One body of work: unfolding slowly
Unfolding Slowly is an ongoing body of work that slowly circles one idea from different angles.
It started from a simple need:
I was tired of rushing ideas, pages, and myself
I don’t have time to sit down for hours and create and finish something over the course of hours. Modern life, for me, is sitting down, scribbling, getting up, doing all the ‘life’ things, scribbling more…I wanted to create something tangible that can grow over days and weeks. It’s about paper, thread, and found treasure gathered over time 🌱
This unfolding, handmade art book is a way of making something concrete with where I am in the world (my house and neighbourhood), and what I’m drawn to. To have a finished object that’s tangible and touchable, one that can sit quietly on the mantlepiece to sing out this is it! this is the thing! whenever I get lost in the noise of life and out of touch with myself and my art.
This has also been a way I’ve been gathering up the pieces of this inner world, using this process as a means of letting go.
Paper scraps and half-used art supplies have a way of lingering. I gather them up excitedly like a little magpie, kept “just in case,” then left to settle into drawers and piles, waiting for their moment. Their time has come at last.
In practice, Unfolding Slowly looks like this:
Coming back to the same page over and over. Adding one small thing at a time: scraps, stitches, notes. Letting work stay unfinished for longer than feels “comfortable”. Paying attention to texture, touch, and tiny details.
It’s art to be picked up and put down in the spare minutes of the day: a glue stick, a pile of paper leftovers, a notebook that never really feels done. Sometimes I turn these sessions into zines or small prompts, but the project itself is simply a way to mark time with mark making.
If you want to come along, you don’t need special supplies or a big plan to join in. A page, a few scraps, and a bit of time are enough to let something unfold at its own pace.
Part 1: Gather and Begin
Nothing needs to be new: Starting a material box (paper, scraps, fibres), and making little mixed media art gremlins out of the glorious trash that I find.
Beginning without planning (starting before I even know what I’m doing)
Returning to the same piece. Sometimes I open books I haven’t made art in for months and rework a page or two. I love doing this, working on a page that’s already full, going over and building on what came before.
Part 2: Build the Book: one cohesive object, made slowly
Letting the page lead: responding to existing text, marks, and so on.
Layering materials without deciding: adding without resolving. Walking away.
Hiding and revealing. Can’t wait for this! Adding secret messages in unexpected pockets and origami pop-up structures.
Part 3: Holding and releasing
Burial. Releasing control completely by burying the entire book structure in the ground for a few weeks.