Terry Turrentine ~ California

Widening Circles
Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke
Translation by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows
Santa Cruz, California: White Bird Press, 2020. Edition of 10 with 2 artist’s proofs and 1 handling copy.

The accordion style book has 26 individual pages hinged with black Kozo paper to make 13 spreads. Each print is mounted to 350gsm Colorplan Ivory paper using 3M mounting adhesive. Print edges are individually hand colored with India Ink. The single tray portfolio is covered in Black Euro Buckram. The cover and left spine piece of the portfolio are covered in red goatskin from Pergamena Tannery and foil stamped in red. Photographs and Creative Direction by Terry Turrentine. Editorial Consulting by Susan Gangel. Book Design and Text Design by Dana F. Smith. Typography and Letterpress Printing by Dina Pollack. Book bound by John DeMerritt Bookbinding. Images printed at Electric Works by Noah & Kris Lang. Text: from The Book of Hours, Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy, Riverhead Books, Penguin Group USA, New York, New York. Reprinted with permission of the publisher.

Terry Turrentine: "Over the past 20 years in my fine artist books, my focus has been on the majesty of birds and their complex role in the natural world. Honoring these glorious creatures, I have portrayed the beauty of light, as in studies of the great egret, snowy owl, and gannet.

“My work published in 2020, Widening Circles, explores a new subject for me- an aspect of darkness. Ferocious hawks in the wild become the symbol of the predatory instincts in both man and nature, while domesticated hawks are masked and leashed. “Written over 100 years ago, in a time of extreme duress, the text from a poem by Rilke is embossed in a deep, deep black photographic paper. You have to really lean into the text to read it, to find the message of hope that counterbalances any violence implied in both the hawk on the hunt and the hawk in captivity.

“The cover of the volume is hand dyed in red ink, the color of blood. The volume is housed in a leather box, like a hawk in captivity.

“Thus, the bloodlust of a hawk on the hunt is contrasted with the subdued hawks in their protective gear. I believe this tension between freedom and restriction, between violence and peace, is a reality we face in our world today. But we can also turn to Rilke’s words of faith and hope as we face each new day.

“As is stated in Widening Circles, I believe the sublime gift of nature is witnessing the cycles of life and death and renewal. It shows us we as artists can transcend destruction through creativity…even in an age of societal and environmental assault.”
$5,200

Swords and Angels
By Terry Turrentine
Santa Cruz, California: White Bird Press. Edition of 8 + 2 handling copies.

Dimensions variable with Plate size: 12” x 14”. Accordion structure extending to 30 feet. Sixteen cool-toned photogravures by Terry Turrentine and a poem by Marshall Weber in an accordion-fold book. Photographic Prints: photogravures printed by Paul Mullowney of Mullowney Printing.

Book design by Dana Smith. Book Binding by John DeMerritt. Calligraphy by Meredith J. Klein. Calligraphy silkscreen printing by Nat Swope, Bloom Press.

Prospectus: “Fine arts photographer, Terry Turrentine photographed Nectar bats, Pallid bats and Lesser Long Nose Mexican bats at the Pond at Elephant Head in Green Valley Arizona. She constructed an outdoor studio using 4 strobes and 3 Nikon digital cameras retrofitted with an infrared sensor. The book edges are treated with graphite and sealed with beeswax. The book cover material is black calfskin made by Pergamena Tannery in Montgomery, NY. The cover is blind stamped with a bat wing, using a magnesium die. The custom housing is covered in Duo book cloth and foil stamped in matte silver.

“San Francisco based calligrapher, Meredith Jane Klein wrote the poem and book title in Fraktur blackletter calligraphy. The artist's name was written in Unical calligraphy. She used Moon Palace Sumi ink with a Brause nib on Canson Pro-Layout Marker paper. The book title was written with an Automatic Pen, a British pen with a wider metal nib. The final calligraphy was then scanned and silkscreened in metallic silver for the editioned book.”
$3,500 (Last 2 copies)