It's An Exciting Time to Be a Christian Writer, Printer and a Book Coach
With Pope Leo, New Hope Arises in the Publishing and Print World
No exactly beat down the door to get the cardboard fans I printed for the Pope Leo celebration in Chicago last weekend. No one left a comment on the post that I wrote promoting them. No one even ‘liked’ my post.
So what? (And I almost printed that in red clay last week at the Milwaukee’s Makerspace. But I got busy printing other things in red clay, and I’ll show you some of that in a minute). And that’s what you do in the face of what seems like silence or indifference or what even feels like uncertainty. When I read the rapidly changing headlines on my favorite news aggregator (mine’s Citizenfreepress), I can’t keep up with what’s happening in the world, whether it’s war, crime, health or the weather. I glom onto one or two pieces of news, digest and move on.
In addition to the uncertainty in the world, I’m facing a lot of uncertainty in my personal life. So I build identity, a theme that fellow Catholic and neuroscientist Dr. Julia DiGangi hammers over and over in her book, Energy Rising: the Neuroscience of Leading with Emotional Power. When I receive some news I don’t want to hear, I return to building identity. Sometimes it’s taking a mallet to a hardwood, and creating a crater for a wood spoon that I’ll later carve. Sometimes it’s chopping a carrot for a stir fry. And sometimes it’s inking up the brayer and printing with my favorite metal type, Cooper 48 point. But it can also be typing a letter on my Selectric 721. I sometimes type letters to myself, other typepals in the typosphere.
After 45 minutes of ‘building identity’ with a mallet, a typewriter, a kitchen knife, the world looks like a better place. I’m more comfortable in my identity as a writer, printer, an artist.
I continue to day dream about printing large posters for a future Pope Leo event. I’d use large sign type, wood letters that measure 10, 12, 16 inches high. I even fantasize about using my 8 1/4 inch high wood type letter E that I found at a suburban antique shop for all of $6. I’d love to cut wood letters L and O to match that E for posters I’d bring to Rome and an audience at the Vatican. I have to imagine there are other printers who would love to catch the Pope’s eye with a poster made with window-high wood type.
Wood type this size is too often used to print posters that anger, despair and cynicism. We need posters that promote life, happiness and hope. I don’t see enough of that in my feed of printers on social media. I cannot wait for the proofs I’ll be receiving in he mail soon for a couple of religious-themed letterpress blocks (along with some wood engraving tools: a multi-liner and a graver) from a fellow Briarpress member. He’s giving them to me as long as I pay for shipping.
These religious-themed blocks, often used for parish bulletins, newspaper ads and religious books, beg for a new life from someone who respects the faithful. I plan to be the person. I plan on being that person on the mountain with those posters shouting out the good in the Holy Pontiff, Catholicism and what means to be a woman of faith going to Sunday Mass and regular confession. Don’t be afraid, Pope Leo says.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Rome. I’m ready to go again with my posters. Or even print a poster at a letterpress studio there. I’m more than ready to see Rome anew with a Chicagoan leading the world’s Catholics. I’m more than ready to print in a craft overcrowded with cynics promoting tired causes, mottos and liberal slogans that feel outdated in a world that needs a joy jolt. You know the slogans, the mottos, I don’t need to repeat them.
Until I have a chance to play with some large type again (maybe at Tribune Showprint in July or August), you can find me play with the hard rubber stamps at the makerspace, printing small posters and postcards on my provisional press.
It’s so much fun to play with stamps in clay. I tend to push the stamps down too hard, but what fun it is. It’s not difficult to remember that some of the early printing was in clay, cuneiform (derived from the Latin word cuneus, wedge), developed by the Sumerians in Mesopotamia. I feel connected to the Sumerians printing with wedges, me my rubber stamps in red clay. This printing supersedes printing with wood type. I feel comforted by this work. I am connected to sign makers from the late 1800s with the ink that printed into the clay. It’s a dark blue, maybe even black ink, it looks garish against the pale red clay. But that ink will likely disappear when the clay is fired.
So here’s my 8 1/4 inch high letter E, which will eventually have sibling letters L and O.
What are your thoughts on what I created in clay last Tuesday? How much fun is it to print in clay?
P.S. I mentioned that I’m a book coaching in the subject line. I’m still working on that identity. I’ll share more as I continue to write in this space. Ask questions if you wish!
Glad to see you keeping your chin up! It can be so discouraging to not get the reception you had hoped for... It happens to all of us!