Book Exchange ~~ Painting a Dog a Day by Kimberly Kelly Santini

In January I took a book making class with local genius Pat McGraw. We decided to reconvene in March with a newly made book for each of the attendees and do a book exchange of sorts. I snagged a full-color Van Gogh coffeetable book with broken binding at my library's used book sale. I gently removed the pages, tore them into equally sized strips, artfully grouped into signatures (text meeting fragments of paintings, sometimes upside down even), which I then pamphlet stitched. Five signatures were then woven together along the spines using a watercolor dyed pearle cotton. I was particularly excited about the random quality of the assembled pages. Snippets of the text ran alongside bits of paintings, and when placed in context with each other, encouraged entirely new discoveries. I also made sure to include plenty of space in the margins and elsewhere so that the recipient could add their own thoughts to the books. We met one evening last week, enjoyed catching up with each other, shared a couple sips of wine, and traded our books. I came home with a beautiful accordian-fold volume highlighting the value of friendship (so appropriate given that it came from a long-time client turned friend) and an equally gorgeous rubber band bound book of The Native American Ten Commandments. The best part? We've decided to meet every 3 months and repeat the process. My next book is going to be made up of some of my monoprint experiments (have you seen these? I've been sharing them on Facebook....... come be a fan of the studio and get a peek at other projects that feed my inspiration!). Thanks in advance for sharing the Painting a Dog a Day artwork and my journey, Kim ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com Never Stop Learning I have always been fascinated by books, from a design standpoint, an avid reader's perspective, and as a craftsperson. I finally got my chance to indulge my interest in handmade books last January (see above). Learning the assembly process of a variety of bindings has opened the door to a wealth of new ideas. Ideas I'll use at the easel and while stitching up new tomes. "Help Japan" The Daily Paintworks challenge, "Help Japan," has raised nearly $20,000! I've donated 2 paintings to the cause, both of which will benefit Save the Children. My doll painting "Ruthie"'s auction ends in a handful of hours. And you can go directly to the pet portrait auction here. This painting's auction will run through tomorrow evening. Thanks so much.