| Title | Otto & Etta Go Motoring |
| Artist / Creator | Renée Owen |
| Place of Publication | Sebastopol, California |
| Publication Date | 2013 |
| Contributors | Photographer: Garry Gay |
| Structure / Binding | Accordion bindings |
| Medium / Materials | Techniques used include embroidery, collage, tea dyeing, painting and accordion binding. Materials include two altered moleskin books, found paper, vintage photos, tintypes, negatives, vintage postcards and paper ephemera, handmade paper, waxed linen thread, acrylic paint, india ink, mica, beads, and brads |
| Number of Pages | 16 pages each book |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) | 4.5 x 5.75 x 1.5 inches closed. Extends out to 43 inches. |
| Edition Size | Variable edition of 2. Note: these books can be purchased separately, or as a set at a discounted price. Please inquire |
| Signed & Numbered | Signed by the artist |
This collection of vintage photographs reveals our culture's historic fascination with locomotion, with automobiles, especially, a part of each of our own personal narratives. In the first half of the 20th century, families proudly displayed their shining cars, artifacts of the family's identity, status and wealth. An era of drive-in movies and diners, with waitresses on roller skates, Sunday drives and young men hand-polishing their gleaming autos. Those less fortunate hopped boxcars, traveling across tracks crisscrossing the country. This duo of artists' books captures that bygone era in sepia colored photographs and fragments of handwritten postcards and ephemera. Embroidery stitches connect one page to the next, each reminiscent of still shots the travelers might view from their car windows, frame after frame, connecting the moving landscape with its people and their love of the land, creating stories that become family history, handed down from one generation to the next.
Note: This title is a variable edition of 2. Both copies are shown in the photos. The books can be purchased separately here, or as a set of two at a discounted price. Please inquire.
Artist Bio
Using altered books, handmade paper, & vintage photos, Renée Owen's artist books combine found objects with sewing and calligraphy, elevating the detritus of everyday life to newfound purpose and meaning. The richly tactile assemblages embody a wabi sabi aesthetic, finding beauty in the rustic simplicity of nature's imperfection. Nuanced work which communicates an awareness of impermanence honed from spending time alone in the wild, these books celebrate each small moment, preserving them for future generations. Sometimes startling, always revealing, they expose and explore the fragility of the natural world, our daily lives and our connections with one another. Living and working in northern California, Renée has exhibited in numerous juried shows, as well as in print & online journals, including Lark's 500 Handmade Books, Vol. II. Her award-winning poetry, widely published in the US and abroad, has been recently released in a traditionally bound collection from the UK's Snapshot Press.