Going Places, Doing Things: Toronto Summer Trip
In June, my summer travels took me to Toronto, Canada. I had the great fortune to visit Don Black Linecasting (in addition to sightseeing, hiking and yes, vintage car racing). No exaggeration, his shop is filled floor to ceiling, row upon row of type cases and printing presses. Anyone who loves ‘the dark art’ is clearly in heaven here. When we arrived, Don was sitting in front of a living, breathing dinosaur - a linotype machine. I admit I’ve seen a few in sad ruins but never one in working condition. Don showed us how it operated and cast our names in hot metal. He graciously took time to show us around the shop and we also visited his home to see his wood type collection.

Don Black with typecases

The big type at Don Black's

Laurie Corral and Don Black at press

Amy Jacobs making paper for her thesis

Amy Jacobs thesis piece at Columbia College Chicago

Welcome Amy Jacobs, Paper Artist
Amy E Jacobs grew up in Louisville, KY and in 2001, earned her BA in Sociology from University of Louisville, KY.

At the Two-year Core Fellowship Program at Penland School of Crafts, NC during 2004/2005 Amy studied weaving, surface design, screen printing, etching, letterpress, photography, small metals, hand papermaking, book arts, encaustic painting and lost wax casting... and decided to attend graduate school to deepen her knowledge of the techniques and processes in book, print, and paper.

Amy recently completed her three year graduate program earning her MFA in Interdisciplinary Arts Book & Paper from Columbia College Chicago, in Chicago, Illinois. Her studies involved traditional bookbinding as well as non-traditional artists books, letterpress printing, relief printing and all forms of papermaking. In between semesters she held assistantships at Haystack School of Crafts in Maine and in France and Michigan. In summer of 2008 Amy was awarded a month long residency at the Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, IL.

Meeting Amy
Artistic Vision:
My artwork – whether book, print, encaustic or handmade paper – tends to deal with the many multiple conflicts of roles and identity. As humans we live in a state of dynamic, conflicting emotions. In moments of pain we experience joy and in moments of joy we have sorrow. I like to visually celebrate the contradictions and dynamism of the joy and sadness of life – with life being an indefinable experience – fluctuating and never remaining in one moment or emotion for long. Using daily life as subject matter I invite the viewer in for a quiet reflection on the everyday – the loss and vulnerability that we all experience in being human. It is an ongoing process…

Future Vision:
I want to work on a production line of handmade paper to sell, as well as curate some amazing handmade paper exhibits and installations here in Asheville to show people how magical and flexible handmade paper can be. I’m beginning to work on some small handmade paper and encaustic pieces for various galleries, as well as dreaming up a large installation piece composed of hundreds of handmade paper “flowers”, old iron beds covered in patch worked paper quilts embedded with imagery and text, and large books you can walk through... Getting the paper studio up and running, introducing people to the wonderful world of hand papermaking, and building a community of papermakers right here in Asheville is my real goal for now though.

Mentors and Influences:
I’ve been lucky enough to assist and study with several well known printmakers and book artists over the last few years including such amazing papermakers as: Mary Hark, Melissa Jay Craig, Andrea Peterson, Mina Takahashi, Sue Gosin, Shawn Sheehy, Lida Gordon, and Ann Marie Kennedy – all of which I’m happy to call my mentors and proud to now call my friends. Not only have many of them guided me in my own work – they taught me how to teach and share all aspects of papermaking.

My favorite artists include Kiki Smith (my all time favorite!!!!) Lesley Dill, Louise Bourgeois, Annette Messeger, Sophie Calle, Polly Afgelbaum and Tracey Emin – some of which use paper (not necessarily handmade) but most of which do not. I respond to and relate to their use of the autobiographical in their art as well as their use of surface, imagery and oftentimes, text.

download ics file to your calendar for Fibre Libre event

Bridget Elmer – Artist-in-Residence
Fibre Libre: Open Source Papermaking at Asheville BookWorks, Thursday, July 30, 7:00 pm
On Thursday, July 30th at 7:00 pm, artist Bridget Elmer will make a public presentation at Asheville BookWorks regarding her latest project, 'Open Edition' is a collaborative, creative project that explores the philosophy of FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) through the medium of the book.

Bridget Elmer (a.k.a. Flatbed Splendor) is an artist who is currently pursuing her MFA in the Book Arts from The University of Alabama. ‘Open Edition’ is her creative thesis project, which explores the philosophy of FLOSS (Free/Libre/Open Source Software) through the medium of the book.

Through a generous artist's residency made possible through the BookWorks Co-op Members, Bridget will host Fibre Libre: Open Source Papermaking, the first ‘Open Edition’ project, at Asheville BookWorks.

The new papermaking studio at BookWork

During Fibre Libre: Open Source Papermaking, participants will bring fibers to the studio in the form of old jeans and other discarded clothing made from natural fibers such as cotton, linen or flax. The clothing will be cut and beaten in a Hollander paper beater and participants will make paper from the donated fibers.

Paper fibers become "source code" for a collaborative, variable edition of paper. The paper becomes substrate for an Open Edition of handmade books that can be used, studied, redistributed and/or modified by the users.

Following Fibre Libre: Open Source Papermaking, Bridget will make a formal presentation regarding her work. The presentation, which is free and open to the public, will take place at Asheville BookWorks on Thursday, July 30th at 7:00 pm.

"Bookmaking, for me, is a public act of communication. My work explores reading as a generative, creative act, and engages the book's potential as a persistent information technology." -Bridget Elmer (Interlude Editions 2009 Artist-in-Residence)

Open Edition is an attempt to forgo proprietary models of artistic production, exploring the notion that "works of authorship should be free, and by freedom we mean:

• the freedom to use the work and enjoy the benefits of using it

• the freedom to study the work and to apply knowledge acquired from it

• the freedom to make and redistribute copies, in whole or in part, of the information or expression

• the freedom to make changes and improvements, and to distribute derivative works"
  ("Definition of Free Cultural Works." freedomdefined.org. 1 Dec 2008. 5 Jul 2009.)
  

Fibre Libre: Open Source Papermaking will engage the craft of papermaking and its potential to embody this notion of freedom.

For more information regarding Open Edition, join us at BookWorks on Thursday, July 30th at 7:00 pm and/or visit the project wiki at http://openedition.pbworks.com/.

We Can Go Beyond It by Bridget Elmer

About Bridget Elmer

Bridget Elmer sewed her first binding in New York City at the Cooper Union in the spring of 2002. It was love at first stitch. Since then, Bridget has studied book binding, letterpress printing, and printmaking at The Center for Book Arts and Penland School of Crafts. She served as President of the Board for Booklyn Artist Alliance, and as Assistant Director for Asheville BookWorks. In the fall of 2007, she packed her bags and moved to Tuscaloosa, AL, to pursue an MFA in the Book Arts and a Masters in Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama. In the summer of 2009, Bridget was invited to join the Small Craft Advisory Press (SCAP), a new book press at Florida State University, as their artist-in-residence for the academic year. Bridget will complete her creative thesis project at SCAP, and plans to graduate in the spring of 2010.