IRENE UHLEMANN
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Artist Books

My introduction to the artist book was in 2009.   The idea that a body of work could be housed within covers of a hand-made, hand-sewn book was appealing.  I took classes/workshops and learned the basics of book-binding.  Although the making of
an art book adheres to rules of construction, the art within the book is totally open to the artist.
 This suits my art practice;  creating a narrative on a particular subject that fascinates/interests me at the time.  (Place pointer on images for more information).
2020 - This was exhibited in the Kalamazoo Book Arts Centre, Michigan, USA. Media: foamboard, gold self-adhesive paper and gold pen.
A small accordion book. Areas were cut out to reveal asemic writing in gold ink on other pages.
Small accordion book opened out. 2020
2017 - Exhibited in the Impressions Print Expo in Galway. Prints were taken from rook feathers given by a friend who lives near a large rookery in Co. Wicklow.
The book was hand-sewn using the Coptic stitch. Opposite pages were covered with a gold vinyl.
The paper I chose had a pink hue and complemented the printing ink mixed for the series. I printed from real rook feathers. Acetate and gold trimming were used to present these Crow prints.
2016 - This artist book was exhibited in Valley Art Gallery, Forest Grove, Oregon. It was called Longitude, Latitude & Elevation. The book was made with heavy Fabriano paper dyed with coffee/beetroot. I used paint and inks. I wove the fastener and sewed along the sides with red raffia.
The book opens out flat. The title of the book was "The Bloody Road" and a response to a life-changing event in my life.
After printing out all my medical reports from over the years, I cut words or sentences and rearranged them onto the inside. I used the blanket stitch around the edges with red natural raffia.
2016 - Scroll book. Media: wood dowels, canvas, gold material, gouache/acrylic paint and imitation gold leaf.
My scroll book, Fermanagh poet Maria MacManus' invited artists from other disciplines to interpret her work and this culminated in a show "Cirque des Oiseaux visited Enniskillen and Belfast. 2016
Media: thin canvas; some areas dyed with coffee. I selected various typefaces appropriate to the poems.
2014 - 13 pages made from MDF; 59 (l) cm x 42 (w) cm x 7 cm (d). Black raffia was used to sew the book together using the Coptic Stitch, a stitch that facilitates opening the book flat. This shows the sewing stations.
Front page of my homage to Crow. "Crow my life in pictures" Tissue paper and black paper were used to give texture to the wooden covers and foam for typeface and image. It was unfinished at this point.
The contents of this book contains images I made using scraperboard, gouache and watercolours. It records the stages of a crow's life.
2014 - The following images 1-6 are contained inside "Crow - My Life in Pictures". Rook, side view, on scraperboard.
2014 - Rook, front view. On scraperboard (scratchboard in the US).
2014 - Jackdaw (a member of the crow family). Scraperboard lends itself to very fine lines. Thanks to Michael Finn for photograph
2014 - "A day without me" Crow imagines a world without him. Scraperboard.
2014 - "Crow begins". Scraperboard.
2014 - "A murder". Scraperboard.
2013 - an Accordion book for the Tiny Book Show which travelled around the US. I used a heavy paper which I decorated with a permanent pen and cut out circles within the pages themselves. The designs were made randomly within the circles.
My Accordion Book which was part of the Tiny Book Show that travelled the USA. It was SOLD and is in a small library in the US. The decoration was totally random.
The paper was decorated by hand with black pen/ ink and shapes were cut out on some of the pages. This image shows the book prior to covers being applied.
Picture
Front and back cover of a book titled "A Forest" inspired by a song of the same name by The Cure.  The covers were made of birch plywood which I drew onto using a pyrography pen that burns into the wood.  I worked from photos I took in the Sallygap, Co. Wicklow. The front cover took 24 hours, the back cover 21 hours.


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