Blog
February 3rd, 2015
Well, I’m hitting the road again—I can’t believe it’s been two years already, but the CODEX Bookfair has come around again. Jessica and I will both be exhibiting, and we’ll have lots of new projects making their debut there (including the new Dead Feminist broadside!)
The best thing about CODEX is being able to stand in a room with hundreds of pieces of art—art that you can touch, while you have a conversation with the artist who made it. The event showcases the work of some of the best book artists, printmakers, paper artists and typographers working today—the result is an astounding display of artwork and ephemera from all over the world. So if you’re even remotely local, it’s well worth the trip.
You’ll find me at the Anagram Press table (#84)—so stop by and say hello!
Fifth CODEX International Bookfair
February 8-11, 2015
Craneway Pavilion, Richmond, CA
Open today and Tuesday 12:30 to 6; Wednesday 10 to 3
Admission: $10 per day ($5 students) or $30 for multi-day pass
October 14th, 2014
Both Jessica and I have solo shows on display right now, and while they deal with different topics, our similar personalities and interests made for a surprising number of overlaps. While we were marveling at how much our shows had in common with each other (which was especially funny, considering that neither of us saw the other’s exhibit until both were installed!), it occurred to us that it might be fun to have our receptions on the same night.
So we joined this month’s Third Thursday Artwalk and created a mini gallery crawl of our own. Here’s how it works: stop by my reception at the Tacoma Public Library first and pick up a letterpress keepsake. Then take your keepsake down the hill to Jessica’s reception at the Old Post Office (which is exactly 5 blocks from the library), and print a phrase on it with her antique printing press. Both events are free and open to the public. We’ll also have a small pop-up shop at Jessica’s reception, stocked with goodies related to our shows and also featuring guest artist Mare Blocker.
Here’s the skim milk:
Third Thursday Art Walk: Dual Exhibition Receptions
Stop 1: Drawn the Road Again
Solo exhibition by Chandler O’Leary
4 to 5:30 pm
Tacoma Public Library Handforth Gallery
1102 Tacoma Avenue South
Stop 2: reCollection
A Spaceworks installation by Jessica Spring
5 to 9 pm
Old Tacoma Post Office, north end of lobby
1102 A Street
Put on your walkin’ shoes, and we’ll fire up the press—see you on Thursday!
August 11th, 2014
Friday was the perfect day to get outside and invade South Lake Union with a bunch of crazy letterpress shenanigans.
For the first time, the SVC Wayzgoose was wrapped up within the South Lake Union Block Party—so some changes were in order this year. For one thing, it meant a bigger crowd and a wider audience—all good things, if you ask me.
Also, there were provisions nearby!
Thanks to the Block Party folks, I also got to expand my operations from a small table into a full ten-foot booth—which felt positively luxurious!
So yeah. Between the perfect summer weather and the friendly, enthusiastic crowd…
…I think we have a winner.
July 28th, 2014
Jessica has our new broadside on press as I type this, lining up the colors and doing one last check for typos. But this week also holds another kind of “typo” for us, the kind we actually encourage: typophiles.
While our schedules prevent us from actually being there in person, I’m happy to announce that many of our Dead Feminist broadsides will be exhibited this week as part of TypeCon 2014 in Washington, DC. Since it began in 1998, TypeCon has been a major gathering point for designers, typographers and letterers—as well as a nexus for typography as an art form. So we’re incredibly excited and honored to have our work featured among so many talented artists. So if you happen to be attending TypeCon this week, stop by the gallery and take a gander—and tell everyone hi for us!
July 21st, 2014
It’s that time again—Jessica and I are hard at work on the next Dead Feminist broadside. Actually, we’ve been hard at work on this piece for months already. I think it’s safe to say that this piece has the most research and labor behind it than any we’ve done so far.
There’s a lot at stake this time, and we want to get things right. And besides—as you can see, the piece is chock full of teeny tiny bits, and the registration is going to be tight. So we’re doubling down on the proofreading skills and triple-checking every detail.
Now the design is done, I just sent out the finished files for the plates, and we’ll be on press starting this week. More soon!
June 26th, 2014
One exhibit might be ending this week, but another is just getting started. On Tuesday night I went to the opening for Ink This!, a new exhibit of contemporary Northwest print arts at the Tacoma Art Museum.
The place was completely packed—both in the lecture space and in the common areas.
I spent so much time catching up with friends and colleagues from all over the region (which is the best part about this show!) that I barely made it upstairs to see the artwork itself.
And then when I got there, I had a pleasant surprise: my piece in the show is prominently displayed, right by the entrance.
It’s such an honor to have my book in a room with so many incredible prints, sculptures, artist books and other work by the people I admire the most.
Most of all, I can’t tell you how gratifying it was to see so many people come up and spend time with my book. That’s the highest compliment anyone could ever pay me.
Many, many thanks to the Tacoma Art Museum for putting this show together; to Margaret Bullock for her amazing work curating the exhibit; to Ann and Peter Darling who lent the book from their private collection for the exhibit; to everyone who has seen the show so far; to the artists themselves; and to the lovely man monitoring the gallery that night, who so kindly gave me permission to take some hip shots with my phone camera. (I couldn’t hide how excited I was to have my work in a museum for the first time—thanks for not laughing at my dorkiness!)
Ink This! will be on display through November 9 October 19 (update: show is closing early to accommodate the opening of a new museum wing), at the Tacoma Art Museum, 1701 Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma.
June 19th, 2014
I stopped by the Collins Memorial Library this week to see the new Puget Sound Book Artists exhibition, and look what’s in the show! If you haven’t had a chance to see my Mnemonic Sampler abecedary in person yet, the PSBA folks have it beautifully displayed in one of the wall cases. (The display is definitely better than my low-light cell phone photo of it…sigh.)
And they were even kind enough to include a snippet of it in the exhibition poster—can you spot it?
Catch the show now through July 31!
June 16th, 2014
This is my friend Carl.
He’s a wood engraver extraordinaire—
—and his West Seattle letterpress studio is a thing of beauty.
He does lovely, painstaking work (those are his engravings on the wall there), and he runs a tight ship at that studio of his.
Which is why my friend Mary-Alice called on Carl when she picked up a vintage Adana flatbed press, and wanted help whipping it into shape. She and her husband were planning to bring the press to West Seattle yesterday. I’d never seen an Adana in action before (I’m more of a Vandercook gal myself), so I asked to tag along.
Carl was more than ready for us.
He gave the press a quick once-over. “I think you’re getting off too easy, Mary-Alice,” he said. “There aren’t even any spiders under here!”
A few drops of oil,
some careful adjustments,
one of Carl’s own engravings to use as a test,
and a little text M-A set from his massive collection of type—and all of a sudden the Adana was print-ready.
Carl even broke out the fancy handmade paper—”This is an important occasion!” he said.
Pretty darn good results, if you ask me. Carl made us all sign the finished broadside. (Mariners pencil for the win!)
“How come I get to sign?” I asked, confused.
Carl chuckled and said, “You documented the occasion. Sign it!”
Aye, aye, Captain!
June 9th, 2014
This week I added a new stockist to my list when I dropped off a pile of cards at Tacoma’s newest shop, The Nearsighted Narwhal.
The shop fills a specific niche that book artists will love: the art of self-publishing. The store is chock-a-block with zines, comics, self-published and small-press publications, and artwork by a whole array of independent artists.
It’s the sort of place you might normally have to travel to Portland, or San Francisco, or Brooklyn to find. But I can tell you that from the perspective of someone who’s been self-publishing for over a decade, the Nearsighted Narwhal going to be a very welcome resource. I can’t wait to dive in and start reading!
May 26th, 2014
Photo by Jessica Spring
Jessica has been churning out a crop of lemonade journals lately, including some fun new ones from the outtakes of our Focal Point print. Look for them soon in the shop!
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