Turning the page
Little Black Book Project comes to an end, reception on March 21
Robyn Tocker
Contributor
For three years, Angel McDowell has hosted a campus wide project titled The Little Black Book. Here’s how it works: you purchase a plain black book from the art store and have three months to reinvent the book based on a theme in the book.
Even though Angel saw the participation level drop slightly, she said “the submissions we got were more elaborate.” She saw interesting twists taken on the themes and “people were taking it a little more hard core than they used to be.”
Angel commented on the themes of “circus” and “breakdown” which were giving participants some challenges. “We had really, really inventive people come on board and they came up with some pretty creative solutions,” said McDowell.
Although playing favourites isn’t Angel’s style, one submission did stick out – a father-daughter team had the theme of fortune cookie.
“One of our employees on campus is a photographer and his daughter [in sixth grade] did one with him,” McDowell said. “She did a wonderful job with her dad’s help.”
The project has come to a close so it’s time for the real fun: the reception. On March 21 in the Riddell Center crush area, the reception will be held from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m.
“One of the twists we have this year is that during the bidding [for the books] we have a buy-it-now option like they do on e-bay,” said Angel. “If people can’t stick around but they really want the book they just have to pony up $50 and it’s theirs.”
“We had really, really inventive people come on board and they came up with some pretty creative solutions.” –Angel McDowell
In addition to the bidding wars, there will be a live guitarist playing, as well as prizes provided by the University of Regina Book Store. For participants, there was extra incentive to do the project this year. All participants’ names have been entered to win an iPad, and the lucky winner will be announced at the reception. Angel expects a good turnout, as she does every year.
“It’s a great location because people drifting in and out of the school always want to see what’s going on, so they come over.”
Unfortunately, this will be the last year Little Black Book Project will be hosted at the university. Never fear though, this is not the last community project Angel plans to host, as she’s “got some tricks up [her] sleeve for the fall.” Angel is ready to try something new, and while it might not drift too far from books, we can say goodbye to little black ones. She is not ready to tip her hand just yet, so you’ll have to tune in during the fall to see what’s going to fall out of Angel’s sleeve.
As a bit of an early farewell, Angel would like to give a thank you to all participants of the past three years. “[It] gave me a place in visual arts and I enjoyed it a lot.”
