Speechless

Craft in America has posted a one minute promo video - catch it here! I don't know what to say. Bill and I feel very overwhelmed by this grace all over again. The episode airs April 21st on PBS!

Catherine Alice Michaelis: Imprinted & Unbound

 Pressure printed clothing, including my baby brother's little 

blue outfit and Bill's grandmother's christening dresses. 

 My unofficial autobiography . . . Sola.

Lots of eco-printed paper! 

My show is half over at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. It's been a thrill every day I am there to meet and interact with patrons and staff. I could not imagine a more kind or caring group of people to work with. Bainbridge Island Museum of Art

It's a bird! It's a poem! It's a button!

Loving the buttons coming in for Button Box! 

I'm so lucky for the responses to this unusual call for submissions.

Stay tuned!

May Day Magic

Dear Friends — best birthday ever! The PBS show, Craft in America, came to film Bill and I at our house and studio. It was an incredible adventure without ever leaving home. A very kind and professional crew made the 2 day filming event easy-peasy for Bill and I. Please check out Craft in America's website - they have been show casing artists for many years now. And I can testify that they are hard working, art-loving people who really care about the work they do and the artists they feature. And stay posted - the episode Bill and I are is in edit and won't air for a while. I'll let you know when!

Bill and I worked very hard to prepare — Bill polishing every leaf in the garden and me designing a website! Check me out at: http://www.catherine-alice.com/

The Pressure to Print

Pressure printing was the way I created all my image work for this latest edition. Learned from Kathy Kuehn two decades ago, pressure printing is my favorite way of getting ink onto paper. Over 30 print runs, front and back, went into this piece.  

It is titled Sola: A Mythical Story About A Real Girl. I nearly titled it Sola: A Real Story About a Mythical Girl.  They seem equally true. Sola learns to see herself in everything and everything in herself. It's a condensed version of my own healing and transformation.

I was fortunate to be commissioned to create a piece for the "Just One Look" exhibit now showing at the University of Washington Allen Library, Special Collections. The request and theme of the show pushed me in unexpected directions that yielded so much. Without this opportunity, I would not have been able to know the end of my story.

If you can't get to the "Just One Look" exhibit at the UW (and really you should - or look for the catalogue - the show is loaded with incredible work) then visit the PSBA members show in Tacoma at UPS this summer! 

Whose Got the Button?

Here at May Day Press I am dreaming a new project into being. It is called Button Box. It began simply. I made a hand sewn book with stitched text wound on a wooden spool and put it in an art show. Several people came up to me with stories related to someone who sews. The stories were touching and full of heart. I wondered, what will happen to these stories when the people who tell them are gone?

Stories can be like buttons kept in a box, buttons we may need to use to replace what today feels reliable and true, but can be lost, loaned, or given up on. Without them we can feel vulnerable and perhaps a little naked, or we may feel free and energized to be less defined/confined. I may be stretching the metaphor a little far here, but I take stories seriously in that I know our identity is created from our stories. As our identities change or beliefs dropped, the old button isn't needed anymore!

Whether button or story comes first, write it down and send it in. I am creating a repository for stories and buttons as well as choosing several of the entries to be letterpress printed as broadsides. You can find the vision and specs here on my website: www.Catherine-Alice.com Thank you!

Long Hours — Short Distance

A proof printed over a proof. My favorite prints are often the ones that never make it into my books.

I feel I have been moving at a snail's pace lately, so there is a snail in my latest book. If I were a mollusk, this would be me. The book is so fresh that the ink is still wet on the cover and not a copy yet bound. But by this time tomorrow I hope for both book and box to be done.

Beyond Blue

It's been so long since I posted anything, I have been working so hard to get multiple projects done for multiple shows. But here is my latest, Beyond Blue. It's a spool/scroll book - an embroidered poem spooled around a seal knuckle bone, a map sewn into a piece of indigo dyed cotton, an agate from an ocean beach, and a salmon leather box I beaded together. The salmon leather was made by my sweetie, Billy.

I'll be making more salmon leather boxes, and I do have a few more bones to wind . . . so it's back to work time already!

Below is Mother's Measure, my first embroidered spool/scroll book.  It features two poems, the second a found text within the first. It celebrates my mother's dedication and sacrifice to sewing my clothes when I was young.

As a letterpress printer, I have always loved the way setting type has slowed me down and allowed me to take in each letter, sound, and the sometimes silliness of English. I am thinking that sewing texts has become an even slower, but necessary antidote to all the digital video work I am doing of late.

Early to Bed, Early to Rise

Lately Billy and I have felt healthy, wealthy, and wise during the work week, going to bed early and getting up before light. But the weekends have been quite the reverse. We've been staying up partying and printing till too long after midnight. (Bill doing more of the partying and me more of the printing.)

We went to an amazingly over the top party over the weekend and had a late night drive home from Seattle that was intense. Many of those inches of rain were on the freeway as I hydro-planed our way home in just under 2 hours. Few cars were passing me, but when they did, their rooster tails of water were blinding and lasting so long I was worried I would hit something or someone.

The weekend was a flood of rain, literally. We had over 5 1/2 inches in 48 hours. When we got home the ground between the house and my studio was flooded, and in the morning Bill was out digging a trench to drain the water down the driveway, something we did the last el nina winter.

The night before the party I was up till 1 am, printing printing printing. I am honing in on some designs to illustrate Mother Time.



Check out this link - http://exhibits.library.duke.edu/exhibits/show/bookart
I am excited to see my Revealing History of Women's Underwear in a show at the Sallie Bingham Center at Duke University.

I am hanging in there, but need to get to work now.

It's All Poppy~cock

The poppy has always been one of my favorite flowers. It's showy, comes in many colors and varieties, and carries powerful medicine. The poppy inspires me.

For the 10th Anniversary show for May Day Press I made several little flower books. Poppy was the first.

My idea was to use a strip of paper as long as the press could carry and do only one print run. I didn't want to glue or sew any pages together to make the book longer. The text had to fit in the length of the press bed in one line. I sat with the poppy and drew on all my knowledge of its history and medicine to write a poem. I worked the poem in the press bed so it would fit and the pages would fold in between the words. It was a challenge. I love the result. Four pages for the four petals.



Poppy

Weaver of fantastical journeys.
You are the spice of dreams,
healer of unbearable hurt,
rattle of oblivion.


I ended up with far more to say about the poppy and began working on a second book. This one was more dense with text, and like Hazel Tree Lore & Legend, came in a small box with drawers full of stuff.

Poppy: Seed, Petal, Leaf & Pod. 3" x 3" x 3" What looks like blue is really dark purple.

A selection of pod varieties with paper petals in the big bottom drawer. The top drawer holds the book and seed packet.

Box with book's title page and a paper packet of poppy seeds. The book is letterpress printed with a tiny border of 6pt. poppies in different colors bordering the bottom of the text pages. The text gives various cultural uses of the poppy, both past and present, a recipe, and other facts. One of which is that opium was once used as a spermicide for birth control. This leads me to my current project --

Sex In The Garden. My poppy and other flower shaped books are coming back to mind as I work to develop a flower shaped book for Sex In The Garden, something to hold an essence of the experience without the dryness of a lecture presentation. I was visiting my book artist friend Diane Jacobs last week, and she and her husband gave me some inspiring support for this book. Thank you!

Of course there is so much left to do in the garden, or should I say, left undone. . . ? But walking about and taking pictures of the mess revealed some beauty. This poppy was expressing the other side of life.

In less than a week we will be celebrating Imbolc, an old Gaelic celebration of light and the beginning of spring. Yes, spring. How our calendar and seasonal markings became so odd, I am not sure. But around here, spring is surely happening. The birds are singing again and plants show signs of renewal. The light is returning and it is calling us up out of the compost of the past year and into the possibilities of now.


Poppycock - (from Wikipedia) Anglicized form of the Dutch pappekak, which literally means soft dung or diarrhea (from Dutch pap pap + kak dung) - is an interjection meaning "nonsense" or "balderdash".

Rain and rainbow shells

It's been a rainy, rainy time. I have been trying to get pictures of the hazel tree in it's blooming stages, but it has been a challenge in this weather. Bill got this shot. Hazels are one of my favorite winter bloomers. And one of my favorites overall.

We sleep with the window open, and though I am generally a very hard sleeper, sometimes I wake and hear the rain. The other night I dreamt that water was flooding around my studio. A year ago this wasn't just a dream. It was actually happening. I had to go get Bill from work so we could both work on digging trenches. He called it Catherine Creek when I told him there was a stream running down the driveway.

Six years ago this month I was on Sanibel Island in Florida. I don't wish I was there now necessarily, just appreciating the opportunity to step into a different place when I really needed it. I had a book project in mind that justified me needing to be there to collect shells. I also have great friends who made it possible.

We'll see if I ever put them into a binding!

My favorite are the little coquina sunrise rainbows.

Three years ago this month I was back, with Billy. You can take in so much more of a place the second time around. And of course, it can take in so much more of you!

I think of Florida a lot this time of year, not just because I was there in January, but because the year is new. I start out with lots of enthusiasm and energy for all I think I can accomplish in the studio in a year. I had such great plans for these seashells. And so I re-visit this idea as sort of a new year's overview of my goals. It is really an ambitious book idea. I am working to become the person who can create it.

Mountain Women

My friend Ann was visiting me from Vashon Island this morning so we could talk about future projects together. I guess this is why this blog post took a big left turn from what I thought I would write about.

In 1998 I made a book where I/we tried to capture the spirit of a place. That book is called "Volcano Blue."


Volcano Blue came about when I was invited by Seafirst Gallery in Seattle to participate in their show celebrating the centennial of Mt. Rainier National Park. I think I had about 6 months to create a book, which for me is a very short time. My solution was to make it a collaboration. I invited Ann Spiers (poet) and Kim Newall (visual artist) to help create the book.

It was unanimous we could only begin by taking a trip to Mt. Rainier together. Until then all ideas were off the table. The three of us drove up the NW side of Mt. Rainier near the Carbon River Glacier. We hiked up so when we got to the lookout cabin we could turn and stare eyeball to eyeball with the mountain. Ann would sometimes feed us informational tidbits, having grown up in the area and spending much of her time on the mountain hiking and with her geologist husband. Ann knows the native plants, native stories, and much of the geology of the mountain. I wondered how we would ever get all this depth and richness in the book.


The cuts Kim did for the book are patterns of cedar trees, rocks, topographical maps, and geological maps. The many transparent colors overlay, usually with one pattern dominating from each view. There is a cool blue north view and warm red south view. And of course more an in between of greens for east and west. The horizon shaped mountain and foothills were designed from a computer program that let us pick any two points and it would give us a condensed horizon line. We chose points that allowed us to create flanks of the book that would correspond to places on the mountain which inspred Ann's poems and printed the poems accordingly. Ann was often called to the studio during printing to cut a word or flesh out a line so I could register everything properly.


Ann is such a gifted poet. The poems are so lovely, and she even wrote some of them so you could read the stanza order both ways. I printed them in steps, so whether you were climbing 'up the book' or 'down' the poem would work. The book is about 19" high and spreads out about 4 1/2 feet, but you can also read it in your hands, turning the accordion pages as you go.






I met Ann Spiers when I lived on Vashon Island. I was there for 19 years. I met so many women who shaped and inspired me. Most of them older and showing me how a woman can enjoy her 40's and 50's (and now their 60's). Ann was (and still is) one of these women. Rayna Holtz is another. Rayna is the person who started me with letterpress and book making. An amazing series of coincidences brought me into her living room where a C & P was at work, printing books for Laughing Dog Press. I was immediately enchanted and thus began my career as a letterpress printer and book artist.

Here I am when I am still printing at Rayna's on her 8x10 C&P. There was no treadle or motor, so I had to turn the wheel and feed the paper at the same time.

Here's one of the poems I wrote while learning to print at Rayna's:

I learned faith at the wheel of the press
To roll ink across the chase
I must believe in the poem again
and again and
again as it appears
kissed on to each white wing of paper

Rayna is a political and environmental activist. She pays attention to nature, to culture, and to the poetic use of words. She taught me to think about what I was writing and wanting to print. I met Ann through reading events on the island, and because she is a friend of Rayna's. Ann is also a writer, naturalist, and gatherer of stories. She makes me laugh till I am going to pee my pants. Her own life is usually funnier than the stories she tells about other islanders, which are already side splitting. I hope I am in at least one of them. If not, I have work to do!

Rayna is cleaning press rollers and talking while I am taking pictures. We had so many profound and personal talks over many months of Tuesdays when I would come and help print.

Ann and I made seaweed paper in her kitchen for a book of her poems I printed called Tide Turn. It was a lot of fun and took many months to do. It required a lot of beach walks to gather seaweed, and Ann always entertained me with island stories.


What I want to say about these two women is that they helped me move into nature more deeply. They taught me native plants (including seaweeds!) and to soften into the ways of butterflies. When I came to the island I was 27 years old. I had been living in Asia, Canada, and before that, Seattle. I was so immature and just treading water in so many respects. These older women (not that much older, but just enough) were role models of creativity and living with respect for nature. They were grounded in the community and held wisdom that comes from learning through observation of how nature collaborates. They were feminists without giving up their femininity or sense of humor. Married with children, they were committed to shaping a beautiful community vision, a place they wanted to raise their families, devoting many many hours away from home and family (on top of their jobs), and they continue still.

As I wander in the wilds of nature (and into the nature of self) I think of the diverse community of island women and thank them all. For somehow, without me planning or trying, I learned from them a way to be in the world that feels grounded and true. The way I learned to be is brazen, sustainable, rich in experience, and holding a vision with heart.

When I started writing this blog post I really thought I would just focus on Volcano Blue and some of the hikes Bill and I took this summer. We had a great time in the mountains, but I will save them for another time.

P.S. On my wish list is to make a book for Crater Lake National Park (Mt. Mazama) in Oregon.

A Revealing History of (Catherine's) Underwear

Okay, you are going to have to wait for the underwear. First - Party Dress!



I made Party Dress back in 2004. I still have copies to bind (and sell), and today I was working on that. I thought it would only be appropriate to wear one of my mother's party dresses while making them, so I put one on. Bill came home from work and took a picture of me.

I was pretty excited when my mother gave me this dress of hers. I remember it clearly from her closet. Party Dress is a book all about my mother's party dresses and how I played in her closet and watched her get ready to go out with my father. She was so glamorous and I ached to be like her. I have a few of my mother's dresses from when she was in high school. I love wearing them, but seldom have an occasion. It's amazing to me they fit, because my mother is 4-5 inches shorter than me. Usually the waists are a little high, but I wear them anyway.


My mother was an amazing seamstress, making many of our clothes and even wedding dresses for hire when I was young. I can't sew like my mother -- I pretty much have to stick to sewing straight lines. Still, I enjoyed adding stitching to Party Dress.

Here's some text from the book: "I played with that dress as it hung in your closet. One push and your entire rod of dresses would dance - swoosh, swoosh, swoosh, swaying to a stop." and "You were a starlet with hair pinned in a French Twist. Pssst, pssst, the Aqua Net called from your vanity. Sparkles floated around your shoulders." I would like to do another edition someday with a different design. Only because I have more paragraph/pages of text to add in. I would definitely do something simpler though!

Okay, as if one cut out dress book wasn't enough, a few years later I made "A Revealing History of Women's Underwear." I have even more copies of this to bind, as it is a much larger edition. (The stitching is "knots" on this one, holding the top foredge of the folios together. Simpler.) Here are some pictures:





Unfortunately I haven't taken slides of any text pages, but there are 9 of them - a long piece of text I wrote and had edited and worked on for several years. It is justified left and right to fit the shape of the book. The history of underwear is pretty informative and can teach you a lot about politics, class, women's freedoms (or lack of), and how fads can grow from odd things like hiding a pregnancy. (There's some other juicy bits probably not allowed on this G rated blog. You have to read the book, or do the research yourself!)

And now for the history of my underwear...

It occurred to me today that I had a photo of myself in a crinoline and "bra" outfit - the same as the clothing in the last print in the book! I couldn't believe it. (Not the actual clothing. The prints were made with Barbie doll proportioned clothing that would fit into my printing press and pressure printed.) This photo was taken 20 years ago. My younger sister was standing next to me, and I cropped her out because I don't think she was quite G rated in this photo. We were going to a girl party, and asked to dress up in lingerie or something, I can't really remember. Maybe this is when my under wear book became a twinkle in my eye, I don't know, but I find it interesting to look back on this photo and give it some thought. (My sister lived with me for one very fun year when she was 20/21 and I was 28. She is super creative in different ways than me and I would love to co-create with her again.)

After taking a break from writing the blog and going to bed last night, I remembered a time not long after my sister lived with me when my mother sold underwear at women's in-home parties! So another link between Party Dress and A Revealing History of Women's Underwear. My mother has always been an amazing salesperson. I am sure I could do a book someday about it. I'll have to think on that. And there's a little bird telling me there is yet another women's dress book in my future, but I am keeping that under wraps for now.

Besides binding party dresses and underwear, the weekdays are about the subscription - yes, I swear I am working on the next issue. I am pretty excited about it and will tell you all in advance it is called "How Strawberries Came To Be: A Cherokee Love Story." If you are not a subscriber, but would like to be, contact me and I will send you the prospectus. The price goes up as the year passes by....

Weekends are rarely about books and studio work. Maybe reading books for pleasure, but usually it is about the garden, the kitchen, hiking, and the grandkids (most often Emily who lives nearest). The last few weekends have been packed full and here are some highlights.

We dug up about 60 pounds or more of potatoes - 4 varieties.

We split and stacked the last of 3 cords of rounds.

We made and canned applesauce (thank you Phil for the apples!)

There's always time for nature, exploring, swinging, tree climbing and getting close to the crawly things. Emily will pick up anything but spiders. And she loves to feed the roly-poly's to the carnivorous plants. (Note her magic wand!)

The fall garden is full of yellows and purples. So beautiful.





That's all for now -- back to work!