Visual Poetry: Alumni & Current Student Artists
Franca Van Allen, Alumni Artist
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Bio:
Franca Van Allenis a native of Italy, now living in Stockton. Her work contains abstract, figurative and symbolic elements, and it’s realized through mixed media and mixed techniques, such as printmaking and collage.After retiring from public education, Franca attended Delta College to develop her practice in the visual arts and now she teaches art in Stockton and Sacramento. Her work was exhibited in Stockton, Sacramento, Davis and Oakland.
Artist Statement:
I first discovered bookmaking while teaching my young students, in Stockton. They used booklets as organizers and for writing assignments. This book is also an organizer, a keeper of thoughts, ideas, drawings and “very important small papers”. The two separate signatures, one for writing and one for drawing, represent the two ways in which I express myself artistically. The futuristic looking cover is made with pasted paper; the signatures contain collages, printed fragments and other materials.
I’d like to dedicate this book to all free-spirited women, to women artists and courageous pioneers.
Wild Geese (2024)
Travel Concertina (variation with other folds)
Cardboard, paper, printed media, acrylics and fabric
3.3” x 4.4” x 1” (closed)
26” x 4.4” x 1” (open)
$60
Wild Geese (excerpt) — by Mary Oliver
…Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
The world offers itself to your imagination,
Calls to you like the wild geese,
Harsh and exciting…
Exhibition Season:
Book Art Project Artists