Books make great gifts, pt. 2

A friend of mine recently moved to Korea, and to lighten his load, he sent a box of his heaviest books to my doorstep. Some hightlights:

An illustrated book of herbs (did you know that the marshmallow plant is an herb?),

and a 1937 reprint of Audobon's The Birds of America.

I especially like the title page,

and I think the title page of my next book will need to include &c., &c., &c.

Books make great gifts

I love getting books as gifts, and my friends know it. The main problems with having too many books are 1. I tend to move a lot, and 2. I've run out of shelf space, but there's no room in this little apartment for another bookshelf. I'm really excited for the day when I can dedicate an entire room to books, and call it my library. It'll have shelves up to the ceiling and a wooden ladder on wheels so I can easily get to each and every beautiful book.

Over the weekend, I got an old Encyclopedia Brittanica with anatomy lessons:

Last week I got a whole box of sweet old books from a friend moving to Korea. I'll post more on those later.

New Shops!

I'm so excited to open a few more new shops for Heroes & Criminals Press wares! If you're an online shopper, visit Felt & Wire, a curated shop dedicated to paper goods. While you're there, take a peek at their blog - it's updated regularly with news from the paper, books, and print world.

If you're in the Asheville area and like to shop in person, stop by Atelier 24 in downtown Asheville. This is a gallery that showcases art by lots of local artists (I think they're up to 70 artists now), with an amazing variety including wall decals and handmade guitars. I'm starting out small, with a wall that's all my own, with plans to (hopefully) expand down the road.

I'm also pleased to be in the Penland School of Crafts Gallery, to be in the company of some of the best artists and craftsmen working now. I've admired many of the artists that they represent for a long time, and I have to pinch myself some days to make sure this is real! Right now, they carry planners, journals, and cards, but I'm working on getting my prints and books up to par so they can be included as well.

Get smart, have fun

Upcoming workshops I'll be teaching at Asheville BookWorks are now officially posted! Go to their website here to register. Sorry for out-of-town folks, but these are evening classes most convenient for locals. If you want these classes made available as weekend classes, let them know!

Stiff Leaf and Drum Leaf Bindings
April 7, 14, 21, 28, 2010

Image-making on the Vandercook: Variations on Relief
May 4, 11, 18, 25 and June 1, 8, 2010

The Printed Book
August 11, 18, 25 and September 1, 8, 15, 2010

Introduction to Letterpress Printing
August 27 - 29, 2010

Cause manatees love books

I was recently invited to participate in a bookplates exhibit, and I took the opportunity to work on my engraving skills. I tend to make bigger prints, so being forced to create something small-ish made the prospect of engraving much less daunting. This was done on Resingrave, my engraving block of choice these days because I've noticed that I'm easily distracted by the wood grain on regular wood blocks! I really had fun with it, despite some problems with chipping, and am fairly pleased with the results. Well, usually pleased with the results - I'm learning by looking at work by my personal hero engravers out there: Barry Moser, Gaylord Shanilec, and local artist Andy Farkas, and by comparison my little engraving looks pretty sad. I'm trying not to get down about it, and at the very least each one of my prints are better than the last!

These manatee bookplates will be on display in a traveling show starting in eastern North Carolina this month. More details to follow!

fellow traveler Max Ernst

I remember learning about Max Ernst's brightly colored surrealist paintings back in art school, but it wasn't until I saw his book "Une Semaine de Bonte" that I really got hooked on his work. This was when I started playing with captions, realizing the power of words to change one's perceptions of an image. I haven't looked at his work in a while, but this week I finally got my own copy of "A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil", and again I'm hooked. There are more images from this book here.

Showing at Twist Gallery

I've started off 2010 with a show at Twist Gallery in downtown Nashville, TN, "It's Not Hellfire". I had fun painting the gallery with my dear friend Liz, who has her amazing artists books and collages on display for this show, and we had lots of help from my boyfriend Scott, his dad, and Beth Gilmore, the curator at Twist. The icing on the cake was being chosen as Nashville Scene'c Critic's Pick for the January artwalk - "White's animal oracles don't go for cheap laughs or creep-show schlock. Her picture-book renderings provide a believable setting for their asides, which, at their best, are touching and heartfelt."

After setting everything up, we headed out into the cold new year's festivities. There was a good crowd, lots of music, and even some very nice cops (picking on us for eating ice cream outside in near-freezing temps), but we headed back to the hotel before the big "guitar drop". Liz and I settled in for slumber-party-girl-talk while Scott and his dad watched football in the next room, and we nearly missed the actual passing into the new year. Scott busted in, turned on the tv, and we saw the ball in NYC drop just in time. Ok, that meant it was actually 1am where we were, but whatever. We didn't miss a thing.

 

 

more to come

I'll post stuff and photos soon about the show at Twist Gallery, and new year's fun in Nashville. Until then, here are my cats in winter sunlight.

  

Bi- and Uni-cycle love

I've almost run out of the "I heart your bike!" tags, so last week I got to work printing new ones. These have the same bike illustration, but I used "nice bike" for the text instead, after hearing through the grapevine that the heart ones are too girly for guys to use. Are these a little more gender neutral?

I ran into so many problem when I tried to letterpress them that, out of sheer frustration, I set aside the Kelsey 5x8 and pulled out the trusty old Gocco. I'd forgotten how much I love the Gocco, and I think you'll be seeing many more Gocco prints in the near future (as long as I can still find supplies for sale).

Along with the bicycle tags, I decided to include our single-wheeled friends, so here are unicycle love tags too! Both tags can be purchased at my Etsy site.

 

 

Banjo Boy

Just finished this drawing, for the "Be Still My Darlings" series. It'll be available at Rebus Works tomorrow.

new drawing

I'm working on some drawings for my upcoming show at Twist Gallery in Nashville, TN in January 2010. It's going to be a series of book illustrations, torn from a book tentatively titled "Be Still, My Darlings", about a journey involving fear, courage, and collapse. Here's a sketch of one part of what will be in this series.

Other drawings will include windmills, a banjo, ferns, a forest fire, and possibly a narwhal. You can buy a print of this sketch from Rebus Work's Daily Images.

I got blogged

I'm usually pretty startled when I find out that I've been on other people's blogs. Startled, and flattered. One that I was recently featured on is Panel Patter, a blog dedicated to comic and zine reviews, by Rob in Pittsburgh. He reviewed my Art School Chronicles zines, and was incredibly insightful - even gave me few things to think about, along with the fact that the final issue is way past overdue. For the handful of people out there who have asked about the conclusion of this story, yes it is going to be made, but no it will not be done anytime soon. I'm working on it, but it is definitely on the very bottom of my priority list. I know, not fair to all of you (and maybe not fair to me, either). One reason it's taking longer than the others is because I've decided to combine my 4th and 5th years into one book, and call it "The Graduater", because that's what I did. I graduated. And then the following year I graduated again. I'm done graduating now, so I'll put it down on paper in pictures and let everyone know how it went.

Another fun little blog I was featured in is I Dreamed I Saw, a blog of mostly images. One of my drawings made it to her "Grin and Bear" posts, of various bear drawings she finds intriguing. I must admit, I like her taste.  :)

(Art School Chronicle zines and prints of this bear drawing can be purchased at my Etsy site.)

Big Questions

Anders Nilsen, my most favorite comic artist, has finished the next issue of Big Questions, #13. He's inspiring both visually and through the stories he tells. I definitely recommend you check him out.

blogging and tweeting

Last week I went to a workshop at UNC-A about marketing for DIY crafters, given by the fine folks at Figs & Ginger. They had a lot of good suggestions that got me out of a craft-hating slump, including the importance of keeping up with a good blog. So here I am, trying my best to be a good little blogger, and tweeter too. I've always tried so heard to keep my personal life out of these social networking doodads, but they have a good point - the only ones worth visiting are the interesting ones, and the interesting ones get personal. Don't worry - I won't let you know the details of my love life, but I will probably post pics of my cats. Consider yourself warned.

So, I'm feeling like a good little blogger now, but a bad little printer. I've finally finished my page for the Iowa City Ladies of Letterpress 2010 calendar, which was due on November 1st. Yes... 9 days late and they are still sitting here in my studio. They're so inky that I'm letting them dry overnight before I trim and package them to send out. I feel especially crummy since these are for friends and I knew about it since *May*. It'll make me feel better if you head over to the UI Center for the Book and inquire about purchasing one - all sales will help support UICB, too.

Speaking of Ladies of Letterpress, we now have set up a Scholarship Fund for members of LofL. If you'd like to help support this fund, check out our shop at our new Etsy site.

it's so purty

The website is new again! Really, it's mostly the same, but much prettier. I've cleaned it up, added new photos, used some photos for backgrounds, and updated the "Shop". Now you can see much more of what I see everyday - misty mountain landscapes, the fern garden, and an Edward Gorey cat sitting on the nipping press. Oops, that might have been cut out of the scene, so I'll post it here.


Go visit the new website here - www.HeroesAndCriminalsPress.com.

1st 'real' craft fair

I've just participated in my first 'real' craft fair, here in Asheville, land of craft fairs. I've been in two others in Iowa City, one set up by my friend Heather at Home Ec, and the other was the IC Book Fest, but I consider this one to be 'real' because I wasn't invited by my friend, and it wasn't a school event. The first two were definitely good practice runs for me - my table looked decent, I knew how to set up and take down efficiently, and I knew what to expect. Sadly, though, this one was a bit of a disappointment. It was an outdoor fair, and even though I was one of the lucky ones to get a table in the small space inside, the rain kept a lot of people away. Overall, not many shoppers, not many sales, and I'm left wondering if these craft fairs are really worth my time. There are a few more coming up, though, that are all indoors, and geared towards holiday shoppers. I'll try these, then I'll have some time to think about entering more before the spring fairs start popping up.

finally... new rollers

Whew! After an entire summer of trying to get new rollers, they have finally arrived at my doorstep. These are shiny new composition rollers for my Kelsey 5x8, purchased from Tarheel Roller & Brayer Co., and it was a real treat to work with them after 5 months of getting the run-around from another roller company. The Tarheel guys were nice, friendly, helpful, knowledgeable, and when you order something, they make it and send it to you! Amazing!
A confession... I'm also a real sucker for little wooden boxes.

best fortune ever

I don't usually collect the little paper slips from Chinese fortune cookies, but this one is just too good to toss.


Here we go.

new studio

I'm finally feeling like I'm settling in to my new studio here in Asheville, NC. I still have some unpacking and organizing to do, but it's nice to already be printing in the new space. H&CP has a new website, too - check it out here. I've just noticed a few days ago that there are some layout problems, so bear with me while I get those fixed. I'm currently working on finishing The Lost Land, prints for the Old Maid exchange, and the month of March for the 2010 LOL Calendar.









Coming up soon - BookOpolis at Asheville BookWOrks. I'll be there, serving up refreshments and giving a letterpress printing demo. There will be a display of lots of amazing new work by printers and book artists, a talk by a local printer, and demos in every area. The event will be on Friday, Sept. 25th 6-9pm and Saturday, Sept. 26th noon - 6pm at ABW, 428 1/2 Haywood Road in West Asheville.

Exterminate!

Dalek vs. Squirrel was one of the prints we gave away at the CONvergence letterpress printing demo. Another was the first in a new series, Flying Squirrels. This is the European Flying Squirrel, but I'm still considering the name - it might be changed to Ader Flying Squirrel to give homage to French aviation pioneer Clement Ader, who designed this gravity defying contraption.



I will try to have a few of these available for sale at my Etsy shop by September.

Overall, CONvergence 2009 was a blast. One of my favorite panels was about whether or not comics are literature. The answer? Yes, no, and maybe. Go to con-news.com to see photos and videos of the 4-day event.

Coming up next, a show that I forgot to mention in the last update: I have few prints in "Bridges", an art show opening at the Em Space Gallery on July 18th in Portland, Oregon. This looks like an amazing new space for print and book arts - anyone who goes to see this show, please tell me all about it!