cover image The Woven Tale Press: Selected Works & The Empty Spaces Project Gallery Exhibit

The Woven Tale Press: Selected Works & The Empty Spaces Project Gallery Exhibit

Edited by Sandra Tyler and Michael Dickel. Woven Tale, $21.95 (138p) ISBN 978-0-9911-0-242-6

In collaboration with the Empty Spaces Project, a nonprofit art gallery in Putnam, Conn., the editors of Woven Tale Press compile favorite images and writings (including poems, flash fiction, and creative nonfiction) from Woven Tale’s online magazine. . This multimedia offering is part exhibit catalog and part (printed) e-zine, and it successfully conveys these interdisciplinary efforts in book form. For the most part, the colorful, often wacky artwork is more appealing than the writing. The mixed-media efforts are the most eye-catching. Highlights include Donald Kolberg’s steel mesh sculptures, which incorporate each figure’s own shadow as a design element; Boisali Biswas’s woven fiery fiber art entitled “Summer Has Passed”; and Daniel Wiener’s colorful hanging sculptures of plastic, wire, Sculpey, and acrylic paint. Another fine art standout is Joan Giordano’s “Fantasy Journey,” a collage of newspapers, lithography, graphite and paint, with archival images bleeding onto vintage wallpaper printed over with ghostly floral designs. Christine Kalafus’s short essay, “Confessions of a Makeup Addict,” is reassuringly honest and entertaining, and Kelly Garriott Waite’s similarly honest short story “Something Extraordinary” is also noteworthy. Color illus. [em](BookLife) [/em]