LindaRose Conversations

Linda Smith and Rose Camastro-Pritchett met as young women in Quincy, IL. Each went on her way, Linda to San Francisco, and Rose circled the globe. They reconnected years later, by chance, each on her own artistic trajectory. Having found one another again, they didn’t want to let go, and their conversations have continued across the miles and the years, in different formats.

In summer 2020, we began the LindaRose Conversations with the intention of wandering, meandering, and musing, responding to one another’s words and visual art. One sends a text, the other responds with an image. Then we switch. We don’t discuss the texts or the images in advance of seeing one another’s work. We limit ourselves to using 6-inch by 6-inch paper. We don’t think of the visuals as illustration of the text, but rather an amplification and extension of the words. Not being together in one location, we see each other’s work only through photos online. We impose no deadlines. Our friend, Na Wang, provides technical assistance. We often reply to one another via email or text.

“’Our project’ – what a great headline! I am so looking forward to this experiment, while at the same time being a bit fearful about being up to the task.” Linda to Rose email, Aug. 8, 2020

“I want to play, I want to stretch, I want to engage with you. I want to have fun. I want to see what happens when we jump into the water and swim to the other side. As Mr. Rogers said, ‘Won't you be my playmate?’” Rose to Linda email, Aug. 9, 2020

“I have completed my ‘assignment,’ and am handing it off to you. I hope it inspires some wonderful art. . . . And there you have it – we have begun!” Linda to Rose, email Aug. 31, 2020

“Linda, this is beautiful. My initial response is that’s where I have always been, in the ‘in-between-places.’ . . . I am going to have to think about this. A lot.” Rose to Linda email, Aug. 31, 2020

“We are live!” Rose to Linda text, Sep. 9, 2020

“I love it! So exciting to have a spot to play. And your piece is wonderful. I see the [William] Tillyer influence. Are the black dots throughout dots or stitches? It does capture in-between spaces. . . . There is an Asian influence to the piece visually. I think we have made a very good start to our conversational wanderings.” Linda to Rose text, Sep. 9, 2020

“I am attaching my latest. I often wish we were exchanging in person (though not through the mail) because my originals always look better than the photos. . . . Here's my new one, done with inks and silk and metal threads. Hope it inspires a wonderful text from you!” Linda to Rose email, Oct. 21, 2020

“Your piece is gorgeous and evocative. I am going to have fun with this. The stitching on top makes me think of the white sea gulls and the bottom ones, dried grasses. Yet they look like medical stitches.” Rose to Linda text, Oct. 21, 2020

“From my post-it note: ‘Dreaming in Chinese’ – the red ground, black X and scroll-like text. Letter writing – the black horizontal lines across the red ground reminiscent of handwriting, the small square at the top looks like a stamp. Traveling – the black ribbon through the maplike white patch with black lines. Hiding – the back horizontal piece with the white fringe beneath that looks like a pulled down shade. Plowing – the metal pieces, like water buffalos with plows attached to their bodies steered by farmers plowing through fields outside of Jiujiang. ‘Dreaming in Chinese.’ Traveling, Hiding, Plowing, Recording (writing). This will take me awhile.” Rose to Linda email, Jan. 29, 2021

“My response to your beautiful piece is online.” Rose to Linda text, Feb. 6, 2021

“I love that it is handwritten, invoking the sense of a letter. And that big X shape reminds me of your oxen. Also love that last line. Your time in China (and elsewhere too) has changed you, and that is something that much of your work addresses, even if sometimes obliquely. Very well done!” Linda to Rose text, Feb. 6, 2021

After creating ten pairings, we decided to choose one of our texts and move it in a new direction with the goal of producing an artist book, breaking apart the text (occasionally editing it), and creating new visuals. We used the same 6 x 6-inch format and started with no timetable. This did not last long. Artists Book House contacted us to share an unpublished collaboration. We created a schedule for our calls and due dates.

In July we will see one another in person for the first time in 18 months and for the first time since we began this collaboration. Our current plans are to develop this online edition into a physical artist book, continuing our wandering, meandering, and musing.

(http://rosecamastropritchett.com/lindarose-conversations-wanderings-meanderings-musings)

BIOS

Rose Camastro-PritchettRose packs a bag every year to live abroad, to make art, to exhibit, to teach, to write. She has been doing this for over forty years. Sometimes for a month, once for five years. It’s how she lives: absorbing the culture, learning the language, making friends, living off the economy. Ten years ago, Rose moved to Evanston, IL. She and her husband David live in the upstairs flat of her cousin’s home, two doors away from the house where she grew up. Some say that she has gone full circle. Rose disagrees. Her “Comfort Women” Project, which has been touring – Platforms Exhibition, Athens, Greece; Menlo College, Atherton, CA; Reflective Space Gallery, Glendale, CA; Prairie State College, Chicago Heights, IL; Awakenings Gallery, Chicago, IL – will land at the 1100 Florence Gallery, Evanston, IL, for the month of October, 2021.

BFA, Quincy University; MS Ed, Western Illinois University; MFA, Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts, Columbia College Chicago; http://rosecamastropritchett.com

Linda SmithLinda is a dreamy realist, that odd combination of often being gripped with the desire to be elsewhere while being completely capable of meeting deadlines and adhering to the strictures of the Library of Congress classification system. She started making artist books (albeit without that name) as a child, with titles such as “Susy Jones, Pre-Junior Stewardess,” long lost from the Smith Family archives. Speaking of archives, she’s interested in artists who use them in their work, as she works feverishly on a creative family history project of her own. She is interested in story and the stitching together of narratives, and how they fit within an historical context. In much of her work, she is on the lookout for pieces of evidence from which to construct a narrative, be that in writing or visuals. One of her artist books resides in the collections of Reed College, San Diego State University, University of Utah, and Yale University.

B.A. in English, Western Illinois University; M.S. in Library and Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Dreaming Words By Linda Smith And Rose Camastro-Pritchett

Author Adam McOmber with Todd Summar

Hand Bookbinder Sarah Noreen with Jamie Thome

Artists Book House