As a member of San Diego Book Arts, http://sandiegobookarts.org, I wanted to paticipate in the upcoming cARTalog exhibit, which will travel to five San Diego area libraries from July 2007 through January 2008. The concept started with the University of Iowa. Thousands of cards from now-retired card catalogs were sent across the country with an invitation to create works of art from them. Of the cards distributed by San Diego Book Arts, this one, as it were, is the hand I was dealt. The synchronicity of this card finding me is beyond words. I completed the year of saying Kaddish (the prayer said in community as part of Jewish mourning practices) for my mother only a few months ago. The process was transformational in ways I could not have forseen.
Like the just-right writing prompt, this library catalog card opened an unexpected door for me. I am led to a new series of work called "Cherish Each Day," which views the simple, the ordinary, the everyday, through a new lens. My mother loved music - it was the last thing that remained with her. To be given a card of a record - this record, of Leonard Bernstein's Kaddish Symphony, - was magical.
