38 sec. clip, work in progress, 2019- ongoing.
"Dictionary Compositions" is a time-lapse diaristic painting/altered book project using a Websters' Dictionary (dumpster find) as the substrate. The video depicts my response to the meaning of words on the page through text and pictures.
Dictionary Compositions (WIP) is an interdisciplinary altered book project. The work includes a Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary w. original paintings on dictionary pages; time-lapse video documentation; digital photographs and (digital) drawings based on the original paintings.
Twenty years ago I rescued this big dictionary dumpster diving. I saw it splayed and smashed atop of a pile of broken sheetrock in a Farmington Library dumpster bin. The unabridged Websters was in bad shape: the cover was just barely holding on; the broken spine disengaged from the thick folio pages. The dictionary was in bad shape but I saved it because It was a very smart object.
The dictionary sat untouched until the summer of 2019 when I opened it up to the letter “C,” and began painting india ink lines and marks over its pages. I responded to the book’s pages by painting words and imagery and recorded my actions with a time-lapse video. (This is a work in progress, Spring 2021)