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An Auto"book"ography!

A bookbinding journey

By Joan Ellen MarangoniPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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I fell in love with making handmade books when I was in high school. Mrs. Robbins, my high school art teacher had us tear up newspaper to make paper pulp in the process of creating our covers. Since then, over the past 30 years, I have crafted many books for the people I love in my life: from my own kids, to my niece and nephew, sister, friends, students and penpal.

I chose my college because of Mrs. Robbins. She was the coolest, most inspirational teacher I had as I attempted to connect to any teacher that would let me. My own father instilled a deep respect and admiration to all teachers; for one of his, advocated for him to get his first pair of glasses when he was young. He graduated from high school unable to read due to his family moving 21 times throughout his education. My mom taught him to read and we all heard how much a great education would change our lives. From a very young age, my father supported my love of art, creativity and learning.

I became a teacher due to Mrs. Robbins and an even greater part indebted to my father who saw something that I didn't see in myself when convincing me to enroll in the certification program at college. He was incredibly proud of me when I was hired as an art teacher in a permanent position in 1998, crying as he saw my information on the district webpage. It is one of my fondest memories of him. My father passed when he was 54 and I was only 27. I have had many great changes since then but creating and learning has always been a thirst that I have not been able quench.

My belief that the use of sketchbooks in art classes was essential to students being able to generate, create, and gather the ideas needed to be an artist. So early in my teaching, I taught them to make books. I broke down how to create books over 6 weeks to 3rd graders so that they would learn how to make books from the most simple of supplies that they had in their homes. Later after working as a traveling teacher for years, I moved to the high school level and I encouraged students to explore multiple materials to make even more extreme books for use. We used teddy bears, sea shells, maps, brown bags to hold memorabilia and even thin sheets of tree trunks as the covers. I taught Ceramics and Fibers for 15 years before moving into Drawing and Painting a few years ago. The last year I taught the 3D class, I handmade books for each of my students to pick one of their favorite as a parting gift. They were very touched and excited to see all that I created. It was a very difficult moment to leave something I loved and venture into something I had to start from scratch; but I was also excited to teach something that I studied in college as a painting major. This switch lead to my AP college board training and more bookbinding.

I attended an AP college board training under the guise that I would be teaching 3D. I focused on my work during that week based on a series of works that were impacted on the power of 3 as well as my love of creating books. I made the first project based on my interpretation of Work, Rest and Play. The idea was that "Work" has to be PC and very robotic in nature to some degree and was made out of metal. "Play" was linked to my side teacher gig that became a reality in 2017. A small business that allowed me to do more and make some extra money when my husband was not employed for years. "Play" was created out of paper, tape and glue; packaging materials that were able to be moved, commercial and disposable if needed. The last book was covered in cloth that was patch worked and stitched with embroidery floss to represent my home, family and the idea of "Rest" to me. All three pamphlet books were housed in a green felt container hand sewn with purple blanket stitch. A strong symbolism of all parts of me: my favorite colors, interpretation, thoughts cradled together in safety. The four day AP training, allowed me a moment to breath and think about what I felt compelled to create as a body of work if I had more time in my life to be a student again. I have spent the last few years brainstorming, designing and collecting materials to complete a 12 project body of work that is based on ideas of "3" and relating them to my life through the construction of books held in a supporting system.

In the past few weeks, as I close up one of the hardest 24 years of teaching experiences, I prepare for an artists' residency that will occur for 10 days this June. I applied for it months before Covid of 2020 which was delayed till this year. I am eager to engage with other creative teachers, spending 10 days of creating the 12 mixed media ideas I have started to build that are directly related to my journey and experiences in life. Creating is like breathing to me. It is as natural as brushing my teeth. My mind is constantly filled with ideas to create and doesn't rest. My side business has taken a hit due to covid restrictions and yet I am hopeful to begin building that again as I create not for others but for my own essential need of feeling like I am more than just a teacher. I am an artist who has spent 30 years perfecting the craft of bookbinding!

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About the Creator

Joan Ellen Marangoni

teacher

artist

small biz owner

professional intuitive

reiki master

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