Fatbook Procrastination

You know when you have a giant list of things to do and then instead of doing that list, you suddenly find much more important things to take care of?

For example, me, this morning, I decided instead of getting to work on my Fatbook pages for Artfest (which really need to be done), I absolutely had to organize all of my blog photos. Granted, this had to be done too; I have thousands of photos I have taken for my blog and they need to be sorted by year and month so it is easy to find photos when I need them. In the end, it only took me about 45 minutes. So now I need to think of something else to do instead of my Fatbook. Maybe I will take out the compost and vacuum the living room.

What is a Fatbook page? Well, I am attending a sort of art retreat, getaway, workshop conference, what-have-you in Port Townsend called Artfest in the first week of March. This is a pretty popular event, this year being the 11th and my first time going. (There are spots still open. It costs about $700 including all food and lodging.) I joined a Yahoo group all about Artfest and discovered that there was this project I could be a part of, a Fatbook.

Fatbooks are books where each artist creates an embellished page based on a theme (52 times for 52 books) and sends them off to the Fatbook organizer who ring binds them and then you get one at the event that contains your page plus 49 other artists. The other two go to the hosts creating the event. It is really a fabulous takeaway with all of these artists' work and their contact info on it-- I am super excited about it.

The theme this year is Fairy Tales and I have had a hard time with this theme. I am not really into faeries or princesses. (I know, I know, I could make an ogre or something.) Last year's theme was Sea Monsters and I am sad I missed out on that one. After long deliberation, I am focusing on the Goose That Laid the Golden Egg. I started by painting the backgrounds and then I made a stencil to create rays. Next I am going to make a lino-cut of said goose to stamp on card stock that will be cut out and glued on top of the rays. Then I am going to make some sort of banner to put across the top. I want to figure out how to incorporate some wire too. It's fun making them, but you don't realize how many pages 52 really is until you run out of space to set them to dry!

OK, no more procrastination, I only have a month to finish these babies!