TRAVELING IN A TINY HOME THAT IS REALLY AN ARTISTS' BOOK ON WHEELS

Peter and Donna Thomas have been making fine press and artist's books for over 40 years. When they started, as craftspeople at Renaissance Faires, they fell in love with the graceful beauty of "gypsy wagon" caravans that other vendors had made to sleep in or use as booths for selling their wares. In 2009 Peter and Donna built their own tiny home on wheels, designed after a typical late 19th century Redding Wagon. This blog documents their trips around the country, taken to sell their artists' books, teach book arts workshops, and talk about making books as art; as well as to seek out and experience the beauty of the many different landscapes found across the USA.

Peter and Donna started their business in 1977 and made their first book in 1978, so from 2017-18 are traveling to celebrate 40 years of making books with shows in a dozen libraries across the country. See the schedule on the side bar to find if they are coming to a town near you....

Follow the Wandering Book Artists on Facebook and Instagram!
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Click here to see a digital exhibit of all the books Peter and Donna have made since 1977.


Saturday, August 6, 2011

Its not over till the ukulele-playing book artist sings!

We have been home about 3 weeks now and it seems like 3 years for all that has gone on. We finally have adjusted to not moving on every day for some new city and new friends. We have almost crossed everything off the “to do when we get home” list we made on the trip… but if we promised you something, and have forgotten, let us know.

Back home and at the press once again.....

So I guess the trip is finally over, but it will not be forgotten. When we were in Boulder, Colorado, the library video-taped Peter's talk for their ScriptaLab site. It is about a half hour long and is now up on the library's server. They titled the talk, “What is a book? What is an artist’s book?” and they describe it as follows: “Book artist Peter Thomas talks about the nature of the artist’s book, what they can do, who makes them, and what they sound like.”

Click here to see the 30 minute video of our talk at CU Boulder.

And just to prove the old saying is really true...We just received a note from Ori Hoffer, the maverick news reporter from Park City Television, that he completed the editing of the interview he did with us when we were in Park City, Utah earlier this year. This is only four and a half minutes long and is posted on YouTube.

Click here to see the 4 minute TV short film.

Parked in front of the Santa Cruz Public Library for First Friday.

Now that we are home we get asked a lot, “When are you going to leave again?” But it is not asked like it sounds when typed. They want to know if we have plans for another trip. We have not thought that far ahead, but we will be taking the gypsy wagon to the "Friends of Dard Hunter" meeting in Santa Barbara in October, and we will probably make one more cross country trip in 2012 to visit the south. We will make a post on the blog to let you know about that, but until then, best wishes from your wandering book artist friends Donna and Peter Thomas.

The drum roll please....

Last but not least here is one last photo of the wagon, taken in Northern CA, that never got posted.


at 3:09 PM

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