“untitled", Kelcey Loomer, wooden type, 2004, 8 x 6”; collection Gwen Diehn

February 24-26, 2012
Fri 6 pm – 9 pm, Sat & Sun 9 am – 5 pm.

Instructor: Gwen Diehn
cost: $271 (includes a $10 materials fee)

Following the example of artists such as Robert Indiana, Charles Demuth, and Ruth Laxson among others, we will use BookWorks’ large collection of old wooden type to come up with what I am calling “letterscapes”—artwork that begins with letters as landscape features, still-life objects, figures, and abstract shapes in order to express ideas and emotions, to raise questions and to develop ideas.

We’ll start on Friday evening freely (but gently) playing with the wooden type collection while talking about what we’re interested in pursuing in our artwork. As the shapes of the letters give us ideas, we’ll make sketches and plan ways of adding other mediums to the printed letterforms. On Saturday we’ll print numerous arrangements of our letterscapes. We’ll hand- roll color onto the type so that we can have multiple colors, and then print them on a Vandercook. We’ll print multiples of each of our designs so that we can move into the montype aspect of this project on Sunday.

On Sunday we’ll work on the printed pieces with watercolor, gouache, collage, and any other mediums that we need to express the content we’ve chosen for our work. We’ll plan at least one booklet apiece, a monotype that features the wooden type.

Supplies: ruler and matt knife; straight needle and a few yards of bookbinder’s thread; pens, watercolors, gouache, and whatever else you would like to use to add to the prints to complete the artwork. Paper and ink and solvents will be supplied in the materials fee of $10.

Filed under: Calendar, Letterpress, Printmaking, Workshops