dusty roads

a very inspiring blog post i read a little while ago reminded me of a print i had ordered of my icy branches trapped along the shores of our little lake -  printed on hahnemuehle bamboo printer paper,  it's been languishing in a drawer for almost two years

i'd intended to use it for a book cover, hard-backed, but had never got around to making the book as i couldn't decide on the orientation

the idea of small pamphlet-stitched booklets as in the linked blog post was very appealing so i dug out the long-forgotten prints (there were actually two copies) and set to work, cutting the paper so i had two landscape booklets and two in portrait-style

two of the booklets have a fine drawing paper for the pages and the other two have sea white cup-cycling paper, a nice drawing paper made from recycled coffee cups

love how the image spreads across the booklet when it's fully opened

being very inspired, i printed one of my favourite icy winter images of the yukon river taken this past winter and made a fifth booklet with it

for an extra bit of detail I added either a sliver of a photo or piece of painted paper to the inside cover(s)

when the prints were cut down tiny over-looked details gained in prominence - here the markings on the ice resemble two hearts, nestled together

the image below is my favourite of all, that hint of red-brown bark is such a delight

working with these images brought to mind a small envelope of old photographs of my dad as a young child that i keep on my worktable

whitehorse was vastly different in the early 1940s, before the army came to build the alaska highway... before any roads were paved, when the town was still very small

dad loved to fish in the river but more than that he loved to wear his papa's hat

there is nothing like riding a bike an old wooden sidewalk... uneven boards and curled edges make for a slightly bumpy ride that is far more fun than concrete or pavement can provide

(the sidewalks were still mostly wooden when i was young so i had the great fun of riding my trike on them too)

in this next image I'm fairly sure dad and his friend had picked armloads of fireweed - the leaves and stems look right

these images have always made me think of dusty roads and wooden sidewalks

kind of sounds like the title of a country music song doesn't it

for decades i have wanted to make a book of poems about childhood in the yukon using these images as part of the illustrations

first i had to learn book-binding, then calligraphy, then drawing and painting and whilst i'm not a proficient at any i think i'm capable of now of bringing my idea to life

one more thing added to the "to do" list then