The Idle Fool / Is Whipp’d at School

When my friend and letterpress printing colleague Jason (of Three Bats’ Press) announced a couple years ago that he was seeking artists to illustrate an upcoming project, naturally I took interest. He had taken the text from an early New England primer designed to teach children their letters by infusing the little tykes with a healthy fear of God, or in other words, scaring the holy snot out of them. Artists could choose a letter and with the associated rhyme for the letter. For example: A = “In Adam’s Fall / We sinned all.” Or this for J: “Job feels the Rod / Yet blesses God.” Or Y: “Youth forward slips / Death soonest nips.”

Cheery, is it not! Jason was clear in saying that he wanted a “re-interpretation” of these poems, and by handing off to a bunch of recalcitrant artists, I’m thinking he’ll get his way.

I chose F: “The idle Fool / Is Whip’d at School” out of a sense of personal irony (as a student I was neither devout nor studious) and envisaged a period engraving showing the enraged schoolmaster, a la Dickens, taking his fury out on some hapless kid.  But as I thought more, the extreme violence and fear overtly suggested in the statement and insinuated in the other quotes, and the religious extremism implied in the the whole primer, I conjured the impersonal image of great big meat-hook hands clenching a heavy barbed-studded leather strap, with all the menace of impending violence that seems to go hand in hand with extremist ideals. I may go that route, or I may throw it back in the puritans’ faces and do something associated with that odd cast of kink enthusiasts who have an entirely different attitude toward the whole question of whipping. With all the popular fervour for Fifty Shades of Gray and similar works, called “accessible erotica” or less generously, “mommy-porn”, that might be the right choice.

A first attempt at turning the quote on its head, so to speak, played with the curve of a back to create a lower case ‘f’ from a whip and a belt for the cross-stroke. It had the uncomfortable look and feel of something out spiny out of Predator. Another quick effort incorporated a similar stylized letter ‘f’.  I’m really not entirely sure about pursuing this route.

Perhaps my discomfort comes from a certain reserved nature, but it also has to do with the violence implied for the woman in the picture. Making it a male back, or elongating the drawing to show the woman holding the whip would certainly change the dynamic.

No matter what, there will be a stylized letter “F” formed from the coils of a whip.

Jason tells me that he is expecting some very extreme submissions for some of these puritanical aphorisms, so perhaps I’m worrying needlessly.

Where I Work

(Click to enlarge.)

For the most part, the above photograph shows you my little kingdom. (This shot was taken in the midst of printing a keepsake for Canadian Notes & Queries). In the foreground right is a galley tray cabinet, holding fifty trays. These trays are used to move type and material from the compositing area to the press, and let’s admit it, for storing type waiting to be dissed back into the cabinets. There’s the press on the right, with a repurposed kitchen cupboard in the background holding the press “furniture” – or the metal bits that secure type and blocks on the press bed. On the left, is a long banker’s table that came from the office where I used to edit the Upper Canadian. Normally it is covered with detritus that has no home anywhere else. Under the long table I’ve built hasty cabinets to hold type and smaller sheets of paper, and printers waste. Out of sight are a couple of type cabinets to the left, and behind to the left is a big old Westman Baker paper cutter. The space beyond the edge of the press is the creative domain of the lovely and talented Holly Dean, to whom I am eternally devoted…. particularly for surrendering half of her studio to all my heavy metal and bookish dreams. And for other reasons.

And that’s it. I’m not complaining – I’m spoiled for space more than many letterpress printers, who are literally climbing over their equipment to get about their studios. But still, I am thinking…thinking…. More storage would make it much easier to keep the press tidier. A full floor to ceiling cabinet at the back to store more ink and other tools and equipment. Build a galley across the back of the long table to get all the typesetting material in one area. Decide about the odds&sods type now stored under the long desk and use the space for storage. Or build proper type storage there, and begin selectively acquire type that I will use. The back corner behind the bust — those are a couple of booth walls. Move those to the shed outside and build a tall cabinet for holding rolls of book cloth and paper.

We’re not really that far off from having a well-organized space. More on this as the summer progresses….

Another New Year – Goals

A few press-realted things I’d like to get done this year:

1. Tintern Abbey, for launch at the Grimsby Wayzgoose later in April
2. Another goth fable, maybe a golem/frankenstein type story similar in format to the Vampire & the Seventh Daughter
3. Collaboration with Holly (a book called “LibrAries”)
4. A type sampler (in booklet form this time)
5. A series of wood engravings
6. A series of linocuts
7. Business cards!
8. A broadside poster
9. Complete a family history design project
10. Maybe a little Shakespeare

Another Old Year – Achievements

Well, it’s rolled around again, and again I’ll do my  brief summing up. Overall, I didn’t stroke much off the big list of major projects. Work and life got in the way. But as usual, when I add up what I did achieve, it surprises me. A lot of work on marketing this year, and my first exhibition of prints and books in a gallery setting!

Last time, I set the following goals:

1. produce ten books in five years
   I’m not really on schedule for this, since the current book project, Tintern Abbey, was pushed into 2012 by a sudden and welcome flood of work in the studio.
2. step up production value
   What I did produce this year certainly shows more confidence, in keeping with the “get serious!” theme of the next 5 year phase of the press.
3. marketing: on-line presence, adverts, launches, more shows, book sellers
   Some of the ground work on planning and pushing the books paid off, with some books winding up in special collections. We hired a marketing consultant late last year, and I am determined to stop whining and learn to love social media.
4. intensify illustration: my own, but working with other artists as well
   I’ve got some irons in the fire with work from other artists, and my own frontiers have opened up with my first efforts on wood engraving (see previous blogs).
5. form working alliances with writers, illustrators, printers, bookbinders
   I approached a Queen’s University prof to write the intro for Tintern Abbey. He said yes, so that is about to be set in type possibly within days.
6. further my studies in book design and typography.
   That is an on-going project indeed. I did spend some free time trolling through book spreads on line, making some observations but it’s hardly a concentrated study!

What I did do this year was a lot of little things done, including:

1) a new years card – I’m silly late this year, though!
2) Pondered reorganization, and made some minor progress
3) Tintern Abbey book got pushed, although my Wayzgoose anthology contribution made for an early study of the idea
4) Two rare commercial jobs, both invitations
5) Did the usual shows, organized one of them
6) Saw the work produced by Saint Lawrence College students from the printmaking course I taught the previous fall at their year end exhibition (That was a highlight!)
7) Collaborative calendar with the Ottawa Press Gang – (I’m April)
8) Wrote an article for Ornamentvm on the Canadian fine press scene
9) Took professional advise on marketing
10) Produced a broadside type sampler
11) Tried out wood engraving, although rightly that belongs to 2012
12) Spoke to the 2nd year architecture students at Carleton University about book arts
13) Had my first gallery show in Kingston at Studio22

Almost everything mentioned above is covered in some form or another in the previous couple dozen blog entries.

Farewell to the Big Big Sea

Later this afternoon, a young teacher will come by the studio and take away the last print (in my possession) of Big Big Sea. It has been without doubt one of my best selling prints, much to my astonishment. I based the composition loosely on a photograph I took during a dead calm at Peggy’s Cove in the summer of 1993. My sister Marie and my daughter Meg, probably about 8 years old, stood looking out onto to a sea that seemed to merge with the sky. The photo stood on my desk for years. I liked it for its own merit, seeing the small figures again the enormity of the sea, calm though it might be. It put all my petty problems in perspective.

Time passed, as it does, and by 2008 Meg was a desperate young mother courageously struggling with a near lethal case of depression. Holly and I dealt as best we could pondering the horror of losing our daughter in the face of indifferent health care and fragmented support structures. When I came to plan that year’s series, I pulled the photo off my desk, cut a proportional block of lino and just drew five or six rough lines to mark the rocky shore line and the figures. No tracing paper, no careful details, no precise acetone transfers.

The rocks and the figures were simple lines. But I no longer saw calm in the undulations of the treacherous and tragic waters off of Peggy’s Cove; rather I attacked the block with a variety of cutters, with no real thought to the composition but rather pouring out my own fear and frustration through my hand to the tools to the block. I worked fast on this one. People often ask how long it takes me to do the work, and this one might have consumed half an hour, if that. I proofed the result and was not impressed. Who would buy such a choppy shriek of a print – two figures poised on a fatal abyss? At first, I wasn’t going to edition it all, but fortunately Holly, whose instincts are honed better then mine, convinced me to do so, and I compromised by printing just 35 (normally I do 50 or 100) along with the Artist’s Proof above.

In the three years since I pulled the edition, Meg’s life has turned around. She still struggles, but like we all do with life’s challenges and opportunities. Depression remains a specter, but one that has receded. As for the print, I still look at it with some emotional ambiguity, but I now acknowledge its beauty and honesty – that latter quality I feel must be key to its success. Several artists have bought this one. When we’re at shows, other exhibitors sometimes come into the booth, appreciating the work generally, but tapping the glass on Big, Big Sea, nodding, as thought to say, “Yes, you nailed it here.”

The very last numbered copy of Big Big Sea is available only from Studio 22 Gallery in Kingston, Ontario.

A New Year Full of Hope

Bill's barn, as viewed from the 'old' house.

When I say that by late December, the year gone by had gotten really old, to use the youthful parlance, I mean it. Over the interim between Christmas and New Years I did little but socialize and wheeze, the latter symptom now a carry-over from a year I’d rather put behind me.

Now it is snowing again, after a new year’s thaw which robbed us of our thin covering, and the radio tells me it is causing havoc in the city. The view from my window is much like above, but without the sunshine. It’s good to be here and not there, back on a schedule, working with solid orders to start off the new year. It lends to a desire to shake off the lethargy and fatigue that coloured the final days of 2010.

My intransigence extended to the press, most notably a Christmas card that never materialized, which is now morphing into a ‘winter’s wish’ card or some such. It’s been I while since I posted process shots, so I’ll do that now.

World as ornament

Part of the reason I couldn’t force myself to the task (aside from feeling rather grinch-like) was that I didn’t like the idea: the globe as an ornament ties in nicely to one of our products – indeed, our livelihood – but I just couldn’t get my head around it. I thought about doing the obvious and making a statement, just setting type for “fragile – handle with care” but it seemed so preachy. The design was simple enough – snagged a public domain shot of the globe, traced it in Illustrator and hand-drew the ribbon and the lines of longitude and latitude. But the idea still need work.

Holly’s always wanted me to do a card featuring our dog, Sneak. So I started by doing some collage, taking bits and pieces of photographs, played with them and arranged them until things looked right, and produced an outline drawing using tracing paper. Personally, in this image I wanted a feeling of warmth and comfort, so I placed both Sneak and our cat Tennyson in front of the woodstove, with Sneak in one of our wing chairs, which he claims as his own (when I’m not in it!).

"Christmas" card idea, with line-work transfered to a linoleum block.

I’m thinking of using a quote from Coleridge:

And Winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!

The context is ominous though, coming as it does from the poet’s depressing ode to incapability titled Work Without Hope. Well, time still to ponder that, while this morning I’ll cut the block, proof it and decide whether it’s worthy enough to share with family and friends.

Fractal design in our window, like a mad economist's line chart!

Looking Back at 2010

The natural thing to do on a blog is look back. At the beginning of 2010, I blogged a wish list of goals and projects, and it gives me a good measure on the year. My list last year included the following longer-term goals:

1) produce ten books in five years;
2) step up production value;
3) marketing: on-line presence, adverts, launches, more shows, book sellers;
4) intensify illustration: my own, but working with other artists as well;
5) form working alliances with writers, illustrators, printers, bookbinders; and
6) further my studies in book design and typography.

Over the past year, I’ve completed (to varying degrees) the following projects:

- Graven Images – prospectus
- Signature for Wayzgoose
- Exhibition promotional broadside
- wood engraving self portrait
- Tenebrismo regular edition
- Graven Images
- linocut series – 8 prints
- Taj Mahal illustration commission
- CNQ keepsake

It’s good to look at a list, because I really don’t feel like a did much this year, but looking over the list I feel much better about how things have gone. I’m not close yet to producing 10 substantial books by 2015, but I’ve set out on the road, at least. With Graven Images, I feel I have stepped up to improve the quality of my work, and worked harder on promotion and marketing, with good results. I’ve have begun working with Holly to analyze the work of book designers who I admire in an effort to further improve my own critical understanding of type design and page design. Working with other binders, artists and writers did not happen last year, but will in 2011.

The art and illustration aspect of the press is still problematic. I tend to be harsh about my own illustration, but when I do produce linocuts they show evidence of an emerging style, one that I like very much. That style is a bit playful and warped as I loosen up a bit with the cutter. I tend to like my work to tell a story of some sort, and these are the prints that sell best of all. I’ve begun drawing a little almost every day now, which will provide lots of fodder over the coming year.

As evidenced by this entry, I am blogging semi-regularly, which is an achievement of note for someone who would be more at home in an anti-social network. Can’t say the same for FaceBook….

Wrapping up, I landed by good luck a 2nd year college (printmaking) teaching gig in Brockville at St. Lawrence College. Amazing students gave me an amazing experience, years ahead of my own teaching plans. I’m hoping to have the opportunity again, but without doubt, teaching is now part of my life’s landscape.

Happy New Year to all! I like Neil Gaimon’s new year sentiment, so I’ll link and log out….

Remembering the House of SpecFic

During my youth, I patronized a specialty bookstore in Ottawa called the House of Speculative Fiction, which more or less describes its slant. Recently, culling through my library, moving piles around hoping more space would magically appear, I found this:

It brought back a memory or two. Like the card says, the store was located in a house just a few doors from Bank Street on Fourth Avenue. The splendid drawing on the card was very much based on the taciturn proprietor who sat at the back of the store reading. I did (a very cursory) search on the web and learned that the store opened in the late 1970s and served as a base for up-and-coming Ottawa science fiction and fantasy writers, including Charles de Lint who has gone on to international renown. I could not find out when it closed, but I think it might have been in the mid or late 1990s.

I did find a quote by Robert Sawyer on his blog commenting on the odd practice of separating Science Fiction and Fantasy one step further, by gender. It seemed interesting to me then that the publishers often made the authors names gender neutral, using first and middle initials etc. to head off any bias. And yet, I’m sure there were guys who shunned that section, just ‘cuz.

In a Chapters recently, I noticed the fantasy shelves outweighed the science fiction by a long shot, the realization of a fantasy of my own, back in the days when the tables were very much turned. However, the wisdom I’ve acquired since then is that quantity does provide choice, but it does not usually provide quality. Take away the dribbling romance blended with watered-down horror, the “Dragonlance” type serials, cancerous “Shannara” franchises, and the schlockier slapstick send-ups of the genre, and what’s left is, well, not much. This is fantasy’s day, but gads! there’s a lot of dross on the shelves.

As for myself, I’ll take any Christmas money that comes my way and head to my book dealer, Bytown Books, to stock up on the new year’s fantasy and SF reading.

Lest We Forget

Every November 11, I  get a call in to my father, a veteran of WWII, to say thank you, and if time permits, I wander down to the modest cenotaph here in the village of Merrickville and watch the vets parade, which is exactly what I did this year. The day was brilliant if a bit cool, and there must have been over 300 persons in attendance, which is an excellent turnout for a village of 1,000 souls. Fifty wreaths must have been piled on the steps to the cairn, and the applause for the veterans marching out was spontaneous and enthusiastic. Overall, though, the modest proceedings moved me, and left me feeling thoughtful and somewhat downcast the rest of the day.

Which, I suppose, is the point.

Exercising the imagination

Last Sunday had me in Kingston in my old role as support crew for Holly while she participated in the Kingston Women’s Art Festival held outdoors in City Park , now a grand old dame by show standards, having run for well over 30 years. The Festival offers short of a couple of hundred vendors in a beautiful park venue with live music, and the monies raised go to worthy womens charities in Kingston. Holly and I rose at 5 am, arrived in Kingston by 8 am to find her spot and set up the tent and hang her art. The festival has a token $30 booth fee which allows the opportunity for many young women to exhibit for the first time. Walking around the show this year, I was struck by the very wide variety of amateur and profession art and craft, although jewellery still has probably the strongest contingent, something that can be said for most shows these days.

Well, I really didn’t want to go on and on about it. The day was overcast, but aside from a brief shower, rain did not cause any problems. Shortly after the 10 am start, I hied myself down into the old town to distribute Studio Tour brochures to galleries, shops and coffee shops, only to discover that on Sunday, the first two categories were not open or did not open at all.

Killing time waiting for the clock hands to point upward, I pulled up in Coffee & Company on Princess Street.

In anticipation of a reunion of old gamers, I brought along a note book with campaign notes written down 25 years ago. It was a curious experience to pick up – or rather start anew – where I stopped in 1985. Over the intervening quarter century, I found I had accumulated a plethora of new ideas, or other not so original ideas culled from fantasy and SF that I have been exposed to over the years. After an hour, I had 10 or 12 brainstorm pages with notes, drawings, maps and ideas that morphed neatly into a story, and used up a goodly portion of an old notebook, too.

(Yeah, just try to read it!)

Most of the stuff won’t be used. The sketch of the dungeon is just a doodle, something I now do frequently to help me focus. When I’m sketching or doing anything with my hands, I can think out a problem or play with ideas when otherwise I would be distracted by happenings, no matter how trivial, around me.

By the hours end, I had achieved my goal, creating a story with an overall rationale, several interactive elements, arcs and beats, none of which interfere with character freewill. Going in, I had a dilemma: run a balls-to-the-walls high level one-off dungeon with appropriate weary old veterans, or start on the assumption of a campaign with first level characters. Solved. Now I have to find time to haul out the manuals, design a dungeon and write it up. Fairly straightforward now that the big elements are in place. The players may never bother discovering the story behind the dungeon, but it helps enormously in creating the scenarios.

But then again, whether it will happen or not is still up in the air. The session this weekend may be postponed. Whatever the case may be, I spent a very enjoyable hour in a neat cafe in a beautiful city exercising my imagination. No regrets here!