“My books are inspired by my love for illustration and working with my hands. I started creating artist books about a year ago, once I created my first book I was hooked. Bookmaking gave me the chance to combine a variety of art mediums that I enjoy experimenting with.
“I am an artist who is constantly sketching and collecting images from old magazines, postcards and other miscellaneous items. I am inspired by old photographs, antiques, time worn papers and surreal images.
“Bookmaking has become a new way for me to document my sketches and ideas through a peculiar modern art form. One of my favorite artist books is an altered bible that I created. The bible is a leather-bound book from the 1950’s that I bought for 25 cents at a Salvation Army store. I went to the Salvation Army store knowing that I was looking for a book to alter but I had no ideas on what kind of book or what the book would exemplify.
“While sitting on the floor and flipping through old pages of numerous books I began to find notes, receipts, birthday cards, bookmarks and other scraps of paper that people left behind in their books. 
I started to take all of the left behind notes from these books and set them in a pile beside me. I eventually came upon the leather bible. While skimming through the bible I noticed that whoever had this bible before had read the entire book. I knew this because they had written notes about their thoughts on every couple pages throughout the entire book.
“The notes in the bible and the scraps that I found in the other books I searched through inspired me to create an altered book that embraces a theme that I call “The Time That Slowly Passes By”.I wanted this book to reflect the idea of lost memories, images and thoughts that have been forgotten through the passing of time. I began to alter my bible by gluing multiple pages together to creating cutouts, secret doorways, and pull outs that contained the old notes and scraps that people from the past had left behind. Through creating this book I was able to use many artistic techniques that I enjoy working with including, watercolor, collage, sewing and illustration.
“In the end creating this book was extremely therapeutic for me. When I complete a book or a piece of art work I feel like a part of myself is represented through my imagery and construction.
“Since I was a child creating art work has always been a creative outlet for me and bookmaking has become one of my favorite escapes.”
This post was written at my request to deepen our understanging and appreciation of the artist’s work.
Many thanks to Lindsey E. Mangano, Illinois, USA
Beyond Survival in a School Library 
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