Printing on Old Iron at Massey College

Finally, I’m getting around to putting up the following photos, taken during a letterpress & typography symposium at the University of Toronto’s Massey College held this spring. This relatively young college possesses a fine, small library which comes complete with a veritable museum of a press room. I counted half a dozen iron presses, all seeming to be in working order. The print room was open and an Albion was set up for demonstrations. (Click on the pictures for a larger view).

Visitors to the symposium taking proofs off this fine old iron press (an Albion, I believe).

 

A Columbian iron press

An Imperial iron press, with another table-top iron press in the background.

A Washington iron press (apologies, a little fuzzy) of the size that would have done broadside sheets.

The Robertson Davies Library also had some fine examples of pages under glass from the days prior to the printing press, which were a treat to see.

And it was wonderful to see this elegant alphabet carved from stone, marble most likely… the letters are truly beautiful.

 

Talented or what!

I had the privilege last fall of teaching one half of a course on printmaking at St. Lawrence College in Brockville, Ontario. I taught the first seven classes on block printing, and eminent artist Robin Baker taught monoprint making in the second half. This past spring, the students mounted an exhibition at the Marion van Silfout Gallery at the college. Here are some images from that exhibit. Click on the images for full size.

The van Silfhout Gallery - one of the finest in the region.

The nine second year students collaborated on a self portrait collage.

Angie's wall hanging/book was one result from my part of the course. It tells the story of a water rat.

Melanie created a kind of demented Warhol graphic piece making a cross out of a demon -head linocut.

Zoë cut this lovely linocut based on one of her own photographs.

It was hard to choose one piece by Kerryn, but in the end this pottery creation was my favourite.

Megan hs the makings of a comic book illustrator. I liked her graphic manga-like characters.

Jeremy's detailed drawing of elephants took the Dean's Prize.

This shows the influence that Robin Baker had over the 2nd years with her life drawing course. I believe this is Melanie's work.

Possibly a monoprint, and by either Melanie or Kerryn; I'm not certain who. But definitely influenced by Robin!

A monoprint by Kerryn, from Robin Baker's half of the printmaking course.

Zany! Letters by Melanie, tableau below by Kerryn. I'm not sure who did the shoes!

I'm not sure what Zoë is saying about Apple. Maybe just making an icon from another icon. I liked it.

The students are (as I remember them):

Melanie Alguire, Serena Deir, Kerryn Graham, Jeremy Mboma, Amber McBratney, Megan Cassavoy, Zoë Reoch and Angie Van Peppen.

Apologies to Amber and Serena. Some of my shots didn’t work out as well as their artwork!