Instructor: Michael DeMeng

"A book is simply the container of an idea-like a bottle; what is inside the book is what matters" - Angela CarterWell, not always..
In this 3 day class we will challenge the above quote by using the entire book form as a piece of art, both interior and exterior. Using hardback books that have been modified to form boxes, students will create mixed media shrines. This class will incorporate a variety of techniques including collage, drawing, painting and, most importantly, assemblage.  Anything and everything will be used to create this found object digest, (saw blades, gears, you name it).  So, time to curl up with a good book, but be careful, some found objects can be pointy.Teachers will supply Dremels, heat guns, drills, and assortment of other tools.

Supply list:

1. Cigar Box (wooden preferabably) or shallow box similar in shape and size
2. A hardback book that is slightly larger than the cigar box.  In other words if the pages were removed from the book the cigar box could slide in (don’t worry about the thickness of the book…this can be adjusted, just the cover and back matter.  Another option is to get some book board and cut it down to size.
3. Exacto Knife
4. Hard Back Book (with or without pages inside)
5. Claudine Hellmuth Studio Sticky Back Canvas 8 ½”  x 11” (comes in packs of 5 you’ll need one or two sheets) or Duct Tape
6. Foam Board enough to cut 8 or more pieces the same size as the book
7. Paints: Acrylic Golden brand preferably -
1. Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold,
2. TitaniumWhite,
3. Carbon or Mars Black,
4. Pthalo Green blue shade,
5. Dioxazine Purple,
6. Quinacridone Crimson
7. Anthraquinone Blue
8. Optional Paints
1. Micaceous Iron Oxide
2. Van Dyke Brown
3. Graphite Grey (cool color…you’ll see why)
4. Pthalo Blue
5. Pyrole Red
6. Nickel Azo Gold
7. Interference Colors
8. Iridescent Colors (metallic)
9. Glues:
1. E6000
2. Dap Kwik Seal Plus-kitchen and bath adhesive caulk (White)
3. Matte Medium Gel
10. Palette paper or wax paper
11. Various small found objects: anything and everything, including  typewriter parts, lenses, gears, doll parts, mesh etc.
12. Wire and or twine
13. Books, Magazines, and other paper ephemera
14. Brushes (inexpensive medium size, including detail brush)
15. Optional items or suggestions to enhance the class project:
1. Tools like pliers, wire cutters, etc.
2. Heat gun.
3. Dremmel,

Michael deMeng

Michael deMeng is an assemblage artist from Missoula, MT who exhibits throughout the United States. As an educator, he has been actively involved with VSA Montana, providing art education and encouraging participation in the arts to people with disabilities. Through these activities, as well as his artwork, deMeng fosters community awareness, and offers creative methods to explore the human experience.

In his art, he addresses issues of transformation. Discarded materials find new and unexpected uses in his work; they are reassembled and conjoined with unlikely components, a form of rebirth from the ashes into new life and new meaning.

These assemblages are metaphors for the evolutions and revolutions of existence: from life to death to rebirth, from new to old to renewed, from construction to destruction to reconstruction. These forms are examinations of the world in perpetual flux, where meaning and function are ever-changing.