dwell

Summer Solstice Broadside :: Contest Results

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artsmith and Dwell Press are proud to announce that Lana Hechtman Ayers and Derek Sheffield are the co-winners of the 2012 Summer Solstice Broadside Contest! 

 

Lana Hechtman Ayers

Poem:  What I Know of Summer Solstice

 

Derek Sheffield

Poem:  On Turning One

 

We appreciate and value the work submitted by all of the writers, and thank each of you for your commitment to writing and participation in the contest.

Watch for details about the winning poets, their beguiling solstice poems, and the broadsides as they evolve in the print shop.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Traveling Duende

 

 

 

Does it ever flabbergast you how something can move from insignificant to essential with little forethought or intention?  How the next step in a previously nonexistent creative project or process is as natural as the draw and slip of your next breath?  These realizations, once again, came to play in the evolution of “traveling Duende”.

First, I should mention that my small press (weighing in at about 200 lbs.) was dubbed Duende with more than a nod (more like a bear hug, several round toast, imaginary national monument carved in marble, and an indigo tattoo on my….) to Federico Garcia Lorca who penned the essay The Play and Theory of Duende.

About six years ago, a friend would send me “homework” assignments by email.  Yes, I would actually take them seriously, and complete them.  Yep, I’m a nerd.  Sometimes the assignment would include the name of a poet to research and spend time with his or her words, other times there would be a writing prompt, and this particular time (where the assignment moved from insignificant to essential)  it said something like:  “read Lorca’s essay on Duende”.   (If you can find a copy of the book In Search of Duende that includes this essay,  it’s a great place to start… for now as a quick fix this should do…  Duende)  This was pre-grad school, pre letterpress shop from Sam Hamill, and I had no idea who Federico Garcia Lorca was in the realm of writing, creative contributions, or especially how this essay would physically change me and my approach to creativity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Move forward to a Wayzgoose at King’s Books in Tacoma, perhaps later 2007 or 2008.  I came across Jessica Spring from Springtide Press and her small tabletop press.  There’s a picture here of the print that I received from my tabletop exchange with Jessica’s partner or spouse as Jessica was sitting on the steamroller out front of King’s Books rolling a print (something you SHOULD watch in person if you get the chance). I knew in the instant that I pulled the handle on Jessica’s small press that I would own a tabletop press and take it into schools to share the beauty of letterpress and the power of words with students.

A week or so ago Duende, Carlow (my son and printer’s devil in training), and I traveled to Capital High School to share letterpress and book arts, duende, and broadsides with the art students.  After a short spiel about my passions and or addictions, we spent the morning pulling prints and creating an interactive broadside that they would (after drying) enhance with their own creative element and distribute around the school through a not so modern “social media broadside blast”.  Yes, this is high school and some students were totally engaged, some exercised their practiced disinterest, and others were on another planet where hormones/testosterone are the currency-religion-politics-rocknroll-and be all and end all.  And yet, some were totally engaged!  They helped ink the press, pulled prints, asked questions faster than I could answer them, and even made some notes about Federico Garcia Lorca, William Blake, and broadsides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 It was wonderful to once again follow through with the impetus and instinct of moving from insignificant to essential and travel with Duende.  This wasn’t the first stop or wayside and definitely will not be the last for Duende, but the students, good energy, and impressions are noteworthy… and just what I needed to take the next step.  Oh the places we’ll go…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer Solstice Broadside Contest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you have a poem (more or less) about the earth’s maximum axial tilt, that instant in time, midsummer?  Some new spin under the sun?  A glimmer of connection but a world of understanding? We grant you, the observer, great latitude to interpret and convey ‘Summer Solstice’ and desire to (respectfully) fool around with your words.

Artsmith and Dwell Press are sponsoring a Summer Solstice Broadside Contest for discerning Solstice poet-observers, to honor the instant in time north of the Tropic of Cancer and the Northern Hemisphere on June 20^th at precisely 11:09 p.m.  The winning entry will be produced in a limited, numbered edition broadside of 75 prints, of which 50 go to the author and 25 to the press.  The winning poem will be published and the broadside featured on the Artsmith website and Dwell Press Blog. 

 

Submission deadline:  March 31, 2012

Winning poet announced:  April 30, 2012

Broadsides presented:  On or before June 20, 2012...the Summer Solstice

 

For all the particulars, click on the 'broadside contest' tab noted above.  We are looking forward to hearing from you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clean Slate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dismantling

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of days ago, I dismantled a poem.  No, I wasn’t editing some of my own work, something I couldn’t get just right, and finally decided to sacrifice the lame lines to the burn basket.  I was readying my creative space and composing stone table in the print shop for a new season, a new project.

On the composing stone table, there were lines of type from here and there, this and that.  Notes on random ideas, and evolving projects.  An array of vintage figures to snag the gaze, please the eye.  There were handset projects that needed to be stored away in the galley cabinet for the third and fourth print runs.  And lamentably, there was a beautiful handset poem Praising The Paradox by Tina Schumann that represented many hours of creative bliss and careful deliberation (from setting the type to drawing the cherry blossom flowers) and fully realized—printed, distributed, and enjoyed—was no longer needed in composed form.

One of the most pleasing aspects of this work is handsetting type for a print run.  I especially enjoy poems.  The intimacy of living with these words letter by letter, word by word through the typesetting process is as close as you can get to walking around in the writer’s shoes, pen in hand, pesky editor on your shoulder.  Breathing, repeating, letter by syllable by line.  Double checking, and again.  So, to dismantle this all-of-a-piece, to disentangle each word, separate the syllables at the seams, unravel each stanza line by line, down to a slim letter, copper, or thin space—nicks aligned, or spilled into the allotted walled nook of the type case, or jazzy copper and brass tray was a somber undertaking.    Full circle.  Fully realized.  Fulfilling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Relocation

 

 

 

 

What to do, what to do with a bookshelf that needed to be relocated?  The boy wanted the shelf out of his room so that he has more space for castle building, Star Wars ships, and the never ending  battles between the pirates, knights, droids, and red coats...  The item in question—a front facing book shelf—is quite large, vintage, and has great character. Don't get the wrong impression, most rooms around here have at least two bookshelves, some have four or five, including the upstairs bathroom that boasts two well stocked for (ahem) diverse and leisurely perusing. 

An appropriate space needed to be secured or the item needed to be (gasp!) passed on to a new home.  After much deliberation, measuring potential locations, and assistance with packing the same upstairs, the behemoth now resides in the print shop.  This beauty holds a host of books, defines the space acting as a wall (at least for one of my stature), and its offerings are more of an art display than a utilitarian article for storage.

When I look around the print shop, I see a plethora of second hand items with many different stories of hand me down, and generous gift origins.  In fact, Dwell Press wouldn’t exist but for a (second hand) gift from the universe, the gift of the letterpress printing essentials (press-type-composing stone table-and more) from Sam Hamill.  I’m gradually filling in bits and bobs from other sources that are amenable to the space and company of ‘Sweet William’, the 1916 Chandler and Price letterpress. 

The relocation of the bookshelf to the print shop represents one of the shortest distances something has traveled to join the space, my collection.  I know it will not be the last, but it’s notable for it’s beautiful, utilitarian presence.  As if it belonged here all along...

 

 

 

 

Warm Greetings

 

 

 

 

May the coming light and year bring you closer

 to your hopes and dreams, and peace...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quiet Times

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Live Ornament

 

 

 

 

 

 With good reason, we waited until this week to bring a tree home...  Yes, however diminutive, Samwise is a major player around here...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elving