Love of letters ... and snail mail

So excited when I got home from the studio last night and discovered the envelope, above, in my mail box. Even more excited when I opened it to find the card/poster below.

It's by Erin Beckloff, a young, enthusiastic letterpress printer. A bunch of us were on Facebook lamenting the news that the post office will stop Saturday delivery later this year and extolling the virtues of snail mail, printing, paper, etc. Erin promised to send me a letterpress card if I sent her one. I did, my bell ringer card - as a New Year's card.

Erin teaches at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and in her spare time, is consumed by all things letterpress. She operates Inky Winke Press and its Etsy shop. The shop is empty at the moment while she works on printing new cards, etc.

She comes by her love of printing via her father, Scott Moore. He makes - yes, makes - wooden letterpress type. I can't wait to see what the exchange will bring next. Time to get my letterpress going again.

F Bomb

F Bomb (2012)
mixed-media collage: antique and vintage text, recycled book proof,
vintage game piece, ink, acrylic paint, glue. 6" x 9" on acid-free mat board.
Not priced yet.

I've been going back and forth about posting more of the bomb series being made for a solo show in November at the Thompson House's Shooting Gallery.

Part of me thinks that showing them now takes away any element of surprise - even if looking at art on a computer screen is a far different experience than looking at it in person. Another part of me thinks that by the time the show opens viewers might think that what's actually new work has been shown before. And yet another part of me thinks that, um, I'm thinking too much.

Enough already. I'm posting them.

F Bomb had an antique engineering diagram as its original background with the bomb placed just about where it is now. Nothing else. That was it. Until I came across the current background - two pages of an old book proof. Once that was selected, the piece cried out for more.

Red paint was splattered around. Then, the background was masked and more paint was splattered to form a fiery/smoky path. A day or two later, the idea hit me to stamp fs on it, at first, to form a fuse, then, to add more texture. The game piece that highlights a Braille f was the final touch.

It's not sealed yet so there could be a few small changes.