Artist Statement
Heather Ryan Kelley
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The image of a single object can succinctly communicate an idea; and when that object is a book cover, a host of associations- invisible on the painting’s surface- can be embodied.
The book covers I have chosen to paint are those with which I have a connection because of their content, the graphic design, and physical condition. I am especially drawn to the volumes showing material evidence of the reader’s attention. In the process of being read and reread, paperback book covers and dustjackets can be nearly destroyed, but at the same time they acquire an unusual beauty.
The writer to whom I have returned most often is James Joyce. I have made many paintings, collages, intaglio prints, and artists books in response to his Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, so it seemed fitting to make paintings of the books themselves.
Prayer (FW 259) was made in reference to a chapter known as the Children’s Hour in Finnegans Wake. On the left is an altered version of the cover of the 1930’s magazine Wee Wisdom and on the right a quotation of Joyce’s humorous prayer from the last page of that chapter.
Tome is a painting of the spine of my first copy of Finnegans Wake. Equally tattered is a found copy of Aesop’s Fables. Currently I am rereading The Volcano Lover by Susan Sontag.
Peck’s Anatomy and Anatomy Fragment are renderings of a reference book by Stephen Rogers Peck. The details of the insets have been altered to reflect the knee and shoulder challenges I was experiencing at the time I began the painting. Another of my well-used reference books is How to Know the Minerals and Rocks by Richard M. Pearl.
Perpetual Novena is based upon my grandmother’s devotional booklet Perpetual Novenas to the Sacred Heart. Seeing America by James Gilchrist Lawson and Seeing Stars by W. B. White both belonged to my mother.
The outlier in the group is an altered book titled World Book. Rather than being a painting of a book cover, this work is a sculptural object. I replaced the cover of a World Book Encyclopedia volume with leather and fabric and inset a relief print on the front cover. Inside, I cut away openings for an eye cup, bottles, and a zinc plate with a quotation about mourning from Psalm 56.
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Posted in When in Rome: Nov '25 and tagged in #boudin