Lettera Amorosa
Lettera Amorosa
March 28 - April 19, 2025
Love, in all its infinite forms, unfolds in Lettera Amorosa, an evocative exhibition that invites artists to explore the depths of passion, longing, beauty, and loss through the intimate format of the fan fold book. Drawing inspiration from the poetic words of Monteverde, this collection transforms the zigzagged pages into a canvas for boundless creativity, where each fold holds a story, a confession, or a whispered secret. From painting and photography to mixed media and sculpture, the exhibition is a visual love letter—an exploration of how love shapes us, moves us, and lingers in our lives. Lettera Amorosa is more than an exhibition; it is an intimate exchange between artist and audience, where imagery and emotion blur the lines between art and poetry, between longing and fulfillment.
Kristine Poole, YūMē: Book of Dreams, fired clay sculpture, 23” x 18” x 17”; Fan fold book, 10 panels, 6” x 6” $15,000. (for more details) see page 20
Please click for inquiry
DAVID T. ALEXANDER
Four Days on a Desert Island #11, archival pen and ink on fan fold paper, 7 panels, 6” x 6” $2,800.
Please click for inquiry
Continued on next page
David T. Alexander
“Four days of snow on a desert island” - In mid October of 2024, I drove 1600 miles - four days to New Mexico, arriving in Santa Fe with the temperature of 76 degrees. I have made this trip a number of times. It became a destination for me for many decades. Many artists, writers and arts people came to the desert of NM in the past to see what this place was that many artists spoke about by being magic and intoxicating to make art in. People that came and stayed and others who came back repeatedly included: D.H. Lawrence, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, Judy Chicago and many others from LosAngeles. It definitely has a strong draw for people who like that feeling of open space, isolation and camaraderie when needed. I was working on an ongoing project about the Rocky Mountains that straddle two countries and are shared. The temperature was a comfortable 76 degrees when I arrived and I started drawing in the area in northern New Mexico. I wandered alone and with people who l visited from the area. The weather started to drop and it quickly became cold. I did have the right gear to keep working making small drawings outside and then worked late into the night in a casita on my friend’s property. In early November, a snow storm dropped eight inches of heavy, crippling snow. The casita was cozy and warm. I was going to leave on the day of the snow storm but could not make it out the driveway. Highways were closed in Colorado and New Mexico, so with help I decided to keep making art about this event. I listened to music and one appropriate, particular song played which was called “The Sounds of Silence” by Paul Simon. I made drawings and just kept working about these events that had happened. This collection became a story in itself and the drawings kept me busy every day. I finally was able to leave for home. Although I did not want to leave this encapsulated time that I experienced, I had gathered my many unfinished drawings and memories to last and hit the trail north, once again. I kept making small drawings from that incredible self-contained time in my own studio until late February.
–David T. Alexander
DAVID T. ALEXANDER
a
Four Days on a Desert Island,
David T. Alexander
Four Days on a Desert Island, #5, archival pen and ink on fan fold paper, 8 panels, 6” x 6” $3,200.
Four Days on
Desert Island, #7, archival pen and ink on fan fold paper, 7 panels, 6” x 6” $2,800.
#8, archival pen and ink on fan fold paper, 7 panels, 6” x 6” $2,800.
Please click for inquiry
Please click for inquiry
Please click for inquiry
Click to inquire about additional drawings from this series
JAY BAILEY
This is a record of my journey from North Texas to Northern Nevada. A return to the mountains. My muse is in the mountain air, the singing pines, and fluid stone clouds. A love letter to the mountains. –Jay Bailey
Jay Bailey
I had to get to the mountains for I knew that she would be there acrylic, fan fold book, 10 panels, 6” x 6” $1,000.
Please click for inquiry
Leora Briggs Book of Hours
ink and acrylic on Hahnemühle paper in a fan fold book, 18 panels, 6” x 6” Book comes in hand made box with creation video on flash drive. $6,800.
Please click for inquiry
Alice
ESHA CHIOCCHIO
THE FARM COLLECTION
THE NATURE COLLECTION
The Farm Collection, cyanotype, fan fold book, 8 panels, 6” x 6” $2,400.
The Nature Collection, cyanotype,fan fold book, 7 panels, 6” x 6” $2,400.
Please click for inquiry
Esha Chiocchio
SUSAN GUEVARA
Susan Guevara
Ultra Palum
watercolor, gouache, ink, found objects, mixed media, fan fold book, 18 panels, 6” x 6” $5,500.
Please click for inquiry
Continued on next page
Ultra Palum
By Susan Guevara
In May of 2024 I went on a walking pilgrimage in the mountains of County Wicklow, Ireland. My sorrow over the death of 4 friends in the first half of that year made my metaphorical suitcase heavy. I determined to embrace any opportunity that presented itself while there. One such door way was finding the Glendalough Sanctuary (a meditation center) and the Glendalough Hermitage where I stayed in a small stone cottage. The kind people I met who worked there quickly became my community and were of great support each morning before I walked into the mountains on a daily meander. By the end of my stay and 60 or so miles walked later, the intensity of my sorrow abated as it was left in the dark forests and open hill ridges of the Wicklow mountains.
By the end of 2024 I lost 5 more loved ones. The making of this book continued the healing memory of my Irish walk-about. Birth and Death are Life. And all we can truly leave behind once we’re gone is love.
Ultra Palum (oo-tra pal-oom), Latin for beyond the stake—or pale, is a three dimensional fan fold book influenced by Celtic mythology and the illuminated manuscripts developed in Ireland in the 7th century. The sacred texts used insular majuscule script and elaborately illustrated letter forms of multi-symbolic meaning.
During the Middle Ages The Pale was a territory in Ireland under England’s control. The phrase, Beyond the Pale, is derived from latin palus, pole or stake, which ganged together created a fence. While at certain times, The Irish Pale had a physical barrier of ditch and thorny hedges creating a boundary that prevented raiding from the outside, to be beyond the Pale had the metaphorical meaning of being outside of the known and protected territory. Extending that metaphor, I’ve used Ultra Palum to mean going beyond life’s boundary.
Below are symbolic meanings used in Ultra Palum.
The Bone Ladder
As was often suggested by the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, there is s certain wisdom in dying to what we think is important to our lives (appearance, possessions, professions), but that which will actually mean little after we pass. The bone ladder behind the front cover asks the question “Can we die before we die”? Can we climb up and over to the “other side” and come to know what is most important to the life we are now living. The sticks of the Bone Ladder are from Ireland and the extended stick is also a reference to the word palum, or execution pole, on the front cover.
The story of the finch
The bird drawings and finch skulled figure inviting the viewer to life’s “other side”, are symbols for a human life. Birds in early Irish sacred texts represented the Celtic lore that birds are messengers from the other world, that they can travel freely between heaven and earth, and that they posses secrets.
A peacock, used in the word “End” in the book, refers specifically to immortality.
The illuminated capitals
The illustrated capitals and phrases are mostly copied (sometimes directly) from The Book of Kells, an Irish illuminated masterwork of the four gospels and genealogy from 800AD.
Dico
Latin for “I said”. I drew a caricature of my father’s profile instead of using the head of Christ as in the original.
Et
Latin for “and”.
Triskelions: An ancient symbol dating back to 7000 BC, triskelions or triskeles have been used by many cultures through the centuries. To the medieval Celts they symbolized the cyclical nature of life, death, and rebirth, or the interconnectedness of the spiritual, physical, and celestial realms.
The pocket watch belonged to my Mexican grandfather who immigrated to the US in 1914 from Guanajuato, Guanajuato, Mexico. Like the Celts, the ancient mesoamerican cultures used pictures as words. Their pre-hispanic fan folded codices were filled with symbolic meaning.
The Hazel tree and the Salmon of Knowledge:
An old Celtic myth tells of a Hazel tree (one of the 7 sacred trees of Ireland) emerging from a sacred well where a salmon lived. As the tree dropped its hazelnuts filled with wisdom and knowledge into the well, the salmon gobbled them and was soon known to be the mythic Salmon of Knowledge. Whomever ate the fish would then be filled with that same all knowing wisdom. There is wisdom in remembering that the soul’s calling is love.
“Only the heart sees rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.” — The Little Prince
IRENE HARDWICKE OLIVIERI
The Ringtail and the Wolverine, watercolor, fan fold book, 18 panels, 6” x 6” $1,100.
Please click for inquiry
Irene Hardwicke Olivieri
Please click for inquiry
Nicholas Herrera Cruising along the Rio Grande colored pencil, fan fold book, 10 panels, 6” x 6” $900.
YūMē: Book of Dreams sculpture: fired clay, 23” x 18” x 17”
fan fold book: graphite on paper, leather and aluminum cover, 10 panels, 6” x 6”
$15,000.
Please click for inquiry
Kristine Poole
Alani Kai Churchill Rathweg
Volume III
pochoir stencil, linoleum relief print, fan fold book, 11” x 12” (fully open) $1,500.
Volume II
pochoir stencil, linoleum relief print, fan fold book, 10 panels, 7”x5” $1,600.
Please click for inquiry
Notes from the Sky, watercolor, fan fold book, 8 panels, 6” x 6” $1,200.
Please click for inquiry
Andrew Shears
MICHAEL SCOTT
Michael Scott
Fiery Love, archival pigment, fan fold book 10 panels, 6” x 6” $500.
Please click for inquiry
Fiery Love Symbolizes Passion
Love that is Overwhelming Exhilarating
Burning Brightly Fiercely Intense
This Love Transforming Everything It Touches
Changing the Individual and The Soul
Love has Many Many Complexities
Requiring Nurturing For Its Survival
If Uncontrolled Love can Also Destroy This Duality Reflects The Smoldering Ember of Heartbreak
THOMAS VIGIL
Thomas Vigil Heart Shaped Box
watercolor and spray paint, fan fold book, 10 panels, 6” x 6” $1,200.
Please click for inquiry
Copyright © 2025 EVOKE Contemporary. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.