Altered Silver

When I first started seeing things called "gluebooks" in web galleries, I didn't have a very high opinion of them. I saw standard composition books used as a place to glue daily ephemera. Got some junk mail that day? Glue it into the composition book. Went shopping? Glue your receipt. Emptied an office product? Glue down the box cover. Snacked on a candy bar? Glue the wrapper. Prepared ground beef for dinner? Glue down the meat weight label. Etcetera ad infinitum ho hum...

What's the point of that???

I decided I wasn't interested in them, yet it seemed that once gluebooks had entered the realm of my awareness, I began to see more and more of them without looking for them. And although most were of the glue-down-the-daily-ephemera variety, there were some standouts, collages being called "gluebooks" that actually approached a level worthy of being called "art" (such as nearly all of this entire website). I started being more intrigued, but still didn't "get" what gluebooks are about. If it's just about gluing down daily ephemera...uh, why do that? And if it's about building art collages in composition books, why not call them "art collage books"?

I began searching "gluebooks" on Google, viewing as many galleries as I could find. I also began seeing less of the glue-down-the-daily-ephemera type and growing more intrigued. At last, I came upon Lisa Vollrath's Gluebooks and Journals gallery and that led me to her Discovering Gluebooks article, her Throw-Away Collage article and Throw-Away Collage gallery. One of Lisa's links led me further on to Jane Dickinson's Throw-Away Collage-A-Day Journal page, which also provided me with the answer to my most pressing question: "Treat this as a gesture 'drawing'," Jane had written on her website, "knowing every one won't be a masterpiece, but it's a great way to loosen up."  Eureka! Jane's statement spoke to me in the art terminology I was familiar with. Gluebooks then, were a paper arts version of a gesture drawing! All that clicking you hear is the gluebook imagery puzzles I'd seen falling into place for me at last.

With this resonating definition, the urge to join in followed quickly. To simply make a quick "gesture drawing" (albeit in collage) without trying to "make art" as such, and to do it daily, a "gluebook" becomes an exercise in familiarizing oneself with one's tools and methods as well as assisting in building a (relatively quick) body of work. As I've recently been slowing down on my F&W work, unsure of what I want to "immortalize" on all those book pages, the "gluebook" or quick daily collage, seemed an ideal way for me to attain more finished bookwork without agonizing over what it should become or how to get there.

My initial gluebook pages can be viewed in this August 2005 BlogSpirit album. I tried to also make albums for September and October, but BlogSpirit is bogging down too much with photos. However, all the gluebook entries can be found by selecting the "Gluebook/DailyCollage" category on the left column.

[edit 10/9/05]: BlogSpirit is feeling well enough again that I was able to upload both September and October gluebooks to photo albums (found in the righthand column). If the albums stop working for any reason, the tip for using the Categories works well regardless.




Technorati Tags: altered books, art journals, collage, mixed media, gluebooks