Category Archives: Trout

I’m back

05 Wednesday Sep 2012

Posted by in Future Projects, Trout

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Well the fishing trip was a great success and by success I mean we were able to live off fish and berries for the last 2 months. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it. Actually I had a much more elaborate story made up that entailed finding a USAF food and munitions supply drop to augment our diet of raw fish but that started getting ridiculous as I developed it and finally decided to write a trashy novel replacing Dave with a found feral wolf-girl (for a love interest) out of the idea and release it as an e-book under the pseudonym Burt Grufflty.

The truth is we did catch fish but upon returning home I’d firmly settled into that pattern of waking, coffee, a smoke and then sitting in the kayak all day till I was hungry. Paddle back to camp, eat, have a smoke and go back out and fish till after dark, paddle back, have a snack and then busting out the whiskey – repeat… We didn’t see anyone else for 5 of the days we were out there. I got home and just couldn’t readjust to studio life so I didn’t. Just enjoyed time with the family and tried to get some more trout to fall for my song and dance.

Well, I’m back now. Feet planted firmly in the studio and there’s some wonderful stuff coming up.

  • A new apprentice begins work here shortly, Dani Davis will begin her formal training in the black arts.
  • The Michigan Trout Stamp book is back underway – cleaning up the old images.
  • A lead on an award winning translator of Kafka to give me clear rights to the upcoming “The Hunter Graccchus”.
  • I’ll shortly be acquiring 500 fonts of matrices for the Linotype (this is actually a huge deal)
  • Several commissioned works are in progress for various universities, institutions and private individuals.

So I’ve been busy – just not overly physically productive – but will acknowledge that I spent a fair amount of time enjoying the summer, my family and the river.

This weekend I’m off to the Kerrytown Bookfest in Ann Arbor, MI. I’ll be teaching a intaglio class at the Hollander’s School (still a couple spaces available) and will be hitting several university special collections while I’m in that part of the state visiting and selling some inventory. I’ll be giving a talk on Sunday at noon during Bookfest at Hollander’s about my 20 years of operating Deep Wood Press which is free to the public.

Last week I was in the middle of the state and made visits to special collections at Calvin College, Grand Valley State University, Michigan State University, the Library of Michigan and the State Archives. Great visits, great people and I got to handle some very nice books produced by printers past like Johannes Hamman, Anton Koberger and Nicholas Jenson.

More to come, lots of new things to update you about – but now – BACK TO WORK!

Something Fishy

08 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by in Future Projects, Trout

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Off to Voelker country. Well, actually quite aways north of there but in the same spirit anyways….

I’m bugging out for a week tomorrow. Gone Sunday through next Saturday with my friend Dave off to the Upper Peninsula of MI to an unnamed collection of remote inland lakes in the Huron Mountains. Kayaking in with a weeks worth of dry food, whiskey and shelter hoping to fill the gap with the catch of the day.

I’m waiting to get the signed prints and books back from Jim Westergard and all existing studio orders and jobs are caught up. Dave and I have been trying to get away for years and now we have the opportunity and we’re taking it.

heaven

I hate to write this when so many of you are experiencing extreme heat but it is paradise here at home at the moment. The river outside my doors is spring fed and warms to a lovely 56 degrees with the solar gain from upstream beaver ponds. Instant cooling power with multiple dips all day long (and night) and 10 degrees cooler than the village outside our valley. This is what we wait for in February when it’s been 20 below for a few days and the stove just seems to eat wood. So it’s with some little hesitation that I leave it now and head a days north into the thick of legendary black fly swarms and securing food against black bears and dodging moose. Now, with kids and a busy press schedule, I don’t get away like I used to and it’s been years since I’ve gone into the real backcountry. This time I’ve conceded to taking along  a really nice sleeping pad, comfort has snuck into weight, space and efficiency somehow.

Food for the soul and much needed nourishment for my own art, I’m taking a small sketchbook I made up and some pencils, charcoal and such. All the better to get back to “the work at hand” upon my return.