Connie Stricks
• birch bark, twigs, willow, wire, glass and ceramic beads, stone, caribou ribs, Niyodo kozo paper with digitally reproduced ESEM imagery. •
This piece resulted from time spent with Dr. Kenneth Severin at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, using the Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) to examine a birch leaf. Seeing birch leaves under such levels of magnification caused me to realize how limited our ‘vision’ is and, therefore, our sense of ‘reality.’ ESEM allows one to see what is there but hidden—and to focus on abstract or elemental patterns. For this reason, the small books that hang like leaves from my ‘boreal’ structure are folded and closed, the ESEM image largely hidden, although suspected, and accessible.
CONNIE STRICKS
Connie studied Art History with additional courses in metal smiting and book arts. She has worked with paper in various ways for over 30 years and been making book structures since being introduced to them by Margo Klass in 2009. She has given workshops at The Folk School, and Northwoods Book Arts Guild in Fairbanks and the Newport Paper and Book Arts Festival in OR. Her work has been in group and 2-person shows within Alaska and outside the State
