I’m proud to have two of my print works, Maple Nation and Reciprocity, included in a show at the North Seattle College Art Gallery through April 26, 2024. Both pieces are from the collection of Jenny Wilkson.
“Persist: Movement and Protest Art" pulls together posters, art, zines, and ephemera from collections of Seattle artists. The exhibition focuses on pieces made in the last decade that educate, inspire, and fuel resistance in the face of a white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal world.
Persist! Movement and Protest Art
March 11 – April 26, 2024
North Seattle College Art Gallery
Visit Monday-Thursday 11-5 pm & Friday 11 am - 2 pm
Codex 2024 Book Fair and Symposium
In early February, the Codex Foundation held their biannual book fair and symposium in Berkeley, California. Over 200 book artists and organizations related to book making fill the hall for 4 days. It’s an amazing variety of work from all over the world, and there is always some gem of inspiration to be found.
For the first time in the four years I’ve gone to Codex, I also was able to attend the symposium talks. The theme was “Translation: Literal, Material, and Artistic License” and each of the speakers added another layer of interpretation. Kudos to Inge Bruggeman, Codex Director, for her curation of a stellar line-up. Of special note was Abra Ancliffe’s presentation of her current work in progress related to Kepler’s Astronomia Nova. You can see the symposium recordings on the Codex website.
After so many years with events like this on hold, it was also lovely to find some fellowship in between the official events — gathering with typecasters friends from near and far, and with book artist printers that we rarely see.
The Point Vol. 4
The current issue of the The Point, the newsletter of the C.C. Stern Type Foundry, is fresh off the press! It was a couple months of struggle to figure out justification and spacing issues we were encountering on the Monotype Composition caster, far longer than we originally anticipated. Once the problems were identified and adjustments made, the type came out fast and hot. The Point (Vol. 4) is set primarily in Monotype 12pt. Baskerville, with additions in 8pt. Linotype Spartan. Great to have the foundry all abuzz with making this holiday season!
“What Belongs in Your Archives?” Legacy Discussion Group
Artists’ Legacy Foundation holds their autumn Legacy Discussion Group this Saturday, October 14, 2023 with the theme “What Belongs in Your Archives?” This is a free roundtable discussion about long-term planning, hosted on Zoom. This gathering will discuss archives, thinking through what objects, images, and papers help to tell an artist's story. The discussion group facilitator will share ideas and examples, and welcomes advice and perspectives from artists, family members, and estate managers.
West Coast Typecasting Skillshare
Back in June, we tried out another experiment in programming for the C.C. Stern Type Foundry in the new rural location. For three days we hosted the typecasting department of Arion Press (M&H Type) at our facility. From morning to evening we applied ourselves to an exchange of information and skills, breaking for a meal at the end of the day. The fellers at M&H are certainly more experienced at running the Monotype composition caster, and so gave us tutorials on common issues and repairs we might need to make as we run the machine more often—cleaning the moulds, assessing the condition of the type carrier, and adjusting the cycle speed for the Welliver interface, in addition to showing us their new method for perfecting type alignment. Besides some practice using the hand mould, and some nerding out on the Variable Frequency Drives for 3-phase power conversion, we introduced them to operation of the Linotype, equipment they don’t have access to at their current facility. We were able to cast enough lines on the machine to print a short poem offered by our resident poet, Joe Green. It was a good way to test the idea of smaller hands on work sessions at the C.C. Stern Type Foundry, and a terrific exchange all around.
I will be in San Francisco later this month and am looking forward to dropping by the M&H foundry in the Presidio to follow up on all the progress both parties have made with machine repairs and improvements.
Pictured above: Joe Green, Brian Bagdonas, Chris Godek, Kris Branco, Connie Blauwkamp, Chris Chen, Rebecca Gilbert, Brian Ferrett
Northwest Letterpress Network at the C.C. Stern Type Foundry
The July 8th, 2023 Northwest Letterpress Network meeting was held at the new C.C. Stern Type Foundry in Clatskanie. When this group started in 2018, the foundry hosted nearly every month and continued to be the default location up until the COVID pandemic moved the gatherings online. When things started up again, the foundry was in the process of packing and relocating to a location far less convenient for the regular attendees. So it was delightful to host and be among nearly 20 print enthusiasts last month at the new facility where volunteers gave a brief overview of the organization, demonstrated casting processes using the hand mould and Linotype, and participants were invited to print a keepsake poster on the proof press in our print shop.
Registration Open for Archiving for Visual Artists Workshop
I’m excited to be offering the Archiving for Visual Artists: Career Documentation and Legacy Considerations workshop at X Gallery Art for the second year in a row. This six session workshop offers guidelines, best practices, and discussion about artwork inventory and storage, studio workflow, legacy goals and planning.
Registration is open now, and closes at the end of the month.
Dates: Aug 30, Sept 13, Sept 27, Oct 11, Oct 25, Nov 8 (2023)
Day and Time: Wednesdays, 4-6:30pm
Ages: 18 and Up
Skill Level: All
Tuition: $450 (Optional studio visit +$90)
Class Size: 5 minimum, 8 maximum
This workshop is designed for visual artists with an active practice, who are looking for structured support around the process of planning and documentation.
Learn more and register:
https://www.xgalleryart.com/workshop-registration
American Typecasting Fellowship (ATF) Conference 2023
From April 28-30, 2023 just over thirty five people gathered in the Portland, Maine area to convene about all things typecasting. As usual there were presentations, technical sessions related to specific casting machines, an auction and small swap meet. It’s a chance to learn from the hosts and invited instructors on the equipment in their shops, but also to swap updates and information with others who are casting type in the US and internationally. Our hosts were Scott Vile of Ascensius Press and David Wolfe of Wolfe Editions. It was a real honor to spend time in their shops. Both proprietors have extensive typecasting knowledge, but neither had attended an ATF conference before. As part of this one, David Wolfe was able to install a new Welliver interface on his composition caster with the help of the system’s inventor, Bill Welliver, and highlight the addition as part of the technical session.
The presentations featured a lot of information about recent matrix engraving projects undertaken by Jason at Greenboathouse Press, Val at Bowerbox Press, Patrick and Jurie at Letter Kunde Press, and a census of Benton Engravers undertaken by David MacMillan. Of course, there were updates about major moves, historical matrices transferred from storage, and general goings on — some formal and some informal. The fellowship of these events are always valuable. Thanks to all involved for another great gathering!
If you are actively involved or interested in typecasting, there is a hotmetal listserv to share resources, information about available (or wanted) equipment, and general discussion. Sign up through this link.
Northwest Archivists Conference May 3-5
The Northwest Archivist’s Annual Meeting is just a month away! This year activities will be held in Salem, Oregon at the Convention Center, which is centrally located downtown. The theme is “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” I am excited to attend and to hear more about how the field of archives continues to adjust and embrace change. It will be the first time the group has met in person in three years. Archive curious? I hope you will join me there.
New Feet!
This year marked a real turning point in my relationship with the Universal 1 that we’ve stewarded for nearly two decades — we finally took it off the 4x4 skids and added feet! For years the press has been “a little” too high for me to operate comfortably, yet it was mounted into the skids in such a way that it seemed like the dismounting might cause more problems than it solved. With this move to a new shop space in Clatskanie, we decided it was time to invest in some heavy duty adjustable machine feet and lower it to a more sane (and level) height.
Since NA Graphics wasn’t able to access anything in the Vandercook blueprints as far as replacement or manufacture of the original feet, here are the specs:
Bolt-Down Swivel Leveling Mount
4" Long 3/4"-10 Threaded Stud
3" Diameter Base
I’m super pleased, and it’s printing beautifully since the adjustment.
Parenthesis 43 Journal Article
The Autumn 2022 issue of Parenthesis, the journal of the Fine Press Book Association, includes an article on the C.C. Stern Type Foundry that I co-authored with Brian Bagdonas. Editor Nina Schneider curated a selection of articles that broadly fit the topic of Movement, and FPBA Chair Inge Bruggeman graciously suggested our inclusion. This issue has interviews with Amos Paul Kennedy, T-Kay Sangwand, Susan Joy Share, and a bit of history about Claire Van Vliet and Janus Press. Our article, entitled “Expanding Back to Our Roots,” pays tribute to the generosity of Jules Faye and Chris Stern, the community they fostered and which has supported both the formation and latest expansion of the C.C. Stern Type Foundry.
Copies of Parenthesis 43 are available from the fpba.com website.
Archiving for Visual Artists Workshop
I’m offering a workshop for visual artists related to career documentation, archiving and legacy considerations this coming autumn. It’s a 6 session class, held every other week on Wednesday evenings at the X Gallery Art Storage space. Each session will offer guidelines, best practices, and discussion about specific areas of artwork inventory and storage, studio workflow and management, archive formation, legacy goals and planning specific to artists.
Learn more and register on the X Gallery Art website
Presentation at Northwest Archivists Conference
On Wednesday, May 4 at 11am, I’ll be involved in a presentation about working with artists’ archives, touching on the importance of career documentation, collection preservation and storage, management, legacy planning for living artists, and stewardship specific to artwork collections. This presentation is part of the 2022 Northwest Archivists Conference “Not to be Forgotten: the resiliency and sustainability of archives to preserve untold stories” which will be held virtually from May 2-5. Register and find out more on the conference website.
Women in Type
Women in Type was a three year research project at the University of Reading led by Fiona Ross, Alice Savoie, and Helena Lekka, and highlights the contributions of women to the type manufacturing process. The British Monotype and Linotype companies each employed women as part of departments where they worked to develop and produce typefaces that were often attributed completely to male designers. The Women in Type website is the result of an effort to make this research more accessible to the general public. It includes an overview of roles and responsibilities, brief histories of women who were employed by both corporations (based on first person interviews), and an excellent reading list.
Marie Watt Studio Archive
Images copyright Marie Watt Studio (Instagram)
In mid-2021, I began work with artist Marie Watt and Studio Manager Madalyn Barelle to better organize their studio archives. I started by assessing their existing print and drawing inventory, sorting and labeling in addition to updating the records and inventory numbers in their studio collection management database. We were able to rearrange materials to increase accessibility and improve the work flow in that area of the studio, separating the archives into “deep storage” or legacy items, occasional use, and more frequently accessed works on paper. When applicable, archival enclosures were replaced to be more durable and most efficient with storage space (at a premium in a prolific artist’s studio). Much of this work was funded by a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council in preparation for Marie’s mid-career print retrospective at UC San Diego, “Storywork: The Prints of Marie Watt,” scheduled to open February 4, 2022.
As we look to the year ahead, I will continue to assist with annual archiving needs, inventory and database updates, digital record cataloguing, and ongoing discussions related to long-term legacy planning. It’s an exciting time in the studio as the team has grown to include another Studio Manager and a dynamic group of artist assistants. The pace and the amount of new work constantly in creation means a functional archiving and inventory system is important to both idea generation and productive workflow.
You can find out more about Marie Watt’s art, upcoming exhibitions and community engaged events at mariewattstudio.com.
Overdue Type Identification
In early December 2020 I was able to finally take Amy Redmond’s Long Distance Letterpress: Type Forensics workshop about type identification and inventory, which she had adapted for an online class. Amy’s approach to type identification is very much about stewardship. She focused on honoring the legacy of the materials in use, taking the time to learn how and by whom the type was made, and holding only the faces you need in service of keeping more type in use. Add her technical prowess and experience as both a typographer and with the inventory of the Stern & Faye type collection, and a dynamic and useful workshop was born.
When we moved most of our type and equipment from Stumptown Printers into storage, we chose to save out three galley cabinets which house the bulk of our display type at 24pt. and above. One of my projects is to go back though and better organize and identify the contents. Many of the ornaments have never been proofed, and the typefaces are only partly catalogued. Additionally, many of the galleys have surface rust that needs to be removed. So, I used the momentum from this workshop to take some needed action.
First, clean. I needed to remove surface rust on our galleys before I could do any work of substance. I used Evapo-Rust (on recommendation from Ivan Snyder), soaking then rinsing the galleys. I treated enough that I could fill one column of our cabinet so that I could start to move type and concurrently soak the prior galley after a transition.
Second, organize. I separated the typefaces that have been stored together and labeled their galleys. In many cases we have half a galley of identified type and the other 50% unidentified. This step resulted in a lot of galleys labeled “unident” and “type to distribute”. I did keep small display fonts of multiple sizes together (i.e. 24pt. and 36 pt. of the same face) because we don’t have unlimited space. I also consolidated and retied a lot of the standing forms. With only three galley cabinets to deal with, I was able to alphabetize the identified typefaces (leaving gaps here and there to account for shuffling as new faces gain their identity), isolate the galleys that needed attention, and set up a section for current forms in use.
Third, identify. “Unident” galley number one contained a calligraphic face that I am embarrassed to admit sat on the same galley for over 20 years. It was mixed with a couple sizes of Old English and I am afraid we didn’t poke farther back than that in all the years that we pulled type from this particular location. I selected a couple characters and referenced our copy of Mac McGrew’s American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century. It’s a pretty distinct face, so I was quickly able to identify “Freehand”, designed for American Type Founders by Morris Benton in 1917, and then cross-reference it in the ATF Specimen Book. As a child who spent hours practicing calligraphic standards with different width pen nibs, and a fan of the typefaces designed by Eric Gill and Jim Rimmer, I was pleasantly surprised to discover this hidden treasure. And, despite that appreciation, I hardly know what to do with typefaces so closely related to hand lettering. Luckily, I did have a very short poem by W.S. Merwin waiting to be set in type and this face was appropriate to that use.
The next step is to document this particular typeface by pulling a proof and counting characters using the specimen ID sheets that I adapted from ones that Armina Ghazaran (Type & Press) uses at the Museum of Industry in Ghent, Belgium. These are stored in a binder in our shop space and include location and name, in addition to the information about provenance. My goal is then to enter the data from these physical sheets into the spreadsheet template that Amy Redmond (Amada Press) developed in order to have a document that can easily be shared with others.
The Point Vol. 3
What a year it has been! As a volunteer and active Board Member at the C.C. Stern Type Foundry, we have had to put most of our public programming on hold due to COVID-19 risks. The museum facility is just too small to host people safely. Despite that, I have been able to go in after hours or on weekends with one other volunteer, and continue to apply myself to learning the operation of the Monotype Composition Caster. A couple weeks ago, we finally got all the type cast, proofed and printed in the form of The Point (issue #2)! It feels like an extra special achievement under the circumstances.
This week we also sent out the final 2020 newsletter via e-mail, summarizing this year’s activities and what is in store for the year ahead. It looks like we’ll be contending with many more months of the pandemic, so it’s going to be a hybrid of in-person skill building and on-line community building. The full newsletter is linked here, and a direct link to our end of year fundraising is here. Your support allows us to carry on the mission of the C.C. Stern Type Foundry.
X Gallery Art Storage
In the summer of 2019 I began helping out at X Gallery Art Storage as they expanded their business and took in some larger artwork collections, and I’m pleased to continue working with the team there in a part-time capacity for the foreseeable future.
X Gallery is a small company, serving Pacific NW collectors, institutions, estates, and artists. While the basic service is secure, climate controlled storage of artwork, over the past year X Gallery has increased capacity for inventory, research, placement and valuation services. We are in the process of implementing a new and robust Collection Management System, creating additional storage in the vault, and have just launched an updated website. As the site develops, we will include supporting resources for the public that we have found useful in exploring the life cycle of artworks and also expand private online access to collections for our clients.
While I have not moved away from letterpress printing completely, and have enjoyed taking on commission work at our little home studio, my intention is to continue to pursue an interest in archives and to find ways to blend that with my project management skills and printing. Through X Gallery I am introducing some career documentation services for visual artists. I am available to assist in organizing artist papers, records, materials and physical inventory with the goal of creating a maintainable archive. The level of involvement is tailored to the needs of the artist and can range from basic storage recommendations to materials indexing to more in-depth database set up. These services might be especially useful in preparing for a retrospective exhibition or curatorial studio visit, creating a catalog of work, documentation for critics, writers or art historians, and for long-term legacy planning.
You can download a .pdf outline of services here.
No Justice, no peace
It’s been over 50 days now that Portland has kept up the daily city-wide protests, continuing to put pressure on our local and statewide government to make drastic reforms to the institution of policing. It’s no secret that racism has long been an systemic issue here, and there has been constant conflict with the police bureau regarding excessive violence and white supremacist actions. There are community groups like Portland Copwatch and Pacific Northwest Family Circle focused specifically on these problems, organizations that have been ongoing. A documentary called Arresting Power: Resisting Police Violence in Portland, OR was released just a couple years ago. In two and a half decades of living in this city I have been a part of numerous vigils, demonstrations, and calls for justice in the wake of the deaths of black youth such as Kendra James, Aaron Campbell, Quanice Hayes, and Keaton Otis. I have committed to relearning the stories of these and others lives lost to police violence in our local community, setting and printing their names in type, and distributing the prints to daily demonstration sites.
In August, Portlanders will be voting for a City Commissioner seat by special election. Redirection of police task force funding and the establishment of Portland Street Response (a non-police first response option, much like White Bird/Cahoots) are on the table, and the street protests are keeping these much needed reforms in the public eye. I’m hopeful that this momentum nationwide will translate to changes that have been needed on so many levels, and that as a city we can move meaningfully toward a more humane model. Lives are on the line.
May Day Affordable Cocktail Act
After the 2016 national election, I was pretty frustrated and unsure how to maintain a sense of hope. I think many around me felt the same. We were surprised that Americans voted against democratic progress, compassionate leadership, social infrastructure for more people. We were reminded again that feminist movements over the past two hundred years had helped institute some rights, but that women’s voices are disqualified by men’s. We were reminded that some people are desperate enough to do anything (to anyone) for power—for more money, land, and fame. We were reminded that racism is overwhelmingly systemic in this country. We were surprised that the backlash was quite so mean.
And so, in January of 2017, Donald Trump became the head of the Executive branch of our government. It moved me to march in the streets, buoyed by the company of thousands of other people around the world. The situation also made me want a strong drink (bonus if I could imbibe in the company of smart, sympathetic friends who would make me laugh.) After one such night, mourning the impending loss of affordable health care coverage, the “Affordable Cocktail Act” (ACA) was born. Marilyn Zornado and Barb Tetenbaum have organized many a themed cocktail event, so with their lead, we pulled together a small gathering of artist friends to host a competition and asked them to invent drinks to express the politics of the moment. We mixed and tasted and laughed and shed a few tears as we made drinks like “The No! You’re the Puppet!”, “The Flaming Sinful Cheater” (complete with charred cheetos as garnish), and the “Environmental Deregulation Toddy”. We voted. The winner was “The Pussy Grabber” followed closely by “The Alt-White” and “The Im-peach-mint” cocktails.
Over the last three plus years the ACA has convened occasionally to educate, share resources and advocate on issues important to us, sometimes at each other’s homes, and sometimes at a friend’s bar (thanks, Likewise!). Topics have included land use and conservation, equal rights, climate change, race and immigration, health care, affordable housing and houselessness. We have partially used art as a lens to express and explore politics in our society, looking at other other artists’ work, and letting the issues influence our own approach to navigating this time.
And we have kept up the themed cocktails, but dropped the competition. Our latest get-together was for May Day 2020, which meant we had an online gathering. While our “8 hours for work, 8 for rest, 8 for what you will” were all topsy-turvy, we managed to share some recipes for quarantine drinks and reflect upon what we have found essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. Above is my submission for the occassion.
Despite the often serious nature of the topics, we always manage to have a few good laughs, which is the best medicine against despair that I know.
