, 5:45-7:45pm; Saturday, 10:00am-4:00pm
Location: The Art Studio of the Center for the Arts, 111 Elk Ave, Crested Butte
In this workshop students create pasted paper and cloth to use in the creation of two
long-stitch books. The first is a long-stitch with a wrap-around canvas cover and stiff
spine; the second a hard-cover book done in a buttonhole style.
link to register (through the Western State College Extended Studies Program:
<http://www.western.edu/academics/extended-studies/fall-2016-courseofferings>
Priscilla Spitler Workshop title TBD Spring 2017, Denver area keep an eye out
for more information as it becomes available.
NEW MEXICO
Save the date: Artists Books on the Road with Alicia Bailey - in Santa Fe April 7
followed by Innovative Folded Forms workshop on April 8

Things of Interest:
Forest Stories: Book Arts from the Environmental Studio of Mary Ellen LongOF
The video of Mary Ellen Longs talk at University of Denver is online! You should be
able to access the video via the link below.
http://videocast.du.edu/video/forest-stories-book-arts-from-the-environmentalstudio-of-mary-ellen-long
Fine Press and Artists Book Collection
University of Denver
To schedule appointments to view the collection, please contact DU Special
Collections and Archives.
E: archives@du.libanswers.com
P: 303.871.3428
W: http://library.du.edu/collections-archives/specialcollections/index.html
For more information on DU's Fine Press and Artists' Book Collection, please contact
Kate Crowe, Curator of Special Collections and Archives.
E: katherine.crowe@du.edu
W: http://library.du.edu/collections-archives/specialcollections/artistsbooks.html
Welcome to Abecedarian's new workshop space - open studio - bring some work to
show and tell and learn about two new Book a Month Club programs (one for
learning structures, another for ideation and critique).
910 Santa Fe Drive, #15 (above the coffee shop), Denver CO 80204, Sunday, January
8, 10am-4pm

Tip:
Please send me helpful tips to share!
As usual, check out the Rocky Mountain Chapter blog page for articles and
information on current book related events. http://rmcgbw.blogspot.com. If you
would like to receive an email message each time that a new posting is put up,
please go to the website and put your email address in the box under Follow by
email.
If you are interested in writing an article about the recent Standards meeting or the
Friends of Dard Hunter conference in New Mexico, please let me know. Our
members would love to read about those events. Also, please send tips, and book
related news and event information to pleutz@me.com by the end of January so
they can be added to the next newsletter that will come out February 1. We welcome
information about events and classes from all our RMC states so we can stay
informed about the many opportunities in our region.
Kind Regards,
Pamela Train Leutz

Communications Coordinator
pleutz@me.com

10