{ PROSPERITY : Word of the Year } : Winter 2022

I have been making Vision Boards, setting goals (both personal and professional) and crafting a Word of the Year on the first of the year for over a decade now. I usually go through a plethora of words before founding the word that fits my feeling perfectly.

This year was no different. I vacillated back and forth with several other words that were not landing quite right. I kept cycling back to ‘Prosperity’ and felt that was exactly what I wanted 2022 to be for me.

While most of us our struggling with on ongoing pandemic, many of us our trying to reclaim some semblance of life before 2019. I know I am. I have not been feeling very creative or motivated to work on my art business. I took a break during 2019-2020. The rest was necessary but I started getting antsy. I wanted to get back to the studio and back to teaching.

Prosperity to means more than money. Prosperity to me comes in the form of creating unique, one-of-a-kind wall art and handmade artist books as well as developing dynamic and compelling art class for people of all ages. Prosperity means creating interesting content for this blog that brings people to living a more creative life. Prosperity means enhancing my amazing relationships with my partner, my daughter and my friends.

As the year goes on and I loose the motivation to keep creating, I always look back on my Word of the Year and revisit why I choose that word to guide my year.

How about you? Do you choose a Word of the Year? How do you stay connected and focus when you stray for your vision?

{ Artist Book : Green Grass & High Tides } : Winter 2021 //

Artist Books are some of my absolute favorite books to work in and to develop as a Book & Paper Artist. With so many found, handprinted and gel printed papers that are way too beautiful to throw away, Artist Books are the perfect solution to house funky collages and practice mark-making and hand lettering.

Artist Books take me YEARS to complete. As I loose interest or motivation in a particular book, I put it away and wait for inspiration to return. This way I have lots of techniques to choose from as my skills develop and I can watch my progress as an Artist over the years. The collages that you see now are not what the final collage will look when completed.

This Artist Book below is 4.5 x 8 x 1” using Canson Watercolor paper. There are (5) signatures bound together using a coptic stitch. In each of the pictures below, I describe the materials I use to create the collages that you see.

The cover of this book was created using a brown grocery bag. The hand lettering was applied using black walnut ink and a handmade cola pen. Collage papers include spray ink (my favorite are Dylusions!), handprinted papers using acrylics and handmade stamps and the black fern prints with a bleach discharge. The back cover is eco-printed on reclaimed wool.

This spread includes found papers, reclaimed paint chip, one of those beautiful gel printed paper scrap, scrapbook paper and hand lettering. I practice hand lettering as often as possible. Artist Books are a great place to work on that particular skill!

This spread includes spray inks, mark-making using black India ink and another handprinted gel print on found paper.

This spread includes spray ink, mark-making using black india ink applied with a handmade cola pen and elementary handwriting paper.

This spread includes spray ink background, watercolor (wet on wet application), hand lettering using black walnut ink applied using a handmade cola pen, and various found papers

How about you? Do you have books that you like to work in? How do you like to work in them? And if you are looking for the next installment of my Printmaking Series…do not worry! It is coming up in my next post. I got excited working in my Artist Books and wanted to share!

{ Little Red Corvette } : 3x 5 x 1" : New Work by Becca Imbur // November 2020

{ Little Red Corvette } : 3 x 5 x 1” : Spine View

{{ Little Red Corvette } : 3 x 5 x 1” : Front View

{ Little Red Corvette } : 3 x 5 x 1” : Back View

{ Little Red Corvette } : 3 x 5 x 1” : Binding View

{ Designing Artist Books : Workshop in Review } : Floyd, VA //

This past weekend, seven women gathered at the Floyd Center for the Arts for the Designing Artist Books workshop.

Group photo! All the amazing ladies that designed Artist Books with me this weekend!

Plus Grace, who had to leave early for the opera!

We explored many background paper techniques using wet-on-wet and dry processes. The end product was less important than the process. We learned to not judge what was made since the paper would be used as a piece and not as a whole. This can be a challenging concept for many people!

Using watercolors and rubbing alcohol to create unexpected results on paper

We made as many papers in 4 hours as we could. The participants could use any technique that they learned that day to make their cover paper.

MaryJo exploring art and science while creating her background papers

Spray inks are always a huge success! Being highly pigmented make them very attractive to students of all ages.

Anne LOVES her ghost prints!

Penny and Suzanne exploring spray inks…the possibilities are endless!

Using everyday items found easily, on the cheap or around the home make pattern easy to create.

MaryJo using handmade stamps on black and Kraft cardstock paper

Our books are 6 x 6” while our papers are much larger. Participants cut down their papers to he desired size. This leaves them with loads of handprinted scrap paper to use as collage within their books.

Pat using scraps of her handprinted papers to collage her pages

We had an AMAZING time creating in community. The great thing about these books are that you can add, takeaway, make pages in any size, put int ages, envelopes, pockets and fold out pages. This is a book that is never done…making it organic and endless.

{ Designing Artist Books : September 21-22, 2019 } // Floyd, VA

I will be hosting ‘Designing Artist Books’ at the Floyd Center for the Arts. If you want to learn how to make super funky papers…(or what to do with all those papers taking up space that are too beautiful to throw away), this weekend workshop is for you! In addition to making a TON of vibrant, handprinted papers, we will learn how to use everyday household items as stamps, using our handwriting as pattern, easy collage techniques that make a big impact and more!