THIS WEEKEND: Peekskill Open Studios
Peekskill Open Studios June 1-2 and upcoming classes
May 2024
Hi there friends,
Well I predictably got a little behind on this “monthly” email newsletter.
It has honestly been great setting my own schedule these past few months, but of course I have been navigating the challenges of re-adjusting to new routines, time management, juggling free- lance work with my own work, and the feeling that none of this matters while there is an active genocide happening in Gaza that we are funding unwittingly with our tax dollars and government support. Watching this horror continue to unfold has been taking a toll, further exhausting and stressing my already exhausted and stressed self as I struggle with the fact that my family is safe in our home, my child can go to sleep without fear, while families across the world are being bombed with US bombs, children massacred as they sleep in tents in a refugee camp they were told was a safe place to be.
I continue to be horror struck by these actions as well as the continued use of Jewish grief and anti-semitism, both current and historical, as a justification to murder, maim, and displace tens of thousands of people within a matter of months. If you don’t like hearing it, I don’t either. Please call your representatives, take to the streets, have a conversation with a friend or family member who is maybe still struggling to try to understand what is happening in Gaza and why it is f*cked up. Folks in the United States, take action to demand a ceasefire by looking up your representatives here and call and email them, use this JVP action tool to contact your reps by email with a pre-filled message, follow these helpful Hour of Action prompts here.
I also still have more poster for sale, all proceeds going to Middle East Childrens Alliance, Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund, and to support individual family fundraisers to evacuate people from Gaza.
The posters are $50 each plus shipping. You can purchase directly through me by emailing me, or here on my Etsy site. I also have a few offprints (small registration imperfections) that I am selling for $25, if you’d like one of those, just email me.
I have some quick updates about what I’ve been up to, what I have coming up and upcoming classes below and I promise to send another email with more details and images from my WSW residency in June! My website crashed and I’m trying to find the time to get it up and running again so I have better place to share images from.
As always, I am very grateful for your continued support of my work.
<3 Liz
~ Updates and Events ~
Peekskill Open Studios
105 South Division St., Peekskill NY
June 1-2, 12-5pm
This weekend is Peekskill Open Studios! Come catch up and see my new work! There are also other artists in my building as well as other studios and events within walking distance or a short drive. We are also walking distance or a quick cab ride from Metro North. I will also have a bookshop featuring artists book, zines, prints and handmade items by several artists. If you can make it, I would love to see you this weekend!
Open Call: Book Shop / Book Shop
105 South Division St., Peekskill NY
I am starting a bookshop (as referenced above)! I am bringing the awesomeness of artists books and zines to Peekskill with this small shop, located in a small room branching off of my studio. This will be an ongoing project. I hope you will visit and/or submit your work! I am looking for artists books, zines, prints, small artwork and handmade items. Fill out this form to submit. There is more info in the form, but also please just reply to this email if you’d like more info. Please share this open call with other you think might be interested.
SCAD Libraries Student Artists Book Competition
Savannah College of Art and Design, Atlanta
I was honored to be invited to be the juror for the SCAD Libraries Student Artists Book Competition earlier this month. It was great to spend a few days in Atlanta and at SCAD after several years, awesome to catch up with friends, and especially wonderful to have the privilege of reviewing 154 artists books made by SCAD students of all levels and areas of study! There is a list of the winners and honorable mentions at the link above, and I believe there will soon be photos as well.
~ Classes ~
Cyanotype and Bookmaking
Center for Book Arts
Mondays from 6-9pm | June 3- July 1
This in-person workshop is taught by CBA instructors Elizabeth Castaldo and Claudia Cortinez.
Cyanotype is a photographic process that uses iron compounds, sunlight, and water to create uniquely blue images. This course will focus on both traditional and experimental methods of cyanotype printing, covering a variety of approaches to explore the possibilities of this historic process through a contemporary lens. Through lectures, hands-on instruction/experimentation, and group discussions, students will create a wide range of test prints and several book structures that explore the possibilities of bound images, creating sequential narrative objects that extend beyond a single image.
We’ll discuss a variety of skills, including photogram printing, creating digital negatives, toning with various materials, simple forms of bookbinding and printing onto alternative materials. Class time will be divided between creating cyanotype prints and learning how to incorporate these prints creatively into bookforms, such as one page zines, accordions, pamphlets and flag books. Through examples from the CBA collections we will also explore how artists have used cyanotypes in artists books. This class is intended for anyone interested in learning more about the possibilities of this analogue process, with a particular focus on experimental book forms- ie. artists books, photo books, portfolios, or chapbooks, conceptually rooted in this historic process.
CMYK Photopolymer
Center for Book Arts
Wednesdays 6-9 | June 12 - July 10
In this five-session in-person class, participants will learn the steps for making full color, photographic prints on letterpress using the CMYK photopolymer plate technique.
The first session of the class will take place remotely on Zoom. In this first session, participants will learn about color separation, how to prepare images in photoshop for plate making, and how to both order plates ready to print and make them yourself in the studio.
The remaining four sessions in CBA’s letterpress studio will be focussed on how to properly mix ink for CMYK printing and special registration techniques for printing photographic images on letterpress.
Vandercooking: Image Making for Letterpress
Center for Book Arts
Weekend 10-4 | July 13-14
The Vandercook presses are useful tools for a variety of projects and can be fun to use for many image based processes that can stand alone or be used in combination with hand set type. This workshop will cover a variety of hand made image making techniques such as pressure printing, collagraphs, and linocut.
Through these techniques, you will explore color, transparency, shape, and layering of imagery to create a series of prints. This class will focus on a playful and spontaneous approach to letterpress, but the resulting prints can be used as the beginnings of an artist’s book, a printed edition, or a series of unique prints, and next steps for these types of projects will be touched on as well. Anyone with an experimental spirit will love this class. Letterpress experience will be helpful but is not required.