Rhubarb Pie Press

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2011-07-19T10:02:00.001-07:00

New blog format! Find me here.

Spend this winter with me.

2011-02-07T18:14:00.000-08:00

This winter I asked Kristen for a mix cd, preferably full of towering Nordic men. As college roommates we shared a ton of music and I miss bending each other's tastes. Since it's only fair that I put in the effort too, I made her this mix. Putting the music together took an afternoon, and drawing the cover has taken much longer. I have so much music to share with her, that I picked a particular mood, one color of the spectrum to elaborate on. The music is wintery, warm, and best enjoyed alone - just like my mustard grandpa cardigan that immediately warms me up and grosses Ian out. The title is a variation on one of the tracks, Sally Shapiro - Jackie Jackie (Spend This Winter With Me.) There is more drawing on the inside, but that's just for Kristen. If you would like me to spend too much time on a mix for you too, I take requests.

WINTER NOTES

2011-01-31T20:43:00.000-08:00

My class is offered again at Cheltenham Center for the Arts. Course description is here.

I am selling a couple books at Velocity Comics in RVA now. Support your local bookstore and local artist at the same time.

I've got some new projects started and a few just-for-fun things, like an elaborate mix cd cover and a Kite show. More coming on those things soon.

And finally, my page in my first exhibition catalog, as promised. And somebody else's page also.

Bookbinding experience is helpful, but not required.

2010-11-20T12:11:00.000-08:00

Post-SPX has been spent moving and job hunting, but I do have some fun things to share. On November 1st I took Katie to the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts to install her show. The works is beautiful, and I had a great time assisting her. The show is up until February 6th, and you can see some images here (particularly the 3rd image, for which I set the type.) I can't wait to have my own shop, these days I just want to letterpress all day, every day.

I submitted Gma Kelly's House to Asheville Bookworks' BookOpolis show "Memory Palaces." It was selected for the juried extended exhibition, which has an exhibition catalog. So, surreally, my print is in a book somebody else made. I'll scan my page when I get my copy in the mail. This is almost as exciting as getting a call number.

Also, I have a course offered this winter at Cheltenham Center for the Arts! It is called Content and Narrative in Books. I'm not sure that anybody will sign up for it, Book Arts are brand new at the Center. I feel the two workshops I have offered in January are more likely. This is a great place for my teaching career to start, though. Here is the course description:

Content development is a critical part of creating books. In this course, students learn how to generate ideas and how to turn ideas into finished books. Narrative, storytelling, relating structure with content, book dummies and bookbinding techniques will be covered while students make one of a kind and editioned books. Bookbinding experience is helpful, but not required.

WTTBWU

2010-10-01T15:14:00.000-07:00

I've finished binding the first edition of Ian's new book! The first run is only 50 copies with really great Insulation Pink paper from French Paper Co. When they are gone, I'll make a larger run with boring, white paper (so get your copy now).

Many, many tiny flowers

2010-09-19T20:25:00.000-07:00

One more SPX down, many more to go. At least, that's how I always feel when we get home. I treat it as my yearly deadline and anticipate it so much I should feel relieved and celebratory. But by the second day I'm just planning for next year and I come home more brain-busy than when I left.
After exhibiting for four years (non-consecutively), I have some substantial work and am actually making comics. My table spread this year was a little too printmakerly for my tastes. I don't really want to be The Letterpresser, I just want to make awesome stories in awesome packages. I can never not bind my own books now. The long-stapler will gather dust (but will be kept because hello, simple machines are cool), and I'm going to keep resisting Big Box paper choices no matter how much using the perfect shade of pink costs me in pocket, planning, and papercutting. My goals for next year: three new strong stories, drawn and bound simply, but designed well. I'm going to have to do a lot of drawing to get there, which is good for the blog!

Ian drew a great recap-strip of our trip. You should read it here.

The book I debuted last week was Pretty Flowered Paper, a new single sheet & pressure print book (my third.) I've been collecting my mismemories for the last year, which are things that I remember that couldn't have happened. I made the first one into a quilt, but I'm crazy about them so I'm going to keep exploring this. I have a super ridiculous memory, so these mismemories crop up. So far they have been things from when I was so small (6 and under) and my understanding of what happened didn't line up with reality. There are also some really early dreams that I took for truths. The only bummer is that my memory is so good, some things I thought must be mistakes from when I was tiny were weird things that actually happened. I have to call my mother to check. But, I don't toss those stories out, I just file them away for different projects.

This mismemory is about a hidden note in a gift. The gift had flowered paper on the back of it, and the only visual in the story is the pattern. So I made a pressure plate by cutting out many, many tiny flowers. Each one is about the size of a coin. I'm really good at this now.

I glued them all down and printed this pressure print in slightly varying shades of green.

Finally, I set the lead type and printed it at Katie Baldwin's, making use of her newly acquired 11 pt. Garamond.

I really love this. It's a very quiet book, nice after drawing a book of two girls yelling at each other. I've grown tired of printing small editions of handmade books, and then having to reprint, so there are TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY. Once I fold them all, that is. Available on Etsy.

SPX Machine

2010-09-09T07:06:00.000-07:00

I am heading to SPX again this year, starting tomorrow night! The Expo is Saturday and Sunday in Bethesda, Maryland, and is usually a blast. I still have a bunch of things to finish (mostly binding) and, if I can pull it off, a mini entitled "Call Me Necronomiclown."

The first half of today will be finishing printing Ian's new book. I did the cover at Katie Baldwin's this weekend.

2010-08-16T10:16:00.000-07:00

I made an awful lot of art during graduate school. To help keep track, I digitalized my portfolio on my flickr, and will keep it updated. The collection is here.

2010-08-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

Penny-Farthing is a small pamphlet book about a bicycle that crosses treacherous terrain to reach a hot air balloon. Printed on a Heidelberg Kors in the Borowsky Center for Publication Arts with a letterpress cover in an edition of 150. Now available on etsy.

Sketchbooks

2010-08-13T23:25:00.000-07:00

After I finished combining my flat files I had quite the pile of stray ends and salvaged materials that would do nothing better than become sketchbooks. These dozen or so 3-pamphlet, 5-pamphlet, and cross-structure blank books contain a variety of papers like loose-leaf, Mohawk Superfine, BFK, and hand-writing exercise paper. The covers are paste-paper, letterpress, collaged, and stitched. Also they mostly have yellowed comic book endsheets, featuring Metal Men and Justice Society of America (Golden Age.) This particular set will be for sale at SPX.

2010-08-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

I've finally succumbed to the modern convenience that is Etsy. One more step towards becoming obsolete, now you can just deal with the internet instead of making eye contact with me. You still can't get my baked goods without personal interaction, so I won't be replaced with Robot Mandy....yet. The first item on sale is I Wish, which I finally editioned (mostly).

I Wish is a short comic about persona and the dangerous fruition of a birthday wish. Printed on a Heidelberg Kors at the Borowsky Center for Publication Arts with a letterpress cover. 6” x 6” with an edition of 150. 2009.

Mix Structure

2010-08-06T07:57:00.000-07:00

An avid mix-cd maker, I decided to upgrade my enclosures with my newly-minted mfa skills (which on the internet should probably be described as b00kb!nding $killz). Simple and adaptable, Hedi would be proud. This is the inside, which opens on the left for tracks.

Artist Talk at PCB

2010-07-15T08:02:00.000-07:00

Come see me give my first artist talk tonight at the Philadelphia Center for the Book's Arts on South space! Alice Austin and I will discuss the theme of "home" at 6pm.

One of my quilts is also in an exhibition there that opens next Friday from 6-8.

PCB, for the summer only, is located at 626 South Street, Phila.

Helen, Joe & Anne finished

2010-04-10T13:00:00.000-07:00

runs seven and eight

2010-04-08T06:59:00.000-07:00

run six

2010-04-01T07:58:00.001-07:00

run five

2010-03-30T21:13:00.000-07:00

run four

2010-03-30T11:27:00.000-07:00

new screenprint

2010-03-24T13:17:00.000-07:00

The assignment was to make a map, so I made a memory map of gma kelly's house. It's a little risky to put your second ever screenprint in your thesis show, but I'm gonna do it.

cuts and runs number three

2010-03-22T19:59:00.000-07:00

Helen, run two & Joe and Anne

2010-03-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

Helen

2010-03-14T12:50:00.000-07:00

This is one of my thesis prints, a reductive woodcut, in stages to where I am now. Many more colors to go, and I love it.

Exhibition Catalog

2010-02-14T19:54:00.000-08:00

DM Show

2010-02-14T16:34:00.000-08:00

The exhibit was a success! View the show and opening here. Thank you to everyone who participated and attended.

Democratic Multiples Exhibition

2010-01-28T18:50:00.000-08:00

This weekend Lara Henderson and I are installing our curated show. It includes work by Mark Price, Amanda D'Amico, Greg Pizzoli, Ian Sampson, Sam Sharpe, Parcell Press, Mary Tasillo, and other artists working with democratic multiples. Prints and copies of amazing books will be for sale at the opening, February 5th from 5:30 - 8:30. Pictures soon.

found:

2010-01-19T19:27:00.000-08:00

In Progress: Madeline's Wish quilt

2010-01-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

This quilt is progressing circle by tiny counter-clockwise circle. Slowly, but surely. Satisfying and maddening. I've spent sometime in Virginia, quilting with Gma. My little cousins Hattie and Madeline are visiting us tomorrow. I'm hoping they will inspire, or at least help me make sense of, the second quilt of my thesis.

name the new colors

2009-11-15T21:56:00.000-08:00

The next few weeks will be filled with brainstorms and half finished ideas. go!

found:

2009-11-15T20:58:00.000-08:00

found:

2009-11-15T20:48:00.000-08:00

My MFA II: Works in Progress installation

2009-11-03T20:42:00.000-08:00

i wish, Pages 3 and 4, mockup for offset edition

Robert, reductive woodcut with colored pencil

Madeline's Wish, in process quilt

2009-11-01T17:49:00.000-08:00

woodblock uncut

woodcut half cut

2009-11-01T17:38:00.000-08:00

2009-11-01T17:15:00.000-08:00

The show is up and running! Details to follow.

2009-10-14T19:12:00.000-07:00

I hang my Works In Progress show one week from Saturday! Yikes. Mega advances in my work and soup making abilities (to fuel the art-making machine.) This is what my comic looks like now:

Stay Tuned.

2009-10-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

SPX went spectacularly. I sold a bunch of books and met a new round of awesome people. I will definitely be back next year, and the year after that, and the year after that.

Despite a throttling virus, I am mostly on time for my Works in Progress show at the end of the month. I should have a portion of my quilt and one print finished for it. This is the quilt today:

My Book Production book is coming along faster. Inspired by Swann in "Un Amour de Swann" and Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman, it's a short comic about persona. Now that I've noticed it, I'm endlessly fascinated by the topic. More updates to come.

2009-09-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

Look, a blog!

Thesis year has begun, so I have simultaneously more and less time to do things like this. In an attempt to document obsessively, I should have lots to share.

Last weekend I reprinted two of my single-sheet books so that I can have them at SPX.

Thirteen folded, eighty-three to go.