Book Cover Collages

I made these images on recycled book covers from old textbooks that I composted the pages (ridden with termite holes). Rather than toss them I saw a canvas that was more sturdy and dimensional than paper.

They look really cool matted and floating within a frame and are in size from 12 by 7 inches to 9 by 5 and 3/4 of an inch. They range from African masks with cacao pods and swimming and leaping creatures.

To the long flower woven braid down the back of a South Indian Chettiar woman in a sari with bones, birds and flowers to a Hawaiian voyaging canoe with turtles inspired by the melting pot of cultures here in my home of Hawaii including Polynesian navigators (Hilo on the east side of the Big Island is named for the one who discovered the harbor there).

There’s also sea inspired collages from a Mermaid’s purse which are what the leathery translucent pouches some species of sharks deposit their eggs in that attach to seaweed until the baby sharks hatch and a cat with surfboard arms surfing the Big Wave with a view of Mount Fuji. A kangaroo dancing in the outback with dragonflies and bats was inspired by a trip to Alice Springs and camping in the Outback of Australia and a trip to Cambodia after living in Japan created an image of a Cambodian cat dancer with a Japanese rooster wearing a kimono in outer space.

Multiple trips to Thailand inspired Moth and Dancers with both a group of mid-century Alabama dancers and traditional Thai temple dancers with a giant moth hovering above them. All images are photographed with a black border so you can see the book cover edges and in some cases borders.