Story of the Sea (Altered Book)

February 27, 2013 by mamie

Completed Date: 2/1/13

Medium: mixed media, found objects, mosaics

Description: This is a piece of art that I made for my portfolio to apply for GHP (Governor’s Honors Program). GHP is a 4 week program over the summer for high school students to focus on a specific subject along with help and advice from qualified teachers and other students. A few weeks ago, I applied and interviewed for the art “major” and am now waiting to hear back about whether I got in. Anyway, I haven’t had many classes about sculpture, ceramics, or other 3d art, so I decided to go with a folk art style and create an altered book for this project. I chose the ocean theme with colorful, exotic fish, beautiful shells, and ancient buried treasure, and I had a blast searching around my house to find this treasure/so-called-junk to include.

What always helps inspire me is keeping a little jar of little pieces of broken jewelry, old stamps, pretty beads, cheap costume broches, and other things that catch my eye so I can use them once in a while in an art project. A collection like that is always fun to look through once in a while, especially if some of the contents have special memories, and they’re even useful for creating fun little projects or pieces of art like this. 🙂