Peace of Paper

The Peace of Paper

Marbling is the process of floating colors (pigments) on the surface of thickened water and transferring that pattern to another surface.

For over a thousand years, this mysterious and magical ancient art of marbling has been a diverse visual language of peace, harmony, and communication.

Although marbling’s origin may have been in distant lands it has a special place in the heart of New Mexico, and New Mexico occupies a special place in the hearts of marblers from around the world.

This timely documentary is the story of and an accompanying video to both the Museum of New Mexico’s former exhibit of marbled papers entitled “Rebirth of a Craft“ and the future exhibit of papers titled Album Amicorum: Jewels of Friendship in a Frightened World.

The film is about five artists residing and working in the state who not only are masters of paper marbling, but were instrumental in promoting New Mexico as a center for the craft worldwide through publications, exhibits and the organization of the First International Marblers’ Gathering … “The Largest Gathering of Marblers in the History of the Universe.”

The documented past, techniques, and artistic importance of this timeless art form are covered in this project as well as the stunning beauty and endless variety of images. Those images that are frozen as prints on paper are dynamic while being created.  The focus of the piece is not only about the almost divination-like quality of marbling through the ages, it is also about New Mexican artists and the identification of the Southwest with the process and its allegorical virtues.

One of the primary goals of my proposed film is the “attachment” of the word marbling in cyberspace to New Mexico. As part of this contract, the placement on search engines will be a feature of its distribution. The video and the help given to the creation of a New Mexico sponsored web site will be used to teach the State and its artists how to seize the leadership and top position online in promoting their specialty niches on the Internet. When people around the world Google “marbling” this New Mexico film will be on the top of the listing.

Another service to the State besides the actual product of the film is the training of three individuals in the form of apprenticeships in documentary production, digital editing and art direction/special effects. Much of the interviewing will be shot at the Santa Fe Public access studio, offering training of their staff as well as training specific film students at the Santa Fe Community College and exposing them to professional and union personnel.  

The supplementing of the permanent “Governor’s Collection” of marbleized papers housed at the Palace of Governors Print Shop is a secondary goal of this presentation.  As part of the 1989 Marblers’ Gathering, the Governor’s Gallery hosted an art exhibit featuring marbled art works from around the world.  Many of those pieces will be featured in this documentary, and some from the “Rebirth of a Craft” have been donated to the State. All pieces of art created during the filming will be donated to the collection. There has already been interest from other institutions, marblers and collectors in both trading and donating marbleized art to help jumpstart this physical collection that eventually will become a tourist attraction for the State.

This film’s promotion is designed to be timed for maximum multi-media impact. Internet, print and film release are to be combined with the next proposed phase of the Palace of Governors Print Shop’s marbling project, named Album Amicorum for an early (1599) European bound collection that contains marbled papers. These popular Alba of that period were the first of what we would now call ‘autograph books’ or ‘friendship papers.’

One of the suppositions of the film’s narrative is that marbled papers could have been introduced into this country first by the early Spanish settlers, prior to the late seventeenth century colonists’ use of these decorative papers.  The film traces references of marbled paper from Chinese and Japanese beginnings along the silk trade routes, including the Islamic roots of this craft, directly to New Mexico and the now modern high art resurgence as aqueous monoprinting and the futuristic art of ‘digital marbling.’

As Phoebe Jane Easton, renowned author and collector, writes in her book Marbling: a History and a Bibliography, marbling “is older than might be imagined …and the historical trail is marked with surprises, contrasts, and interesting people and events.” This documentary is not so much a scholarly look at marbling, but a human look at this mystical folk art form that transcends borders and time.