Notes From the Studio

10/4/2024

Hey there newsletter folks! I've been playing around with some different newsletter formats, seeing what settles into place. There's an oft-cited lecture by John Cleese where he makes the case that the beating heart of creativity is play. Messing around with stuff, with no agenda and no intended outcome beyond the activity itself. That's the juice, and paradoxically that's usually where the insights and breakthroughs and leaps forward tend to emerge.

Let's get into it, shall we?

Ink on Paper

Recent prints and things of that nature.

Recently Little Agate was generous enough to host my first foray into wholesale, and began stocking a few of my cards. If you know someone who recently has produced or is soon to produce a little human, go pick one up!

I also have a few 2024 Youth Volume prints left. Clara teaches violin and cello using the Suzuki method, and at the end of every lesson both student and teacher bow to each other, saying "thank you for teaching me." This acknowledges that the teacher learns as much from the student as the student does the teacher. Combination linocut and letterpress. A portion of the proceeds are donated to Youth Volume! Hit me up if you want one.

Speaking of play, I brought some plant specimens back from a trip to Fort Wilkins in Copper Harbor with the idea to print with them. Most of the plants dried out by the time I got home and ended up crumbling all over my ink brayer, but this one held up. I printed them on some pages of an old dictionary I found at the local Habitat for Humanity, and a piano book from the late 1800's that I found at a gift shop in Copper Harbor. Will definitely be doing this again, but with fresh foliage. I also want to try using a thinner ink or paint, and not the thick letterpress ink, to capture more detail.

Words Elsewhere

Sometimes I write stuff that gets published elsewhere, or I’m interviewed or written about (not often, but it happens). Those will get tallied up here.

My pal Josh runs the Rooted newsletter, named after two tree-themed anthologies of the same name. Over the winter, he and I were talking about writing, and he asked me to put a piece together for his newsletter. I somewhat trepidatiously agreed (he is a former English professor, after all). I’m happy with how it turned out, you can read it - and subscribe - here.

My journey into letterpress was captured in a couple articles, one in the Marquette Monthly and another in Voyage MI.

Upcoming Events

On November 8th I’ll be speaking at the Revolve Creative Conference here in Marquette! Putting together a talk that’s honestly 10 years in the making, on trusting your process. More to come!

Other Rambles

When my kids were little, I'd read them a beautiful Winnie the Pooh book about fall, which starts with Piglet visiting Pooh on a blustery day and saying "Don't you think today is just the right sort of a day for a ramble?"

Ramble: walk for pleasure, typically without a definite route.

I absolutely love a good ramble, and was delighted when I came across this piece on the Reminders for Humans newsletter. It spoke of rivers, and how the meandering nature of rivers leads to the development of fluvian ecosystems. There's a richness of life that emerges simply because rivers don't take the most direct, efficient path.

A good lesson, there.

Thanks for reading!

See you out there,

~PB