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Captivated: "What are the stickers for?"


I was chatting with someone the other day and I asked if her book had 2 gold stickers on the front. I was sending her a package and I figured I could include them in her package. She said she wasn't sure, but that she was one of the first to buy a book, so I knew she didn't have those stickers. Then she asked another important question, "What are the stickers for?" I gave her a quick answer and said, "I guess I know what my next blog will be about."


NOTE: I came back here to make this notion when I realized I was telling a bigger story then just "what are the stickers?" So, if you want to skip the book story and skip right to the stickers explanation, then scroll down to you see the big red word "Sticker," otherwise continue reading to hear the long version.


I'm just going to start a little before the beginning of the book's story.

Here's the time line:


Dec 31, 2013 Dad dies


July 19, 2015: I marry my best friend from high school and move to ft Lauderdale


End of Oct 2015: Mom gets diagnosed with liver cancer. If you knew her you know she wasn't a drinker, but cancer is an asshole and does not discriminate.


I moved in with Mom to help and my new husband went from bachelor to single dad. Mom was NOT interested in chemo, so we went to Moffitt and MDAnderson for second and third opinions and they all agreed... Chemo. Finally, in April 2016 Mom started chemo and a clinical study. She did 2 rounds of chemo and went into remission. Thank God. Mom has always had the dream to go to Africa to see the animals and after surviving the chemo, she and and brother, Tai went on a 10 day trip in October 2016.



And in Jan 2017, we took a 8 day trip to Oaxaca, Oaxaca. This is one of our favorite places I've ever been. We went to:


And we even went horseback riding in the foothills outside of town.



In the beginning of 2018, mom calls me and says, "I had a call from a guy that lives on Sanibel, named Steve, and he wants to talk to us about doing an Ikki book." I was excited and came over to meet with mom, Steve, and his wife Karen. Steve and Karen came to mom's house in Buckingham (East Lee County) and we had a nice meeting and mom baked a pie. Steve gave us his history in advertising and said that he and Karen had been huge Ikki fans. He had never published a book, but neither have we, so none of us were professional publishers at the time, but we were willing to learn and try. He thought a book on dad would be a great start. We each had a job, mom and I would locate and digitize any Ikki's we don't already have and Steve was looking for a publishing house that might want to publish a book on Ikki, but no one wanted to foot the bill, so we continued looking and researching.


We went to Guatemala in July 2018, and of course went horseback riding around the base of St. Pedro Volcano at Lake Atitlan. We started in the old capital of Antigua https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigua_Guatemala, then traveled to Chichicastenango https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichicastenango for the market. It is considered one the best handicraft markets in Central America. Plan your trip accordingly, because the market is only on Thursdays and Sundays. The town is otherwise quiet. From there we traveled to Lake Atitlan. We stayed in an Airbnb in Panajachel and traveled by water taxi to several other towns on the other side of the lake. Lake Atitlan is surrounded by three volcanoes: Atitlán (3,537 m), Tolimán (3,158 m) and San Pedro (2,995 m), which compose an imposing panorama around the highland lake. Lake Atitlán lies in a crater, created by a great eruption of a volcano, the Chocoyos Eruption, approx. 85,000 years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Atitl%C3%A1n




At the beginning of 2019, mom started feeling sick again, so back to the doctor we went. She restarted chemo, but this time chemo wasn't working, so she was prescribed radiation. The book went on the back burner. Mom was priority. She was suppose to get radiation 3 times a week. We went 3 times and the amount of waiting was just plain sickening. It is bad enough to have to go through poisoning your body in hopes of it getting better, but having to sit it a freezing cold waiting room in a gown is just unacceptable. We were sitting there waiting on the third visit and finally mom turns to me and says, "I'm done. I'm sick and tired of sitting in doctors offices, so she got dressed and we went home. She called the family together and told us she was done fighting and we went about preparing. I promised her I would continue with the book after she was gone. We called Hospice and they came and brought pain medications and a hospital bed and so mom got to pass on March 18, 2019, like Dad, at home surrounded by family.


A few months after mom passed, Steve Saari and I resumed working on the book. Steve found a book designer in Atlanta named Shock Design Books. Laura Shock laid out the book and we asked Danny Morgan to write the forward. Danny and his wife Amy are close family friends. Danny had met my father many years ago while my dad was still at a downtown Cincinnati advertising agency and Danny was an art student. They were thrilled when they reconnected on Sanibel.











January 2020, we had the book design laid out and were ready to send it to the printer in China, but then China closed down... Covid. Well, 💩. Bummer... We couldn't proceed, so instead of twiddling our fingers we decided to add a special section; 12 more pages; in the back of the book that features some of my other's artwork. Their artwork was so different from each other but really complimented each other and we wanted to show that relationship in the book. I agree with everyone that my father was talented, but without my mother supporting and promoting him and his artwork, he would have had artwork stacked up around him in his studio and no one would have known who he was. He would still be happy, just hungrier. My father, like so many of us, suffered from social anxiety. One time, before a show at Schoolhouse Gallery, he came down with Shingles. Shingles is a common infection of the nerves that causes a painful rash or small blisters on an area of skin. It can occur anywhere on your body. The primary risk factor associated with getting shingles is a weakened immune system. Stress can increase your risk of developing shingles because it can weaken the immune system, which can allow the virus to reactivate. Most people who develop shingles only have it one time during their life. Shingles blisters usually scab over in 7-10 days and disappear completely in 2-4 weeks. He did attend the opening, but he held his ribs the entire time. Another time he was suppose to give a presentation at South Seas Plantation and he got the hiccups. It sounds silly, but you would not think so if you had them for a week straight. He tried several different things, including a shot to help relax his diaphragm. Nothing..., so finally at the 11th hour, my mother had to call and cancel. Guess what, as soon as she hung up the phone his hiccups miraculously went away.

February or March 2020 (this time became very blurry for most people): we sent the book layout to the printer in China. This printer used a new technology, called "lay-flat" that allows the book to lay flat when it is open instead of having the dip in the middle at the spine so you can see the whole image without distortion.


July 31, 2020 I received the proofs. Here's the unveiling...


September 15, 2020: I received 3 pallets of books; 1,000 standard and 78 limited edition, plus a few extra clamshell case books for the family edition. I opened each one to emboss and stamp my father's chop on the title page and then reseal. I shipped out all the preorders. It took be a few days to get them all done. As I carefully wrapped each one, I felt like I was the mamma stork at the baby factory wrapping up my precious babies to send out into the world hoping they will be as loved as I loved them.


STICKER

We decided to enter a few book contest that Shock Designs recommended. We entered three. The first one we won was the 2020 Florida Book Awards Rice Gold Medal in the Visual Arts category.


The second win was a Bronze Medal for the Coffee Table Book category in The 2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards, also styled the IPPY Awards, are a set of annual book awards for independently published titles. They are the longest-running unaffiliated contest open exclusively to independent presses. The IPPY Awards are open to authors and publishers worldwide who produce books written in English and intended for the North American market. According to the IPPY website, the awards "reward those who exhibit the courage, innovation, and creativity to bring about change in the world of publishing."


Last but not least, the third contest was the 37th Annual Mary Ellen LoPresti Art Publication Awards for excellence in art publishing for the copyright year 2020.

The Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) is the largest international professional organization devoted to art librarianship. The Southeast Chapter of ARLIS/NA established the LoPresti Publication Award Competition in 1985 to recognize and encourage excellence in art publications issued in the Southeastern United States. The publication awards are named for Mary Ellen LoPresti, who was the Design Librarian at the Harry B. Lyons Design Library, North Carolina State University, until her death in 1985.

The winning publications are kept in the ARLIS/NA Southeast Chapter archives at Duke University.



The Florida Book Awards and IPPY both had stickers that we could buy; LoPresti did not, but their seal looked like. I ordered stickers from the first two to put on the books, but soon realized that required me to reopen the cellophane to apply the stickers to the book cover. Luckily, I had already sold a few, so I had less to open.


September 21,2023 I sold my last copy of Captivated, but I do have one standard copy that I made a mistake when filling it out. I personalized it to my husband's Aunt and Uncle, which we adore and then realized I had already sent them one... because we love them so much. I'll tell another story about them and my uncle Ki in another blog.


I'm going to finish this one by saying 3 things:


  1. Thank you to everyone for showing my family so much love over the years.

  2. If your books are missing the stickers send me a message and I'll mail you yours (while supplies last).

  3. One of the first 50 people to leave a legitimate product review on something you actually bought on the website or through one of the galleries (of my dad's), I will send you the book I I tried sending to family, which you know was super loved and I can personalize it to you, unless your names are Bob and Deborah, then it's already done.


Stay inspired,

Amy

This is one of mine.

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