Book Artist and Papermaker Don Widmer with Jamie Thome

To receive updates on when our ABH Conversations are available, please subscribe to our newsletter at https://artistsbookhouse.org/newsletter 

Don Widmer combines hand papermaking, bookbinding, and printing to create works inspired by storytelling and real and imagined histories. Widmer's sculptural artist books include his own writing and incorporate unusual book structures featuring movement and light. He creates images within sheets of handmade paper using plant pulp as a painting medium. As a papermaker, Widmer is fascinated by the ability of pulp to represent both living creatures and inanimate objects, which is why he chooses to paint birds as well as architectural imagery. 

Widmer has exhibited throughout the Midwest, including Tall Grass Gallery (Park Forest), Gallery Studio Oh! (Chicago), Art Prize Grand Rapids, the Compassion Factory (Brookfield), Glenview Public Library, Terrain Biennial (Columbia College Chicago), Arts on Elston, Side Street Studio Arts, and Illinois Wesleyan University. His recent awards include 2nd Place (Lakeview East Festival of the Arts), Best in Show (Art on the Fox Fine Art Festival), Best in Medium (Kalamazoo Institute of Arts Fair), First Place Fine Art (Spring Bloom Fine Arts Festival), Judge's Choice Award (Greenwich Village Art Fair), Second Place Mixed Media (Crosby Festival of the Arts), Best in Show (West End Art Festival La Grange). 

Widmer has conducted papermaking workshops and demonstrations at the Elmhurst Artists' Guild, Arlington Heights Art Guild, Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, and Spudnik Press. His work is represented in several university and library collections nationwide. Raised in Cleveland, Widmer received his MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago in May 2012. Prior to his art career, he was Library Director at VanderCook College of Music from 1996-2009. 

To learn more about Don Widmer and his work, please visit https://dwidmer.com/ 

Artists Book House Conversations are bite-sized video conversations between host Jamie Thome and various book artists, illustrators, cartoonists, writers, poets, librarians and book collectors. 
ABH Conversations will be released here on our You Tube channel and on our website and on the second Tuesday of every month. ABH Conversations support our goal to present our community with regular, fascinating conversations with artists, writer, and change makers. This effort also allows us too deepen our connection to our community, both here in the Chicagoland area and all around the globe.

If you like programming like this and would like to see more from Artists Book House, consider donating today by visiting www.artistsbookhouse.org/donate 

Thanks for watching! *ABH Theme Song by https://www.justinrobertsmusic.com/