 (re)surfacing by e bond 8"x8" ($24) | 11"x11" ($60) | 16"x16" ($240) | 24"x24" ($1200) | 40"x40" ($5000) |
 (re)journal by e bond 5.75"x6" ($40) |
For the shortest month of the year, we figured why not pack in maximum art? So we’re kicking off our February curatorial program with a double edition debut from Bay Area-based artist, e bond. We found ourselves all wrapped up in bond’s swirling pen and paint marker piece, (re)surfacing, which we’re releasing today as an exclusive print. But bond is also an accomplished book artist, and we were dying to give our collectors a taste of her many talents. Riffing on her print edition, she designed an exclusive run of fifty one-of-a-kind journals just for us: (re)journal. Sure, you could take your pick of either of e bond’s brilliant new editions, orrrrr you could collect both. This journal and print play well together, two carefully considered, complimentary works that offer a magical multiplicity of ways to live with art.
Before you check us on a typo, bond’s full given name is a lowercase “e”, and there’s a kind of synchronicity between her namesake and the work she makes. Like her name, her art doesn’t give it all away up front. It invites inquiry, a little getting-to-know. It’s open, free-feeling and enigmatic. Much of her artwork has an organic, layered quality, the occasional poignant quote adding poetic oomph. Her notebooks are literally blank slates inside. As collectors, we love that e bond’s work feels excitingly expansive and elastic.
(re)surfacing is the result of bond’s ongoing endeavor to map the infinite and inscrutable, an undertaking she approaches with aplomb and a rather refreshing willingness to wind herself into the unexpected. What began as a means of charting imagined territory transformed into a meditation on the beautifully ambiguous, omnipresent nature of emotional spaces—the places where, she rightfully notes, we spend more time than anywhere else. Separate amoebas of fine, concentric circles overlap each other as if to signify a sort of collision or interconnectedness. They feel personal as fingerprints, telling as rings on a tree, but more an active practice of exploration than an achievement of certainty.
With the idea of searching and sketching in mind, we turn to the journal, somewhere for scribbles, notes, and so much more. bond’s been making handmade journals under the studio name roughdrAftbooks since 2003, a project that started with her building the books she sought for herself. Her one-of-a-kind creations blur the line between artwork and utilitarian object. The cover of each 5.75"x6" (re)journal features spray paint, acrylic, pen, and paint marker, combined in fifty harmonious but distinctive ways. The book blocks are hand sewn onto bands using linen thread. If you’re worried they’re too pretty to write in, join the club, but take it from us: once you get over that, the pleasure of putting pen to these gorgeously sheathed pages is unmatched in its special sorcery. When you jot something down in (re)journal, it just feels right, like you’re giving some well-deserved love to anything worth writing or doodling. Even a grocery list gets a lift.
Sorta makes you rethink the role of functional objects, and the nobility of the ordinary. Why shouldn’t everything we interact with ooze specialness? Pairing (re)surfacing on our walls and (re)journal on our desks represents the fusion of art with everyday life in way that’s totally irresistible to people like us—and we’re betting you’re also on board.
With art for everyone,
Jen Bekman + Team 20x200
