Did you miss me last week? I’ve been out with the flu. Yes, bonafide, doctor diagnosed, real, live “Flu A”. More like Flu A-Z if you ask me. You name the symptom and I probably had it… and had it on the high end of the pain scale too. This flu made all those nasty colds I had in Chicago look like the hiccups. I’ve been out of commission for nearly a week. Let me say that again: a WEEK. Thankfully (now this is ironic) I was laid off my part-time, day job two days before I got sick. Somehow it seems this turned out for the best. I just hate to call in to work. Loosing money, while you have to stay at home, being miserable and doing absolutely nothing productive just makes me sick to my stomach. It’s such as waste. Call me weird, but it made me feel a tiny bit better that I wasn’t loosing money last week because I was ill, but because of the stupid recession. There’s no way I could have called in for a week and I certainly could never have forced myself to venture out of the house for fear I might infect someone with my germs. I wouldn’t wish this flu on my worst enemy and I curse the unknown idiot who gave it to me in the first place. Next year I’m getting the flu shot if I have to cut in line and elbow granny out of the way.
On the bright side, the day after the “layoff” and the day before the “epic flu” I got a commission for a hand-bound, commemorative artist book. It is ultimately intended to be a gift, so I don’t want to give too much away about the work until I’m sure the recipients have it in hand. But this is another one of those projects that tugs at my heartstrings and refuses to allow me to stay impartial to the subject matter. The book is a collection about a sweet baby girl, who was taken from this world before the age of one in a tragic accident. As part of the commission, I’m also making duplicate copies of the original book that will be given to various family members.
It is a very sobering business, working with the deceased in your work. It seems I’m particularly suited to it as this isn’t the first commission of this nature that I’ve received this year. I wonder what experiences I’ve had in my life that caused me to be equipped to work so well with this kind of difficult subject matter and yet remain unscathed. I may never know the answer to that question. Nevertheless, I have something very special in mind for this work and look forward to sharing it with you. Here’s a sneak peak at the in-process duplicates. Due to the nature of the materials provided for this book, a Japanese binding was the best solution… but I’ll explain that to you in a later post.
Sending healthy thoughts your way…
Hand-stitched artists books. 8.5 x 11. Japanese Tortoise-Shell Binding. © 2009 Haley Nagy.
