August 18, 1999

Making art out of the everyday

Carol South
Herald contributing writer
       Williamsburg sports its own Renaissance man in Brandon Palmer.
      The artist cum journalist cum photographer cum graphic designer can now add 'exhibitor in a major art exhibition' to his resume. His three-dimensional book, Palm Sail, was one of 39 pieces selected for the First National Collegiate Handmade Paper Art Show. More than 400 entries from 34 colleges around the country were submitted.
      Opening next month at the Columbia College for the Book and Paper Arts, the exhibition will travel to major museums in cities around the country, including Washington D.C., Philadelphia and Buffalo. It will also be displayed at the Robert C. Williams American Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta.
      "Brandon should be really tickled that he was selected because it was real competitive," said Sally Rose, an assistant professor at Central Michigan University who taught the papermaking course in which Palmer made Palm Sail. "This is really a major, major show, a big deal. You always see a touch of humor in his work and he also has a delightful approach in that he always makes it about his lifestyle, his family or his friends."
      While he is pleased by having a piece of his art in a major show, the fine arts are not Palmer's only interest, not by a long shot. His minor is in journalism and he works for the school paper, is an avid photographer and has opened his own graphic design studio in Traverse City called Generations. And this is just the beginning of his career.
      "Every day there is something new we can do," said Palmer, who graduated from Elk Rapids High School in 1992. "I'd like to be a photographer, artist, journalist, designer, and create video links for the web."
      The keys to Palmer's art are his family and friends, which he highlights in his works. His father, Marty, is a former Industrial Arts teacher turned engineer who describes himself and the rest of the family as lacking in the creative department. However, they have always been supportive of their son's artistic bent.
      "We're Mr. and Mrs. Average America with no creativity at all," said Marty Palmer, of Williamsburg, referring to himself and his wife, Lynn. "As a family, we do always talk with our hands and communicate graphically. But I'm a straight-line pencil guy and he took it and ran with it."
      Palmer's philosophy about art, and perhaps about life, can be summarized this way: 'turn it upside down' and 'can you push it just a little bit more?' Palm Sail is a perfect example of this, stretching the idea of a book, its binding and even paper in new ways.
      "It is my passport to the water, somewhere really cool," said Palmer, who will graduate next spring from Central Michigan University with a degree in graphic design. "It wasn't the biggest or the smallest one but it kind of pops out the most."
      Projects that pop out seem to be Palmer's specialty. Another day, he was pondering fibers and happened to look down at a pair of old, ratty jeans he was wearing. The proverbial light bulb flashed and he took them off, cut them up, put them in a pot to boil. When the boiling didn't break the fibers down, he cut the pieces even smaller and boiled it all some more.
      Still the pieces were too big, so he ran it all through his blender and kept blending and blending his old jeans until the fibers were small enough. One more boiling and he had the consistency he needed. It all went into his bathtub with a lot of water and then he scooped out pieces of paper using a papermaking frame called a mold and deckle.
      "I decided to push the limits of what I can make paper out of and it worked!" said Palmer, who built a studio in his apartment, a collage of paints, pencils and markers, a drafting table and a computer that attracts friends like flies. "I made that into a book project. It did ruin the blender."
      Another project in his papermaking class was a book made out of wood; paper without any processing, he noted. He also makes numerous forays to Goodwill to find materials for his artistic ventures and recalled when one day's purchases raised the cashier's eyebrows: a large flowered dress and a suitcase. Both were used in an art project, but that's another story, another slice of the creative side of Brandon Palmer.
      "You can make art with a $7,000 computer and a web page or you can make art with your hands and an old pair of jeans," Palmer said. "I call that affordable art."