Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Masters of Collage - New Book!

I'm thrilled to have my work included in the new book entitled Masters Collage.

The book was just released in June and features contemporary collage work from approximately 40 artists from all over the world. The book was curated by Randel Plowman. Some of you may know his fabulous work through his Collage A Day Blog.

The thing I really like about this book is the diversity of artists and artwork. It is not a techniques book--it is just sumptuous visual buffet of collages! I found it interesting to see a number of guys in the book. I am totally making a sweeping generalization but I find it interesting that most of the guy collages are very "active". I don't know 99% of the other artists in the book but it was wonderful to be included. Here are some pics I really liked in the book.


In conjunction with the book, an exhibition "Lost and Found: The Art of Collage" will be at Northern Kentucky University Galleries in the Main Galley  from August 23 to September 24th. It should be a fabulous exhibition!

The Boys of Summer--our type of guys!

It's been all hands on deck in terms of reorganizing our letterpress studio. I think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
Chandon has been the go-to guy on driving the whole process. 

Mike R has become a super fast, metal-type-distributing-guy and is great at fonting our duplicate typefaces. There is something to be said about 20-something year old eyes looking at 10 pt type!

Jay has great natural ability as a papermaker and has been terrific at jumping in the type foray!

Of course, Mike O is definitely the LP guru and is developing the type list.

Gary can set even the craziest schemes I come up with!

Thanks to Toxic Coyote Frank for coming over from CA to give us a hand. We had a great day with him!

We'll show some of the work we've been printing in a future blog post. We've been doing a lot of custom work lately, invites, stationery as well as fun things like posters. We sometimes forget to photograph printing jobs because we are too busy printing--don't want to get the camera too inky!

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Tis' the Season - Flora & Fauna moment

It's hotter than blazes this summer and the only creatures that are active outside in the SW are the Round Tail Ground Squirrels. They provide endless fascination for our kitties because they come close to the windows to sit and eat in the shade. Obviously they are smart enough to know the cats cannot get them.
This guy is eating a mesquite pod--oh the joy! Did you know that Mesquite pods have served as critical food for indigenous people. The pod has a thin skin, within which lies a mealy pulp (containing the seeds), which is quite sweet (about 20% sugars). The seeds are about 35% protein -- a very high proportion, making it a high-quality food. This is where mesquite flour comes from. We tried using the shells for papermaking but it is really difficult to separate the woody shell from the seeds.
Okay, that's the end of my Marlon Perkins moment but there will be more. I forgot to photograph the small snake we found in our air return closet or the coyote that I had to chase out of they yard. It goes part and parcel with living in the desert. I keep trying photograph the 2 covey of quails that have been hanging out in our yard --one set of parents with 9 little offspring and the other set with 5 teenage offspring. (I'm sure that's why the wily coyote was in the yard!) As soon as grab my camera, the quails seem to know and they run out of the yard--even though I'm inside the house.