Cynthia Gipple, “Summer Lake”

Cynthia Gipple
Saint Paul, Minnesota
cynthiagipple.com

Summer Lake
2019
discarded paper and fabric, sewing, watercolors
28.5 x 15 x 5.5″

Artist Statement

If I had to narrow down my work to four words, they would be; stewards, lake, projects and story.

Stewards: I am inspired by materials others leave behind such as paper, fabric, feathers and pot shards. Reusing materials is a reminder that we are all stewards of the earth.

Lake: I grew up on a small lake and am forever inspired by nature.

Projects: I consider myself a maker. The years I spent in the field of architecture was a continuation of exploring materials and ideas in a 3D form from childhood. I play with paper architectural ideas in my approach to book, box and shadow box making. When I use knitting and sewing in my bookmaking projects, it gives me a feeling of inclusion and invitation of the hand arts that passed through family ancestors.

Story: A #2 pencil provides its own versatility as vehicle in writing and drawing stories on paper. My stories are usually nature based. From memoir to non- fiction stories for kids, I know that growing up on a lake has provided material for stories.

The pages for Summer Lake were discarded materials from a Minnesota Center for Book Arts artist. I spent one week on a Minnesota lake last summer and set out to paint one lake or lake edge impression a day. I had packed limited book board, thread, and discarded jeans and shirts from family members. The cover for this book is using a Boro Japanese technique of repairing cotton clothing. The structure for this book came from an idea of putting my watercolors in to a gallery/ book form and an accordion seemed the most natural support structure for the drawings. The words in the book are drawing titles and also a litany poem of the week on the lake last summer. I am working on some future ideas of lake impressions during fall, winter and spring.