One Of My Faves

Incredible

#Miniature Monday

Pandora's Box by  Peter & Donna Thomas

This is part of a series focusing on a small fraction of the lovely artists books by Peter and Donna Thomas!

Today's item is a scroll on a wooden frame that the makers compare to Pandora's Box-easy to open, but harder to put back! (Don't worry- I got it rolled back up again safely.)

When unrolled, it features a quotation from Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-five, which begins: "I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres." The text is on a backdrop of green and blue linoleum cuts by Donna Thomas.

Peter and Donna Thomas are "book artists from Santa Cruz, CA. They work both collaboratively and individually; letterpress printing, hand-lettering and illustrating texts, making paper, and hand binding both fine press and artists’ books." They have made over 100 limited edition books, often with Peter making the paper, and Donna doing the illustrations.

Check out more of Donna and Peter's books at Uiowa here.

--Diane R., Special Collections Graduate Student

🤘

worthinit

single file down to a riverside boat launch. haze hangs heavy on mind & surface alike. a trail wanders off, i meander, in search of a spot to rest this head, always buzzing, for a moment until the barrage resumes. no cover except the trees i find promise in. no questions to beg, no retort to save face. only leafy shade, under which, their searchlights cannot find me.

The Statue of liberty, rebuilt by tamam azzam, a Syrian artist, with the debris from his own house.

Lol

☝️

Last one

Illustrations by Katsuhiro Otomo (1984)

Bacchus and Ariadne by Giovanni Battista Foggini (1711-24)

Sheltering a friend

From my other blog

The process of making these is:

Collect comics and beer labels, put the beer label on a piece of paper. (Peel it off while can is full)

Find comics and beer labels with similar themes or colors. This takes a while and involves comic book shopping.

Cut out comics into fun shapes.

To put it together I drink a ton of beer with my wife and sister listen to classic rock and do blow. It makes it a fun process and seems to dial in the art itself. Outlaw country!!!