If One Day. Book Interview With Caleah

A dear friend recently introduced me to Caleah, a local editor and writer, and we decided to meet for coffee and talk about my art. Her insightful and engaging questions had me excitedly talking about my handmade books, and as we chatted, the idea of sharing our conversations naturally came to us. I hope these book interviews will bring you a moment of inspiration as they did for me.

I first sat down with Nia Wang on a clear October day outside of Fresh Flours on Phinney Ridge. We met to chat about her work and, specifically, the beautiful little books she makes to complete and house the stories her pieces tell. As we sipped our coffee, with buses roaring past and a gangly teenage crow scratching cautiously around our feet, she opened the shiny black folder in her lap and brought out the books. Each was unique and beautiful, and I instinctively handled them with the care you would give the illustrated first edition of your favorite classic. The one we decided to focus on was the simplest and most understated that she had. From the outside, it looked like a pleasantly orange-brown office folder.

Why did you choose to make this piece into a book?

I didn’t think of making it into a book at first, but I really wanted to send it to my best friend in Scotland because I knew she would understand me perfectly without any explanation. We just have that kind of connection. The painting started as a spread in my sketchbook, and I was originally just going to send it to her as a picture in a text, but that didn’t feel right. So, I printed it out and when it still felt incomplete, I decided to make a book.

How did you choose the book’s design?

I had some help from two artist friends of mine. We all get together in the yard sometimes to do our work, and they helped me choose the color for the cover and the endpapers. I wanted it to be really simple, a surprise; there’s no title on the cover (although I did consider embroidering it on there) and the colors are nondescript. But we picked these colors intentionally as a kind of visual lead into what you’ll find inside.

What inspired this painting?

I painted this about a year ago [November 2019]. I heard a Chinese song and I saw this image in my head of what I was going to make. That’s one of my ways of creating: I see the piece I want to create in my mind first, although not always exactly what form it might take, and then I find a way to turn it into reality. Sometimes it’s really literal, sometimes it’s abstract, but this one showed up as a spread in my head so that’s how I made it. 

Then, a week later, I went on a walk downtown with a friend. We saw the most beautiful sunset by the Great Wheel and it really lingered in my mind later. The two moments just meshed.  I find it especially interesting that I painted the moment [the sunset walk with my friend] before it happened. The song is quite romantic, but even before I connected my painting with a different, more platonic love while walking with my friend, I chose to leave room in my piece for more than just the romantic love the song talks about. I decided to remove this panel because I wanted the love to be more open to interpretation than this image lets it be.