Artists' Books at the University of Utah

I was very blessed this week. I am able to take Art 4090, Artists' Books, at the University of Utah on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It is a class run through the Book Arts Program at the Marriott Library. I have taken numerous book arts workshops and one university class for non-credit during the last ten years. I teach origami books, art books across the curriculum, and a history of the book for honors language arts classes at my school. I have also taught basic book arts for several libraries in the Salt Lake County Library System, at professional conferences, and at the Barnes & Noble in Sandy, Utah. I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about books, making books, and teaching others to make books. I am now of an age where I am able to audit university classes as a "senior" citizen (I don't feel like a senior citizen). It is a state mandated program administered through the continuing education departments of state universities and colleges. You pay a small audit tuition for the term and any class materials fees required for the classes you want to audit. Of course, you also have to hope there is room in the class and that the instructor will give you an add number to complete the registration.

This is the opening page of a book I made for my grandson.

I saw the class listed in the Book Arts schedule on line and thought and pondered much about how I could organize my overly busy life and take the class. After investigating the senior audit possibilities and learning how the program works, I decided to throw caution, and a few of my too many school and out of school activities, to the wind and try it. Tuesday after school, I went to the first class to see if there were any room left for an old man to take the class as an audit, and if so, procure the add number I needed to complete my registration through continuing education. The class was almost full with three university students needing to add the class. The instructors, Marnie Powers-Torrey and Chris McAffee, from whom I have taken many workshops and classes in the past, said the university students should have the slots, and I agreed without hesitation or reservation.  Marnie said I could stay until the end of class to see if any one would drop out and leave room for me. I stoically hid my disappointment behind a nodding smile as I listened to Chris cover the syllabus and demonstrate the Guillotine paper and board cutters. Of course, no one dropped out.

Before the end of class, after they had given the three students add numbers, Marnie talked to me and said that she and Chris wanted me to be able to take the class even though it was full (to the top and over flowing). I told her that I didn't want to be a problem for them. She said I wasn't a problem, and if I would come to class and not take a seat, maybe sit on the side where the aides sit, unless someone was absent they would let me in. I said I would be happy to sit on the floor in the corner if need be. She gave me a class add number, and Wednesday morning I completed the registration. I am very grateful to Marnie and Chris and am extremely happy that I have had a past association and history with them such that they know I am not going to disappoint them. On Thursday when I arrived, Chris told me that a student had dropped the class so everything was fine. I wouldn't have to be a sideline sitter or sit on the floor in the corner!

I finished the first assignment, a class sketchbook/journal, before class on Thursday and have been deeply pondering how I am going to create the first artist book, Sequencing a Single Image, which is due on January 25. My only problem is sifting through all the flashes of ideas to settle on just the "right' one. As Mark Twain said, " The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug." So it is with Artists' Books!