WASHINGTON—Beth Weiss, winner of the 2006 Library Fellows Award from the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), has created a limited-edition artist’s book titled Thoughts on Color, Color of Thoughts. This 20-page book features quotations by artists screen printed on handmade paper from the Philippines. It was designed with the intention of honoring the creative genius behind artists’ work.
Thoughts on Color, Color of Thoughts was supported by the NMWA Library Fellows, whose objective is to encourage and promote book arts. Established in 1989, the award program provides up to $12,000 for the creation and production of one artist’s book each year.
Handwritten in calligraphy with pages printed on textured and two-toned paper, the book showcases quotations by creative individuals as diverse as Georgia O’Keeffe, Elizabeth Bowen, and Albert Einstein. William Massey’s poem “Wondrous Mystic Art” serves as the theme for the text, in which artists define their approach to creativity. The quotations are divided into five themes—“Wondrous Mystic Art,” “Speaking to the Eyes,” “Painting Speech,” “Tracing Magic Lines,” and “Colour and Embody Thought.”
The book cover features a circular cutout through which the title is displayed on two colors of text paper, and the surrounding exterior is supported by a hand-bound outer spine composed of Tsunami Thai paper and an inner spine of painted Tyvek. The multi-colored pages held within the 9½ inches square book are sized differently and positioned such that several always remain visible to the reader.
“Thoughts on Color, Color of Thoughts is a tribute to the creative nature of humans,” explains Weiss. “Its design was inspired by the vividly-colored handmade papers from the Philippines that I uncovered in a local supply store. I hope my artist’s book sparks creativity within the minds of all its readers and allows them to discover something new and inspiring about the visual art world.”
Born in Lawrence, Kansas, and currently living in Bismarck, North Dakota, Weiss received artistic training from the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Bismarck State College, the Split Rock Arts Program, and national and international calligraphy conferences. She has served as an instructor of introductory bookbinding and calligraphy classes at art centers, adult education workshops, and calligraphy guilds in Minnesota, Texas, and California. Her work has been featured in the Servi Textus Conference Exhibit in 1996, the Elsa Forde Gallery in 2003, the Bismarck Art and Galleries Association Annual Exhibit in 2004, and most recently at Cuesta College. It has also been showcased by numerous juried exhibitions, including the “Scribes of Hope” traveling exhibition in 1997-1998, which praised her work as one of the “best and most intelligent pieces” in the show. Weiss has received artistic recognition from the Bismarck State College Foundation and the Colleagues of Calligraphy. The ambigram designed specifically for Thoughts on Color, Color of Thoughts was recently selected for inclusion in the 2006 Letter Arts Review Annual.
Thoughts on Color, Color of Thoughts, in an edition of 125 copies, was created through an annual grant provided by the Library Fellows of the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The book is available for $300 through December 2006 and $350 thereafter by visiting the Museum Shop, calling 877-226-5294, or through the NMWA website at www.nmwa.org/museumshop. Women artists who wish to present a proposal for the 2008 Library Fellows Award should send a request for guidelines along with a self-addressed, stamped envelope to the NMWA Library and Research Center, 1250 New York Ave., NW, Washington DC 20005. Guidelines and past winners of the award may be found on the museum’s website at www.nmwa.org/library/program.asp. Proposal submission deadline is January 31 annually.
About the Women’s Museum
The National Museum of Women in the Arts, founded in 1981 and opened in 1987, is the only museum dedicated solely to celebrating the achievements of women in the visual, performing and literary arts. The museum’s permanent collection features 3,000 works from the 16th century to the present created by more than 800 artists; including Mary Cassatt, Georgia O’Keeffe, Frida Kahlo, Lee Krasner and Louise Bourgeois, along with special collections of 18th-century silver tableware and botanical prints. The museum also conducts multidisciplinary programs for diverse audiences and maintains a Library and Research Center accessible to the public by appointment. The museum is located at 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C., in a landmark building near the White House. It is open Monday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. and Sunday, noon–5 p.m. For information, call 202.783.5000 or visit the museum’s web site at www.nmwa.org.
