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Well, I only just realized that my only photo of last night’s opening (stupid phone!) was so out of focus, but oh well. It still gives you an idea of how nicely the Wayzgoose steamroller prints look on a gallery wall!
Thanks to everybody who made the trek down to Parkland last night for the shindig—and to Jessica Spring for organizing, curating and installing these beasts!
This year marks the 10th Anniversary of the Tacoma Wayzgoose! The festival isn’t until the end of April, but we’re celebrating early with an exhibit of all the giant steamroller prints created over the years at the Pacific Lutheran University Gallery. It’s going to be a doozy!
And I’m honored to see that the artwork I created with Jessica Spring is gracing all the promo materials for the exhibit! (Thanks, PLU.) If you’re in the Seattle-Tacoma area this Wednesday, stop by for the opening, won’t you?
In the meantime, we’re about to get crackin’ on this year’s steamroller print…look for a teaser soon.
Jessica’s studio is hopping lately. She and I are working on the next Dead Feminist broadside, and our friend R.J. joined us on the adjacent press. There’s just something so satisfying about a room filled with the sound of Vandercook motors humming…
I’m working on several new things this week, including some new cards and another Dead Feminist broadside. Stay tuned!
I walked around the block to visit my friend Laurie today (and to bask in the glow of The Most Beautiful Christmas Tree on Earth)…
…and look who I found on the tree! It’s Victoria Anne McGillicuddy from our letterpress ornament set!
In case you might be wondering, I’m still working on my Mt. Rainier book. I don’t post about it often, but this is a near-constant backdrop to everything I do. Every day, I hand-color a few more prints. Every day, I cut a few more pieces. Every day, I cross a thing or two off the massive list. And every day, I get closer to “done.”
Even though it’s nearly as late as it could possibly be, here I am thinking, “Already?!?” But it’s true—even if you don’t do Black Friday (as you can probably guess, I’m partial to Small Business Saturday myself), today’s the “official” opener of the holiday season. And for perhaps the first time ever, I’m actually ready for it! (Well, mostly.) This year I’ve got new stuff in three different online shops—in honor of the three arms of my little business (though of course, if you ever want to combine items into one order, just drop me a line and I’ll make it happen).
First up is my Anagram Press shop, where you’ll find two new holiday cards, inspired by mid-century vintage kitsch.
(One has just a touch of Griswold-y goodness…)
Also in there are my new bird magnets by Seattle’s own iPop! I’m so proud and excited to have these that I’m tempted to plaster every metal surface in my studio with them. (You can read my post about them here.)
Next up, a little holiday travel: I’m pleased to announce the Souvenir Shop is now open on Drawn the Road Again, my new travel blog! You’ll find a big array of prints available there—
from the first installments of my new 50 States Series—
—to original illustrations inspired by travel destinations.
And because enough people have asked for it, there are even prints of some of my sketchbook drawings—including a Pick-a-Sketch custom order option.
Last but not least, the Dead Feminists shop has some new additions as well—starting with a small letterpress keepsake version of the Birth of Venus steamroller print Jessica and I did earlier this year.
And we’ve finally restocked our supply of mini letterpress journals (you folks cleaned us out last time we had them in the shop, and it took quite awhile to make and photograph more!). We call ’em “Lemonade Journals,” because we made them from the “lemons” that crop up during printing—misregistered prints and tiny flaws that otherwise would have ended up in the recycling bin. But with some cute stitching and fun colored paper on the inside, Jessica turned them into perfect little stocking stuffers.
Whew! That’s the whole kit n’ kaboodle. Keep in mind that some of the travel and sketchbook prints require a lead time to produce, so be sure to get any made-to-order requests in early! I’ll be shipping holiday orders daily until 4 pm PST on Tuesday, December 17 (when the shops will close for the holiday break).
In the meantime, I’m raising a virtual glass of eggnog to you: happy holidays!
Every year I tell myself I’ll actually take photos during Studio Tour—and every year we get a bigger crowd, and I get all wrapped up in talking to people, and somehow the camera just sits forgotten in a corner. But at least I managed to take a couple of quick snaps of how it looked before we opened! We had our biggest group yet this year—over 150 people, many of them new faces! So an enormous thank you to everyone stopped by or sent me encouraging social media messages throughout the weekend—I can’t tell you how much it means to me to be a part of this amazing community.
As the school year begins again and the pace of life quickens, the easy pace of summer has made way for a season of bustling, planning, and dreaming of times ahead. Yet worldwide, over and over again, the plans and dreams of so many women and girls are cut short by violence. In light of recent high-profile crimes halfway around the world, Jessica and I though it was high time we spoke up. This time we drew inspiration from the Nightingale of India:
What hope shall we gather, what dreams shall we sow? — Sarojini Naidu
“Nightsong” honors the hopes and dreams of women and girls in every culture—in defiance of the world’s dangers. The illustration depicts a lush dream menagerie printed in bright, exotic hues. Tigers, peacocks, elephants and nightingales stand sentinel around our heroine, surrounded by detailed paisleys and florals drawn in the style of Indian mehndi designs.
To make this print more dreamlike, we decided to throw a tricky technique called split-fountain printing into the mix—or “rainbow roll,” for short.
A split fountain is extremely difficult to control (advanced Eagle Scout printing here, folks), but the results are so lovely that it’s absolutely worth the effort. As an added bonus, we were careful to keep our inks translucent—so when we registered the second color, that mixed the colors even further, giving us an entire rainbow spectrum with just two passes on press.
I should add, though, that while we love printing with a rainbow roll, the process is completely unpredictable, and the finished prints are far from uniform. So rather than an edition of absolutely identical broadsides, we ended up with a beautiful range of yellows, oranges, pinks and even reds, that vary from print to print. So my scans here are representative of the edition in general, but no two prints are exactly alike (so if you order a print, please allow for some slight variations from what you see here).
To help restore hope to victims and in honor of our dreams for the future, a portion of our proceeds will be donated to Take Back the Night. In order to create safe communities, Take Back the Night seeks to end sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual abuse and all other forms of sexual violence.
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Nightsong: No. 18 in the Dead Feminists series
Edition size: 147
Poster size: 10 x 18 inches
Printed on an antique Vandercook Universal One press, on archival, 100% rag (cotton) paper. Each piece is numbered and signed by both artists.
Colophon reads:
Sarojini Chattopadhyay Naidu (1879 – 1949) — also known as “The Nightingale of India” — was born in Hyderabad, the eldest of eight children. She was a gifted student, proficient in five languages, and by age 16 left the country to attend King’s College to pursue her interest in poetry. Inspired by the suffragist movement in England, she joined the struggle for Indian independence, traveling the country to lecture on social welfare, women’s rights and nationalism. Naidu played a leading role during the Civil Disobedience Movement and was jailed along with Gandhi. Naidu wrote beautiful lyrical poetry, focused on Indian themes, to inspire the nation. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Indian National Congress, and the first woman to become the Governor of the state of Uttar Pradesh. Though Naidu humbly claimed, “I am only a woman, only a poet,” her birthday is celebrated as Women’s Day throughout India.
Illustrated by Chandler O’Leary and printed by Jessica Spring, calling for an end to violence against women all over the world.
UPDATE: poster is sold out. Reproduction postcards available in the Dead Feminists shop!
Jessica and I (and our friend Caitlyn) were invited to have a table at this yesterday’s Wayzgoose at the School of Visual Concepts in Seattle. We didn’t contribute a steamroller print this time, so it was fun to just be part of the audience outside, and enjoy the show! I love the sort of mischief that happens when a bunch of letterpress printers get together for a day.
