Jamie Lynn Shafer Artist Talk

Jamie Lynn Shafer is a book artist who currently has a fellowship at the Black Rock Press Redfield at the University of Nevada, Reno.  She has a MA in the Art of the book. While being in Reno she has created and worked on many projects, a few of those projects include 1in 3, 17927, and Code Red.

The project 1 in 3 is an Art book that she made to display domestic abuse in women. The book paired victims with pictures and stats. The book is created with pictures of women separated into three rows. The top is the women’s forehead, the middle is their eyes and nose portion of their face and the bottom row is their chin. This system of separating the face gives the book movement as well as showcasing the different areas where domestic abuse is targeted. Shafer also talked to the women and asked them for quotes which she included in the book. I think that this book is very creative and unique; Shafer takes a topic that is widely discussed and creates something intriguing that can grab the reader’s attention.

The next project of Shafer’s is 17927. This project was themed on the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania. The number 17927 is the revoked zip code of the town. This Art book to me was one of my favorites of Shafer’s because of the detail and story behind the book. The book is about the town of Centralia and how the town was known for mining but mainly known for the fact the mines caught fire in 1962 and has been burning ever since.  The book is a tunnel book meaning it is a type of pop up 3 dimensional that shows how the mine is burning. The book itself actually tells a story of a 12-year-old boy named Todd who fell into a sinkhole and his cousin saves him. I really like how Shafer constructed this book and when she talked about it, I could tell that she put a lot of work into creating the book.

The last project is called Code Red and it is about school safety and gun violence. Shafer explained to use that her wife is a Trauma Counselor at a school and had to help counsel students after there was a gun lockdown at the school.  Shafer created an Art book that is a single sheet fold paper accordion that makes a type of room when opened. This book is a sculpture piece that represents a room and on the wall is written all the places guns can be found in the home. Shafer really wanted to address the fact the there is carelessness when it comes to the storage of guns. This piece was very effective and a great take on how to address the topic.

Overall I really enjoyed Shafer’s talk and her enthusiasm that she had for all of her pieces that she created. She really studied all of the themes to get a better understanding to her work.