It's back! Now in its eighth year, this project is a partnership between letterpress printers from the School of Visual Concepts and the Seattle Arts and Lectures’ Writers in the Schools (WITS) program. WITS poets work with pediatric patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital, helping the young patients write poetry that expresses their individual experiences.

Once a year a select group of poems are chosen to be part of this project. This year 21 poems were matched with letterpress printers who created broadsides then bound in a portfolio.

It's back! Now in its seventh year, this project is a partnership between letterpress printers from the School of Visual Concepts and the Seattle Arts and Lectures’ Writers in the Schools (WITS) program. WITS poets work with pediatric patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital, helping the young patients write poetry that expresses their individual experiences.

Once a year a select group of poems are chosen to be part of this project. This year 21 poems were matched with letterpress printers who created broadsides then bound in a portfolio.

"Truth and Lies" is a letterpress print created in response to the 2016 presidential election and the ongoing treatment of facts by the current administration. After reading post-election analyses about information bias, echo chambers, and disinformation campaigns, aside from being generally discouraged about the state of our country, I wondered whether I could create a print that could be viewed differently when looking through visual filters. It would first involve some experimenting...

This is a print I created Winter Quarter of 2009 as a second quarter student at the School of Visual Concepts. I believe this was the third project I ever printed. It clearly didn't take me long to become nuts about typesetting and type.

I remember wanting it to be a celebration of typefaces in all their various shapes. 38 typefaces were used. It was quite a challenge to typeset, but I was determined. I loved that it was a puzzle to fit all the pieces together.

The print City Traffic shows a city skyline and rows of traffic. The entire composition is printed with handset metal type. The city buildings feature a variety of patterns and textures highlighting some of the best ornamental type at Pinwheel Press. The rows of traffic feature cars and trucks made out of geometric shapes with whimsical details. Lots of little details in this print make me smile.

Now in its sixth year, this project is a partnership between letterpress printers from the School of Visual Concepts and the Seattle Arts and Lectures’ Writers in the Schools (WITS) program. WITS poets work with pediatric patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital, helping the young patients write poetry that expresses their individual experiences.

Once a year a select group of poems are chosen to be part of this project. This year 23 poems were matched with letterpress printers who created broadsides then bound in a portfolio.

I had the chance to visit the London Centre for Book Arts (LCBA) in the fall of 2015. The center is run by artists Simon Goode and Ira Yonemura and is an open-access studio dedicated to book arts. LCBA provides workshops on everything from bookbinding to foil blocking to letterpress printing. One can take specific workshops or with experience get a studio pass and have access to the studio. I was greeted by center co-founder Simon who gave me the tour of their large and well appointed facilities.

I am very honored to announce that my Train Type print has been selected for two different exhibitions this spring. It will be on display April 30 through May 30th at the Interrobang: An International Showcase of Letterpress exhibit organized by Ditchling Museum of Art + Craft in southern England.

Additionally I'm thrilled that this same print has been selected to be part of the New Impressions 2016 exhibit at the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum from May 11 through June 30.

The Counter Press is the east London letterpress studio of graphic designers David Marshall and Elizabeth Ellis. David kindly hosted me for an afternoon visit in the fall of 2015. We compared notes on the state of letterpress in the US and the UK, shared stories about hunting for equipment and type, and learned that we both have platen presses with a common lineage.

Tucked away in a former chocolate factory building, their light-filled and tidy studio is a dream workspace.

As part of my week-long class with Starshaped Press at the Wells Summer Institute, we worked on an assignment to create an architectural print out of type ornaments.  The architecture could be based on something real or imagined.  As a long time admirer of Starshaped Press' metal and wood type cityscapes I decided I would try my hand at one.  But to mix it up I would also include something else and I settled on a train.