Sharon McCartney, an artist in residence last summer at 26 Split Rock Cove, returned to share her expertise on the Fine Art of Book Sculpture: Niches, Folds and Embellishment. For three days participants worked at break neck speed to transform old books into sculptural objects, carving niches into their pages, embellishing other pages with paint, stamps, photo transfers, stitching, collage, gel prints and more.
Students discovered how to create content by adding trinkets and photographs that worked with the existing theme of the book. Words were selected and gessoed around to create found poetry; images that brought to mind the intent of the artist were photocopied and transferred.
We folded the pages of other books, creating unique forms and evocative objects that were again embellished and decorated in varieties of surface design techniques.
At the end of the workshop, each student had a pile of possible papers and objects for yet another book, and another book … the possibilities were endless, and we were all breathless. Thank you Sharon!
