Moon Landing (as seen on TV)

Prints from the Sketchbook Project

Just in time for the holidays...I now have 7 prints available from the good folks at The Sketchbook Project...including selections from my London sketchbook, Italian Cities sketchbook, and Child of the Moon sketchbook.

For a limited time you can use these coupon codes:
HOLIDAY =  20% off
SHIP = Free shipping on $75+
MONDAY = 25% off on Cyber Monday

You can check out my shop @... https://www.brooklynartlibrary.com/katecastelli

Friday Inspiration: Cosmographics (Part 2: Eclipses)

Johannes Regiomontanus Calendar published in Venice in 1482

{left} Solar Eclipses Physician’s Almanac, England ca. 1430-1431 {right} Kalender of the Shepherdes Table for Eclipses published in the 1490s in Paris by Guy Marchant and Antoine Vérard.

Eclipses luminarium by Cyprian Leowitz (1554)

Friday Inspiration: Cosmographics (Part 1: the Moon)

{left} Galileo's drawings of the moon from 1610  {right} The Moon published in Galileo's Sidereus nuncius, 1610

Johann Zahn Specula physico-mathematico-historica 1696

{left} An early photograph of the Moon, a daguerreotype taken by John W. Draper, March 26, 1840, in New York. {Right} First published photograph of the moon, 1840

Child of the Moon (take 2)

{Sketchbook page of the final page layout}

It started with last year's submission to the Sketchbook Project. That book felt like a rough draft of something bigger. I wanted to combine sketches, images of the moon, lyrics from the 1968 Rolling Stones song "Child of the Moon," and prints into a process book of sorts for the series of circle woodblocks I have been working on for the last few years.

This summer I changed the format to a square and sourced some new images of the moon from a NASA publication, but the book was still lacking something. So I put the project aside for a while.

{pages 4-5} a vellum overlay of a horizon diagram from Bruno Munari's "The Circle" (1964)

{pages 6-7} A spread with one of the cropped pages featured original prints, and images from a 1970 NASA publication.

When I began working on it again, I decided to use the mechanical wire binding to my advantage. I included vellum overlays with scientific and philosophical diagrams, I inserted cropped pages to reveal and obscure content, and I decided to include more original prints. The result was much more dynamic than the first two "drafts" and felt like an authentic process book that reflected the ideas I was interested in.

{pages 10-11} a vellum overlay of a late 16th century astronomical diagram

Child of the Moon
photocopies, ephemera, woodblock prints
22 pages, mechanically wirebound with linen hardcover
14.5 x 7.25" opened
unique edition
(copyright K. Castelli 2015)

Luna

Luna 424
accordion structure with hardcovers
sumi ink, and ephemera with hand-stitching
6.5 x 19" opened

This book came together rather unexpectedly. I was enamored with the color of the old letter and the rest of the pieces quite literally fell into place. Why is the moon so fascinating?





The exquisite handwriting and blue grey paper belong to the outer envelope of a letter from March of 1861. It was postmarked in Florence and arrived in Bordeaux 5 days later. I happened upon the letter at the stamp market in Paris. For a few Euro I bought a packet of 20 letters from France and Italy spanning from the early 1820-1860s. I was elated with the find. Ephemeral indeed. They seem almost too beautiful to use.






Luna 424 opened (top) and detail of the cover (below).



copyright Kate Castelli 2010

Magnificent Desolation

40 years ago today on July 20th, 1969, man set foot upon the moon. Let us not forget that we are capable of such great heights.