A Beginning

Based in a past, heading towards a future, all promise. When the opening dedication pages are sliced from discarded books, and reassembled along a shared horizon, the resulting mosaic of faded pinks, tans and grays holds powerful messages that allude to life, death, memory, history, care and love. Though these opening dedications appear somber, like epitaphs on tombstones, they not only honor a past but also herald a future; they fulfill some kind of debt, respond to some deeply felt emotion and proffer a significant achievement. These are important pages, framing the forthcoming text—apologia, declaration, homage. Beginnings grow out of the past. They have to start somewhere. The depth of meaning in these forgotten, pages, turned over, passed by reverberates. Detritus becomes readymade.

Stories
The blank pages that lead and follow texts in books, again tinted by age, gently marked with pentimenti from inserted notes and clippings, are far from mute. The artist is interested in the stories they hold. The very life of the book is imprinted into these fragile pages. The book is the vehicle for transporting the story; the blank page is in fact not blank at all. The support for the story tells a story. Story is both noun and verb. As a verb, it means to decorate something with images of scenes from history or legend or to tell a story. These blank pages story.

An End
Stories never end. They reverberate. Based in a past, heading towards a future, all promise.

Judith Hoos Fox
Aug 2010