Sunday, August 26, 2012

Postcards From France

"Dear Mom,

   France is beautiful."

   Those are the words on the front panel of the tunnel book, Postcards From France, my book of the week for week .. um 34.  Next month I start teaching a 6-week class on tunnel books and carousel books at the local art center in Cary, NC, so wanted to make a book to introduce the class. And I miss Paris! and the Loire valley! and Chateau du Pin!... and pate!... and the fresh fruits and vegetables of harvest season in France! Here is the front of the book...

The cover is a map of the Loire Valley, France on which is glued a velum pocket with an antique french postcard. Inside the velum envelope are three more postcards bought at an antique shop in France.

The "story" is written on the postcards... an imaginary journey... real impressions...and a sort of poetry.
Open the book to see the tunnel inside. There are seven panels that make up the scene of acrylic paint and pen and ink drawings. There's a castle... an orchard and fields...a vineyard... a village... mountains... two floating balloons and a brilliant yellow sunrise... or is it a sunset?

Looking down, the accordion sides and seven panels are clearly seen... and the front panels open like a window in an old french chateau.

I love the idea of a place that symbolizes the phenomenon of journey... that starting point and that anchor. My tunnel book with the postcards reinforces the transformation that occurs on a journey...  the part that's grounded in place and the part that moves from one point to another.
What would your tunnel book be about?
Kathy