Flying high above the north east snowstorms I landed in Cleveland this past weekend to visit my family and join my good friend Cathie Bleck for a letterpress printing demonstration. To prepare, I created four drawings, sent them to Boxcar Press and had them converted into photopolymer plates.
Johannes Gutenberg was smiling, as Cathie Bleck moved me through the set up, printing and clean up of the old No. 3 Vandercook Proof Press at Zygote Press in Cleveland. Thus far, I have printed two small editions of letterpress prints with two of the four drawings.
“Together”
After all of the printing preparations—soaking of the paper in water, blotting, painting with brightly colored dyes, aligning the paper and hand cranking the through the press—I get one—one-of-a-kind letterpress print. Each print is analyzed and becomes a learning moment before pushing on through to the next.
“Together” : 8" x 10" : Letterpress w/hand painting : one-of-a-kind :
Edition of 18 : Email for details
Each 10” x 12 ¼” letterpress sheet has been a labor of love. The next couple of days will yield 4 more print editions on Rives BFK White, 250 gm paper in a variety of rich brown/black inks printed over the top of painted spaces. Save the date for “Plug Me” on April 15, at Subtext Gallery in San Diego where you can see all of the final results first hand and collect the works.