Greetings & Inquiries

[corruptviridian.livejournal.com]

Hi, friendly denizens of Davis Square. I'm looking for help from the vast powers of the internet.

I'm moving up north in a couple of weeks. Right now I'm in the depths of the South, working on my MFA in book arts (The short version of the bio - I'm a former used bookseller and art teacher, was an art history major, moved from Chicago to New Orleans, and then got some weird idea that going to grad school was a good idea), and I've got two questions.

First, does anybody know of letterpress printers in the area who might trade studio-assistant work for time on their presses? I don't know how to use a C&P flywheel, but I'm good with the Vandercook proof press and the iron handpress (I've done most of my work on a Washington press).

Second, my thesis involves a kind of ... performance/installation thing, with a thousand paper cranes and ritual burning thereof after a certain amount of display time. I can do this down south, but I'd rather do it in a more, for lack of a better term, punkrockart-friendly place. My ideal space would be somewhere post-industrial, and I'd like to have music and suchlike (assuming I can find bands or a DJ or... right, and I can't actually spend money, since I don't have any). It isn't something that lends itself to the quiet, sedate sort of art gallery opening, and also I have some doubt that there are traditional galleries willing to have fire as part of an installation, even smallish and well-controlled ones. If anyone out there has some idea of a place for this kind of thing, or people to contact, I'd really appreciate some leads. The only problem is that it needs to happen soon - I'm aiming for doing my defense in October, and I've got to have all the documentation done for that.

There's some of my work online - reject sheep press & forget gutenberg - if anyone's interested (n.b. the website is very much a rough draft, and the thesis page even more so than the rest of it).

Edit for clarification: Ok, given the risk of fire getting out of control, the burning is something I'd do in as contained a manner as possible. It's not like they actually have to be up while they burn. It is kind of a thought I've had, to send them out on the river, but ... well, I'm not sure how that would go over with the various relevant governmental bodies either. (It's all handmade paper, cotton and linen, pretty much acid-free, although I don't know how damaging the dye would be at this point; all the color is from whatever the rag was dyed with, and it was pretty old rag mostly. I'm not terribly concerned about the ecological impact aside from that, though, 'cause it's all going degrade very fast indeed.)

Comments

[capsicumanuum.livejournal.com]

The press is indeed a late nineteenth century letterpress. I'm not active in the chapter anymore, but last I checked, only brothers were given access to the press.

[syntheticnature.livejournal.com]

I just thought it might be worth a phone call to verify that.

[corruptviridian.livejournal.com]

Just out of curiosity, do you remember specifically what variety of press it is?