My Brown Pants

and the stories they tell

On April 6, 2004 my brown pants split at the seam. I squatted to get something from a low drawer in my art studio and rrrrippp! They were my favorite jeans to wear when working in my art studio: they fit perfectly, they were so well-worn they felt like a soft tshirt and they had studio stains already on them so I felt quite free to make more creative messes. The very day my favorite brown pants split in half along the rearview I decided to memorialize them. So I made a small limited edition 14 page artist book. Here's a photo of the book My Brown Pants alongside one of my fountain pens to show scale - the book when closed is 2.5 inches wide and 4 inches tall, it opens to 5 inches wide.

On April 6, 2004 to make this book I first carefully photographed the just-ripped pants and all of the items in the pockets. Then, after uploading the photos to my computer I wrote my memories, the stories, of the stains on the pants and the items in my pockets at that moment. Then I xerox printed a short edition of 16 books on light tan paper and hand sewed each binding with pamphlet stitching.

I've put this artist book, My Brown Pants, behind a paywall because pants are personal things.

If you’re not already a paid subscriber and you're curious about the artist books I create - like My Brown Pants - I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber. My work is reader supported and paid subscribers regularly get unique artist books from me!

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