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November 14, 2006
Our New Best Friends
Much to our surprise, if not disbelief, the Idiots'Book venture has already started to transcend the mere making and sending of books to our friends. A few days ago we were visited by famous painter Marc Castelli, who asked us to sign his book and signed up for two subscriptions. Apparently he liked it. We had not sent a copy of Facial Features to Marc, but he had been shown a copy by Carla Massoni, who owns a very fine gallery in Chestertown, just around the corner from the Barn. Apparently Marc shared his copy with local bookseller Tom Martin, who also liked it, and who wanted to sell it in his very fine independent book shop, Book Plate.
We offered no firm resistance to the plan. We rushed home, made a handful of copies of Facial Features, and dropped them off at Book Plate. The next day we walked past the shop and had this pleasant surprise.
Our book! In the window!
A poster for our book!
In the window!
We might have died right then and died happy.
But there was more good news.
We stopped by Carla's gallery to thank her for sharing Facial Features with Marc. She said all sorts of nice things about the book then asked if we would consider showing the book as well as our past works and a few future volumes in an upcoming gallery show.
Again, we did not demure. Carla went on to say that she had always wanted to experiment with someone painting words on the gallery wall. Our style seemed to suggest a kinship with the scheme. We discussed an installation consisting of an illustrated story painted by Robbi on the gallery wall. We imagine a "story" beginning on the pages of an actual book and then trailing off the page and onto the wall, up the wall, perhaps even onto the ceiling, and back again, eventually, to the book from which it originated.
Here is the space we'd have to work with.
The inset ledge is where the books would be displayed. The space around the alcove is where the story would be painted. We're thrilled with the opportunity. I've already begun working on the story, which I imagine as a chain narrative with no real end point or beginning. If we can pull it off, the reader would be able to enter at any point without loss of coherence or meaning. Likely, for this to work, neither coherence nor meaning will be integral to the enjoyment of the piece.
The gallery opening is scheduled for January 19 or thereabouts. You are all invited. The show will feature the work of other young artists, all children (or husbands of children, in my case) of people who have showed work in Carla's gallery in the past. Robbi, who will also be showing some of her clay monoprint fine art pieces, qualifies because Seiko's Ikebana containers and arrangements are often featured in the gallery. I'm a lucky hanger on.
Yesterday we learned that Book Plate will be hosting us as Idiots'Books for the upcoming December First Friday, when all of the shops in Chestertown stay open late for general milling, shopping, and merriment. We are hoping that the December First Friday will be a frenzy of pre-holiday gift purchasing. In hopeful anticipation, we have begun massive production of multiple copies of our Idiots'Books and past volumes for sale. If we're lucky, we'll be able to attract some new subscribers from beyond our circle of friends and family. If unlucky, we'll have a huge pile of unpurchased books to return to our modest shelf space.
We're awash in the thrill of promise. This may be the pinnacle of Idiots'Books success in the public recognition sense, but we plan to ride the wave as far as it will take us.
Stay tuned.
Posted by bogenamp at November 14, 2006 02:41 AM
Comments
clap! clap! clap!
Posted by: Marigold at November 14, 2006 06:55 PM