"The lawn was like a hay field" at the ALL's Greenwald Gallery

Exciting news! My project, "The lawn was like a hay field," will be showcased at the Arts League of Lowell's Greenwald Gallery starting on April 24th! Join us for the opening reception on Saturday, April 27th, at 3pm. The reception is of course free and open to the public. 

I'm presenting photographs that I created when I was a teenager in the small town in which I was born and raised, juxtaposed with ones that I made there in the last couple of years. It’s a story filled with memories of growing up in that time and place, and how we've both changed and stayed the same.

As I was working on my book, "The lawn was like a hay field", I knew that I would eventually want to show this work in a gallery setting. So when the Greenwald Gallery opportunity presented itself I knew that it would be a perfect fit. The Greenwald, an intimate space within the encompassing Arts League of Lowell's bright and airy coop gallery, allows the viewer to interact with the art on a very personal basis.

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At the reception, and for the run of the show, the soft-cover edition of my book, The lawn was like a hay field, will be available from the gallery. It’s also available here.

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Where is the Arts League of Lowell?

307 Market Street, Lowell, MA 01852

From Route 3 North or South, or from I-495: Take the Lowell Connector to Thorndike Street. (Exit 5B). Follow Thorndike and continue on Dutton Street. Turn left on Market Street.
The ALL is on the right in the red brick Gates Block building. The gallery is just inside the main entrance. 

 (click here for a map)

Parking

There is some on-street, metered parking near the gallery, but the HCID Parking Facility, at 350A Dutton Street is a 6 minute walk. To get to the gallery from there, follow the signs toward, and past the National Park Visitor's Center, then turn left onto Market Street. Cross Dutton Street at the light and the ALL is the second building on the right.

(click here for a map to this garage)

About ALL

ALL was founded in the Fall of 2003 and held its first monthly meeting in January of 2004. With the help of its members, sponsors, and patrons, ALL fosters and celebrates creativity and artistic expression in Lowell and the surrounding areas. Click here to learn more.

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It's a sort of (very) good news, (not so) bad news thing...

First the good news: The hand-made, first-edition of my book, "the lawn was like a hay field", sold out on the first day that I announced its availability!

I am extremely grateful for all of the interest!

So the bad news is that they're gone. I am truly sorry if anyone was disappointed because they were not able to snag a copy.

The news may not be SO bad though. I am actively researching commercial printing options for a 2nd edition. I really enjoyed printing and hand-binding each of the books in the 1st edition, but it is really an investment in time and materials, so “limiting” the number is essential. A commercially-printed edition would obviously be more like a mass-produced art book than a hand-made one, but it would not be a limited one.

This idea is currently just that, an idea. A 2nd edition doesn't yet exist, so my ramblings here are not a commitment. Today though I would like to conduct an extremely unscientific survey. As many of you know, my blog posts feature a "like" button at the bottom of each post (it looks like a heart). You don't have to log into anything to register your opinion and I cannot see who presses the button. I only see a number of clicks. (You can always leave a comment for me though) But if you like the idea of more books being available, especially if you think you would like to purchase one, I would ask that you press the "like" button in today’s blog (look for the heart). There would be no commitment on your part either, but the raw numbers would be a fairly useful data point for me.

Thank you again for all of your interest in, and support of my work!!!

Adrien

The Book, Part 3

When I embarked on this project I don't think I was thinking that creating a book would be easy. But I don't think I knew how big this project would end up being either. The process of creating the content of the book, from making the photographs and writing the text, to working with Emily Belz to select and sequence the photos, to working with Doug Sparks to get the text right, to ink-jet printing the entire 72 page book - 16 times, and now to actually making the hand-made books...has taken me about a year to get to this point. I still have a lot of book binding work to do, but the completed work is in sight!

I have one completed "artist proof", which is a prototype book. There are a couple of things that I learned from doing the AP that will help going forward, but the AP is effectively like the final product. I just completed the sewing of the other 15 book bindings and will be gluing the bindings this coming week. Then on to Middlesex Bindery, where Todd Davis has graciously shown me how to use his guillotine, and is allowing me to trim all 15 books. There is still a lot of work to do, specifically "casing in", but I am enjoying the process and the results are pretty gratifying.

In my next post I will include a page-turning video of a finished book, so I hope you'll stick with me!

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