HANDMADE ART BOOKS A creative adventure with Latvian-Australian artist SYLVIA CONVEY
Sylvia is a Latvian-Australian artist, publisher and bookmaker. Sylvia's work is informed by her Latvian heritage and migration experience as much as her daily life in regional and metropolitan Australia. Sylvia has always experimented with various mediums including painting, drawing, printmaking, textiles, sculpture and filmmaking, and her handmade books reflect this – constantly challenging materials and materiality in terms of what the book is and can be. Especially in the 21st century where its incarnations seem endless and its role in people’s lives, ever-changing. Sylvia makes art and books because she can transmute the joys and sorrows of life, which she hopes resonate with others, offering ways to inhabit the human experience and reflect on how one lives in an uncertain world where artistic expression seems more crucial than ever. Sylvia's books allow others access to her personal storytelling, offering historical connections not only through the art she makes but through composition, design, functionality and form. "Each book has its own style and theme, telling its own story. Artists’ books are artworks that use the concept of the book, but are free from the constraints of traditional publishing." -- Sylvia Convey
"From her childhood Sylvia had the gift of being able to transmute her joys and sorrows into poetic images which have the power to enchant and disturb. A true visionary, her images are derived from her own day to day and oneiric experiences. Intuitively she has tapped the richness of her ancestral heritage which adds a decorative radiance to her images. An engaging eroticism is also a dominant theme in her work." — Tony Convey
Tellurian Research Press has a selection of these works for sale. Enquires here. You can also visit Sylvia's webpage and CV.