Tuesday, September 28, was slated to be cloudy and rainy – at least according to the well-meaning weather forecasters. But this did not deter a group of determined NEBA members from getting together at the Arnold Arboretum in Jamaica Plain. Laurie Alpert, Marie Canaves, Ania Gilmore, Cristina Hajosy, Carolyn Letvin, and Susan Marsh came masked, chairs and blankets in tow, with a book which they wanted to share with the group. Being mindful of social distancing guidelines, the artists positioned themselves with plenty of room between them, under a tree by the Hunnewell Building housing the Visitors Center.
Due to the pandemic, it’d been months since they’d had the opportunity to see one another in person and there was much to share. The conversation ranged in tone from serious to lighthearted as each member detailed ways in which they’d dealt with the crisis. Then they got down to business. Each one brought out their book and engaged in a lively and informative “show and tell”.
Laurie spread out part of an accordion book – a visual journal – on which she has been working since March, when the shutdown began. Elegant and minimal in aesthetic, each page represented one day in the pandemic. As we were now up to 300 days into this crisis, with no end in sight, the book was very, very long. It will be interesting to see how long it becomes before the pandemic is over.
Susan brought a square-shaped box, Books from the Sea, covered with paper filled with wavy forms suggestive of the ocean. Inside were several books of different sizes and shapes, each one made out of a surprising material: seaweed! The smell of the seaweed notwithstanding, she explained how she had gathered it, made it into pages, and embedded different-colored pieces of seaweed for added visual interest.
Ania showed the zine she made for NEBA’s first Zine Swap and her meditation memoir done during the pandemic. The latter was square in shape and chock-full of pages. Each page related to a single day and contained abstract pen drawings in black and red. For her zine Walls, she used details of some of these designs along with rectangular forms which she interspersed with the powerful poem by Constantine P. Cavafy of the same name.
Carolyn came with her zine, a work-in-progress, and a little Russian icon – a diptych – that she’d purchased at the marvelous Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, MA. Her zine was based on beautiful paintings she had made of sheep. Wanting to continue working with the same subject, she discussed her idea of incorporating them into the format characteristic of Russian icons.
Marie displayed her double-sided zine, It’s ALL in a Name, along with some of her preparatory sketches. It was intended as a critique of Trump and his presidency. The recto contained an abstract design made out of the words and letters of the title. On each page, she used various fonts of different sizes, and included synonyms for the word “trump,” along with its connotations in Latin – the language of the fallen Roman Empire. The verso contained stars and stripes in distorted disarray.
Cristina came with the first edition of her feminist coloring book Vagonion. She’s planning on re-issuing it and asked for feedback from the group. The pages of the coloring book are black and white details of her marbled paper. Their curvilinear patterns are suggestive of the female form, and the book is designed so that parts or all of it can be colored with a variety of materials and colors.
The outing at the Arnold Arboretum was a wonderful opportunity for the members of the group to get to know each other and each other’s work on a deeper level. They had a fantastic time and are looking forward to a get-together at the park when the pandemic and social distancing will hopefully be a thing of the past.
NEBA 2020 Zine Swap viewing