Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Session 2.05 Arts: The Book as Art in Appalachia
Session Abstract or Summary
This session features four book artists whose work shares a common axis of Appalachian themed word and image. Three works were created using letterpress and hand bookbinding. The fourth work is a hand-illustrated novel.
Chris Dockery’s work, “Farm School,” tells the story of a generation, a region, and a moment in Appalachian education capturing the lived experience of elders/alumni in the communities of Polk County, Tennessee and Cherokee County, North Carolina. The arts based research centers on the Lynn Bachman Memorial School and its role in Appalachian education before public schools.
Frank Brannon and Jeff Marley’s work "Unega nole Gigage, An Outdoor Artists Book" features remnants of an art installation, which remained in an outdoor setting for four months that have been reinterpreted as an artist’s book. The collaborative project between two Appalachian artists considers the understanding and value of place as it relates to two different cultures in western North Carolina.
Robert Gipe will share an excerpt from Trampoline, his 2015 illustrated novel about a young girl growing up in the eastern Kentucky coalfields caught between a grandmother who is fighting stripmining and a mother sliding into addiction. Trampoline includes 200 original drawings that are integrated into the text.
Poet, Forrest Johnson will present “Elegy for Ira H./ Exit from Appalachia” a work that reflects on loss, ancestry, and the tensions of regional identity. Johnson collaborated with book artist, Frank Brannon, both Appalachians, to explore departures from traditional boundaries-of the region, the poem, and the book.
Presentation #1 Title
“Farm School": Recalling Meaning & Memory of the Lynn Bachman School
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
This project tells the story of a generation, a region, and a unique educational moment in Appalachian history through a series of hand printed, hand bound, illustrated artists books. Capturing the lived experience of elders in the communities of Polk County, Tennessee and Cherokee County, North Carolina, the research expands our understanding of Appalachian education and social work before public education was introduced to the area. The project appropriately merged Dockery’s interdisciplinary work in visual arts, art education and Appalachian Studies and expanded the scholarship on rural education. Utilizing an arts based research methodology, the research introduces the Lynn Bachman Memorial School and Home to the growing body of literature related to Appalachian Settlement Schools. Three elders were interviewed, an archives of historical and artistic images of the Bachman school was generated, and a limited edition of artists’ books that utilize the heirloom craft of letterpress, photo transfer, and German book binding technique was created.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Chris Dockery is a native of Western North Carolina and an Associate Professor at the University of North Georgia where she teaches bookarts, letterpress and coordinates the art education program. She is the Teaching Fellow for the Georgia Appalachian Studies Center at UNG where she works with students on the design and implementation of arts based research projects relevant to issues of Appalachia.
Presentation #2 Title
“Unega nole Gigage, An Outdoor Artists Book”
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
The first of three outdoor installations, entitled “Unega nole Gigage/White and Red,” was placed in a mountainous setting for four months between the towns of Sylva, North Carolina, and Cherokee, North Carolina. Using traditional book arts disciplines of hand papermaking and printing, the original installation was produced from hand processed okra stem paper and letterpress printed text. A global positioning system (GPS) was used to produce printed imagery, and two performances accompanied the project while it was subjected to the elements. The performances are an activation of the space as both book and sacred space. The space/location celebrates the land, while the book is a record of the events, albeit a temporal one. The remnants of the installation were then brought indoors to be reinterpreted and bound as an artist book. The collaborators on the project, one from each community, will describe in this session the impetus, evolution and result of the work.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Frank Brannon is a native of Tennessee, and currently lives near Dillsboro, North Carolina. He is the proprietor of SpeakEasy Press. A member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild, Frank is a printmaking instructor with Southwestern Community College in western North Carolina and an adjunct book arts instructor with Western Carolina University.
Jeff Marley is the 2013 Sequoyah National Research Center Art Fellow and received the 2013 President's Service Award at Southwestern Community College. He is currently the Heritage Arts Department Chair at Southwestern Community College.
Presentation #3 Title
"Trampoline"
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
- Robert Gipe will discuss and read from Trampoline, his 2015 illustrated novel about a young girl growing up in the eastern Kentucky coalfields caught between a grandmother who is fighting stripmining and a mother sliding into addiction. Trampoline includes 200 drawings by Gipe are integrated into the text.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Robert Gipe is the director of the Appalachian Program at Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College in Cumberland, Kentucky. He is one of the executive producers of the community performance project Higher Ground and the author of the novel Trampoline (Ohio University Press, 2015).
Presentation #4 Title
“Selections from Elegy for Ira H./Exit from Appalachia, An Artists Book”
Presentation #4 Abstract or Summary
Poet, Forrest Johnson will present these letterpress printed poems, chosen around the motif of water, are reflections on loss ancestry, and the tensions of regional identity. The choice to print and bind the work into a sculptural form was a collaborative effort between the poet and book artist, both Appalachians, to explore departures from traditional boundaries-of the region, the poem, and the book.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Forrest Johnson is a fifth generation native of rural southeastern Kentucky. For college, he moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where he earned two degrees studying literature and also the outdoors. He continued his studies in New England earning his MA in English Language and Literature from Boston College in 2008. Currently, he paints and writes, and also teaches writing at a small private school near Asheville.
“Farm School": Recalling Meaning & Memory of the Lynn Bachman School
This project tells the story of a generation, a region, and a unique educational moment in Appalachian history through a series of hand printed, hand bound, illustrated artists books. Capturing the lived experience of elders in the communities of Polk County, Tennessee and Cherokee County, North Carolina, the research expands our understanding of Appalachian education and social work before public education was introduced to the area. The project appropriately merged Dockery’s interdisciplinary work in visual arts, art education and Appalachian Studies and expanded the scholarship on rural education. Utilizing an arts based research methodology, the research introduces the Lynn Bachman Memorial School and Home to the growing body of literature related to Appalachian Settlement Schools. Three elders were interviewed, an archives of historical and artistic images of the Bachman school was generated, and a limited edition of artists’ books that utilize the heirloom craft of letterpress, photo transfer, and German book binding technique was created.
