Cryptic
artist: Jonathan Aumen
gouache on found antique book mounted on pine with
6.75 x 10.75 x 0.75”
“I found this antique book on shorthand at a thrift store. I ripped all the pages out and mounted it to a piece of pine. Shorthand has always been intriguing to me. A practical distillation of words made into characters. Of course having grown up in China characters are of interest to me. There was some normal alphabetical writing as well…notes taken by the former owner. I thought it would be a fun challenge to mix paint that would match the book patina and hide them so there would be nothing recognizable to someone not familiar with shorthand script. Every time I have made a book art piece people want to know what book it was, so i cut a hole in the back to reveal at least a bit of the title.”
artist: Jonathan Aumen
gouache on found antique book mounted on pine with
6.75 x 10.75 x 0.75”
“I found this antique book on shorthand at a thrift store. I ripped all the pages out and mounted it to a piece of pine. Shorthand has always been intriguing to me. A practical distillation of words made into characters. Of course having grown up in China characters are of interest to me. There was some normal alphabetical writing as well…notes taken by the former owner. I thought it would be a fun challenge to mix paint that would match the book patina and hide them so there would be nothing recognizable to someone not familiar with shorthand script. Every time I have made a book art piece people want to know what book it was, so i cut a hole in the back to reveal at least a bit of the title.”
artist: Jonathan Aumen
gouache on found antique book mounted on pine with
6.75 x 10.75 x 0.75”
“I found this antique book on shorthand at a thrift store. I ripped all the pages out and mounted it to a piece of pine. Shorthand has always been intriguing to me. A practical distillation of words made into characters. Of course having grown up in China characters are of interest to me. There was some normal alphabetical writing as well…notes taken by the former owner. I thought it would be a fun challenge to mix paint that would match the book patina and hide them so there would be nothing recognizable to someone not familiar with shorthand script. Every time I have made a book art piece people want to know what book it was, so i cut a hole in the back to reveal at least a bit of the title.”