Carla Rae Johnson, The Alternet

Carla Rae Johnson has an abiding love for libraries, those that you enter with your whole body.  You enter with your whole being.  You walk in the aisles and find worlds.  Hold a book, smell it, flip around from flap to cover to pages, pictures, contents, maps, a cluster of photos.  History.  Madness.  The biology of a cell.

Carla Rae has two card catalogs, is an artist with two card catalogs that used to hold the keys to all that wonder, and she has many artist friends.  The invitation read: one card a day for one year, no restrictions.   The “Alternet”.

Yes, a card catalog is bulky and an internet site isn’t and is a bit faster and probably more complete.   We’ll be sorry when the books are gone too.  But for now there are two old card catalogs filling up quickly with whatever happens when you put something in the palm of an artist’s hand, or a musician or a writer, and say, “Have fun!” 

In elementary school the book cart came around, oh I don’t know, every week, every month, and each child could pick a book to buy.  For me, an easy choice.  I always picked the one with flocking on the cover, and if there were none with flocking, then the book most brilliantly colored.  Content always rose to the standard of the cover, then.

You can visit the project at The Alternet on Facebook  and if you like it, be sure to Like it!

Here's the poster:

 

Here are a couple of my cards (each 3" x 5"):