Tag Archives: wood engravings

“If” by Rudyard Kipling ~ A new broadside

30 Thursday May 2013

Posted by in Broadsides, If by Rudyard Kipling, Letterpress, Printing

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I recently had a commission to produce this classic for a customer and I’ve always had somewhat of an admiration for that “stiff upper lip” British mentality that this poem so embodies. So I made some extras for me and some for you as well, if you so desire…

If full

The text is set all in 18pt ATF Garamond with the title in Americana. I was hoping to do the text in Baskerville to keep it all UK centric but, alas, when hand setting type one is constrained to the amount of sorts in the case. Even with the Garamond I was short four “o” and had to run the last four lines as a separate pressrun. The paper is Domestic Etch and sheet size is 10 x 16 inches, they are signed and numbered in an edition of 55 copies, printed in 2 colors and are available for $45. It is now on the website here:

http://deepwoodpress.com/books.html

The image is a old wood engraving of mine that first appeared in a small edition (50) of poems by Terry Wooten back in 1997 called Hermaion. With a few more cuts to the block I think it makes an admirable companion to If.

If you’re British or an Anglophile you know all about this poem of course. It’s been voted Britain’s favorite poem uncountable times by various survey entities and carries significant meaning beyond the aforementioned immutable British stereotype. I’ll let you do your own googling for info on Dr Leander Starr Jameson and the Boers War. Kipling wrote this for his own son who died in WWI only a few years after the poem was published in Rewards and Fairies in 1909, a shock Kipling never fully recovered from.

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

           And treat those two impostors just the same:

Wood engraving by Chad Pastotnik, detail of Garamond type.

Wood engraving by Chad Pastotnik, detail of Garamond type.

The wood engraving and part of the type set up on the galley.

The wood engraving and part of the type set up on the galley.

“20 years of Deep Wood Press” retrospective show

01 Thursday Nov 2012

Posted by in Books, Ladislav Hanka, Letterpress, Workshop

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This Friday from 6-9 pm is the opening for my exhibit at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center. The show will be up until December 7th so if you happen to be in the area please stop in to have a look.

In addition to the books that I’ve created or designed over the past two decades there will be a fair sampling of my intaglio and relief artwork framed and hung on the walls. I’m also putting some of the better work produced by my apprentices and collaborators here in the studio. Not so much of the commercial or commissioned work and none of the social garbage I was forced to do to feed myself and family in the early dark years of being letterpress when letterpress wasn’t cool.

I am including some of the early book work and design stuff that I now consider pure “junk”. But it’s honest. None of us (or precious few) start out doing spectacular work and it’s never easy to admit we were once so daft as to think we did. I put in the junk because this particular venue is also a teaching environment and hopefully it will be inspiring for those just getting started on their path into the black arts to see the evolution of someone else’s path. Maybe see the processing of ideas and skills from dreck to my present understanding of what it is.

On Saturday I’m teaching a small workshop during the day at KBAC where we’ll be printing beer coasters. I know, real highbrow stuff, but also very useful for the staff and student community. Back in 2009 I sold the center a platen press which hasn’t got much use, mostly because it’s very intimidating and has the potential to smash body parts if you don’t know what you’re doing. Beer coasters are nice and thick and are easy to pick up and feed into the press – perfect for learning on a platen. As a bonus, who wouldn’t want to have their own custom coaster for the upcoming holiday season?

This Friday is also Art Hop in Kalamazoo so the town will be buzzing with studio visits  and gallery doors being open later into the night. Some of my favorite printmakers are in town such as Mary Brodbeck and Ladislav Hanka – both do amazing work and I’m looking forward to seeing the new stuff and visiting over the weekend.

I’m staying through to Monday to give a studio interview with Rebecca Theile at WMUK, the local NPR affiliate college radio station. I’ll post info about airing dates and availability of an online stream once I know.