River of Grass

The semester is over & it means a flood of students come to the library to study for finals, and then they disappear like a magic act. This semester is particularly special at the JCBA because it was the first employment of the Helen M. Salzberg Artist in Residence program. Our AIR this semester was Dorothy "Dot" Krause, an accomplished painter, collage artists & bookmaker. During her residency at the JCBA, Dot created a limited edition book titled "River of Grass," which relates to the Everglades.


The book turned out beautifully & holds complex, layered images of the Everglades from the past that appear to glow. That is the power of the images in the book: they seem to emit some kind of light. The images come from her research & layered the images digitally & with the letterpress here at the Center. It is a portfolio style book & the pages are housed in a saddle brown handmade paper envelope that contains a mahogany tree seedpod closure, which I think is genius.

Dot was truly a welcoming force of creativity & enthusiasm who seemed to cherish the mission of the JCBA & she fitted in very smoothly. We hope to see her around more & she made a great, first Artist in Residence. You can follow Dot & her continuing work at her facebook page.

Center Paige: Bluestem

"Everywhere, as far as the eye could reach, there was nothing buy rough, shaggy, red grass... And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running." This passage, from Willa Cather's My Antonia, is the inspiration for Karen Hanmer's Bluestem. The book is a double-sided flag book with pigment inkjet prints on polyester film. Illustrations are at the front of the book & the text is on the back.

Hanmer wants you to feel that motion of the "shaggy, red grass" & the result can be rather dramatic. The polyester film flutters & rustles when you expand it from the compressed, half an inch form to its full 18-inch potential. Being from the Midwest, I've experienced this "running" & it is a magical experience that I think Hanmer & Cather is capturing. The book comes off as playful, memorable, & nostalgic.

We Love Letterpress Interview with Convivio Bookworks

For those who do not know, the JCBA's director, John Cutrone, & the collection specialist, Seth Thompson, has a press together outside of the Jaffe Center, making them busy boys. We Love Letterpress just released an interview with John about his printing press company with fellow JCBA'er & partner. It gives good information about their side company & you can visit their website at the link to the left.

When did you start letterpress printing?
1994, but I used to set the type & print personalized Christmas cards for folks at my family's card shop when I was a boy. My first time at the Vandercook, in fact, I wondered how the type was heated. Seth Thompson, my partner, began in '95 when we met.

What do you like best about letterpress printing?
It's such an amazing process, watching things appear on paper, mirror images of what is in the bed of the press. Very tactile, the paper, the ink, the mechanics of the press. Plus, rubber based ink smells great.

What inspires you?
Inspiration comes from unlikely sources sometimes & what inspires us most is the unexpected: that magic that comes when you least expect it. The alchemy of the everyday.

Which press(es), ink & paper do you usually use?
We have a Vandercook 4 that is our go-to press, but there's also a Golding Pearl in the shop. In our work at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts, we are mostly printing on the Vandercook 4 again, but we also have access to a kick-ass Wesel Iron Handpress from the 1890s.

How would you describe your artwork?
Simple & clean, hopefully. Balanced. Not dark.

What kind of products do you create?
Most limited edition books & broadsides, though we have plenty of other things in mind for the future.

Do you custom work?
No.

Where can we buy your products?
At our website & in person at our occasional Open Studio Days... sometimes at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts, too.

Do you offer workshops? If yes, what kind of?
We teach at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts. Some letterpress workshops & workshops in artists' books, & one really popular workshop called Natural Dyes for Book Arts Applications. The most popular, though, is an introductory JCBA immersion called Book Arts 101, which is taught numerous times each year, always with a theme appropriate to the season.

Is there anything you wished you had known as a beginner?
Things, it seems, have happened just as they were supposed to. Sometimes I think I missed something in never having taken a graphic design class... but honestly, I think we've done okay designing from the gut.
At our website and in person at our occasional Open Studio Days... sometimes at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts, too.

Do you offer workshops? If yes, what kind of?
We teach at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts. Some letterpress workshops and workshops in artists' books & one really popular workshop called Natural Dyes for Book Arts Applications. The most popular, though, is an introductory JCBA immersion called Book Arts 101, which is taught numerous times each year, always with a theme appropriate to the season.

Graphic Novel of the Month: The Fountain

In the year 1535, Spanish Captain Tomas Verde & his soldiers are in the Americas searching for the Tree of Life. He is under the command of the Spanish queen, who has a target on her head from the Grand Inquisitor. They suspect the Tree of Life is being held a Mayan temple & are preparing to storm it. Forward to the year 2005, Dr. Thomas Creo is experimenting with new cancer treatments that involve untested plants and vegetation. Time is ticking for his miracle drug, as his wife has brain cancer. Further in the future, to the year 2463, the astronaut Tom is traveling to the nebula Xibalba. He travels in a clear sphere, accompanied by a tree and a woman who appears out of thin air time to time. Tom believes that the tree is dying & bringing it to Xibalba will cause him & the tree to live forever.

Darren Aronofsky, who wrote & directed a film of the same name, pens the novel. He originally wrote the screenplay, but when it seemed like a dead project, had the script become a graphic novel (but eventually was able to create the film.) The story is dense with themes & motifs, which includes obsession, love, trees & death. Aronofsky has left the connections between the three Toms to be created by the reader & doesn't spell everything out. All the Tom characters are distinct & well molded, but still have aspects of one another. Problems do arise from the transition of one era to another & it can be jarring to the reader.

Kent Williams paints the novel & does so beautifully. He creates an atmosphere for each time period, which helps with the time jumps. The conquistador sections contain many shades of red & gold, much like the Spanish flag; the modern scenes are grey & sterile, much like hospital; & the astronaut's scenes are colorful, bold, & otherworldly. Aronofsky let Williams' painting tell much of the story & they hold their narrative weight.

Phone Booth Libraries

The Department of Urban Betterment & architect John Locke have found a way to make the useless phone booth useful again: make them libraries! Cities are riddled with phone booths, but everyone & their dog has a cell phone now, making the phone booths obsolete, but the DUB has planted these plywood shelves that easily fit into booths, & they're popping up all over New York. Booths are already set up with books and follow an honor system. You can take a book, read it, return it, or keep it if you truly like it, and you can bring books of your own that can be taken by others. The phones are still useful and books are out in the open, being read. It's a win/win situation. Now, what else can we make into libraries?