This pair of artist books was created after spending time in Yellowstone National Park last summer. The two books are miniature flexagon structures, 3” square when opened, which fit side by side in a small portfolio.  The different sides of the flexagons feature digital images of geysers I painted on site in the park. The cover of the portfolio is from a photograph I took of the footprints around one of these geysers.

I enjoyed painting and learning about the many different areas of Yellowstone and was struck by the way the park so dramatically illustrates the concept of change through something we think of as unchanging: rock. I liked the way I could use images of the geyser as an analogy for the continuity of change and the vastness of time. Each flexagon contains a poem about this idea. 

The book Time contains the poem, “In the valley you wait. Bone white, you bubble and steam. Nourished in your warm liquid embrace, tiny heat lovers flourish in your pools. Secrets of the deep whispered through your vents.” The book “Watching” contains the poem, “Perched on the edge of your canyons we watch. Witness to your changing stones. Rocky drifts pushed up from your underground world flow at our feet. Keeping rhythm to an ancient song, you continue to rise and collapse.”

To view these flexagon books start with the title page, turn the book to the right 1/4 turn and open from the inside out, like two shutters on a window. After each page continue to turn the book 1/4 turn and open the book from the center. There are four “pages” in each book counting the title page.