SATURDAY APRIL 8th
10:30AM - 3:30PM
Ages 16+
$80, 60+ Reduced Tuition Available
Join experienced bookmaker Susan Smereka as she helps students rebuild an old book and give it new life as a unique journal that will inspire your writing while capturing your precious ideas, collages, and drawings. Participants will take apart an old book and rebind it with blank pages interleaved with text from the original. Build your knowledge and skills around bookbinding as you learn the parts of a book and how to do a long stitch binding with waxed linen thread. Whether new to bookbinding or not, this workshop is appropriate for all skill levels and interests.
About Susan
Susan Smereka graduated from Concordia University, Montreal with a BFA 1994. Smereka’s media include; installation, printmaking, photography, video, and bookmaking. She had exhibitions of monoprints and paintings at the AVA Gallery, Lebonon, NH; installations and groups shows at the Flynndog, Burlington, VT; solo show of paintings at Rhombus Gallery, Burlington, VT; paintings at the Firehouse Gallery, Burlington, VT. Smereka grants and residencies include; Development Grant from the Vermont Arts Council, 2009; Creation Grant from the Vermont Arts Council, Rotary International Group Study program in India, 2004; Kittredge Foundation Grant, 2002; Incentive Grants from the Vermont Arts Council, 2001 and 2002; three month residency in Taos, New Mexico, from the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, 1998 and 2008; and a three month residency at the Vermont Studio Center, 1996
Susan was born and raised outside of Toronto, Ontario and now has lived in Vermont for over thirty years. As a dual citizen, it is not surprising that duality, as a tension and concept, is a part of her life and practice. In the studio, it manifests most prominently in the relationship between chaos and order: chaos as intuition, uncertainty, and coincidence; order as clarity, harmony, and connection. Whether working at the etching press with ink and collage, writing and bookmaking, or video installation, opposites are reconciled. In making art she experiences disorganization and coherence repeatedly and delightedly - a process that has engaged her 40 plus years.