Fall 2021 - Winter 2023 by Rachel Simmons
"My visual journals are a space for self-reflection and material experimentation. Through a layered mixed media approach to drawing, painting and collage, I use my journals to examine and document my life experiences. On both sides of the leporello, the reader encounters entries about my life over the last few years as a teacher, artist and parent. One particular folio contains a letter to my daughter the night before she left home-for the first time- to spend a semester in Australia. Others were made during a month-long residency in a small village in Eastern Iceland, while another was made about the comfort of being home on a Sunday morning.
“I usually work in my journals when taking a break from other projects to help recharge and redirect my creative energy. The cyanotypes I used for the covers and box were remnants from a previous project about birds, a topic which occupies many of my other books, while the cover images of the beekeeper and the hive express my active relationship with my creative practice.”
- Rachel Simmons:
Processes, Dimensions, and Edition Information
Orlando, Florida: Rachel Simmons , 2024. One-of-a-Kind.
Visual journal bound as a leporello book. Enclosed in a wood box covered in cyanotype prints of snake skin and feathers. Journal pages include acrylic, collage, vellum, typewriter, gel transfers and ink. Box dimensions are 9.5" tall x 6.5" wide x 1" deep. Fully open display dimensions of the book are 9" tall x 55" wide x 6". Signed by the artist.