This series is painting and drawing in old books and printed materials that I've collected while traveling. I started it when I was in Amsterdam in the summer of 2025 where I discovered a wooden shelf in the entryway of one of the neighborhood grocery stores which contained books and household items that locals were giving away. I treated it as a sort of exchange situation when I could.

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I was restarting this type of art practice then (drawing and painting generally), and I found these inspirational in terms of their covers, worn appearance, dates when published, subject matter, and/or variety of languages which I did not read. Having a background of foreign language text to work on really helped me to get going creating. I can't exactly explain why that is, but I liked it very much. It was/is a fit for my lifelong openness to different cultures and life experiences.

 

The reused item is credited in the label below each image.

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Because of the use of others' copyrighted material, these works are not for sale or use commercially, but I am open to donating them to people genuinely interested in owning them for private collections.