Lily S. May–Life with Art
I'm reading and rereading the books of two great poets, Mahmoud Darwish and Ghassan Zaqtan. These were translated from Arabic into English by Fady Joudah. I mentioned that his translation of Zaqtan's Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me won him and Zaqtan the Griffin Poetry Prize this year. Reading Straw Bird has led me… Continue reading The Excellent Poetry I’m Reading
I've kept a few of my old sketchbooks. Here's an ink drawing I did in '87 that's in one of those books. I made it close to the same time as the paintings and drawings in my last post. A sketchbook can serve as a visual journal. This drawing of my then bedroom brings… Continue reading Open Sketchbook
Origami Booklet from Linocut by Lily S. MayThis is another folded booklet I've made in the past month or two from an old linocut. It was an image of a mythological mother nature becoming a tree and was another subtraction print. That is, I made it from one block that I progressively cut away and… Continue reading Folded Linocut Booklet
I learned late last night who won the Griffin Poetry Prize. The Canadian prize went to David W. McFadden for his book What's the Score? and the international prize went to Ghassan Zaqtan and translator Fady Joudah for Like a Straw Bird It Follows Me, and Other Poems. Congratulations! Again, if you're a poetry lover, go to the Griffen… Continue reading And the Winners Are….
As I’ve continued looking through my old prints and refashioning them, I came upon another linocut I made in the 1970s that I called Roots and Ruins. This is a scene from my visits to the Virgin Islands years ago. A favourite site of mine was a place, now wooded, which had once held a… Continue reading Roots and Ruins
Surprise fold booklet by Lily S. May, 2013I did indeed use the fold out booklet I wrote about on Feb. 2 as a model. Again, I was happily surprised at the variation that I discovered. Booklet with surprise folds by Lily S. May, 2013This mail art booklet is 5” from point to bottom and 2 ½”… Continue reading Surprise Folds
I’ve received my first mail art, in response to work I sent out in early February. Hélène Lacelle of Goop Gallery in Ottawa sent me three terrific pages of an altered book in a floral plastic sleeve. These were enclosed in a brightly printed envelope. In my eagerness to see the work, I peeled off… Continue reading First Mail Art Received
Fold Out Booklet made from old linocut by Lily S. May, 2013I’ve continued turning some of my old prints into booklets and sending them out as mail art. The one I’ll show you today I’ll be keeping for a while. It’s a happy accident that I want to use for reference for other booklets. I… Continue reading Fold Out Booklet as Mail Art Model
I’ve sent out another booklet as mail art, this time to a friend who’s also an artist. This was the first book I complied. It’s made of two prints. I placed the smaller book upside down inside the large one and sewed them together. Kapoks Touching, which you can see in my last post, forms… Continue reading Old Prints, New Booklets & Mail Art 2
I’ve made many linocuts and woodcuts since the 1970s, some of which I’ve sold and given as gifts or hung on my walls. But I have a great many that I’ve stored in a box and carried with me. They’ve been accusing me of neglect for several years. I have finally, this month, begun paying… Continue reading Old Prints, New Booklets & Mail Art
Arts of May 