Daniel Essig

Daniel Essig is a  studio artist and teacher living in Asheville, North Carolina.  Daniel teaches book arts workshops at book centers, craft schools and colleges. He exhibits his work nationally and is in numerous collections including the Mint  museum and The Clarence Ward Art Library at Oberlin College.   Many of Daniel’s sculptural pieces are featured in The Penland Book of Handmade Books. 

Artist Statement:
I am interested in traces of the past, ancient binding styles, reliquaries,distressed finishes, and found objects. Since I was six or seven years old, I've been collecting small objects. I have seashells and interesting rocks that I collected at the beach on childhood vacations I've stored up seedpods, rocks, bones,
shells, bits of rusty metal, nails, animal teeth, fossils. They
represent periods in my life, even just days or moments. I keep my
collection of relics in drawers, bottles, and boxes within a single
small room in my house. The space has the feel of a German        
Wunderkammern, a "cabinet of curiosities." I often sit in the room
and scan my collection, seeking just the right object to inspire a
new book or sculpture.

Chained Book on a Book 2004 (added tintype 08) 6 x 4 x 4 inches
Painted mahogany, handmade paper, tintype, mica, shell, skeletonized leaf, Ethiopian binding.

$2500

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