Artist Member
Abibliophobia
Flag Book
8 x 18 x 3” when open
Tell Me
Accordion, Front
Digital prints on Vidalon Vellum stitched to BFK Rives folios
7 x 30 x 6” when open
Tell Me
Accordion, Back
Digital prints on Vidalon Vellum stitched to BFK Rives folios
7 x 30 x 6” when open
Carole McNamee 
BIO
Following a successful first career as a professor of computer science in California, Carole retired in 2000 and pursued a new career as a marriage and family therapist with a specialization in the therapeutic use of the expressive arts. In 2005, she founded Willowbank Creative Center in Blacksburg, VA where she focused on her own artistic endeavors and directed the Arts in Healthcare Project in collaboration with The Family Therapy Center of Virginia Tech. She has published and presented regionally and nationally on the therapeutic uses of the expressive arts, including presentations at the American Art Therapy Association and the Society for the Arts in Healthcare annual conferences.
In 2015, Carole retired again and moved to New England where she has a renewed focus on her own artistic efforts. Since her retirement, she has been accepted into national and regional juried shows including the Attleboro Art Museum in Attleboro, MA, ArtisTree in South Pomfret, VT, Concord Art Association in Concord, MA, and 6 Bridges Gallery in Maynard, MA.
Carole’s work spans multiple media including painting, print making, collage, and book arts. Her painting and print making work is largely nonobjective and process driven. Her focus on book arts has multiple dimensions including book binding, book arts, and collage using deconstructed books giving new life to books that have been “sent out to pasture.” This work has a technical element that serves to integrate her background in mathematics and computer science with her passion for the visual arts.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
A love of books is in my DNA. My mother owned a used bookstore in Ellicott City, MD and my sister stills owns and runs Market Street Books, in Salisbury, MD. I own many (perhaps too many) books, but my real interest in books has a more artistic manifestation. As an artist, I am interested in book structure, form, visual impact and artistic expression. Text may or may not lend a narrative to a work and more often adds a visual element to a piece.
My interest in book arts has taken me on several related, but distinctly different journeys including book binding, artist books (books with distinctly different structural forms and content), box making, and collage with deconstructed books. I have experimented with many structural book forms and binding techniques and I enjoy the technical precision demanded by these activities. I find the process of stitching a text block meditative. Artist books lend a creative spin to this technical work with content – explicit or implied – providing a narrative through material, image and/or text.
Book deconstruction requires something very different from me – the ability to release an existing book from being precious in its original form. Deconstructed books provide a wealth of materials, e.g., text pages, binding elements, endpapers, cover cloths, etc., for use in mixed media collage. I still sometimes cringe when pulling a text block from its cover and spine. In contrast to the newly constructed books described above, this work gives new life to books that have been “sent out to pasture.” I enjoy working with these elements and allowing them to speak and direct their arrangement in meaningful, playful, and/or provocative ways.