2008 Woodie Awards
50-year-old book artist returns to Mesa for degree
Candyce Fischer
Issue date: 9/18/07 Section: News
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Mesa Student Sally Hagy-Boyer pulls a book called "A Find Gone" from a nondescript shoebox filled with books of all shapes, sizes, colors and media. Inside the cover spotted with real rust, a single page opens in a series of twists and turns, a style known as the accordion fold.
For Hagy-Boyer, the artist behind this creation, books aren't limited to a simple binding and stark white pages, they are whatever she creates.
This particular book features 26 photographs of wire Hagy-Boyer has been collecting off the streets for the last 20 years. Each wire, exactly as she found it, represents one letter of the alphabet. She created it right before she sold her collection to a woman who "connected with her wires," Hagy-Boyer said.
An aspiring artist since she first went to college to earn her art degree in the 1970s, Hagy-Boyer didn't discover book arts until 1999, when she took a class at Mesa. She repeated the class two more times before the professor retired and the class ceased to exist.
"I like being able to hold [an art book] in my hands," Hagy-Boyer said. "You can't take a painting in your hands and move it around. I love to hold a book in my hands and feel it; [to] feel the papers and the texture. There are intimate qualities to a book."
Because Hagy-Boyer uses things she finds on the ground in her art pieces, she
calls herself the "Tossed and Found Collection."
"These aren't things people have lost; it's garbage," she said.
Years ago at the University of New Mexico, Hagy-Boyer couldn't go to school full-time and still have money to eat. So she dropped out and took a job doing graphics at a printing company, hoping to break into the art field that way.
In 1995, she moved to San Diego from Texas with her husband and two kids, now ages 14 and 19. She became a full-time stay at home mom, but continued doing small art projects, mostly to help other people. Over the years, Hagy-Boyer has tried many different media and crafts, from her favorite, drawing with a graphite pencil, to others such as encaustic painting (using hot wax), weaving, paper-making and beading. Now with a family that supports her, Hagy-Boyer says it is finally a good time to finish her degree.
For Hagy-Boyer, the artist behind this creation, books aren't limited to a simple binding and stark white pages, they are whatever she creates.
This particular book features 26 photographs of wire Hagy-Boyer has been collecting off the streets for the last 20 years. Each wire, exactly as she found it, represents one letter of the alphabet. She created it right before she sold her collection to a woman who "connected with her wires," Hagy-Boyer said.
An aspiring artist since she first went to college to earn her art degree in the 1970s, Hagy-Boyer didn't discover book arts until 1999, when she took a class at Mesa. She repeated the class two more times before the professor retired and the class ceased to exist.
"I like being able to hold [an art book] in my hands," Hagy-Boyer said. "You can't take a painting in your hands and move it around. I love to hold a book in my hands and feel it; [to] feel the papers and the texture. There are intimate qualities to a book."
Because Hagy-Boyer uses things she finds on the ground in her art pieces, she
calls herself the "Tossed and Found Collection."
"These aren't things people have lost; it's garbage," she said.
Years ago at the University of New Mexico, Hagy-Boyer couldn't go to school full-time and still have money to eat. So she dropped out and took a job doing graphics at a printing company, hoping to break into the art field that way.
In 1995, she moved to San Diego from Texas with her husband and two kids, now ages 14 and 19. She became a full-time stay at home mom, but continued doing small art projects, mostly to help other people. Over the years, Hagy-Boyer has tried many different media and crafts, from her favorite, drawing with a graphite pencil, to others such as encaustic painting (using hot wax), weaving, paper-making and beading. Now with a family that supports her, Hagy-Boyer says it is finally a good time to finish her degree.
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