This piece is included in the New Impressions Exhibition on display at the museum April 21-July 29, 2023. There are a limited number of these prints available.
Artist Biography
I'm an artist and graphic designer with a love for typography and printmaking. I'm passionate about preserving the art and craft of hand typesetting and letterpress printing on antique presses. I obsess over fine detail and enjoy bringing new life to vintage type and images. My collection of early to mid-twentieth century ephemera inspires me, as does nature, my faith and the people I meet.
From an early age I gravitated to both artistic expression and letterforms. A favorite childhood toy was the Fisher Price school house that came with a tray of brightly colored, plastic alphabet letters. Today as I work in my studio I enjoy playing with color and printing ink to paper, the tactile nature of wood and metal type, carving linocuts, and the puzzle challenge of fitting type and images of a fixed size together.
In 1991 I earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from the University of Wisconsin–Stout with a Concentration in Graphic Design and a Minor in Journalism.
Description of Process
The geometric designs and vintage fabrics of quilts have long captured my heart and eye. Inspired, I set out to make a letterpress quilt using antique metal ornaments and spacing material. I wanted to mimic fabric patterns as well as quilt patterns in the design. I proof printed ornaments in my studio, then digitized them to work on a layout in Adobe Illustrator. This helped me plan the sequence of print runs and type lockups. I used metal spacing material to print the quilt blocks by raising them to type high. I designed the quilt to use five different ink colors, hand-mixing several of the colors to get the exact hue I was looking for. Printing commenced in order from lightest to darkest color: yellow, orange, gold, purple and finally violet. Great care was taken to ensure colors aligned with one another as intended. A limited edition of 60 signed and numbered prints were made. Printed on a Vandercook SP15 on Crane Lettra Pearl White, 110lb.
