🎪🔍 Children’s Book Project Announcement: Fleadom Flea Circus🔎🎪

🎪🔍 Children’s Book Project Announcement: Fleadom Flea Circus🔎🎪

Roll Up! Roll Up!
Many great things happened this year, and one of the best was to begin collaborating on a children’s book with my dear friend Marta Janik. Drawing on our dual interests in illustration and circus culture we have delved into the unusual universe of Flea Circuses to develop a visually rich and vibrant world. The book is almost complete and some of our illustrations have won a place in an upcoming exhibition resulting from this years Clairvoyants children’s book competition. This competition is hosted bi-annually by the Dwie Siostry publishing house and our project was chosen as one of the most interesting projects out of 554 submissions!

Flea Circuses once existed throughout the world and actually involved trained fleas performing tricks! There was also a variant of these Circuses which utilized magnets and other mechanical devices to simulate the presence of performing fleas. These were known as “Humbug Shows”. Although the amount of Flea Circuses in existence today can be counted on one hand, they were strange and fascinating phenomenon with a history all of their own.

More about our book below:
“Fleadom is a raucous, fun fueled journey through life at an extravagant Flea Circus. In this magical setting, fleas, animals and humans all collaborate as equals to perform wondrous and reality defying stunts. Under our little big top we learn that creatures and people don’t have to be big in size to be important or to do amazing things. 

Rich with tiny details, hidden meanings, and historical and cultural references, this is a book that invites parents and children to delve into its pages and explore its magical world again and again, each time finding some new and interesting details that elaborate on the colourful universe within. 

Small and unusual wonders do exist when we pay careful attention to the world around us. For example, I invite you to consider a flea learning to juggle on a unicycle, and then tell me you are not impressed.”

Don’t get too itchy! More Fleadom Coming Soon!

For more of the wonderful work of Marta Janik get your act together by Clicking Here.

⚡️✒️ ITS ALIVE: Mary Shelly's Frankenstein: Kolaj Edition ✒️⚡️

⚡️✂️ Featured Artist in Mary Shelly's Frankenstein: Kolaj Edition✂️⚡️
⚡️⚡️!!!!!ITS ALIVE!!!⚡️⚡️

In the Autumn of 2023, I had the real pleasure of teaming up with a whole crew of creaturely collaborators to illustrate a new version of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. It was macabre delight to work with these monsters on dissecting Mary Shelly’s seminal work of proto-sciencefiction. It was an amazing process to spend time thinking about and drawing out the colourful, magical and fearful imagery within. I had a lot of fun working on the illustrations in this version with our ghastly group, including my dear friend and regular collaborator Marta Janik.

I am delighted to announce that the book is now ready for release!

See more from the publishers below:
”This new version of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's classic 19th century novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus features seventy-six illustrations by International Collage Artists who delved into the novel's rich narrative and visual potential and created thought-provoking artworks that reflect the essence of Frankenstein in a 21st century context. “Frankenstein,” writes artist David Edward Johnson, “The name alone conjures a lightning storm of images. From corpses, unholy and unearthed, to gothic laboratories, alive with galvanic impulse, to personal loss, longing, and anger. Shelley’s 1818 masterwork is locked in our collective unconscious like a fever dream. Since childhood, I have been in love with its silent shudders and moss-covered 19th-century tableaus.” Artists created illustrations that connected Shelley's text to contemporary issues. Artists explored the role of science and artificial intelligence, queerness, intersectional identities, narcissism, and modern relationships. "Shelley's timelessness is proven by our ability to use her novel to reflect on our world today," said Kolaj Institute Director Ric Kasini Kadour. "Collage artists, with their unique ability to transcend scale, place, and history, are well-suited to giving us pictures that bring vintage texts into the contemporary moment."“

Participating creatures include:
Claire Dannenbaum (Eugene, Oregon, USA); Emily Denlinger (Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA); Suzanne Greenberg (New York, New York, USA); David Edward Johnson (Skaneateles, New York, USA); Marta Janik (Warsaw, Poland); Anthony D Kelly (Castlebar, County Mayo, Ireland); Maureen Letton (San Francisco, California, USA); Rosie Lewis (York, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom); Anissa Malady (San Francisco, California, USA); Rebecca Steiner (Lyme, Connecticut, USA); Jessica TranVo (Boston, Massachusetts, USA); Anthony Naimo (Spruce Pine, North Carolina, USA); Elzbieta Zdunek (Berlin, Germany)

To purchase a copy of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein: Kolaj Edition simply CLICK HERE.
To find out more about this project and the overarching Collage and Illustration program CLICK HERE.

Cover Image: “Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus” (2023) - David Edward Johnson

Upcoming Exhibition: "ARTISTS IN THE ARCHIVES" - September 2, 2022-January 7, 2023 - at the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in Middlebury, Vermont, USA

🔸🔹🔸UPCOMING EXHIBITION: ARTISTS IN THE ARCHIVES🔸🔹🔸

Opening reception and book launch: Friday, September 2, 2022, 5-7PM

Exhibition Running from: Friday, September 2, 2022-January 7, 2023

Venue: The Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History in Middlebury, Vermont, USA, VT 05753

I am delighted to have been asked to participate in this fascinating project by curator, collage artist and publisher Ric Kasini Kadour.

It was great to gain access to the Archives at The Henry Sheldon Museum, Vermont, to search their images and to be tasked with creating works that responded to the topic of community care. This peice created for the exhibition is titled “Close Knit” and refers to Vermont’s rich history of sheep hearding, textiles, industry and trade as community care, as well as referencing the tradition of the American Patchwork Quilt as form of biographical and historical document.

Read my statement here:

“Textiles are deeply interwoven with community care practices in rural communities across the world.  The farming of Sheep and other animals for their wools provide livelihoods for families, goods for transport and trade, in the past these trade routes fostered community connections and information sharing amongst towns and settlements within the regions that they existed, in this way opportunities arose for neighbours to interact and come to know one another.

On the more interpersonal level, individuals with particular skills in textiles and the fibre arts can weave and knit together clothing and household items like blankets, rugs and quilts. These are practical offerings of comfort, warmth and care to friends and family members.

Alongside the creation of physical items, there is the deep social good which exists in the sharing of traditional skills. Individuals who gather together in knitting circles or other forms of crafting workshop experience the privilege of working and creating with one another, knitting their communities more closely together.  

The creation of patchwork quilts in particular have become a tradition which represents stability, community care, and have even served as a unique form of historical documentation, with carefully crafted panels carrying visual information about personal, familial and community stories and events down through generations.”

This project has resulted in the exhibition, the production of a folio of prints, and the publication of a book.

The folio of prints is an edition of five plus one artist proof. One folio will be housed in the Henry Sheldon Museum’s permanent collection, a second will become part of the Kolaj Institutes permanent collection. The other editions are available for touring and/or sale contact: info@kolajmagazine.com

For more on this specific project please visit here.

To purchase the book visit here.

Or for more from The Henry Sheldon Museum visit here.