usuSCA-PORT-Shlf03_Brent Wilson Artist Books

Ten page accordion book, acrylic and whiteout on handmade Lhakpa Nepal paper, approximately 14 3/4 x 19 3/4, fully extended the book measures approximately 147 inches. This book fuses Chinese pre-dynasty Three Kingdom battles with the Biblical pre-Earth War in Heaven in an East-West visual and verbal dialogue stimulated by Chinese and Western texts. The images of Chinese warriors were inspired by the six-volume graphic novel, The history of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou published in Shanghai in 1925. And the accordion's formal design echoes Chinese books where illustrations and text are contained within rectangular boundaries. The text pays homage to Wm. Blake's poetry and to his books of images and poetry--especially Songs of the innocence & of experience (1789-1794) where 'The Tyger' is used as a symbol of evil."--Creator's description

The 10 folios are on folded Shizen waterco lor paper with acrylic painting and collaged images, including a Penn State poster of the artist, his art, and biography; the folded folios measure 15 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches. 10 folios (single-fold) : color illustrations ; 40 x 31 cm, extending to 40 x 59 cm.

'In the 1940s I explored Bear River in all seasons--it was only a mile's walk (or run) from my parents' farm....While my friends were lying in the sun, I would form huge sculptures on the Bear's sandy beaches....Decades after my Bear River sand sculptures...I had a Cuban American student...who became famous for the figures she made with earth, fire, and water. Perhaps it is her figures, more than the ones I modeled in Bear River sand, that I commemorate in these folios'--from artist's statement. 'Four single-fold folios, acrylic painting, repurposed Chinese book pages, written and printed text on Lokta paper'--from artist's statement. 4 folios (2 unnumbered pages each) : color illustrations ; 50 cm.

My home in Fairview, Idaho, was just a mile from Bear River. To me the river and its valley have become almost mythic. One poem refers to my swimming in the river - a boyhood passion that my parents, especially my mother, discouraged. Another poem plays with the contrast between devilish magpies (for which I collected a two-cent bounty) and angelic seagulls (who saved the Mormons from starvation). A third poem is about boyhood power - of my shouting and causing thousands of ducks to fly from the river. The final poem is about the Bear River Massacre - that tragedy that took place just a few miles up river from Fairview. The Preston High School mascot was and probably still is "the Preston Indians." How terrilby ironic! There were supposed to be more folios in the series. Some of the poems may even have been written. There is a painted folio awaiting the text. Alas!--creator's description

'The five three-fold accordion folios with four panels are made with collaged and painted images on Shinzen cotton water paper made in India. When fully extended each folio measures approximately 12 x 31 inches.' 5 folios (accordion fold) : colored illustrations ; 31 x 20 cm.

Twele folios, acrylic and text on handmade Lhakpa Nepal paper, each folio is approximately 19 x 26 inches. This series began with the premise that rather than entering this world randomly, before my birth I chose my parents. Indeed, this is what my patriarch grandfather told me in a blessing he pronounced upon my head when I was sixteen. Why in the world did I choose poor parents who lived in the desolate valley where Lund, Idaho, is situated--and during the great depression too? The images and text in Before birth are a meditation on my choice. Was it fortunate? Unfortunate? Did I merely select the best from among a bad set of choices? Through the visual and verbal speculation that comprises the series I came to the realization that when I chose my parents, simutaneously I chose an illustrious array of forbearers and an almost grand heritage. My choice was probably far better than my sixteen-year-old-self could comprehend."--Creator's description

4 single-fold folios collaged and painted on handmade paper on the The Best of Art, a book written the New York World art critic Emily Genauer (1948); along with the wide ranging effect upon his art, imagination, & theories of visual cultural pedagogy. 4 folios (single-fold) : color illustrations ; 59 x 39 cm.

'Chinese accordion book with wooden boards, 12 double pages plates. The boards measure approximately 8 by 11 inches and the double plates 11 by 15 3/4 inches and 212 inches when fully extended. The plates consist of collaged and stenciled acrylic images and handwritten text.'--Artist's description. 12 double page plates : color illustrations ; 28 x 20 cm, extending to 539 cm.

'When, in 1971, I accepted a visiting professorship at the Birmingham School of Art, I vowed that during that year in England, I would immerse myself in the paintings and poetry of William Blake....In December 1971, at the Tate Gallery, I saw an exhibition of Blake's illustrations for the poems of Thomas Gray. After seeing the exhibition, I began to use stencils in my painting....In Birmingham I cut a stencil of a silhouette image of the British Harrier Jump-jet that became my symbol for evil--like I imagined Blake's tyger in his poem 'Tyger, Tyger Burning Bright...' was a symbol for Satan and evil'--from artist's statement. 'The ten folios (2021) are made of collaged images from William Blake's 'Watercolour Designs for the Poems of Thomas Gray' (1972), acrylic paint and stamped text on handmade Lokta paper from Nepal'--from author's statement. 10 folded leaves (20 unnumbered pages) : color illustrations ; 50 cm.

During my four years at Utah State, from 1952 to 1956, I worked as the display person in the department store on Main street. First it was C.C. Anderson and then became Bon Marché. My design and decoration efforts in the store interior and windows were virtually unsupervised; I could do almost anything I wished. As I decorated the spaces, I have wondered if I learned more about designing in the department store than I did in my art classes at the university. In the two folios in this set I remember the six-foot tall rabbit I dribbled Jackson Pollock style for the Easter fashion window.--Artist description. The 2 two-panel single-fold folios with collaged images and acrylic painting are on Shizen watercolor paper measuring 23 x 30 1/2 inches (2020). 2 folios (single-fold) : color illustrations ; 50 x 35 cm.

'This is the second book...in which I reflect on my 1940s task of cleaning eggs before my parents delivered them to the Egg Association in Preston, Idaho. I was paid 2-cents a dozen for the unpleasant task and while cleaning, I dreamed of the books I would buy with my earnings. The first purchase was Thunderhead Son of Flicka; the first line read something like 'The foal struggled to be born', and the kid wondered if he should be reading this 'dirty book'--'Chinese accordion book with wooden boards, 23 plates, and four endpapers. The boards and plates measure approximately 9 3/4 by 13 3/4 inches and, when fully extended, 212 inches. Each plate contains a collaged page from an antique Chinese book, stenciled acrylic images, and text'--from artist's statement. 23 pages (accordion fold) : color illustrations ; 36 cm.

This series has eight single-fold folios (2003-2004), acrylic painting, repurposed Chinese book pages (including Chinese text & illustrations), with written and printed text on Lokta paper; each folio measures approximately 19 x 27 1/2 inches. 8 folios (single-fold) : color illustrations ; 50 x 35 cm.

'The things I did during the three years, from ages four to six, while living with my parents in 'Sandhill House' foreshadowed my entire life. Those three years pointed to whom I would be and the things that would become my passionate interests for a lifetime'--from artist's statement. 'Acrylic on handmade Lokta paper from Nepal'--from artist's statement. 2 folios (2 unnumbered pages each) : color illustrations ; 50 cm.

Chinese accordion book with wooden boards, 11 double page plates and two double page end plates. The boards measure approximately 8 x 11 inches and the double plates, 11 by 15 3/4 inches and 212 inches when fully extended. The plates are composed with collaged and stenciled acrylic images and text. 'Some of the collaged images in Flippin Mickey are from my exhibition of artist books, journals, and folios in the BYU 303 Gallery in 2009.'--Artist's description. 22 unnumbered pages (accordion fold) : color illustrations ; 29 x 20 cm, extending to 529 cm.

'During the late Ming period, Wang Tingna (1577-1625) commissioned a scroll woodblock print of his 'Garden Encircled by Jade'. In 1981 the Chinese Peoples' Fine Arts Publishing house produced 500 double-boxed albums, dividing the woodblock into 45 plates. In Hong Kong in 2003 I purchased one of the albums. Back in the United States, as I viewed the pages stained by foxing, I thought 'I could relive my life, well parts of it at least, in that Jade Garden!' In 2023 I placed myself and the decades of my life inside the Jade Garden'--from artist's statement. 45 leaves (accordion fold) : illustrations (some color) ; 28 x 37 cm, in box 31 x 40 cm.

Twenty-five plates, recycled Ming Dynasty calligraphy manuscript, acrylic, printed text, and stamped seals on Lhakpa Nepal paper, each plate approximately 13 x 19 inches. I purchased a Ming Dynasty calligraphic manuscript in Seoul Korea in 2004. Chinese colleagues told me the manuscript was written for children and teenagers, that it is about heaven and earth, the four seasons, animals, plants and seasonal flowers. Rather than asking colleagues to translate the entire document for me, I decided that I would imagine what the text revealed by writing poems, and surrounding the two sets of texts with images, portraits, and stamps (including seals of my name written in Chinese characters). I have created a conversation that I do not understand--creator's description

Ten page accordion book, acrylic and whiteout on handmade Lhakpa Nepal paper, approximately 14 3/4 x 19 3/4, fully extended the book measures 147 1/2 inches. My accordion book inspired by Chinese Three Kingdom battles led speculative poems and images about the Biblical War in Heaven--which led to even more speculative poems and images about a great celestial proto-protagonist whose filing cabinets were filled with coded maps of impossible-to-diagram galactic rhizomes--showing locations of cosmic mines with veins of intelligent matter from which the creator created himself, a mate, and then galactic races to populate the worlds he had caused to evolve. Horses, tigers, platypuses, porpoises, whales and chimpanzees, even mites & lice got their share of intellectual matter--the latter from floor droppings swept up and divided several trillion times. It's a complicated story

'When I was in fourth grade...my teacher invited me to teach an art lesson. I went to the Red Ryder comic strip, copied one of Fred Harman's horses on paper, then redrew it on the blackboard for the other kids to copy. It was not until the 1960s that I was introduced to Picasso's sketches of horses....What if I had used Picasso as a model in Fairview Grade School?'--from artist's statement. 'Six folios in acrylic paint with collaged images and hand-written text'--from artist's statement. 6 folios (2 unnumbered pages each) : illustrations (some color) ; 40 cm.

Twenty-three plate accordion book, unfinished, individual plate size approximately 21 x 15 3/4, fully extended approximately 362 inches. In my 1987 visual journal I made a drawing of my great grandmother Lerona Abgail Martin Wilson lying in her bed receiving a visit from deceased relatives. I had read her life story filled with accounts of her visions, and I wonder if I might have been thinking about making books or folios based on her life. A few years later I began to make more drawings of Lerona's visions. From September 1996 to December 1997 I devotd several pages of my journal of drawings of Lerona and in some of those sketches I began to depict specific visions and continued making them until the spring of 1997.* In 2004, or perhaps even earlier, I began working on an accordion book inspired by Lerona's account of her visit to the spirit world with her mother. Although over half of the plates are incomplete, this accordion book provides insights into my struggles as I tried to decode how to present one of Lerona's most astonishing visions. The draft reveals both my changing ideas and attitudes toward the visions and how I experimented with styles, expressive qualities, and whether or not I should retain or obliterate Lerona's text. All subsequent versions of the vision are based on this unfinished accordion. There are two additional plates, with images on both sides, which were excised from the book at an early stage. These works are now in the collection of Gail Miller and Kim Wilson in Salt Lake City. I have suggested to Miller and Wilson that at some point, they might consider donating these experimental plates to the USU collection. *These journals are in the archives of the Paterno Library of the Pennsylvania State University. Digital versions of the journals will be available online in 2015. --creator's description

Twelve folios based on Lerona Wilson's vision of the same name from her 'LIfe sketch and experiences,' 1932, laser and inkjet prints, and acrylic on handmade Lhakpa Nepal paper, individual folio sizes: approximately 21 x 30 3/4 inches. This folio was developed from the incomplete accordion version (circa 2004/2006). By making individual folios, if one folio did not turn out in the way I wished, I could discard it and make another--a practice that was not possible with the accordion version. The completed folio provided the model for 'I visit the Spirit World with my mother' (2008). The original twenty-four 13 x 18 1/2 inch plates from which the digital images were made for printing by the Mormon Artist Group Press, New York, NY, inkjet prints, acrylic, and text mounted on Yupo synthetic paper--creator's description