'inhabit' exhibition at MousePrint Gallery, Jan. 7 - 17

 

Open now at MousePrint Gallery at Concordia University, 'inhabit' in a print exhibition featuring myself and Hideki Kawashima, the two new additions to the Print Media Department sessional instructors. Both Hideki and I work with the presence and trace of bodies and human geography.

Copper Plates Ready to Print

One of the interesting moments in intaglio printing is how beautiful and luminous copper plates are when they are inked up and ready to print. Warm and reflecting, with black incised lines, ready to have the ink pulled out of the lines - it's always tempting to simply leave them inked up and beautiful.

 But then I remember that after I've printed them, I will always be inking them up again anyways. And now I have prints to colour and cut and fold too!

Letterpress Demos

Concordia University has a hidden letterpress room. Squeezed in a small room, tucked away between intaglio and lithography, 2 Vandercook Universals and drawers of metal and wood type are just waiting to be found. It's amazingly satisfying to see your own writing set in type and then printed over and over again. The above galley has one of my own poems, 'Retroactive Love', set out in several different fonts and sizes.

 

Over the last year, I've had the opportunity to teach letterpress to design students and print students, often with the assistance of fellow printmaker and writer Alexis Williams, who wrote the 'Alligator' text above.

 One of the most satisfying parts of teaching demonstrations is happening to walk by the room and have someone come out and show you where they've taken their new letterpress skills. It also means I always have cool new letterpress samples to put on my fridge!