Notes on

Literary Nonfiction. Art. NOTES ON is an a-chronological studio diary that artist Magalie Guérin re-transcribed twice by hand and now in print. Through the act of facsimile Guérin documents her painting process, mapping at once her creative history and the way that history consistently transforms. Personal, professional, and creative spheres intersect like simultaneous layers in a painting. Accumulated entries capture the shifting gray area between self-doubt, self-awareness, and creative breakthrough. A recurring character in this journal is a hat shape--an abstract form that Guérin paints over and over again. Whether anatomical or abstract, the hat shape becomes an anthropomorphic companion as witness/lover/nemesis to the author's artistic endeavors. Guérin shows us not only that a room of one's own is useful, but what can happen when it is utilized.