Page 10 - Allisons Magazine Issue #91

country and pick up a job at any union
printshop. !e union was so strong
that shops were required to hire them if
there was a job to be done or hours to
be worked. Although the most recent
iteration of itinerant printers dates
from about 1865 to 1960, the notion is
far older, dating back to the age when
craftsmen belonged to guilds in Europe.
During their journeyman time, they
would literally “journey” across the
country or the continent to work with
other craftsmen, learn di"erent skills,
and eventually settle in another area
to set up their own shop. When I was
starting the project, I knew I had to
reinvent the notion for modern times,
but I wanted to call back the name, Do you carry supplies with you, far more than myself: meeting new
because that’s literally what I would be: or is each printshop a new people and seeing new places every day,
the Itinerant Printer. challenge where you must use documenting the lives and workspaces
what they have? of other printers, showcasing traditional
What was the impetus to leave I only bring paper and ink with me. I and experimental letterpress printing
your job and become a work exclusively from the idiosyncratic side by side, and deciphering people’s
journeyman printer? collections that the shops have, whether motives for how and why they work
I was really taken by the idea that that comprises wood type, metal type, the way they do. Now, if I had to craft
itinerant printers became analog border, ornament, woodcuts, linocuts, a mission statement for the project, it
conduits for information. As they or even more modern photopolymer would be: connecting people through
traveled, they’d bring tips and tricks plates. I also rarely know what kind of printing and connecting printing
about printing, but they’d also carry letterpress I’ll be working on, so there’s through people. I’m able to bring
rumors from town to town, like Johnny always an element of surprise when people together via their shared love of
Appleseeds of information. Prior to I arrive at a new place. !e majority print as a medium, but I’m also able
radio and television, this person-to- of my time is spent rooting through to strengthen the fabric of the craft of
person contact was one of the fastest the amazing collections people have printing as a whole by sharing what
ways for news like that to travel. I culled over the years, and often the those people know.
wanted to get out there and become that most di$cult part is choosing what to
connector, but I also wanted to learn use and what not to. Even though the Can you talk about a few different
from other people. After running the collections are %nite, the possibilities for printing techniques that you’ve Now, if I had to craft a mission
studio for six years, I knew everything recombination are in%nite. experimented with on this trip? statement for the project, it would be:
about the machinery and equipment Normally, type is printed with the connecting people through
there. I knew everything about my What is important to you about letterform facing up so the print reveals
work#ow. I knew everything about this journey? Is there a mission the literal information, but it can also be printing and connecting
my business model. But I didn’t know statement of sorts to this endeavor? #ipped over and you can print the back, printing through people.
anything about anyone else’s. It was that When I began, sel%shly, I think it was a or what we call the “feet.” !e results are
gap in my knowledge, and admitting personal journey, and one that I believed incredibly abstract and unpredictable
that I didn’t know everything and would help me improve as an artist but allow you to create patterns and
needed to learn more, that was really the and a printer. Very quickly, that turned imagery that wouldn’t be possible
motivation for leaving. into something that encompassed otherwise. You can also use paper cuts,

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