ENGL 285 Honors Book Project

After exploring countless creations in the Special Collections Library with Sandra Kroupa (I recommend everyone make an appointment with her to challenge their perceptions of what makes a book, and further, what makes a story), I decided to create an art book that centers around "homage to place," or in this case multiple places. I treated this project as an opportunity for me to explore the extent of our responsibilities to the shepherding of cultural heritage. I wanted to appreciate each of the places I noted and attempt to better understand how their cultures and stories (often based from thousands of years ago) confront modern issues like over-tourism, economic recovery from war, climate change, etc. In essence, this project was a creative writing ode to come to terms with the intersection of our modern world and the influence of history, art, ecology, folklore, imperialism, friendship, and more from an anthropogenic, observational, investigation.

Below are some of my stories from the piece, as well as writings from the class itself.

The actual artwork was a series of textured and stained handwritten, black ink, journal entries wrapped onto a globe. Water color flags marked some of the page's origin places, while painted mountains, wildflowers, bluffs, seashores, and mountain goats, graced the southern pole of my globe. Alternating sized envelopes and letters secured sections of the earth, each enclosed with one of the 7 stories, and tied shut with a black string. The piece sits in a wooden box, which I bound like a book- the inside painted completely black, the outside speckled with hand-drawn, minimalist 'capsulations' of  the stories held inside. The title read, " I remember trying to understand when I was younger, and the best that I could come up with was that sometimes the world inside your head becomes bigger than the one outside… more enveloping."  One must open the book, pull out the globe, and begin their journey wherever their hands and mind take them.

Those curious to see, take apart, and interpret the final project in person, feel free to reach out, otherwise, enjoy the snippets of stories from the piece typed below!