Savarie, Valerie
About the artist
“In selecting books, it is important that they be published before 1972 (or, is at least as old as me). Sometimes the book instantly creates a visual concept and other times, I seek out a book that will echo my mental vision. Taking the written story within, I reinterpret it into a three-dimensional piece by cutting, sewing and painting (all done by hand without the use of power tools), thus creating a multidimensional collage while still leaving the majority of the book intact. Every page is kept as bound as it is important that my pieces retain their intrinsic book characteristics. Each page that is visible is purposely selected to be seen – whether it be specific words, lack of words, images or a combination there of. Words are as important as the visuals I create when making my book sculptures.
The characters I make—the inhabitants of the books—are always painted in black and white, which allow them to live in balance within their predominantly black and white (text and page) surroundings. Sometimes they are animals; sometimes they are more human. Regardless of their species, the eyes typically lend themselves to a more humanistic expression and are the last thing I paint. Eyes tell a story within their own orb and greatly impact the feeling of a piece and so completing them last, I solidify the over all emotion I want to express.
As my book sculptures evolve, I find my work growing beyond short stories, moving towards epic series - generating from a moment in time, page by page, book by book.” - Valerie Savarie
Recent Work
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