Robin Kinney sets up for a rummage sale in her Hide House Studio on Greely Street. Her art gallery Bay View Book Arts carries artist's books collected from around the country and her own work, which uses recycled materials to cut the cost of her fine art. While waiting for the opening of her rummage sale in the late afternoon, Kinney discusses the importance of books and bookmaking.
Q: What draws you to bookmaking as an artist?
A:: Books are everywhere, they are in essence pretty pedestrian, familiar, and adults handle them from the time they are little, as children. You have to have a book in your hands, so they are very private. They're recognizable and not intimidating, only intimate.
Q: How do handmade books sell in this economy?
A: It's tough to sell a handmade book right now. Not everyone sees it as a viable collection. They look at a handmade book….an artist's book…and it's one of a kind but are unable to understand the 100 dollar price tag, or higher.
They may not be understood as valuable. Or they can pick up a vintage book at a resale for much less money. Yet, all my book artists whether they sell or not keep making books. I'll always sell them.
Q: Can everyone make a book?
A: Anyone can make books, especially children. I worked at Tippiecanoe, the only totally arts integrated school in MPS. I was teaching seventh and eighth graders. I was also at Hartford School, near UWM [University of Wisconsin Milwaukee] where there is an extensive after school program where I participated in bookmaking. There was a broad range of students, both gifted and at risk, that named themselves “Eight Girls and a Dude.” We made recycled journals, matchbox books, and altered books. Not one kid ever missed a class after school. I was amazed at the maturity that comes through when working on books.
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Q: And what are your future goals in Bookmaking Art?
A: I'm working with Dover Street School here in Bay View. We're trying to get every student over to the gallery to make a book. Even small children in the art gallery are gentle with the books. So my mission is to have all children making books so I also do inservice programs for teachers, offering them templates for the books, so they can use them in their classroom. You can incorporate bookmaking into any subject, not only reading or writing. In a history class we used a [book] model from 1942, a doll house book that shows four rooms when you fold it open. Each room was used to describe a time in history, including a vision of what the child might dream about. When you translate the subject into the book, you transfer the learning to the reader and writer. I could spend the rest of my work history with these kids.
