Rachel's House: Sharing art

I wish I had a photo of what this blog is about, but I was too busy having fun to back out of the picture and take one. Sorry!

Leysis Quesada vera

Claudia Corrales

One afternoon, on my second or third visit to the Raul Corrales photography gallery in Havana (and after I had looked over their portfolios of pieces at least half of which I wished I could take home), Leysis and her colleague Claudia Corrales, granddaughter of the gallery namesake, asked to see what I did, too. "Look at this one," Leysis kept saying in admiration, which made me happy, as it's one of those serendipitous paintings I did on a card to send someone, and always liked...something in the spontaneity of the moment found its way on to the paper that day. I wish I still had it to send Leysis...

As I flipped through what photos I had on my phone, they mentioned that they too wanted to make books. Indeed, Leysis said, she had looked on the web for instructions and tried, but, she said, "It was a disaster." I seriously doubted that, and said so, for so many of the "mistakes" we think we are making when we work turn out to be good ideas we haven't recognized yet. I was still sighing over what I was learning from their photography, but they were new at bookmaking, and rued the fact that materials like handmade paper were so hard to get.

You can make books out of anything, I told them. It doesn't even have to be paper. I showed them a few of my fabric and copper samples. But, they asked, how do you put them together? Not having anything in the way of materials with me (more's the pity), I took a piece of wrinkled scrap paper from the table, folded it, and with a string began to show them how to sew a simple booklet. We twisted a few kinds of ordinary paper this way and that, including the waxed paper that protected their photographs, and, I think, a paper clip. I hoped that would give them at least a rudimentary start. Then I promised I would send some instructions I had saved from Kathy Steinsberger's wonderful workshops; perhaps those would be more useful. (I wished I could share Kathy herself with them...what a workshop that would be!)

We spent almost an hour, I suspect, in such play, and minute by minute I regretted not having brought my travel art box on this trip with me...I would have gladly left the whole thing with them to work with. But sharing even an elementary lesson was such a happy collaboration; it was clear that they had enjoyed the idea exchange, too.

Since US/Cuba postal mail may or may not arrive, I sent by email the promised instructions and websites, and received from Leysis this gratifying reply:

"Hola, Rachel...thanks for what you sent, and all the advice. Claudia is also motivated; we bought materials this week to start seriously. Claudia made a box and she put some prints inside and sold it...she was so happy. I was making this small example..."