Canadian Arctic Adventures

My friend, Gwen, loaned me this wonderful novel by Canadian author Elizabeth Hay. Set in the Northwest Territories in Yellowknife, the story chronicles the lives of coworkers at a small, local radio station in 1975 and their incredible journey in the North back country. Her sense of place and the landscpape makes you feel like you are there. It's a great read and I highly recommend it.The story reminded me of an altered book that I made in 2002 for a round robin exchange. I bought the book at the Canby library for a dollar. I became engrossed reading Sheila Burnford's One Woman's Arctic. She told of her stay in the early 1970's in the Inuit community of Pond Inlet in Canada's Arctic on the northeast end of Baffin Island. I called my altered book "Arctic Field Notes". Each artist contributed her work in the book based on the theme. We each had a month to work in one another's books.
On the explorers' sign-in page, each artist created her own name tag.

One page that I made included a flag book with different Arctic animals, maps and scientific charts.
Taking a book and altering it with visual art is one way to tell a story. We glued pages together, painted them, used book text as art, added collage elements, drawings and other images. The fun part is seeing each artist's interpretation of the same subject.