My altered book summarizes the reason why people censor different forms of media, and what this censorship does to the artist. Censorship reveals a larger instinct of human nature to shut out whatever they don’t agree with. The censors merely act on this instinct. In the process, they assign their own ethic to others, assuming these people share the exact same values they do.
The book has three different “pages”, which I have created by gluing dozens of pages from the source material together. One design is printed on each page with black and brown relief prints, adding small amounts of gouache for color and emotion. Cutouts of short phrases from the book decorate each page, enforcing the idea. I describe the thoughts and actions of the censors using a modified version of the three wise monkeys as a metaphor. The events on each page use the monkeys to describe the process that leads to media censorship. The surroundings these monkeys react to are offensive, just as the majority of censored art rubs people the wrong way.
Altered Book: Final Statement December 9, 2008
First Thursday Scavenger Hunt December 8, 2008
Symmetrical Artwork (Steve Klein, Bullseye Gallery)
Tetrad Harmonic Color Scheme, Yellow, Blue-Green, Red Orange, and Violet (Adam Sorensen, PDX Contemporary Art)
Curvilinear Shapes (Adam Sorenson, PDX)
Stranger's favorite shape: Square (Sylvia Levenson, Bullseye Gallery)
Art that uses tints, tones, and shades (Adam Sorensen, PDX contemporary art)
Artwork with Rhythm (G. Lewis Clevenger, Pulliam Deffenbaugh gallery)
Subtle shifts in value and distortion. (Klaus Moje, Bullseye Gallery)
Something funny - Ken Shores, Feather Fetish totem, Pulliam Deffenbaugh gallery.
Sorry, Pulliam Deffenbaugh’s gallery owner wouldn’t let me take any pictures, and this particular work isn’t on the website. It looks like a chestnut with feathers, hence the hilarity.
Example of pattern and repetition (Adam Sorensen, PDX Contemporary Art)
Art that tells a story (Robert Nielson, Beppu Wiarda)
Most interesting balance at PDX Contemporary Art (Adam Sorenson)
Gestalt Theory (Giles Bettison, Bullseye Gallery)
Dynamic lines, (Linda Geary, Lava, Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery)
Robert Nelson, Beppu Wiarda. Beppu Wiarda is currently hosting many of Nelson's works, and Nelson's works are dominated by contor lines. In this drawing, the width of the lines is uniform, although different lines have a different width. The lines give this picture give it incredible detail.
Jonnel Covault, Beppu Wiarda. Unbelievably, this is linocut. I love this picture, because I want to learn these techniques someday.
