After 30 years of raising my family in Colorado, I now divide home between the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan and the Milwaukee area of Wisconsin, with lots of travel peppered in between. The Cover to Cover series sprang to life as soon as I arrived in the Keweenaw for the 2024 season and it developed at rapid fire pace over the summer months. This is how it happened...

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Pulling into the driveway of our Lake Superior cabin a few miles outside of Calumet, MI, the spring wild flowers where bursting with personality as far as the eye could see. I immediately wondered if I could capture some of their brilliance. With a little bit of trial and error, I began collecting and pressing various batches of flowers. At the same time, I came across a local book sale with stacks and stacks of books as far as the eye could see. I salvaged some of these books and ended up with boxes and boxes of them lined up in the cabin. The idea came to artistically repurpose the book covers as a support for the flowers and the Cover to Cover series was hatched.

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Part I of the series uses mixed media: cut out words, hand made paper, book covers and dried flowers. I used the text pages from several books to papier-mâché repurposed frames which became a permanent part of the art pieces themselves.

 

In Part II, I saved Reader’s Digest covers, matched them up with original drawings, and paired them with recycled frames. 

 

In a playful twist, Part III uses the artwork from books and combines it with silhouette images. In books, readers become part of the story, taking on alter identities or avatars for imaginative adventures. The silhouette animals, mainly cats and birds, stand in for the reader, becoming characters in the story and bringing the picture to life.

 

Cover to Cover 2024 is all about sourcing local Keweenaw materials and repurposing salvaged items with a fresh flare.