Mary Ellen Long ~ Colorado

Artist Statement: "My direct relationship with the land is celebrated in my book art. I perform my own personal rituals in my forest habitat in Colorado such as burying paper or whole books under winter snows, creating art forms that empathize with the cycles of the earth, or telling stories of event and history which grows from my need to connect with a primal consciousness — that respects and coexists with the natural environment.

"My book art has become a way to personalize the enormous impersonality of this land's dynamic, freezing in time the flow of natural transitions and patterns around me - a way to translate the spirit of this small portion of the earth's landscape."

Love Letters
By Mary Ellen Long
Durango, Colorado: Mary Ellen Long , 1998. One-of-a-Kind.

Rolled balls of love letters, which have been cut into strips, housed in a 10 x 3.75 x 4.25" black wooden box with clear plexiglas lid.

Mary Ellen Long: "This work relates to the business of the heart. The text balls within the enclosed box are created from saved letters from friends, family, and lovers through the years. These letters are valued and honored in this art work since few now write letters in the age of email."
$600

Sands, Signs, Symbols
By Mary Ellen Long
Durango, Colorado: Mary Ellen Long , 1990. One-of-a-Kind.

Scroll (10 .5" x 6' extended) of handmade kozo and gampi paper on which are glyphs scorched into the paper and handwritten graphite text. Housed in 4 x 12 x 4" plexiglass box with lid.

Mary Ellen Long: "This is a part of a series which was originally a sculptural installation. The installation was comprised of sands held in vessels cast [in the form of] Native American baskets accompanied by hanging scrolls that served as documentary evidence of travels. The glyph images scorched on the paper of this scroll speak of the mystery of the prehistoric — a language echoing from the past. The penciled text is the artist's stream of consciousness writing about her travels and observations. The paper is made from kozo and gampi fibers from Japan. It is advisable to keep the scroll out of direct light for extended periods of time, as the scorching can fade."
$1,500

Mountain: Missionary Ridge
By Mary Ellen Long
Durango, Colorado: Mary Ellen Long , 2006. One-of-a-Kind.

5.125 x 5"; 8 pages. Accordion structure. Two stones form the front and back covers. Pages of handmade paper.

Mary Ellen Long: "This book is part of a series about mountain profiles and metaphors. Each of the series has a story and the Missionary Ridge book commemorates a fire on the ridge above my home. The rocks that serve as bookends are from the area of the fire."

The text: "INTO THE SPIRAL WHORLS OF FIRE THE STORMS OF THE MILKY WAY BUDDHA INCENSE IN AN EMPTY WORLD BLACK PIT AND LIGHT YEAR FLAME TONGUE OF THE DRAGON LICKS THE SUN ASUNDER"
$500

Secrets of the Burn
By Mary Ellen Long
Durango, Colorado: Mary Ellen Long , 2004. One-of-a-Kind.

Handmade paper scrolls wrapped in burnt bark. Housed in 7.5 x 5.5 x 3.25" box, sides decoupaged with the title, topped with clear plexiglas top.

Mary Ellen Long: "A walk through a burnt aspen forest revealed mysterious phenomena. Incredible heat had burnt away the outer bark and seared the inner bark leaving a very delicate and lacy layer that was in the process of peeling off the bright white aspen core. I discovered this bittersweet happening as I explored the aftermath of the huge fire occurring during the drought year of 2002 on the Missionary Ridge area above Durango, Colorado, and my home. As I proceeded through an exorcism dealing with the emotional detritus of the fire, this burnt bark peel became a central material in my art making. Paper made in the Washi (Japanese) tradition, a rain spotted paper, evolved into scroll forms. The juxtaposition of the two delicate elements, black and white, seemed made for each other in the final form of a box enclosure, honoring both and keeping each as memory and metaphor of this extraordinary event."

Patricia Miller, The Durango Herald: "The tattered bark that looks like dark chocolate wraps around scrolls that Long made out of washi paper rolled look like pale brandy snaps. Long see scrolls as objects that enclose the knowledge of things that have happened. She topped for practical reasons and to reinforce the feelings of enclosure and secrecy."
$750

Sand Games
By Mary Ellen Long
2002. One-of-a-Kind.

4.5 x 8.5 x 2.75" handmade banana paper pages bound into burnt driftwood.

This sculptural book evolved from a travel experience on the beaches of Costa Rica. Long became entranced with the crabs and the patterns they were making as they worked diligently in and with sand. She took photographs of these "myriad of forms such as dots and wandering lines."

Of the book she says: "I also brought home a burnt piece of driftwood which spoke to me of the detritus of the tides and changes inherent on the coastal shores. The wood became a perfect binding device for the handmade paper pages of banana leaf and other fiber as Sand Games began to take shape. The pages have been scorched and sanded with the photographed delicate and intricate patterns of the industrious little crabs. Yarn, reminiscent of sea weed completes this book."
$300

Beware
By Mary Ellen Long
1993. One-of-a-Kind.

4.5 x 3.75 x 1" altered book in 5.4 x 7.5 x 2" box. Porcupine quills decorate exterior of book with quills laid in box. Text printed on interior of box lid. Title "Beware" stamped on exterior of lid. Materials used Japanese paper, ink, quills, dry pigment, charcoal, and sand.

This altered book was inspired by an event in the Long family at their mountainside home. At the time they lived in a forest habitat where animal life often intersected with their own lives. A porcupine for many months feasted nightly on the Long's wood deck and door strips. Many mornings they tried spraying him with water from a garden hose. Finally patience exhausted Mary Ellen's husband put the animal to rest.

The next Spring the family discovered that the porcupine's grave site had been disturbed. His bones lay scattered on the earth, cleaned white by nature's scavengers. Long saved the quills, thinking then of putting them in some form of a book.

Their son after hearing of their adventures and mis-adventures with the porcupine shared a poem by Galway Kinnell, "The Porcupine", with them. Long incorporated the words and the quills into the presentation of "Beware." She says that "The quills of the porcupine attached to the closed book complete the story ... a metaphor for interactions in the world of animal and humankind."

                   The Avesta
        Puts Porcupine Killers
        Into Hell for Nine Generations,
                   Sentencing them
                    to gnaw out
        Each others hearts for the
        Salts of Desire

$300