Outskirts of the Moment

I was recently commissioned to do the sweetest, loveliest job ever. That was to hand bind a copy of a woman's poetry (her milestone birthday was approaching, and her partner of many years wanted to have a "real book" (cloth hardcover with sewn signatures) to give her as her gift). She had discovered me via the vast world of the interweb, after learning that I was teaching an upcoming Introduction to Book Arts class via the Associated Students of UC Berkeley art studio.

So inbetween the hectic work of special donor development for The Crucible, lecturing at UC Merced, and doing research for the California Council for the Humanities, I was given reprieve by retreating into the quiet concentration of doing Julie's book of poetry justice. Her partner Toodie chose the book cloth and endpapers, did the designwork and even chose the color of the ink I'd use on the front cover- a real custom job. I ended up with three finished books rather than one, which was a bonus.

I forgot to take photographs of the final product (gun to head, duh) but here are a few shots of the work in progress. Happy Birthday, Julie. It was a real pleasure to put this together in your honor.

Lots of little lino blocks for sale!


Buddyray manning the wasabi press table (along with Kathy Aoki's prints) , very manly style.


Our beloved former executive directors, Anne Smith and Kathy Barr.


Colleen is a freaking superstar. Only girls drove the steamrollers here. Katherine Case is the real hero of the day, but somehow she evaded my camera (not only did she organize the whole shebang, she also drove the steamroller inbetween leaping tall buildings).


Mary Laird's goddess block


The genius carver Maia de Raat inking up her insane mermaid block.


Here's Kathy Aoki! We finally met after passing like ships in the night for many years. She has amazingly produced a blue eyed blond little girl.


Kathy's teddybear construction worker block.


Kind volunteers inking up my very own Akuma block.


The inky block is placed on premarked areas of the street, right in the path of the steamroller...


Then they lay down the damp paper onto of the blocks, and add some heavy blankets, which Colleen runs over.


Voila! Roadworks steamroller print.


Michael Carabetta (creative director at Chronicle Books) did this amazing color print.


But as always, Rik Olson steals the show. This is his fourth year of carving a 3 x 3 lino for Roadworks, and as expected, the results were mindboggling.

Shbolts.

Mysterious seasick green photo.

Two more cruddy days of carving! I'm in a sad, permanent Quasimoto hunch, hands palsyed, and scraps of battleship linoleum keep sneaking around, appearing in unexpected places like in the kitchen sink, one's underwear drawer, and on the ice cream bonbons. The good news is- I got a job (part-time) AND Roadworks is Saturday so lord, the end is in sight.