Dear Everyone ~

Preparations are proceeding apace for the Bookful of Art four-part workshop Cat Bennett & I will be co-teaching next month. In addition to assembling 33 kits of materials to ship, I am marveling—not for the first time—at the creative camaraderie made possible by technology. The idea that Cat & I can teach 28 students simultaneously, and that each student will in essence have a private lesson, truly boggles my bookbinding mind.

And it will be quite a rich experience. Everyone will be able to see our hands close up, as well as to ask questions in real time via the Chat feature on Zoom. Both of us will be “broadcasting live” from our respective studios. (I love this illustration of Cat’s, though she will not be “lolling live” in her living room.) Students will converge from the West Coast and the East Coast, plus several from Chicago, a quartet from Canada and a soloist from Belgium (who will be Zooming the workshops at teatime on the Continent).

I have never gotten so much enjoyment from preparing parcels of kits, partly because I have never assembled anywhere near this many in one swell swoop—or swoon. The five palettes continue to mildly mesmerize me. If you haven’t signed up yet, and would still like to, this Friday (August 28) is the deadline for shipping workshop materials to you via Priority Mail.

For Cat & me, the prospect not only of teaching our students remotely, but also of teaching together while we are 986 miles apart, is so extraordinary. Cat has observed, “One of the things that excites me most about the class is that we get to actually see each other on Zoom. Art classes, for me, are just as much about the inspiration that comes from the students as the lessons that come from the teacher—and in this instance, it’s two teachers. I think there's a special synergy in working together.”

Bookful of Art: A four-part workshop via Zoom

In articipation, Bari