| Title | Trained Memory and Pickpocket |
| Artist / Creator | Poppy Dully |
| Place of Publication | Portland, Oregon |
| Publication Date | 2012 |
| Medium / Materials | Eleven monotypes in sepia ink on book pages, mounted on accordion folds, and rebound in original cover. |
| Number of Pages | 22 pages |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) | 5 x 7.25 x .6 inches |
| Edition Size | Unique |
| Signed & Numbered | Yes |
Trained Memory and Pickpocket by Poppy Dully - SOLD!
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Trained Memory is one volume in a series of Applied Psychology textbooks, printed in 1920. I considered this book an appropriate backdrop for the monotypes of film images from Pickpocket. The text provides practical instructions on training memory for personal and business uses. The red letterpress headings on each page tie the imagery together.
Pickpocket, a film released in 1959, was written and directed by French director Robert Bresson who modeled this film in subject matter after the film noir Pickup on South Street (1953) by American director Samuel Fuller. Bresson creates a psychological realism with non actors, limited emotions, repeated dialogue, unexpected cuts in the film, and a growing sense of unease. About directing, Bresson states “Build your film on white, on quiet, on stillness. Think about the surface of the work.” Bresson started his work as a painter and he stated that he was influenced by the frescos of Giotto, Byzantine icons, Cezanne, Giacometti, Roulet, and Caravaggio. In this film, Bresson wants people to feel the atmosphere around a thief, to make people anxious and uncomfortable.
“A film should be something that is continuously being reborn.” Bresson
Artist Bio
Artist Statement Poppy Dully’s interest in combining monotypes and book pages into altered books started from four sources: painting mentor Leigh Hyams’ pen and ink artist’s books; William Kentridge’s films and drawings on book pages; the films of French film director Agnes Varda; and a long ago college art assignment to study film for compositional references. When Poppy creates an altered book with monotypes she looks for a book that will relate in its size, format, and text with the film images. With a vintage set of psychology textbooks, Poppy began her experiment with altered books. Using a digital camera, she photographs scenes from the film that seem most eventful. From these photos, she selects 8 to 10 that can tell the story visually. These photos are her source material for the monotypes which she creates by drawing on the plate and then rolling and wiping off oil based ink on the reverse side of plexi-glass plates before printing on the book pages that she has separated from the book. She backs the dried monotypes onto accordion pages that she reassembles in the book’s original cover. Poppy continues to explore the relationship of storytelling in film and books in her altered books. Sometimes it is the discovery of a second hand book that connects her to a film and other times it is the moving images of the film that connects her to a book. Artist Biography Poppy Dully (b.1947, San Francisco, CA) is a Portland, Oregon painter, printmaker, and book artist. She works in acrylics, oil, pen, and ink on a variety of surfaces. She studied design and cultural anthropology as an undergraduate at University of California, Berkeley, received a Masters in Public Health from University of California Los Angeles and worked for over 20 years in fundraising and non profit management in Portland. She has shown her paintings and prints around the Northwest since 1998. Poppy’s altered book with monotypes, After Cleo, 5 to 7, was exhibited in the College Book Art Association nationally juried show at the 23 Sandy Gallery in December 2009.