What is Altered Art?
The idea behind Altered Art is simple: breathe new life into existing items. These items can be anything ranging from old books to discarded boxes to photo frames to just about any found object that has been used (and sometimes abused). Altered book art is probably the most popular medium for altered art. As a matter of fact, altered books are actually an old way of recycling. In the 11th Century, Italian monks recycled old manuscripts written on vellum by scraping off the ink and adding new text and illustrations on top of the old. This was known as "Palimpsest." In the late 19th century, people used old books as a sort of scrapbook, pasting on its pages the ephemera from their society including magazine images, personal recipes, and family pictures. This was called "Grangerism", a Victorian practice of illustrating a particular book with engravings torn from other books. Tom Phillips' Humament is one of the first contemporary examples of this art. By covering, cutting, and changing the structure, altered books run the gamut from books that have become shrines to books that are transformed into colorful images totally unrelated to their origins.
Today, an "altered book" starts with any type of hardcover book - old novels, text books, children's board books, dictionaries, technical manuals, etc. Actually, anything but a blank journal can become an altered book. Once you've chosen your item, you "alter" it by using photos, knickknacks, ephemera (old paper products of all types), broken jewelry, fibers, fabrics – and the list goes on and on…only your imagination knows its limits.
So, for those of you who happen upon our website and are not familiar with this art form, you are in for a treat and an eye-opening experience! Just do a Google search for altered art, and look at the 1000s of hits you will get! There is truly an explosion in this multi-media art form. It is sooooo much fun to watch objects that would have formally been overlooked or discarded transformed into beautiful works of art.
We hope that our Gallery will help you get your creative juices flowing and that you will begin your own altered art project
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