In 1995 John Carrera found an old 1898 Webster’s International Dictionary under his grandfathers reading chair. Over the next ten years Carrera would organize and print 4,000 of the estimated 13,000 engravings now owned by Yale University.

The labels for the engravings were composed, cast and redistributed on a 1938 Linotype Model A. This machine is an amazing feat of engineering and a beautiful showcase of what is possible without the use of electronics.

After printing, the signatures are folded and cut by hand, holes are punch for sewing, signatures are then sewn together. The spines are then pasted up, edges trimmed and page edges are decorated with multiple layers of coloured rubber stamps. Boards are attached for the hardcover. Various leather techniques are uses to cover the boards and create the cover as well as decorate. Raised accents on the spine, letterpress gold leaf labels, and designs embeded into the leather cover are some of the decorations which adorn the book.

This mini documentary highlights the process of reproducing a book of these beautiful engravings. It also provides us a glimpse at what we take for granted and a appreciation at the patience and craftsmanship of the ol’ time book binder as well as many other dying art forms. Long live the book and it’s appreciation.

Paul Smith, a man with an extraordinary talent was born in Philadelphia on September 21, 1921 with severe cerebral palsy. Not only had Paul beaten the odds of a life with spastic cerebral palsy, a disability that impeded his speech & mobility but also taught himself to become a master artist as well as a terrific chess player even after being devoid of a formal education as a child.

Unable to hold a pencil or paintbrush Paul turned to the typewriter to create his portraits and Americana based artworks. Using different keys on the typewriter to form different shapes which were layered to produce an image. ‘When typing, Paul used his left hand to steady his right one. Since he couldn’t press two keys at the same time, he almost always locked the shift key down and made his pictures using the symbols at the top of the number keys. In other words, his pictures were based on these characters …. @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ . Across seven decades, Paul created hundreds of pictures. He often gave the originals away. Sometimes, but not always, he kept or received a copy for his own records. As his mastery of the typewriter grew, he developed techniques to create shadings, colors, and textures that made his work resemble pencil or charcoal drawings.’

This great man passed away on June 25, 2007, but left behind a collection of his amazing artwork that will be an inspiration for many. View a gallery of Paul Smiths typewriter artworks here & a time lapse gallery showing the stages of an artwork come to form.

We could all learn something from Smith’s dedication, perseverance and positive outlook.

Hello!
I hope you’re well & in good health.  It is with great excitement that we at the Olio Artists & Workers Cooperative at last announce the grand opening of our cooperative work and exhibition space.  You are cordially invited and encouraged to attend our Grand Opening!  We will be opening our doors to the public Saturday, March 21st, with free screen printing workshops for all levels beginning at noon, followed by an evening open house from 7:00pm onward.  Please find attached invite & press release.

Located at 614 1/2 Fisgard (2nd floor), the newly renovated studio is a publicly accessible work/exhibition space for artists of all disciplines.  Members of the Olio Cooperative are able to book studio time at a subsidized rate ($5/hour, $15/month for membership) which allows them dedicated studio time in a clean, quiet environment, as well as use of the extensive cooperative screen printing, print making and button press equipment.

The studio will be open from noon onward offering free screen printing courses throughout the day (introduction, advanced and poster printing courses), tours of the space and use of the screen printing equipment (when not in use by instructors) free of charge.  From 7:00pm onward, we will be hosting an advance viewing of Recent Works by Calvin Coles (opens March 27th) with ample refreshments and entertainment.  All for freaking free.

When: Saturday, March 21st
Where: Olio Artists & Workers Cooperative 614 1/2 Fisgard st. (At Government, 2nd floor)
What: Olio Grand Opening!, featuring free screen printing courses and an advance viewing of Recent Works by Calvin Coles
Time: Courses begin at noon, 2:00pm & 4:00pm, evening open house being at 7:00pm
Admission: Free/by donation
Info: To register for courses (recommended) contact admin[at]oliocooperative.ca or call 250.896.5679.
For membership inquiries, please contact Amy Wilson at membership[at]oliocooperative.ca

Thanks so much!  See you there!

- Olio

Randy Laybourne has an upcoming show entitled 20×20, which is a series of 20 water color paintings done at 20″x20″. Here is a time lapse video of Randy creating #16.

Here is a posting from Laybourne’s blog describing his influences for the 20×20 show.
When I was 20 years old I was able to backpack and skateboard around Europe, going as far east as the middle of Turkey and as far north at Gdansk in Poland. During the trip I tried to get to every gallery and museum I could afford to see. Being able to see a lot of the masterpieces of art was amazing but there were particular artists that had a big impact.

Bosch was one of them. Being able to see “The Garden of Earthly Delights” in Madrid was mindblowing. I stood there for what seemed hours. Trying to take in all the detail. Most other artwork in any museum I’d count to 10 and move on. Picasso 10, 9, 8… David 10, 9, and so on and on and on. Not with Bosch though.

Garden of Earth Delights (center panel)

Garden of Earthly Delights (center panel detail)

Garden of Earthly Delights (right panel)

Garden of Earthly Delights (right panel detail)

I mainly was and am interested in his way of creating different visions of heaven, earth and hell. All his little demons and monsters are fascinating and there is so much to look for and read into.

Pieter Brugel was equally impressive to me. The influence of Bosch on Brugel is clear but Brugel goes a different route and along with vision of hell, he shows what life was like in a village. Full of entertaining details and stories.

Netherlandish Proverbs

Netherlandish Proverbs info

The Netherlandish Proverbs illustrated sayings of his day visually and every little thing had a meaning. Wikipedia shows them all. So am still so amazed with all of it.

The Triumph of Death

The Fight Between Carnival and Lent

The amount of little things that have to do with a story or meaning is what drew me in then and what still makes me go over the work of both artists.

With the 20X20 work, they didn’t start off with tons of detail but as I kept going and finishing one after another, some similar, quiet narratives were coming to life. There are a few things from my life directly in the work, but I’d much rather have the viewer find little meanings on their own. As I kept going with the series, they were getting more and more complicated and taking a bit longer to do. I kept going back to review the works of Bosch and Bruegel as the series was being done. I’m glad I was able to see their actual work (way back in the 90s) and have it make its mark on my own in some simple way. ]]> http://anteism.com/home/2009/01/02/randy-laybourne-20x20/feed/ 0 http://anteism.com/home/2008/11/11/jesse-reno-process-video/ http://anteism.com/home/2008/11/11/jesse-reno-process-video/#comments Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:29:09 +0000 RyanThompson http://anteism.com/home/?p=532

I don’t post music on Anteism very often but I could not help but share this gem. This album is not just music. It’s more than the sum of the notes you can hear in the recording. Matthew Herbert’s album “There’s You and There’s Me” is so powerful because of the amazing connections between the music, location of recordings and what’s happening behind the sound curtain.

“Matthew Herbert’s dazzling new album There’s Me and There’s You is the most seductive, sophisticated and subversive collection of protest songs ever recorded. Blending lush jazz instrumentation, soulful vocals, fascinating rhythms and a secret underground arsenal of outlandish samples, it marks Herbert’s second collaboration with his big band. Effortlessly wrapping deluxe avant-jazz arrangements around polemical lyrics and artfully selected noises, the album’s dominant theme is power and its abuses in the 21st century. The album’s dense mix of audacious samples includes the sound of 70 condoms being scraped along the floor of the British Museum, a match being struck in the House of Parliament, one of 100 nails being hammered into a coffin, vocals recorded at a landfill and a McDonald’s, and 100 credit cards being cut up, among other things. Recorded with a vast community of musicians and participants, There’s Me and Then There’s You has a declaration on the cover signed by all parties involved: “We, the undersigned, believe that musical can still be a political force of note and not just the soundtrack to over-consumption.

The overall theme of There’s Me, and There’s You is the use and abuse of power in the 21st century, whether that power resides in the church (“Pontificate”), the media (“The Story”), greed (“Rich Man’s Prayer”), monarchy (“Regina”) or the various power sources affecting concerns such as climate change and consumerism. But these individual critiques are slyly pitched to insinuate themselves imperceptibly through arrangements echoing musical theatre, cartoon music and brassy jazz, in contrast to the hectoring tone which turns so many away from the standard folk-protest mode of political music.”

Steve Kim is a painter residing in Los Angeles, currently attending Claremont Graduate University. I’m a sucker for a chance to see other artists process. Steve Kim has documented his painting process of a current painting he is working on.

© Steve Kim - Painting in progress.

Painting process slideshow.