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Chad Pastotnik, Deep Wood Press

~ Fine letterpress and intaglio printing.

Chad Pastotnik, Deep Wood Press

Tag Archives: linocut

A Broadside for Terrance Hayes ~ process

01 Saturday Nov 2014

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Broadsides, Education, Letterpress, Printing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Broadside, Chad Pastotnik, frustration, Letterpress, linocut, Terrance Hayes, typography

I’ve admired the poetry of Terrance Hayes since a friend recommended him a couple of years ago so when I got word he was coming to my part of the world I took note, and made a few inquiries. I had done a broadside for Robert Hass when he came to Interlochen Center for the Arts in 2006 so had already set a precedence for the project to happen and they were very receptive. Then the game of working with an author and their publisher on a short schedule for selection and proper clearance began!

I was sent the piece Bower which is excerpted from the poem Arbor for Butch in the book Lighthead. I was familiar with the poem as a whole and struggled with what sort of art or ornamentation this fragment of a poem should/could have accompany it. In the end I decided to let these four lines of text stand on their own and this was probably influenced by the fact that I had a linocut I’d done but hadn’t used for anything “bookish” yet which fit well with the poem especially after hacking a bit off the top of the block. Also, time was short, I had to work with materials and paper I had on hand, no time to order anything in.

finsigned2

So here it is as it turned out. Three colors on mould-made German Zerkall Frankfurt cream paper, 15 x 8.5 inches, hand set in Garamond in 24 and 72pt type and printed on my Vandercook 219OS with an additional bit of text on the back commemorating the evening and credits. The paper was not ideal, it is a beautiful sheet but the pronounced laid lines from the mould made printing the solids on the linoleum block quite difficult solved by being diligent with ink, a soft packing and running the sheet through the press twice. The Frankfurt paper was the only nice stock I had in enough quantity to do 100 broadsides so the dimensions of the broadside were more or less dictated by how the sheets could be divided and since it had such a lovely deckle edge from the mould, 100 is a small enough quantity to tear down by hand.

From the beginning I planned on the text running into the linocut so had made paper cut outs of the proofed text and moved it around with prints pulled from the linocut to plan my composition. I printed the lino first but now, to my eye, I feel the text crowds the image and would have benefitted from being moved a bit further away but stubbornly decided to keep my left margin equal − these are the hazards of only having a couple of days to devote to something. I prefer to have various proofs just hanging around the studio for a few days or a few weeks to look at. It’s fast enough to put some ink on the slab bust out a brayer and tweak the print or play with word spacing in the type, add leading, move elements around and “play”.




 

My approach on book and typographic composition comes from my fine art background first where typically a painting or print evolves over a period of time. Blocks of text are tones of color or shades of grey, how they work with whatever other non-typographic elements might be present and the space of the page spread and the overall book design. My early books were far more “experimental” with type I think but not always in a good way, so much forever to learn. I have an advantage, I think, in my book production because I do every part of the process here – I envision the whole of the book from the beginning from material selection to what the cover will look like. Knowledge of paper and bookbinding informs much information on creating the page layout and selection of stock for accompanying art, doing the artwork for the project gives me flexibility in design, and there is no reason why anything can’t change as the project progresses.

this is analog design.   this is letterpress.

 

For those who don’t know, (taken from Wikipedia) Terrance Hayes first book of poetry, Muscular Music (1999), won both the Whiting Writers Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. His second collection, Hip Logic (2002), won the National Poetry Series, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and runner-up for the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. He won the National Book Award for Lighthead.

Hayes poems have appeared in literary journals and magazines including The New Yorker, The American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, Fence, The Kenyon Review, Jubilat Harvard Review, West Branch, and Poetry.

In September 2014, he was honored as one of the twenty-one  2014 fellows of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation – one of the most prestigious prizes that is awarded for artists, scholars and professionals.

 

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Manhattan Fine Press Book Fair ~ Book list for April 5th & 6th

27 Thursday Mar 2014

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Books, Broadsides, Letterpress, Manhattan Fine Press Book Fair, PR and Media releases

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Broadside, Chad Pastotnik, fine press books, intaglio prints, Letterpress, linocut, travel, wood engravings

This is just a little list of items I’ll have available for next weeks big show in New York. I’m pulling out some of the older titles I haven’t shown in a while where there may only be one or two copies left for sale and I’ll also have some of the broadsides available for purchase.

Looking forward to meeting some new people whom I’ve only had the pleasure of communicating with online or snail mail. Chris Adamson, who has the excellent blog Books and Vines, will be attending the show along with a few others coming in from all parts of the world. Hope to see some of you there!

Books:

  • The Intruder, by Robert Traver with wood engravings by Jim Westergard
  • Heart of Darkness, by Joseph Conrad illustrated by Marc Castelli
  • The Path, by Sigrid Christiansen with lino cuts by Chad Pastotnik
  • Saturnalia, by H.P. Lovecraft with a collagraph by Chad Pastotnik
  • Killing The Bear, by Judith Minty with wood engravings by Glenn Wolff
  • There Be Monsters, written and illustrated by Chad Pastotnik with lino cuts
  • The Changeling’s Exile, by Gerard Wozek with an intaglio print by Chad Pastotnik
  • The Frogs Who Wished A King, Aesop with intaglio prints by Chad Pastotnik
  • Ripping Oblivion, written and illustrated by Steve Toornman with his intaglio prints
  • The Legend of Minisens, by Judith Hitz with lino cuts and intaglio by Steve Toornman, Meredith Krell and Chad Pastotnik
  • Folly, written and illustrated by Erin Murray with lino cut. Erin was my star apprentice a couple years back.

Broadsides:

  • The Mad Angler’s Manifesto, by Michael Delp with lino cut by Chad Pastotnik
  • If, by Rudyard Kipling with a wood engraving by Chad Pastotnik
  • Along With Youth, by Ernest Hemingway with a wood engraving by Jim Horton
  • The Trout in Winter, by Jerry Dennis with an intaglio print by Glenn Wolff
  • Where They Run, map of Montauk Point, Long Island. Intaglio by Glenn Wolff
  • September Inverness, by Robert Hass

I’ll also have along some other small ephemera which is rarely seen outside the studio.

"The Intruder" cover
The Intruder
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, regular edition binding
Heart of Darkness
Saturnalia
Cover for the book There Be Monsters
There Be Monsters.

Cover of The Frogs Who Wished A King by Aesop, versified by Clara Dotty Bates.
The Path
Cover for The Changeling's Exile
The Changeling’s Exile
Killing the Bear by Judith Minty
Killing the Bear

Minisens
Ripping Oblivion
The Mad Angler’s Manifesto
If

The Trout in Winter
Along with Youth by Ernest Hemingway broadside
Along with Youth
Where They Run
September Inverness

 

 

 

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The Mad Angler now available for purchase & some pics from last weekends book release for The Path

11 Wednesday Sep 2013

Posted by Deep Wood Press in Broadsides, Letterpress, The Mad Angler's Manifesto, Trout

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Broadside, Chad Pastotnik, Color reduction linocut, linocut, Mad Angler's Manifesto, Michael Delp, Printing

I finally got The Mad Angler’s Manifesto on my website last night and it is available for purchase. It can be found here along with all the other books and broadsides.

Last Friday was a release party in Ann Arbor, MI for The Path a recent book of mine inspired by a song from Sigrid Christiansen. A very big difference hearing the tune around a crackling “up north” campfire and then hearing a full production with a lineup of backing players any musician would gladly have. Johnny’s Speakeasy is an excellent classy house concert series that’s been going on for years now in an old German apple cellar right on the edge of town. Here’s some pics from the evening performance:

Performance for "The Path"

Sigrid and the Hill Tillers
A little burlesque

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