Artist Curt Dornberg

Curt Dornberg – Artist Statement

Patterns from around the world have always delighted me. At one time I wished to be an architect in the best International Modern style, but the Modernist’s rejection of traditional patterns pretty much left only the Grid to do the work of ornament. “In the Kingdom of Goiama” combines both pattern and the grid in a perspective of twenty-nine units forming one configuration. I chose to work in pastepaper—a centuries-old process, a bookbinders’ choice for covers and endpapers for fine bindings. Pastepaper as a medium has allowed me to let surface a certain Eastern exoticism in color and pattern, such oriental splendor as I imagined in the passage from Fr. Jeronimo Lobo’s A Voyage to Abyssinia, 1622, that gave me my title:

Here the river alters its course, and . . . waters . . . the kingdom of Goiama, which it bounds on the right, forming by its windings a kind of peninsula. Then entering Bezamo, a province of the kingdom of Damot, and Gamarchausa, part of Goiama, it returns within a short day’s journey of its spring; though to pursue it through all its mazes, and accompany it round the kingdom of Goiama, is a journey of twenty-nine days.

Education

The San Francisco Center for the Book

Guild of Book Workers

Split Rock Center for the Arts

Minnesota Center for the Book

Ph. D. English, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Exhibitions

2007 The Book as Art: A Selection of Contemporary Artists’ Books, U of A Library, Tucson, AZ
2007 Artists’ Books: An Exhibition, Oro Valley Library, Oro Valley, AZ
2007 Sense and Sensuality: Contemporary Artists’ Books, 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, OR
2006 Collaborative Artists’ Books Invitational, Details Art and Design Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2006 The Art of Handmade Paper and Books, Tubac Center of the Arts, Tubac, AZ
2006 Papers: Mixed Media Art Works by four members of Paper Works. TIA Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2005 Chicago Hand Bookbinders Traveling Exhibition, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Northwestern University, Evanston, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2005 Bound and Unbound, Tohono Chul Gallery, Tucson, AZ
2004 Best of the West. HGA Convergence Gallery, Denver
2003 Split Rock Collage Artists Showing. The Coffee Hag, Mankato, MN

Professional Experience

2008 Fibers through Time, Arizona Federation of Weavers and Spinners Guilds
2007 Associated Southern California Handweavers, Visalia
2006 La Puerta Roja, Alamos, Sonora, Mexico
2005 Northern Pioneer College
2004 Convergence 2004 in Denver, for the Handweavers’ Guild of America
2002 Fibers through Time, Arizona Federation of Weavers and Spinners Guilds

Collections

Libraries of the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Texas Tech
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
Newark Public Library, Newark, New Jersey
The University of Iowa

Book Art Memberships

Guild of Book Workers
The Handweavers’ Guild of America
Tucson Handweavers and Spinners Guild
PaperWorks: The Sonoran Collective of Paper and Book Artists



	Curt Dornberg – Artist Statement Patterns from around the world have always delighted me. At one time I wished to be an architect in the best International Modern style, but the Modernist’s rejection of traditional patterns pretty much left only the Grid to do the work of ornament. “In the Kingdom of Goiama” combines both pattern and the grid in a perspective of twenty-nine units forming one configuration. I chose to work in pastepaper—a centuries-old process, a bookbinders’ choice for covers and endpapers for fine bindings. Pastepaper as a medium has allowed me to let surface a certain Eastern exoticism in color and pattern, such oriental splendor as I imagined in the passage from Fr. Jeronimo Lobo’s A Voyage to Abyssinia, 1622, that gave me my title: Here the river alters its course, and . . . waters . . . the kingdom of Goiama, which it bounds on the right, forming by its windings a kind of peninsula. Then entering Bezamo, a province of the kingdom of Damot, and Gamarchausa, part of Goiama, it returns within a short day’s journey of its spring; though to pursue it through all its mazes, and accompany it round the kingdom of Goiama, is a journey of twenty-nine days. Education The San Francisco Center for the Book Guild of Book Workers Split Rock Center for the Arts Minnesota Center for the Book Ph. D. English, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Exhibitions 2007 The Book as Art: A Selection of Contemporary Artists’ Books, U of A Library, Tucson, AZ 2007 Artists’ Books: An Exhibition, Oro Valley Library, Oro Valley, AZ 2007 Sense and Sensuality: Contemporary Artists’ Books, 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, OR 2006 Collaborative Artists’ Books Invitational, Details Art and Design Gallery, Tucson, AZ 2006 The Art of Handmade Paper and Books, Tubac Center of the Arts, Tubac, AZ 2006 Papers: Mixed Media Art Works by four members of Paper Works. TIA Gallery, Tucson, AZ 2005 Chicago Hand Bookbinders Traveling Exhibition, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Northwestern University, Evanston, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL 2005 Bound and Unbound, Tohono Chul Gallery, Tucson, AZ 2004 Best of the West. HGA Convergence Gallery, Denver 2003 Split Rock Collage Artists Showing. The Coffee Hag, Mankato, MN Professional Experience 2008 Fibers through Time, Arizona Federation of Weavers and Spinners Guilds 2007 Associated Southern California Handweavers, Visalia 2006 La Puerta Roja, Alamos, Sonora, Mexico 2005 Northern Pioneer College 2004 Convergence 2004 in Denver, for the Handweavers’ Guild of America 2002 Fibers through Time, Arizona Federation of Weavers and Spinners Guilds Collections Libraries of the University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ Texas Tech University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Newark Public Library, Newark, New Jersey The University of Iowa Book Art Memberships Guild of Book Workers The Handweavers’ Guild of America Tucson Handweavers and Spinners Guild PaperWorks: The Sonoran Collective of Paper and Book Artists





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