Took a Detour

I was not sure what to expect. Almost queazy with anticipation and worry, I contacted the instructor, booked a room along the Wallkill Valley railtrail, and signed up for a week's long immersion in art technique. Every morning I walked a mile through the Jodhpur Mountain base into a quiet wood-framed spacious studio smelling of ink.
Stephanie Carpenter of the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers Wisconsin, could not have greeted me more enthusiastically. At the Women's Studio Workshop I joined 4 other women from various backgrounds- an archivist, a poet, a graphic designer, and a book artist- to learn about locking in wood and metal type, proper inking, and use of the vandercook3 presses. Carpenter is in love with, and seems to know everything about, the letterpress. At the same time I sensed that she also approaches the medium with curiosity and wonder. After giving us tons of information she would set us free to try our hand at setting up images and words on the presses. Everyday she introduced to us a new approach, a new technique, in what I soon came to realize could be a life long passion.

I was mesmerized by the process, and by my colleagues works along side my own experimentations. Letterpress is a traditional means of disseminating information. It has a history as a being a tool for resistance.  It had been a long time since I felt challenged and exposed to a new medium (most recently it would be embroidery).

There is so much more I want to learn. I am euphoric that last week I gave myself the time for learning at the WSW . This detour might have been the best thing I did all summer.