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The Black Spot Books Interview

• Tique: what were your thoughts when asked to be interviewed?
• Margaux: Yippy!
• Tique: what does a typical day consist of for you?
• Margaux: I never live a typical day!
• Tique: is the name "the black spot books" in reference to robert louis stevenson?
• Margaux: yes.
• Tique: what well of inspiration do you draw from?
• Margaux: what once was but not AS it was but as it has become. not specific enough? I like spooky, even if it only seems so because of the relationship with time.
• Tique: is the world that you create within your items similar to the world you would like to reside in physically, or rather are they one and the same for you?
• Margaux: ! They are one in the same, again, sometimes I want to escape, like when the roof of this olde house became not-a-roof and allowed the rain to come in. And when the wind gushes through the cracks all over and chills me in the winter so much that I step outside for warmth. And when the electricity, so strangely wired, leaves me in the dark when the sun settles. And when I cannot stop stopping at yard sales and flea markets and dumpsters. And when I cannot stop collecting notes from time ,preserving them in a time capsule (my journals) for my kids and their kids and theirstheirstheirs for when they live in a future (present) they may not wish to be in. Oh, every passion can be a trap and every trap and passion the reason to live!
• Tique: if you were to travel to a foreign land, describe how you would feel seeing your creation (books,jewels) on a perfect stranger--and so far from home?
• Margaux: I would want to say something but I get so shaky and nervous many times- sometimes I am fine. so I don't know - I know there are people with them in other countries!
• Tique: being a vegetarian and your decision to use leather, what is your stance in the face of vegans?
• Margaux: Hmmm, i don't know. Sometimes I wonder why I am vegetarian. Maybe I am afraid of the freedom. I would love to be on Andrew Zimmern's Bizzare Foods, but I am not tempted by meat. And I'd probably barf if I had it. To vegans, well, discipline is good, no matter what form.
• Tique: what is the oldest scrap of leather you have worked with?
• Margaux: Hmm. It is hard to say because very little is actually dated, but I think a wallet that was from the mid 1800s.
• Tique: where is/are the most peculiar place(s) you have retrieved leather?
• Margaux: The leather I use has been bartered from farms in Ecuador, ripped from old chairs in Holland, taken from boots and shoes and saddles, and found in abandoned houses across the United States. But the most peculiar place was in Ecuador. I was traveling with Sophie, a girl from England, that I had met in the Rain Forest (we were both volunteers - there for working with injured bears - when we got there we found there weren't any bears so we learned a bit about plants and then took off) and had just met a boy (whose name I forget) from Holland. We decided to go horse back riding and went to the first farm we found. The ride was amazing and when we returned, our strange guide with golden teeth walked us through an alleywayish thing that was his backyard. There was a parrot in the centre who mimicked Sophie's laugh perfectly. I saw a black leather saddle cover loaded with bugs and webs hanging on an olde fence. I asked Golden if I could buy it. He made a noise kindof like the creatures in The Dark Crystal, beginning low and ending high "hmmmmmmmm?" but with his mouth open and teeth glistening in the close sun. He removed the dirty and holey thing from its resting place and looked at it curiously, named his price and we made the exchange. It set me and Dutch to thinking... we ended up renting a quad and driving all over Banos looking for farms and olde leather! I ended up with 2 feedbags full (i was on the back with my arms outstretched and each with an over stuffed bag of gross olde animal skins and hairs.) Treasure hunting, no matter what the treasure, is every kids dream! Early the next morning I sat outside on the veranda of the $6 a night hotel and separated leather from hair and fabric. It was a pretty disgusting job and I ended up fitting the leather into the computer pouch of my backpack and throwing two monster bags of gunk in the gubbage.
• Tique: are there any monumental figures who have moved you?
• Margaux: this is endless. is Egon Schiele monumental? or Anselm Keifer? How about Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen? Fyodor Dostoyevsky, he is monumental. I love. And Georges Perec's Life: A User's Manual. I think that is the book that had the biggest effect on my photography and other art.
• TIque: I love the smell of leather. Name 3 thoughts that are aroused when you smell it.
• Margaux: I HATE the smell of leather! I think of new cars and dead animals! When I cut up and clean the olde leather that I use I pull my shirt up over my nose for all of the olde whatevers that have been living in it for so long may try to enter me through my breath!
• Tique: if we were to pose in front of you several dustladen bound books of age, yours being amongst them, would you be able to pic yours out? what would distinguish yours from the others?
• Margaux: Yeah, though most people think that the huge journal that I carry around is ancient, most of the journals that I make are soft bound with a rough cut edge. Very distinguishable!
• Tique: have you ever been dissatisfied with a creation?
• Margaux: Erm, really? Hell yes!
• Tique: what do you think the future of books is?
• Margaux: Sniff.
• Tique: are you brewing any new creations you would like to give us a sneak peek of?
• Margaux: Well, my husband and I are writing and illustrating a children's book! I also have a slew of new photographs for a bunch of shows this fall.
• Tique: you have chosen etsy as an avenue to present your items. what about etsy do you like?
• Margaux: I love so much about Etsy. On the right day (or wrong) I don't stop. Mostly the people. It is a world where people care about what they make down to the tiniest detail of handwritten notes and wrapping. There seems to be a definite common language. Where can you get this? I am not anti social but I am also not the type that makes friends no matter what. Same block, friend. Same office, friend, same yoga class, friend. Not me. I am particular and I have actually met people I'd call friends through Etsy! Also, complaints are minimal (i have had 3. 1st, i thought there would be 3 little books, whineeee. 2nd, you are lame and overpriced, 3rd, It is not technically a blank book because you wrote title and website on the back page) oi yoi yoi.
• Tique: do you ever imagine the sort of things that your customers fill their journals with? what comes to mind?
• Margaux: Oh! I always wish to know... I have a page on my website (which is idle now with Etsy around) that was supposed to be filled with the innards of journals set free.
• Tique: close your eyes and envision the sort of homestead that would house your photographs. what do you see?
• Margaux: Hmmmm. homestead. My eyes are closed and I cannot see anything but my house and my moms... Hmmmm. I am just seeing what I like - olde houses with age stained plaster...
• Tique: what do you wish to portray with your photographs?
• Margaux: I try to portray a timelessness. An insanity or a worldliness that often is one in the same. I extract characters from books. I try to understand who I am. I draw little ideas for photographs and sometimes have them so well planned, other times I wander and the props happen to just be there waiting. I build stories - the kind that can be torn apart and told in any which way. I try to find purpose in meaninglessness.
• Tique: what was life like for you as a young girl? -any other creative sorts in the family line?
• Margaux: my mom was an amazing artist but got a scholarship for math and abandoned art pretty much after that. my papa always claimed to be unable to draw a stick figure, but he is the one who wanted me to be an artist, he supported me in every way, and the funny thing is, I see that a lot of what I do comes from him. My papa recently gave me my long ago requested, bag of teeth! He bundled mine and my brothers teeth in various paper stuff from the 80s, tied them up with rubberbands or twisties into little ghosts and labeled them with our names, tooth no. and date out! I am hanging up each ghost with a taxidermy pin.
• I have a horrendous memory. I think this is because of my journals. I write then abandon. So, mostly I remember making things. I remember going to some kind of party - a sweet 16 maybe - and two girls walked up to me and asked, "are you margaux fried?" to which i (they didn't look the least bit familiar) carefully responded, "yes" and they said, "we remember you from camp always in a corner looking down and anytime someone would walk over to you and say something you would hush em up and just say, "i'm making something"