Saying goodbye to North Light Books

I’ve met some of my favorite people through books: real, live people who wrote the books that introduced me to collage and mixed media art. So I’m a little sad to hear a specialty publishing empire is crumbling. F+W Media, which owns North Light Books and several other imprints, declared bankruptcy recently. North Light published many art technique books, including Destination Creativity: The Life-Altering Journey of the Art Retreat.

Ricë Freeman-Zachery and Earl Zachery in 2010, collecting material for the book Destination: Creativity

I was lucky enough to watch Earl Zachery collect photos while Ricë Freeman-Zachery collected the words. And then Ricë turned around and included a comment from me in the book. (I still get a little thrill out of seeing the pull quote.) I’ve also become friends with her editor Tonia Jenny, who edited two books by another artist/author pal, Michael de Meng.

Michael de Meng mugging for the camera during Artfest 2011

Fortunately, none of these people rely on F+W to pay their bills anymore. But I still have their books in my collection, and I still keep up with some of their authors on social media, including MaryBeth Shaw, Crystal Neubauer and Gina Rossi Armfield.

Making silly faces with Michael de Meng at Artfest 2011. Photo by Lana Guerra.

If these artists keep writing, I hope Quarry Books scoops them up. (Quarry published three of the five books in which my art and commentary appear). I want them to help my artist/author friends keep blowing people’s minds. In the meantime… g’night, North Light.

Experimenting with intoxicating art substances

I've been experimenting with some addictive substances:

StencilGirl stencils. Don't judge.

Credit: College for Creative Studies, Detroit, MI

Full disclosure: I've been friends with the StencilGirl herself, MaryBeth Shaw, since LK Ludwig introduced us back in 2010 at an art retreat dance party. (Hence the blackmail photo below.)

Gettin' down with LK Ludwig (center) and MaryBeth Shaw (right) at Artfest 2010.

So I felt I could ask her to let me take a couple of stencils for test runs. I ended up making three new pieces, two of which you'll find on the StencilGirl Talk blog on Thursday, March 19th. Bonus: using my new stencils turned out to be so much fun, I accidentally got some WORK done in the process.

This piece (which you'll also see in my guest blog post) has been accepted into an upcoming exhibit: "Black Lives Matter" at Columbia City Gallery! The show opens April 18th. More details to come...