Phone Book MashUp!

So I’m about 65%-70% finished with my entry in the Phone Book Mash-Up, and I am learning alot… I took on this project for various reasons, one being as a way to teach myself about the techniques needed to construct these “paper quilts” that I am working on in other types of paper… I have learned that rubber cement and rubber cement pickups are not friends of the thin phone book pages, that’s for sure… which, in turn, has led me to believe that for my future paper quilt projects, I will be double-sided taping down my various cut paper pieces… I have also learned that it is very difficult to keep 2000+ small pieces of paper lined up straight on a large canvas!… but at least rubber cement allows for repairs…

For some reason, working with these thin phone book pages reminds me of one of my favorite “Eureka” moments in the small business world, which I read about a few years ago… the guy who invented Post-It notes was a chemist who was working on a formula for an extremely strong adhesive… he kept working on it and just couldn’t get a strong adhesive… he was telling his friend about how he was brushing this adhesive onto paper and sticking it to other pieces of paper and various surfaces, and it would only hold until someone pulled it off, and it would come off very easily… this chemist was frustrated, but his friend said “you know, that would work very well for me actually- I need a bookmark for my Bible, and the pages are so thin in my Bible, that sounds like it would very well- it will keep the bookmark in the Bible, but it won’t rip the pages when I take it out”… long story short, he eventually sold the formula to 3M and the Post-It brand was born… he’s probably sipping mai tais on a beach somewhere right now…

Anway, I’ve always loved stories like that, and it seems appropriate working with these phone book pages… kind of wish the backs of all my little cut out phone book pages had the Post-It adhesive on them, just to keep them in place until I clear coat the entire piece!… anyone else having difficulty with working with these phone book pages??…

I am Gregory, one of the artists for the Phone Book Mash-Up project, created by Working Artists Online. I have only been in Portland for just over a month, and am excited to already be a part of a community arts project such as this! My girlfriend and I moved here for a career opportunity for her, so at the moment I am searching for a job of my own. I used to complain that I never had enough time to work on my own art, and now I have nothing but time, so this project is lighting the fire under me!

SOOOO, first blog about the Phone Book Mash-Up and my part of it?… a brief synopsis of my idea, which I presented at the opening party, is creating a quilting- inspired canvas piece, created out of the pages of the phone book… I have an affinity for the art of quilting, mostly because my mom is an avid quilter, and also because I have a bachelor’s degree in fashion design, and have been sewing for 13 years myself (but no quilts that I’ve sewn to date)… I am currently working on other quilt- inspired artworks in different mediums, so when this phone book project presented itself to me, I thought it would translate well to create a piece with phone book pages… I am an ardent fan of minimalists and repetitive art pieces (think Agnes Martin, Sol LeWitt), and I found traditional quilt patterns to be a natural source for inspiration- something that everyone can relate to and recognize, and hopefully enjoy…

I created a small, 12″ by 12″ piece for the party to show the other artists, and I think it was well received… I created a single quilt “block”, which is one square piece with a definable pattern, consisting of smaller squares and triangles… my final piece is still in the planning stages, but it will likely consist of 4 different “blocks”, repeated 4 times each, for a total of 16 of these quilt “block” patterns… each of the blocks is made up of 64 “spaces”, occupying 1 1/16″ by 1 1/16″, and each space is occupied by either 1 square or 2 triangles… so when all is said and done, I will be cutting out hundreds of little squares and triangles from those thin, delicate phone book pages, gluing them to the canvas, and trying not to get my newsprint- stained fingers all over the piece… that is so far the first challenge that has presented itself…

each of the 4 different “block” patterns will be created from a phone book for the cities that I have spent a significant amount of time in… I have emailed friends and family that still live in these places to send me phone books, and so far they are on board to help me… I grew up in upstate New York, so my parents and my best childhood friend and his wife are sending them along to me… I spent almost 2 years in Rochester, NY for college, so my one remaining friend there is solely responsible for getting me those phone books!… the last 11 years of my life were spent in Philadelphia, where I went to college and worked my “career” jobs, while also honing my artistic visions, and also where I met my soul mate Sarah… luckily I still have a lot of old friends and co-workers there, so the phone books should be easy to get for that city… and then of course Portland, which I now call home and so far really adore- although for my small test piece, I destroyed my one and only phone book… but don’t we all just look things up on the web now anyway?…

so I am excited to get started on the final piece… I think the end result will be an amazing visual piece, one that people will remember seeing… so for those interested, I will be writing in this blog on occasion to describe how the project is coming along… I’m not usually one for blogging at all, but I am finding it to be a cathartic way to work through the technical problems that arise as I work… it seems that if I write them down, I am more apt to think them through and come to a conclusion… like most of my artwork so far, the idea for a piece is not the problem, and often just pops into my head.. but the actual execution of the work and the technical issues drag on for the duration of the piece!… so maybe some of you will find it interesting, I hope…

for now, I have to start slicing up phone books and deciding on the size of the final piece… until next time, thanks for reading, Greg