Thinking about how to use my skills and tools in a wider variety of ways I decided to feature my original oil pastels of the found objects (as I search for a venue to show them) and turn the “story” into an artist’s book which I can show at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center.

Instead of the title “Domino Mysteries”, I changed it to “Body of Evidence”. That seemed to resonate well with me. When I shared it with other friends they were receptive to the name too. So I am moving ahead with it. The presentation will be in the form of an accordion book with each left side panel showing the exhibited item. On the right side there will either be a photo, an evidence tag or an old newspaper article that pertains to the Hart family or something related to the objects. There will just be a hint of clues with the presented evidence. I am going to actually break it down into two books on the advice of my friend, Elizabeth, a book artist and crafts person. She said it would be too much for people to handle a book with 40 panels.

In my desire to add some fact along with the fiction I researched the NY Times and found the name of a popular police detective of the 1860s, named Philip Farley, and used his name as the person who collected the evidence. When I was researching the Hart family I found at one time that Charles Hart had a servant named Frank Small. And I found another story detailing a death by chloroform overdose. Does it sound mysterious?

Join the open call to artists for accordion books at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center. The closing date for entries is March 26th.