Upcoming Artist Talk Feb 20
Artist Talk, Residency Update, Shows and Classes
February 2024
Hello Everyone! Welcome to my first newsletter using Substack! If you were previously subscribed to my mailing list I have transferred your email here. You should have a link at the bottom of the email to change your email preferences if you need to. Something I like about substack for subscribers is that all the past newsletters can still be viewed on my page. So you’ll receive this as an email, but you can also come to elizabethcastaldo.substack.com and see this and all past newsletters that were sent whether you subscribe to emails or not. I look forward to continuing to connect here and if you have a friend you think my work would resonate with please forward this email or share the link with them.
As always, I am very grateful for your continued support of my work.
<3 Liz
Residency Update!
I’m a little bit more than halfway through my residency at Womens Studio Workshop and I’m super excited about what I’ve been working on. I can’t believe its been a month already! Its amazing how much I can do when I have the time and brain space to focus. After the first week or so of things feeling very urgent, I was able to settle in and find some ease when it comes to making. Its been a lot of fun to just experiment with silkscreen process and layering pattern and color. I’ve been working on developing a process for silkscreen that feels more free and spontaneous, kind of like when I’m drawing or making collage.
I’m also enjoying being in a semi-remote spot where we often don’t have cell service and I can go for a walk into the woods right out our front door on the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail. We’re right outside of the village of Rosendale and about 10 minutes from the city of Kingston, but it still feels pretty remote out here and its been a nice place to spend the darkest and coldest days of winter.
I am an Art in Ed resident at WSW, which means that for part of my residency I’ll be working with kids from the Kingston public school system on a silkscreen project. This is one of the oldest programs at WSW and I’m excited to be a part of it. For the next three weeks me and the other Artists in Residence and WSW interns will be working with 4th and 8th graders on Silkscreen, Handmade Paper and Monotype projects which will be exhibited in May.
Slide Night February 20 at 6:30
Womens Studio Workshop, 722 Binnewater Lane, Kingston NY
I’m really excited about what I’ve been making during my residency and can’t wait to share it with you at our upcoming artist talk.
Also sharing about their work at the event will be Artist in Residence Quinn Keck and Studio Intern Joseph Ni.
This is an in person event. If you are in the area join us on Tuesday February 20th at 6:30 PM
Fundraiser for Palestine Update
As I mentioned in my January newsletter I made these posters as a fundraiser for Palestine. The response to these posters has been very moving to say the least and I’m happy to say we’ve raised $350 so far that has been split between Middle East Childrens Alliance, E-sims for Gaza and Pious Projects Feminine Hygiene Kits.
I have several posters left that I’m selling for $50 each plus shipping and I will continue to donate $50 per poster to organizations helping people in Gaza.
You can purchase a poster through my Etsy site or just email me to purchase!
~ Exhibitions ~
Hello Thank you Come In
Center for Book Arts, 28 W27th st, 3rd fl, New York NY
CBA’s 50th anniversary member’s exhibition continues through May 1st. Since I’m up in Rosendale I haven’t seen the show in person yet but it looks awesome in photos! It features work by 60 artists and runs alongside a cool exhibition about the poetry of Mallarmé.
~ Classes ~
Photopolymer Crash Course
Center for Book Arts
Weekend from 10 - 4Â | March 23-24
The letterpress has so many more capabilities than its classic wood and metal type uses. Photopolymer plates are a new school material that brings versatility, convenience, and a wealth of design options to the old school world of letterpress. In this workshop, students will learn how to prepare plates from hand-drawn illustrations and/or digital images. Then students will learn how to make plates using CBA’s exposure unit. Finally, the class will set up the press and print! This workshop is designed for individuals with some letterpress experience.
Cyanotype and Bookmaking
Center for Book Arts
Wednesdays from 6-9pm | March 27- April 24
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.
ONLINE - Make Your Own Handmade Hardcover Photobook
StrudelMediaLive
Saturdays 11-1 | April 13 - June 1
If you’re thinking about creating a photobook, making the physical book by hand can be super-satisfying and can add another level of creativity to your project. In this class, you’ll learn how to make three types of hardcover bindings that are suitable for both short and longer photo projects — a hardcover pamphlet, a flat-backed case binding, and a hardcover concertina album. If you don’t know what these are, don’t worry, you’ll find out in this hands-on class!
We’ll discuss how images work in a book, as well as strategies for including content that is both printed directly onto the page or tipped onto the page after binding. There will be homework prompts and group feedback and we’ll also look at examples of photobooks using these different structures.
Vandercooking: Image Making for Letterpress
Center for Book Arts
Weekend 10-4 | April 27-28
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.