One of my favorite VSW summer camp photos.

Some terrific workshops for photographers interested in making books in Rochester this summer at Visual Studies Workshop. I took a week-long social documentary photography workshop there a few years ago and it was one my favorite experiences ever. I worked from 6 am to midnight every day, made some terrific friends and took some of the best photos ever in my 33 years of shooting. It was like summer camp! Since I meet so many photographers interested in books I thought I’d post some of the most interesting workshops for photographers. Go take one!

Ingrid Hess Artists’ Books: Basic Bookbinding
Tate Shaw Photographic Sequence
Scott McCarney Bookbinding in the Age of Digital Production
John DeMerritt Photography and the Book Form
Judy Natal Image-Text-Context

More info here.

Read the blog post here.

Learn more about this terrific tunnel book here.

For thirty years, Doug Beube has taken the notion of what a book is and redefined it in ways lost to most of our imaginations, which is exactly why Beube’s work is so compelling. Altering and manipulating books and maps in extraordinarily intricate and complex ways is his signature. “Through altered bookwork, collage, mixed media, paper and sculpture, my work explores the book itself, a seemingly antiquated technology that is still purposeful in a digital age.”

Portrayed in this retrospective book are 600 of Beube’s works, all beautifully photographed by Buebe himself. Thankfully he doesn’t stop there. He offers lengthy commentary on the concept, materials and methods of his process. Also included in the book are several essays by critics, curators and writers. Breaking the Codex is more than another beautiful coffee table book. You’ll go back to it time and time again to be informed, inspired and intrigued.

There is really no way to sum up this book in a paragraph or two. For those of you who love to make artists books, love to look at artists books, or just love books—this is the perfect book for you. We have six copies in the gallery for sale (for the same price as on Amazon) but no shipping, no waiting!

Canadian born, Beube lives and works in New York City. He teaches, lectures and exhibits worldwide. His artworks are in numerous private and public collections.

Images, from top to bottom: Fault Lines, Splash, and Pocketbook

Call for print on demand photography books:
DIY: Photographers & Books
August 11 to December 30, 2012
Cleveland Museum of Art

Barbara Tannenbaum, curator of Photography at the Cleveland Museum of Art, invites submissions for the first museum exhibition to focus on print-on-demand books. DIY: Photographers & Books will take place fall/winter 2012.

Submit your print-on-demand photography book to the following address before May 31, 2012:
DIY: Photographers & Books
The Cleveland Museum of Art
11150 East Boulevard
Cleveland OH 44106 USA

Questions:E-mail photography@clevelandart.org.

Please do not send one-of-a-kind or handcrafted books. Not all submissions will be included in the exhibition. Books will not be returned. Following the exhibition, all submissions will be donated to the library of the Cleveland Institute of Art.

The Poetic Pen:
Celebrating Calligraphy and Poetry

Exhibition dates: June 22 – July 28, 2012
Location: 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Entry Deadline: Deadline Extended to Sunday, April 22 at Midnight!

23 Sandy Gallery invites you to celebrate the beautiful word by entering The Poetic Pen, a juried exhibition of calligraphic artwork that uses poetry as a primary textual focus. Calligraphers throughout history have employed poetry to illustrate the art and fine craft of lettering, letterforms and calligraphic design. This show is open to pen or brush works in the form of wall-hung pieces, broadsides, books, sculptural objects and more. Will be held in conjunction with the Calligraphy Northwest Calligraphy Conference, which will bring over 500 fans of calligraphy to Portland in June 2012.

Complete information for this show can be found here.

Happy creating!

Laura

Print on demand artist books are digitally designed and machine-bound books created by artists using online services such as Blurb.com or Lulu.com. Many book artists are experimenting with POD technology to create quick editions that can be ordered over the web in quantities as few as one copy at a time.

Here at 23 Sandy we stock a selection of POD books created by artists who usually create hand-bound artist books but are creating POD books for various artistic, conceptual or economic reasons. For example, Clifton Meador tells us he “uses print on demand service as a way of allowing time to concentrate on articulating ideas.” The time saved by skipping the hand-binding process allows artists to move on quickly to the next book. This is a nice benefit for those of us who have more ideas than time.

The books we stock here at 23 Sandy are not technically printed on demand. We ask the artists to order a few copies of their books and then send them to us for physical inventory. This may not fit the strict definition of POD books, but it allows us to distribute these books to our customers who might not normally find such unique titles online.

Click here to view our curated collection of POD books currently in gallery inventory.

Click here to learn how to make your own POD books.

And, if you are an artist creating print on demand artist books I’d love to consider them for gallery inventory. Contact me here to tell me about your work.

Bless This House, by Laura Russell and Nicole Bowmer

Print on demand books are hot right now. Many artists love the idea of publishing their own book, whether as an artist book, a portfolio, a thesis or even a self-published novel. Of course, we book artists have been doing this for years, binding our books by hand using traditional techniques and materials. But, sometimes you don’t want to do the binding yourself, or you are looking for a more commercial-style book. Enter the world of Print on Demand (POD books).

POD books are pretty much what you would imagine—you have a book idea, and through the magic of your computer and the internet, you can self publish one copy or hundreds, allowing you total control of the book publishing process.

Most print on demand vendors make it very simple to upload, layout, and create your book. But, as with all digital endeavors there are variables and a long list of seemingly intimidating vendors and options. So, this article is intended to offer my own experiences in the world of print on demand publishing.

One Best Bit of Advice

My most important tip for anyone considering their first POD book: create one copy of your book using each of the vendors you are considering. Try out at least two or three different vendors, design and upload your book and order one copy of the same book from each vendor as a proof. When they arrive you can compare the same books side by side to decide your preferences for image accuracy and resolution, paper stock quality, size, binding methods, and even website interface. Believe me this is worth the time and effort involved. You’ll be amazed at the differences in options.

Uncommon Threads Exhibition Catalog Cover

Order a Proof
My second bit of important advice is to be sure you order one proof of your book before ordering multiple copies. I can almost guarantee that you will see changes you want to make to either text or images before you order multiple copies.

Pricing
Will it be cost effective to print your book? That depends on a few factors. Do you want to resell your book or just publish a few copies for gifts? Prices will vary depending on the size of the book and number of copies. On the flip side, the more copies you order, the less they will cost per unit. I tend to use different vendors when I am looking for top quality than when I am looking to re-sell books with a profit. Some of the vendor’s prices are so high that there is no room for markup. You’ll have a hard time selling a soft cover book for $50.

Image Quality
POD books have really found a strong niche in the photography world. The simplicity and speed of the process is appealing, making POD books a terrific showcase for photographs or an excellent portfolio presentation option or self-promo piece. Of course, those of you with a keen photographic eye will wonder about the accuracy of the reproduction. Again, this will vary from publisher to publisher. You’ll have to balance our your need for own subjective need for quality with the prices offered.

Software Considerations
Many of these vendors require you to download their software to access their templates and book creation software. Their templates may offer just the level of design that you need, or you may want something more customized. If you have professional graphic design software you can design your own book, output to a PDF and then upload the PDF to the vendor.

A tip for photographers: Photoshop is not a layout program. Image layout in Photoshop is fine, of course, but its not acceptable for type. Photoshop naturally “rasterizes” type which will result in fuzzy edges. Use a design program.

Storefront Options
Many print on demand vendors have an online storefront that you can create for your books. This is a great way to sell your books online and not have to deal with payment, order fulfillment, shipping and such. Most of the services can sell you ISBN numbers and offer packages to have your book listed on Amazon or other bookselling avenues. Click here to see what the store for my own books looks like.

Curling Covers Caveat
One thing to watch out for: some covers on soft cover, perfect bound books seem to have a very pronounced upward curl, perpendicular to the spine. This is due to improper cover paper grain direction. Blurb seems to be the worst culprit. There are plenty of complaints about this issue, but I haven’t heard if it has been corrected.

My Vendor Experiences
I have had a lot of experience creating POD books. Several of my own artist books have been printed as POD books as a second edition after the initial first edition handmade book sold out. Plus, for five years we have created two catalogs each year for our big national juried exhibitions in the gallery. We also had an exhibition back in March of 2009 called Photo+Book that provided a terrific sampling of vendors and options. If you live in the Portland area stop by the gallery some time. I’ll show you my box of sample books from several different vendors.

Here’s what I’ve learned from trying various vendors. All of these vendors have varying pluses and minuses depending on the user preferences for quality/price. Keep in mind, this is not a comprehensive list of vendors, there are many, many more. These are just the vendors I have tried myself.

1. Blurb.com. Simple to use software and templates. Top quality. Very good color accuracy and resolution. Upgraded paper options available. Very expensive. Storefront available for selling your own books on their site.

Bless This House, my trailer park book, hard cover with dust jacket costs me $40 to print at Blurb, not including shipping. Soft cover, perfect binding runs about $30 on Blurb.

2. Lulu.com. Simple to use software and templates. Medium quality. Medium color accuracy. More noise in photographs, especially in mid-tones. Lower prices mean a better profit margin if color accuracy is not as important. Storefront available.

Bless this House, soft cover, perfect binding, slightly smaller than Blurb costs $17 at Lulu, about half the price of Blurb. My exhibition catalogs cost about $15.

3. Apple, iPhoto. Easiest to use of all. Build books in iPhoto or Aperture, then an easy upload process. Very good quality. Limited size and paper options. Highest price. Limited template designs. No storefront. I made a book as a Christmas gift one year using iPhoto. Each book cost $65.

4. LightningSource.com. Very difficult to use. No templates, no design software, long list of rules for creating files. Best for professional designers. Long turnaround time. Pretty good quality/color accuracy. Photos tend to be slightly noisy. But, all of this is compensated for by their very low prices. About half the price of Lulu. No storefront. I’ve used this company for a few of our exhibition catalogs with good results. One warning. Lightning Source will not let you open an account if you use Lulu as they are one of Lulu’s suppliers.

5. CreateSpace.com (an Amazon company.) Very low prices. I could get my catalogs down to less than $6 per unit, but I chose not to sacrifice quality. Color not horrible, a bit flat. Paper seemed very thin and flimsy. Great option for a very cheap, down and dirty book. Storefront available.

Buy Local
I love that POD book printing and binding has become a local option as well. There are a couple of local Portland options to explore.

Digicraft. Long-time photo lab operator, Al Berreth is doing some interesting things with POD books. He’s taking print on demand one step further and working hard to accommodate special requests for unusual paper stocks and other options. His eye for quality and personalized service make this a great option for particular Portlanders. Digicraft’s web site is here.

Publication Studio, also based in Portland is really more of a publisher, creating books for authors and artists they love. But, they also provide print on demand services. Last I heard their cover options are limited, but worth exploring. More info here.

On related bit of news that shows how big print on demand is becoming. Portland’s famous Powell’s Bookstore has recently purchased an Espresso Book Machine. Not a publish-your-own option, just a retail purchase option. Order any book title from a computer database and it prints a fresh copy just for you in minutes. This should be very interesting to watch. I love how Powell’s is working so hard to adapt to this crazy digital world instead of just rolling over and dying like many bookstores. There is a terrific video of the Espresso machine in action here.

So there you have it. Everything I know about print on demand. Now, go make a book!

Click here to see an online catalog for Interplay.

Featuring: Elizabeth M. Claffey, Lauren Henkin,
Clifton Meador and Laura Russell
Showing Through May 12, 2012

To celebrate Portland Photo Month, 23 Sandy Gallery is pleased to present four photographers who create artist books using very different approaches in terms of style, structure, materials and concept. Interplay showcases one-of-a-kind and limited edition artist books by Elizabeth M. Claffey, Lauren Henkin, Clifton Meador and Laura Russell. From fine bindings to altered books, to print on demand books and pop ups, this show will is an exploration of the crossover between the art of photography and the art of the book. Each of the four artists use the book form to push beyond the two-dimensional limits of the photographic medium by melding their photos into art in the form of a book.

Click here to see an online catalog for Interplay.

Elizabeth M. Claffey creates one-of-a-kind altered books. Her series titled Medical History, utilizes vintage medical text and reference books to explore family history and folklore through the juxtaposition of words, photographs, and pre-existing text. This work is inspired by the content of the found object, as well as by the artist’s folkloric inheritance, which often describes the physical experiences of family members and ancestors. Through personal narrative, this work comments on broader issues of physical intimacy, trends in medical science that can have permanent effects, and the meaning of the body in a familial context. Preview Elizabeth’s work here.

Lauren Henkin creates artist books that could be considered “fine press photographic artist books.” Her richly printed black and white images, high-quality papers and commissioned fine bindings are created in limited editions and feature images that pay homage to the overlooked or discarded in our everyday — toys left on the floor, dresses hanging in a closet, or trees growing beside dumpsters. Henkin tell us, “I work from the inside out, using photography as a way to share very personal experiences that hopefully, can be shared by many. When I look back on my work, seeing the progression from one series to another, I see a visual diary of my life, my worries, my fears and hopes.” Preview Lauren’s work here.

Clifton Meador is an artist whose work combines photography, writing, printmaking, and design to explore how history, narrative, and place shape the space of the book. Interplay will feature a project Meador created called Fifty Two. For the year after his fifty-second birthday, he made a book a week about the events and thoughts happening in his life each week. He did not hand-bind these books himself, but instead used a print on demand service as a way of allowing time to concentrate on articulating his ideas. His goal was creating word and image pieces that investigated how a book is a time-based experience of an idea, rather than making work that was extensive explorations of materiality in books. Meador tells us his “larger goal for this project was to engage the quotidian character of life as it is lived.” Preview Clif’s work here.

Laura Russell takes a wholly different path in the creation of her limit-edition artist books. As a photographer in the digital world she found herself drawn to bookbinding as a way of using her hands again. After giving up the dark room to go digital, the book arts gave her a chance to step away from the computer screen. Her love of materials and the structural possibilities of the book give her the freedom to expand her photographic images to make books that are sculptural in nature. She revels in alternative book forms including pop up books and movable books and frequently incorporates non-traditional materials such as plywood, Plexiglas or Coroplast. Her limited edition, hand-bound artist books are at once a celebration of the vernacular and her own small efforts to preserve our social, cultural and commercial landscape. Preview Laura’s work here.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Elizabeth M. Claffey is a photographer and book artist currently based in Boise, Idaho, where she teaches photography at Boise State University. She holds an MFA in photography, with a secondary concentration in Women’s Studies, from Texas Woman’s University. After taking a Bachelor of Arts degree at Earlham College in 2003, where she received honors for her photographic thesis on women’s body image issues and eating disorders, Elizabeth attended the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Her work has been recognized by Critical Mass, PDN Magazine, Galerie Huit, The Eddie Adams Workshop, and various other galleries and publications including The Chronicle of Higher Education, USA Today, The Dallas Morning News, and The Kinsey Institute.

Clifton Meador is an artist whose work combines photography, writing, printmaking, and design to explore how history, narrative, and place shape the space of the book. He has been the recipient of many grants and fellowships, most notably two New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships, and a Fulbright Scholar Award to the Republic of Georgia. His work is featured in many collections including the Library of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the Yale Art of the Book collection. He is currently a Professor and Director of the Interdisciplinary MFA in Book and Paper at Columbia College Chicago. Before coming to Columbia College Chicago in 2005, he was an Associate Professor at SUNY New Paltz, teaching design for ten years. He was the director of Nexus Press from 1985 to 1988, and has collaborated in producing many artists’ books.

Lauren Henkin is a private educator, reviewer, frequent speaker, Photolucida board member, author of five books, and active member in the photographic community. She graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with a BA in Architecture. Her work is widely collected by private collectors as well as institutions such as Southeast Museum of Photography, Beinecke Library, Yale University and Baker-Berry Library at Dartmouth College. Her work has been published in numerous journals on photography and the book arts including Shots Magazine, Black+White Magazine, Diffusion Magazine, Flak Photo, Urbanautica, Landscape Stories, Parenthesis and The Washington Post. She is a Px3 multi-category winner, Oregon Regional Arts & Culture Council grant winner, with other award nominations in both the Brink Emerging Artist and Contemporary Northwest Art Awards. In addition, she founded Photo Radio, an online audio program presenting interviews with curators, gallerists, artists, publishers, educators and other industry professionals.

Laura Russell holds a BBA from Northwood University and had a 15-year career in graphic design and marketing before becoming a full time working artist in 2002 and then opening 23 Sandy Gallery in 2007. She has served on the boards of several organizations including Art Source Portland, Photolucida, the Portland Art Dealers Association and the Colorado Women’s Caucus for Art. Her artist books are collected by many museums and libraries; including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, SFMOMA, the University of California Berkeley Environmental Design Library, and the Tate Collection in London. She travels extensively to lecture on various topics related to the book and paper arts. This is the first time her work will be exhibited at the gallery.

View Interplay’s full online catalog here.

The Poetic Pen:
Celebrating Calligraphy and Poetry

Exhibition dates: June 22 – July 28, 2012
Location: 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Entry Deadline: April 20, 2012

23 Sandy Gallery invites you to celebrate the beautiful word by entering The Poetic Pen, a juried exhibition of calligraphic artwork that uses poetry as a primary textual focus. Calligraphers throughout history have employed poetry to illustrate the art and fine craft of lettering, letterforms and calligraphic design. This show is open to pen or brush works in the form of wall-hung pieces, broadsides, books, sculptural objects and more. Will be held in conjunction with the Calligraphy Northwest Calligraphy Conference, which will bring over 500 fans of calligraphy to Portland in June 2012.

Complete information for this show can be found here.

Happy creating!

Laura

Opening April 6
Interplay: Photographers Focus on the Book

To celebrate Portland Photo Month, Interplay will showcase four photographers who create artist books using very different approaches in style, structure, materials and concept. This exhibition features one-of-a-kind and limited edition artist books from Elizabeth M. Claffey, Lauren Henkin, Clifton Meador and Laura Russell. From fine bindings to altered books to print on demand to pop ups, this show will be a fascinating exploration of the crossover between the art of photography and the art of the book.

Many thanks to our talented artists on the above image.
Top Row: Susan Lowdermilk, Bryan Kring, Warren Buss, Linda Welch.
Bottom Row: Mar Goman, Fritz Liedtke, Elsi Vassdal Ellis, Julie Shaw Lutts.

Click here to see a full online catalog of Elsi’s Show.

23 Sandy Gallery is also still celebrating the launch of Dark River of Stars, a limited-edition artist book produced in collaboration with Oregon Poet Laureate, Paulann Petersen; printmaker, Barbara Mason; and bookbinder, Laurie Weiss. Poems collected in this volume were gifts the poet sent out individually each Valentine’s Day to friends and family over a period of nine years.

Learn more about Dark River of Stars here.

Catch both show before they close tomorrow, Saturday, March 10! We’ll be here today until 6:00 and tomorrow from 12-6.

See you soon!

Recently I had the great honor to speak to the Portland Art Museum Photo Council‘s Brown Bag Lunch. This terrific organization supports the photography collection with a regular roster of events such as the brown bags, private collection tours, the annual print sharing event and the always fun annual acquisition meeting where council members help choose new works for the collection.

This talk proved to be a great reason to assemble a collection of photographic artist books for our new web gallery. This collection of artist books that use photography as their main source of imagery includes works by artists such as Bea Nettles, Amandine Nabarra-Piomelli, Sarah Bodman, Philip Zimmerman, Lauren Henkin and many more.

Click here to peruse this very special curated collection.

The first art class I ever taught was to my Girl Scout troop in Hemlock, Michigan. I volunteered my mother to teach an art class but forgot to tell her until the night before. To teach me a lesson she made me do the class myself. But, she did help me gather materials and plan it. I taught my troop to make flowers using floral wire looped to make petals then backed with calico fabric. Make enough petals then gather up the long ended wires and wrap with floral tape and you have a flower. They were awesome!

All of this relates to First Friday because this week we’ll host a special event in the gallery—just to tell that lawmaker to pick on somebody his own size. Stop by on First Friday when our local Girl Scout, Sophia will be in the gallery selling cookies.

Come see some great art and support the Girl Scouts!

Elsi tells us of her Al Mutanabbi project, “I have avoided revisiting Iraq for a few years now. The multi-layers of war and politics, internal and external to Iraq, created a black hole in my creative life. I needed to take a sabbatical from my attention to this war. When invited to participate in An Inventory of Al Mutanabbi Street by Beau Beausoleil, I girded up my loins, so to speak, and opened the Iraq door again.”

Beau’s Al Mutanabbi project is a call to book artists to react to this horrific event, “On March 5th 2007, a car bomb was exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. Al-Mutanabbi Street is in a mixed Shia-Sunni area. More than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded. Al-Mutanabbi Street, the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, holds bookstores and outdoor bookstalls, cafes, stationery shops, and even tea and tobacco shops. It has been the heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community.” You can learn more about Beau’s project here.

The first of three books Elsi is creating for this Project, an editioned artist book titled Al Mutanabbi I is a powerful, multi-layered, complex and emotional project. The 112 pages of this book contain a photographic project documenting the decay of three books placed in her yard. She tells us, “There are many landscapes explored between the non-linear narrative and the images of slowly decaying books. The reader is gently reminded that we are all moving, some gently, some violently, towards decay, ashes to ashes, dust to dust.”

The book also features extensive text. “It is a meditation upon the book as container, as cultural artifact, as ideas in corporeal form. It calls out the names of booksellers, book buyers, book browsers who were killed on Mutanabbi Street, Baghdad, Iraq. It also acknowledges the many journalists who have also sacrificed themselves for the revealing the truth about Iraq.”

Also included on every page are quotations about books from thinkers ranging from Ralph Waldo Emerson to Benjamin Disraeli to this fitting quote by Akiba ben Joseph, “The paper burns but the words fly away.”

Click here to learn more about Al Mutanabbi I, the book.

23 Sandy Gallery is pleased to present a solo show for book artist Elsi Vassdal Ellis from Bellingham, Washington. The show runs through March 10, 2012. Elsi has the unique distinction of being selected for every single national juried book arts exhibition here since we opened our doors nearly five years ago. We are proud to honor Elsi with a solo show of her one-of-a-kind and edition artist books.

Elsi’s books are most often political in nature, focusing on topics ranging from war to the atomic bomb to genocide to the inequities of male versus female pay scales. Her books are deeply considered, often involving copious original writings regarding these weighty topics. Superb craftsmanship and a strong interest in materiality are also important aspects of her work.

Click here to view a complete catalog of Elsi’s show.

Thank you Elsi, for all you do to change the world.

Poems collected in this volume were gifts the poet sent out individually each Valentine’s Day to friends and family over a period of nine years. The book’s title is taken from a line in one of the poems; it’s a metaphor for a signature, for the uniqueness of each human sensibility. The book and it’s accompanying broadsides will be on display in the gallery through March 10, 2012.

You can learn more about Paulann and the Dark River of Stars book project with Laurie Weiss and Barbara Mason here.

Another Paulann work we have in stock is a lovely letterpress broadside titled Use, designed and printed by Joseph Green of Peasandcues Press in Longview, Washington. This is a brand new edition that will appeal to bird lovers and letterpress fans as well as Paulann’s loyal poetry fans. (Read the poem below.)

Preview Use here on the brand new 23 Sandy online gallery.

Oregon’s sixth Poet Laureate, Paulann Petersen has five full-length books of poetry: The Wild Awake, Blood-Silk, A Bride of Narrow Escape, Kindle, and The Voluptuary, published by Lost Horse Press in 2010. She was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, and the recipient of the 2006 Holbrook Award from Oregon Literary Arts. A current Associate Fellow at the Attic Institute, she serves on the board of Friends of William Stafford, organizing the January Stafford Birthday Events.

Use
A bird’s beak. Recurved,
decurved, serrate, hooked.
Each to its purpose.
Dark, pale, honeyed, dun,
of use. Stabbing, probing, it keeps
its size, its shape, by balancing
constant growth and constant use.
A small and honed proof.
Onward it grows, fed by a heart’s
swift little engine that’s fed by
what the beak can dislodge.
Outward—against grit or bark—
it wears away as much of itself
as it adds. The use of use: to keep
a beak as beak, exactly.
Worn to perfection.

—Paulann Petersen
The Bellingham Review, Spring 2010
The Voluptuary, Lost Horse Press, 2010

Click here to peruse Love Between the Pages.

The Poetic Pen:
Celebrating Calligraphy and Poetry

Exhibition dates: June 22 – July 28, 2012
Location: 23 Sandy Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Entry Deadline: April 20, 2012

23 Sandy Gallery invites you to celebrate the beautiful word by entering The Poetic Pen, a juried exhibition of calligraphic artwork that uses poetry as a primary textual focus. Calligraphers throughout history have employed poetry to illustrate the art and fine craft of lettering, letterforms and calligraphic design. This show is open to pen or brush works in the form of wall-hung pieces, broadsides, books, sculptural objects and more. Will be held in conjunction with the Calligraphy Northwest Calligraphy Conference, which will bring over 500 fans of calligraphy to Portland in June 2012.

Complete information for this show can be found here.

Happy creating!

Laura

Here’s the promo from OCAC:

Spring workshops and classes are filling fast at the Oregon College of Art and Craft, but there are still a few with plenty of open spaces and time to register!

Check them all out at www.ocac.edu, or call 503-297-5544

Note: the last day to register for Intermediate Letterpress is coming up quickly – February 9!

Woodcut and the Meandering Line
In this workshop, students will design, carve and print a two-color (8×10) multiple block woodcut. Each resulting image will then be included in a group portfolio with the theme, ‘transience.’ Students will incorporate a pre-cut meandering line from their given wood block into their composition and at the end of the workshop each student will have a portfolio containing prints from everyone in the class. Time permitting, students learn to create a hard cover accordion artist book from the group’s prints. Examples of woodcut prints and artist books from the instructor’s collection will be presented and discussed. Prerequisite: None. Location: Calligraphy and Print Studio
Instructor:  Susan Lowdermilk
Dates  March 17-18, 2012
Days:  Saturday/Sunday
Time:  9:00am-4:00pm
Total Price:  $300 ($280 tuition + $20 studio fee)

The Unbound Book: Exploring Painting Techniques for Book Arts
Inspired by a simple box of flash cards, students will explore the narrative possibilities of a stack of cards that can be read and rearranged in multiple configurations. These cards will become the ground on which to experiment with stencils, beeswax varnish and a variety of painting techniques including sanding and transparent layers. Students will edition a set of flash cards to exchange with each other and construct a paper case to hold their project. Prerequisite: None. Location: Calligraphy
Instructor:  Lisa Onstad
Dates:  March 31-April 1, 2012
Days:  Saturday/Sunday
Time:  9:00am-4:00pm
Total Price:  $230 ($195 tuition + $35 studio fee)

Drypoint and Chine Colle on the Vandercook Press
A variety of image-making techniques using the Vandercook Press will be explored during this one-day intensive workshop incorporating the printing-collage technique of ‘chine colle.’ Students will use Plexiglas plates as an inexpensive method for creating prints. Types of inks and additives, paper preparation, registration and special tools will be discussed in depth. Prerequisite: None. Previous experience with letterpress printing or other printmaking techniques is helpful. Location: Calligraphy and Print Studio
Instructor:  Rory Sparks
Date:  March 3, 2012 (ONE DAY ONLY)
Day:  Saturday
Time:  9:00am-4:00pm
Total Price:  $130 ($110 tuition + $20 studio fee)

Survey of Offset Lithography for Artists
Offset lithography in its current form has been around for close to a hundred years. Known primarily as an industrial production printing technique, offset printing (particularly the use of small format machines) has played an integral role in the history of independent art, design, and literary printing. Often perceived as being technically complex, this survey will help demystify this printing technique through classroom discussions and on-site shop visits. This four-day workshop will introduce students to the basic principles of offset lithography, touch on its social history as well as its use in the commercial printing industry, and provide an overview of machine function, manual image composition and plate making. Through hands-on exercises students will engage in mechanical image composition using both traditional and artistic techniques, and collaborate to produce a finished edition using those images, which will be printed at a local print shop. Prerequisite: None. Location: OCAC Print Studio and Stumptown Printers.
Instructor:  Clare Carpenter & Eric Bagdonas
Start Date:  March 10, 2012
End Date:  March 31, 2012
Days:  Saturdays
Time:  10:00am-2:00pm
Total Price:  $300 ($250 tuition + $50 studio fee)

Intermediate Letterpress
This eight-week class aides students in refining their letterpress technique by focusing on details, tricks and tips to help improve printing and confidence in the pressroom. Building on students’ prior experience with letterpress printing this class delves deeper into typographical concerns, ink properties, paper qualities, registration and creative problem solving, as well as going over common printing challenges, trouble-shooting and basic maintenance of the Vandercook Proof Press. The first four weeks will revolve around in-class group lessons that help expand students’ skills on the letterpress. In the final four weeks, students will be encouraged to bring in individual projects that pose specific problems or challenges. This class can be used as a capstone for the fall term Beginning Letterpress (BA801) class, but will also be valuable to anyone with Vandercook experience who wants to take his or her letterpress printing to the next level. Prerequisite: BA801 or equivalent letterpress experience. Location: Book Arts Classroom and Print Studio
NO CLASS DATES: Mar 29
Instructor:  Clare Carpenter
Dates:  February 16 – April 12, 2012
Days:  Thursday
Time:  6:30-9:30pm
Total Price:  $295 ($245 tuition + $50 studio fee)

Check out the Phaidon story here and then check out more of Jim’s work here.

Congrats, Jim!