28 Days in May: avian observations

This is the story of the journey of a father-daughter collaboration to create an illustrated poetry book.

In 2009, my dad came to me with a collection of haiku he had written almost daily about the birds he observed in the backyard and along the river bank of my family home in Washington State. Together we have enjoyed sitting along the riverbank observing the bird activity, and over the years the bald eagle pair and their offspring in the cottonwood trees across the river have become part of the extended family I regularly hear about in our weekly phone calls. He asked if I would illustrate the birds in the poems and would I like to create a book out of it. I decided to use my preferred medium of paper collage to depict the birds. Using a torn paper mosaic style also had the effect of giving a “feathered” look to the birds.

At the time I was helping out a papermaker/book artist/printer with some of her book projects. I began to imagine typesetting the poems and printing the book by hand. Aside from the painstaking process of creating the birds, without any experience in bookmaking, it took quite a while to decide which format the book would take. Consultation with a couple of friends who are book and layout experts helped me get farther along. From the perspective I now have post-completion, I realize that making an artist book is a complex equation of trigonometry, geometry, and algebra combined, with serendipitous discovery along the way. Finding a hardbound book, A Net of Fireflies: An Anthology of 320 Japanese Haiku containing haiku paintings solidified the book’s form. The book was not bound using signatures, instead the folds are on the outside edge of the pages. Utilizing this format offered the convenience of concealing the relief from the typeset pages, as well as the possibility of adding another Japanese book form to complement the haiku: a stab bound spine.

I selected a smooth, off-white Mohawk paper from the incredible selection at FLAX Art & Design, which I cut down to print size and then later cut to half that size for binding. The setting of the type by hand—by me—and printing—by the paper mill—was done as a trade for my creation of a paper mosaic at the entry to the paper mill where the lead type, Kluge printing press, guillotine, and other tools were available to me. The paper mosaic features several types of paper made by the mill: from cotton rag and cat tails. The light blue—and a limited number of dark blue—cover papers of the book are made from denim and cotton rag, made in part by my friend Drew Cameron of Combat Paper Project. The silk thread used to bind the books was hand dyed by me with natural indigo, in vats I had access to as an artist/weaver in the Berkeley Art Museum show, “The Possible” in 2014.

I chose six birds from the 21 species my dad wrote verses about, reluctantly not illustrating a few favorites like the pileated woodpecker, mergansers, and the eagles. Because I wanted the birds to appear as close to life-sized as possible, these three birds were more complicated to imagine as part of the project. I started with the Washington State bird, the goldfinch. Definitely included were other bright birds like the western tanager and Steller’s jay. My father’s favorite, the mourning dove, had to be part of the mix. And a couple with detailed plumage like the northern flicker and cedar waxwing made the cut. A sketch based on photos sourced online became slowly filled in with color from saturated magazine pages. I worked from the bottom up, so the paper pieces would lay on top of each other as the feathers do on a bird. Each dot on the flicker’s white feathers were cut out individually. The original collages were reproduced on Hahnemühle rice paper as high quality digital prints by LightSource SF, whose staff really helped integrate the illustrations into the project beautifully.

Ultimately, all the pieces of the book came together in June 2018, nine years after my dad suggested the idea. There were several life projects that came in between me and finishing the collages and figuring out the complex math of putting the puzzle pieces together. The ultimate wrench in the works: being forced out of my home in 2013 by the wave of economic changes in San Francisco. I believe that if I hadn’t been looking for three years for a home starting that year, I would have completed the project several years ago. Now, cozily settled into a cottage perched on the slope of Bernal Heights, with all my supplies around me and space to create available, I have the ability to assemble and bind the edition.

The book, 28 Days in May: avian observations, by Len Elliott, and illustrated by me, LisaRuth Elliott, is an edition of 50. As of March 2019, 42 of these have been sold or given away. A percentage of the sales was presented as a donation to the Rainier Audubon Society in King County, Washington in January 2019.

As we were discussing the printing of the book in 2013, my dad sent this observation, a 29th poem to add to the collection here:
Curled around feeder,
Pileated woodpecker
Gobbling up suet.