weekend of Portland book arts

letterpress printed poster by the gorgeous folks at Em Space

Last Saturday, in between recovering from a migraine and acquiring a cold, I dropped by Em Space to see some friends and to check out the show "The Power of the Press," which Em Space is hosting since its closing at Portland Center Stage. The show looks great above all of their immaculate presses. I wish I remembered to bring my camera.

The show will be up until January 31 and is free and open to the public. To learn more about Em Space, check out their website.

The day before I also made it in just before the closing gate for the closing reception of "The Assignment" at the 23 Sandy Gallery. "The Assignment" was a show for and by the CBAA (College Book Arts Association) to celebrate the assignment as a valuable practical tool for book artists as students, teachers, and working artists.

This was one of the best shows I've seen at 23 Sandy, and one artist's statement jumped out at me as being just what I needed to read at that moment: Anna Bunting of Oakland, California talked about how her piece was an assignment to herself. That once a week she set aside time to be in her studio, to write, set type, print.

Between my work at OCAC, my commissioned work for Tiger Food Press, and the work I put into ephemera for my online stores, I am always at work in a bindery or print shop, either mine or the school's. But it continues to be so hard to carve out time just to write for the fun of it, or draw just for my self, or make a few experimental prints to get started on the book I've had germinating in my mind for so long. So to read this artist statement, and to see the finished book next to it was a jolt of inspiration to me.

23 Sandy brilliantly always includes an online catalog of every exhibition of work. "The Assignment" is now down, but the work, including artist statements is online here.

the erratic sleeping patterns of the sun deprived

My sleep habits have been atrocious lately. Atrocious, weird, and unpredictable. I'm sleep deprived and sleep saturated all at once. Last week I got up at 6 am several days in a row. Last night I stayed up until 4 am before finally dragging myself to bed, where I lay until at least 5:30.

I got up a little late, naturally, and puttered around the studio a bit before heading up to OCAC for my first day back to work after a week and half-long break. The work study students and I are involved in a cleaning and organizational frenzy preparing for the College Book Arts Association conference at the end of the week. I drove home with dust up my nose and starving.

The fog had begun to settle in the hills when I drove to the school early this afternoon. I thought about the suffocating nature of wet, wool blankets, still insulating enough to keep you alive. In the just after dusk hours of darkness the fog lay across the road and reflected my headlights back to me and I sped a little.

Tomorrow evening I start my first Iyengar yoga class. I am hoping to bring a calming, clarifying, and unifying element into my life. Yay!