ornament & crime

FIND ME HERE...

2011-08-14T20:38:00.000-04:00

ROBINBOEUN.COM

2011-08-03T14:52:00.000-04:00

Four Hours in a Conference Room

2011-08-03T11:28:00.001-04:00

Tahrir Documents in Print Magazine's August issue!

2011-08-03T11:26:00.004-04:00

Scenes from a Revolution: Read more...

a workshop in SGC International's "Graphic Impressions" Summer Issue

2011-07-24T09:02:00.002-04:00

Read & download the full issue HERE

2011-07-21T20:50:00.000-04:00

chaRcoal

2011-07-21T13:26:00.001-04:00

On the topic of wooden structures...

2011-07-14T19:44:00.004-04:00

I visited my friend Zach Hewson of Steeplechase Custom Homes in his shop last week. This is a timber frame model. It's beautiful. Don't you wish you could hide away inside forever?

Most people I like don't like book plates, but here we make an exception.

2011-07-14T19:43:00.001-04:00

"A lot of people attack the sea, I make love to it." ~Jacques Yves Cousteau

2011-07-14T19:03:00.002-04:00

Coming attractions...

2011-07-13T15:16:00.007-04:00

2 prints and some laser cut blocks of mine are en route to Chicago right now...

Wood Type, Evolved: Experimental Letterpress & Relief Printing in the 21st Century
Curated by April Sheridan and Nick Sherman
The Center for Book and Paper Arts, Columbia College, Chicago

Rebecca + Bryce

2011-07-11T22:16:00.004-04:00

Belly Bandcing

2011-06-26T22:14:00.000-04:00

2011-05-24T11:50:00.001-04:00

Orderly Conduct

2011-05-08T09:10:00.000-04:00

2011-04-05T14:09:00.000-04:00

"I AM THE MOST PRESCIENT ART CRITIC OF ALL TIME"

2011-04-04T14:32:00.000-04:00

Infographics from Tahrir...

2011-03-29T09:02:00.000-04:00

Announcing Tahrir Documents

2011-03-26T22:54:00.007-04:00

We are pleased to announce the launch of Tahrir Documents, an ongoing project to archive and translate printed discourse from the 2011 Egyptian revolution and its aftermath. The website presents a diverse collection of materials — among them activist newspapers, personal essays, advertisements, missives, and party communications —- in complete English translation alongside reproductions of the Arabic-language originals. The site will be updated regularly, frequently, and indefinitely as new writings appear in response to post-revolution developments, and as we locate earlier materials.

The assembled documents address a variety of contemporary concerns including Muslim-Christian relations, constitutional amendments, moral conduct, revolutionary strategy, and the women's rights movement. Some of the highlights of the collection:

A defense of protestors' continued sit-in at Tahrir Square released on March 9th, the same day on which their encampment was destroyed by thugs
Guidelines for personal behavior after the revolution
Numerous denunciations of sectarian violence
The announcement of new political parties and presidential candidates.
Numerous articles debating the constitutional amendments passed last week
Selections from Gurnal and Revolutionary Egypt, activist newspapers founded after the revolution

We invite you to examine the the website, and to return regularly as we post communications and commentaries from the post-Mubarak era. We believe the archive indicative of the diversity of political thought and action in contemporary Egypt, and hope that this diversity is of interest to anyone following the country's transforming situation. The archive is searchable.

Tahrir Documents is the work of volunteer translators in Egypt and abroad. It is not affiliated with any of those authors or groups whose works appear in translation on the website, nor with any organization foreign or domestic.

For more information please write to the editorial board at tahrirdocuments@gmail.com. We invite the submission of materials for translation and publication on the website.

Regards,

The Editors and Staff of Tahrir Documents

www.tahrirdocuments.org / tahrirdocuments@gmail.com / twitter.com/tahrirdocuments

]

I was like, good gracious...

2011-03-23T00:18:00.002-04:00

SEE MORE PHOTOS from a workshop in St. Louis...

COURIER (a workshop production) is coming to St. Louis next week!

2011-03-09T23:44:00.006-05:00

You order A...or..B. We build/make. Then deliver.

It's sharing, caring (?), and me and Avery constructing cubes, making a huge mess with screenprints and a frankensteined letterpress, and most likely riding bicycles around in our underpants.

More details about the conference & event HERE.

Pre-order using the form on our site, email us with questions or requests (info@aworkshop.info), or give us a ring at (314) 329-7BAM...that is: (314) 329-7226

Thanks a billion and a half to our sponsors for this project: Savoir Faire (Fabriano & Charbonnel papers & inks, respectively) and Big Shark Bike Co.

2011-03-07T11:12:00.004-05:00

Typefounding Fathers?

2011-03-07T11:11:00.000-05:00

Pilgrimage

2011-03-07T11:03:00.002-05:00

(see FLICKR! Set: Letterpress Things in Chicopee, MA)

We're only getting older and saggier. Our hairlines recede every day.

2011-03-01T10:19:00.004-05:00

This Is Definitely A Pipe

2011-02-27T10:29:00.004-05:00

Letterpress Erotica

2011-02-24T11:38:00.001-05:00

Good morning, Philadelphia.

2011-02-22T09:17:00.000-05:00

Clifford The Big Red Dog Doesn't Like To Have His Tail Touched

2011-02-20T09:52:00.002-05:00

2011-02-20T00:26:00.000-05:00

a work in progress

2011-02-13T20:30:00.002-05:00

OMG Printmaking!!! at Charlottesville Trade School

2011-02-09T15:31:00.005-05:00

Seventeen hours of southward travel from Tamworth, New Hampshire, places one a city between the hills: Charlottesville, Virginia. Thomas Jefferson's Monticello is here. The Pomp lives here. Many more delightful individuals and efficient bagel shops are here, too.

Last night I had the honor & pleasure of assisting with a mixed media printmaking class at the Charlottesville Trade School.

More info from the site...
The Charlottesville Trade School is turning seemingly ordinary spaces into energized classrooms where friends, neighbors, co-workers, and strangers share skills and good company. We're putting a twist on education with a work + play mentality.

Bartering is back! Rather than paying for instruction, students sign up to learn new trades by meeting the teacher’s barter requests—anything from a dozen free range eggs, a good book, mixed CDs/TAPES, a random act of kindness, tools, to an original work of art! The trade school is a forum for exchange.

Classes are held at various locations around Charlottesville and will typically last 1-2 hours on weekday evenings.
-----------

Our class, OMG Printmaking!!!, covered the processes of silkscreen, etching, intaglio, relief, and letterpress. Participants got some hands-on experience with silkscreen, relief (see Avery's sah-weet wood chopping/printing setup), and letterpress.

So rewarding to share & so much fun. And I'm not even specifically referring to the 84-cookie payment. (Imminent bloating). More photos on Charlottesville Trade School Flickr!

"My blood for your rude brawls doth lie a-bleeding."

2011-02-09T15:24:00.002-05:00

SUCK IT, UPS, YOU KILLED MY BABY.

-"Are you requesting insurance money for a replacement or a repair?"
-..."neither"...

To Catch A Falling-Bird

2011-02-06T22:28:00.002-05:00

Save Keiko, Give A Heifer, Save The Rainforest, Sponsor A Child, March With Dimes...

2011-02-04T17:23:00.009-05:00

Hell yes. So look...here's the "deal"...I'm doing serious business cleaning of my tabletop letterpress studio/closets/portfolios. Pretty much ALL stored/saved prints from 2008-Present need to travel! Even MORE next time I can get intimate with the crawlspace in my mom's house. Prices basically cover packing & shipping. Claim something before I start sending them to strangers. You know how that goes.

Valentine's Day Cards, Everyman HUGE Prints, stuff from the Art in the Age Exhibition last year...

- If you don't see it HERE, I probably have it , mis-labeled, somewhere under something else rolled in glassine.
- If you don't see the color/quantity of some small letterpressed token were hoping for, I probably have the plate/lockup stashed and can easily accommodate.
- I enjoy negotiations. Don't feel weird about emailing me directly to "haggle."

SO STOP READING THIS ALREADY & GO HERE &/OR DROP ME A LINE HERE.

Truly,
Robin B. McDowell

P.S. Look how tidy everything is now...

Reminders for Annual Check-Ups as The Hallmark Holidaze Approach

2011-02-04T08:58:00.004-05:00

You are invited.
Please R.S.V.P. by placing a check-mark on the appropriate line.

Valentine's Day Was Invented By Letterpress Printers in 1802 To Celebrate The Misuse of Bond Office Forms

2011-02-03T18:43:00.001-05:00

"OUR BATTERED PRESS WAS PILED IN THE TRUNK AGAIN."

2011-02-03T09:18:00.009-05:00

T-Worth > Shipping Center > C-Ville > NOLA > The Show Me State

SGC Program Bio - These things are always stilted, no?

2011-01-30T15:00:00.008-05:00

Robin McDowell works on projects in Tamworth, New Hampshire and carries broken leading around in her purse. This is inconvenient for flying on airplanes. This is OK for regional travel. She letterpresses damaged wood type for friends, family, and work, and creates snarky doodles for internet laughs. She holds a BA in Fine Arts from The University of Pennsylvania and conducted her thesis work in experimental wood type fabrication. Her work has been featured in I.D. Magazine, The Mid-America Print Council Journal, and most recently in titling for the retrospective exhibition: Wharton Esherick and The Birth of the American Modern.

robinboeun.com
ornamentandcrime.blogspot.com

Is Da Sein Our Education?

2011-01-30T13:10:00.000-05:00

Droolz.

2011-01-30T12:21:00.001-05:00

(Thanks, Erich Weiss!)

Hwaet! - Beowulf Sock Pattern

2011-01-30T12:08:00.001-05:00

from The Sanguine Gryphon

Happy Anniversary, Darlin'

2011-01-27T11:39:00.000-05:00

2011-01-18T11:15:00.000-05:00

"Taking Vows To Each Other And To The Printmaking Lifestyle"

2011-01-18T10:41:00.003-05:00

Blessed Unions Wedding Performance Ceremony

Time: 7p, March 18
Location: Fort Gondo Compound for the Arts, 3151 Cherokee St.

Printmakers Blake Sanders and Hannah March Campbell will present a wedding performance ceremony, taking vows to each other and to the printmaking lifestyle. The duo will be adorned in printed regalia, hand-crafted by the artists specially for the event. The ceremony will be officiated by printmaker Reverend John S. Hancock, who along with his brother is one of the many dynamic duos represented in the Blessed Unions exhibition. Other participants include Slop Art, Anita Jung and Tom Christison, Nicole Hand and Jim Bryant, Hot Iron Press, Kathryn and Andy Polk, and many others. Interactive print-themed activities will be part of this event, including live readings, letterpress giveaways, a dance party, wearable art, and other surprises. The ceremony is one of the conference's featured Friday evening events on Cherokee Street.

After the ceremony, guests are invited to keep the party hopping at El Lenador restaurant and bar, 3124 Cherokee St., just yards from Fort Gondo. Proprietor Reuben will be tending bar, and a dance party will commence around 9p.

READ MORE HERE...

Meet Me In St. Louis | Meet Me At The Fair

2011-01-17T22:09:00.005-05:00

COURIER
March 17, 2011 - March 18, 2011
10:30a-1p, 1:30-4p
Location: Between Kemper Art Museum & Walker Hall
Category: Projects & Demos
Demonstrators: Avery Lawrence, Robin McDowell

This collaborative project will serve as a storefront, printshop, and courier service throughout the conference. A mobile printshop outfitted with silk-screening and tabletop letterpress equipment will serve as the hub of the operation. Conference attendees will be able to order from a catalog of printed goods and delivery services.

Leading up to the conference, individuals will be able to peruse a catalog of goods and services online. On the first day of the project, conference participants can call in to a dedicated phone line or place orders in person at the mobile printshop, for a print that will be delivered to any other conference participant. The sender must specify time, location, and circumstances for the delivery. The storefront will close when it has reached its quota for deliveries for following day.

"NIXIE"...I bet it's S.S.D.D.

2011-01-16T22:21:00.001-05:00

A Raisin In The Sun

2011-01-16T22:15:00.000-05:00

"Tutti"

2011-01-02T15:06:00.005-05:00

Appendices

2010-12-23T14:05:00.000-05:00

The Pluperfect.

2010-12-19T21:59:00.002-05:00

A Rebuttal.

2010-12-19T13:25:00.002-05:00

What Happens To Lost Letters

2010-12-19T13:22:00.001-05:00

JOYEUX...

2010-12-05T13:06:00.003-05:00

"And that's where they go to get their First Christmas Everything..."

2010-12-03T12:10:00.002-05:00

Remnant Printing, "How To Win Friends & Influence People"

2010-11-30T23:50:00.000-05:00

"I Will Fight No More Forever"

2010-11-29T17:06:00.002-05:00

Remnant-Printing, "Miracle Family"

2010-11-29T16:46:00.002-05:00

Fodder for Thought - New Paltz, NY

2010-11-26T18:32:00.000-05:00

TV Santa Claus Says...

2010-11-25T22:37:00.001-05:00

...it's officially Christmas season.

Officially time to start figuring out this year's greeting card...

::diabolical laughter::

The BOOK, The EVERYMAN, The ESHERICK!

2010-11-17T17:47:00.007-05:00

A package arrived in the mail yesterday, bearing a lovely hardcover book, bearing my EVERYMAN typeface, designed in 2008, set beautifully on the cover & throughout...

Inexplicable glee upon seeing these old friends and wonky characters alive in the world!

from Schiffer Books

An exploration of Wharton Esherick's artistic evolution during the early decades of the twentieth century. Based on the exhibition in the Kamin and Kroiz Galleries of the University of Pennsylvania, this work expands upon the exhibition's themes with well over 300 vibrant images and current research, including an essay by Paul Eisenhauer, Curator of the Wharton Esherick Museum. Esherick experimented with woodcarving and printmaking, laying the foundations for his emergence as an artist of remarkable range. He produced paintings and woodblock prints, set designs, sculpture, furniture, and architecture. He and his community of friends created an artistic circle in which arts and crafts were joined, and in which radical new ideas flourished, helping to shape the course of American Modernism. This book will be a treasure for all who appreciate twentieth-century modernism.

A Possible Permutation of "More Angular Future"

2010-11-15T14:13:00.000-05:00

Richard Woods

EWE + MEE + EN-WHY-CEE + ARTIEEEEE!

2010-11-09T09:47:00.002-05:00

BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer)
Friday, November 12, 2010, 6-10 PM
Spencer Brownstone Gallery,
39 Wooster St, New York City.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

AGNES BOLT, ARTIE VIERKANT, BILLY RENNEKAMP, BRITTA THIE, CALLA HENKEL & MAX PITEGOFF, CHARLES BROSKOSKI, DAMON ZUCCONI, DUNCAN MALASHOCK, DANIEL CHEW, DENA YAGO, HAYLEY SILVERMAN, JEREMY BAILEY, JESSE ENGLAND, JOEL HOLMBERG, JOHN MICHAEL BOLING, JOYCE JORDAN, KARI ALTMANN, KRIST WOOD, MAI UEDA, MARLOUS BORM, MICHELLE CEJA, MIKE RUIZ, RENE ABYTHE, RILEY HARMON, RYDER RIPPS, SARAH WEIS & ARTURO CUBACUB, TOM MOODY, TRAVESS SMALLEY, TRAVIS HALLENBECK, WOJCIECH KOSMA.

Spencer Brownstone Gallery is pleased to present the New York edition of BYOB, a one-night-exhibition exploring the medium of projection. 25 artists are invited to bring their own projectors to create a collaborative happening of moving light, sound and performance.

An acronym for Bring Your Own Beamer, the evening will propose a glimpse of computing in the future. Today the internet is confined to screens. Tomorrow information will surround us, composing our surfaces, defining our spaces, enmeshing itself with the ether. No longer simply part-and-parcel of everyday life, it will become a medium in which the everyday exists.

Featuring a generation of artists that grew up behind the screen, BYOB will have an open and dynamic structure that not only allows for spontaneity and experimentation, but also places questions concerning the formalism and engagement of the exhibition directly in the hands in the artists. A moving image is never an object, and when it is coupled with the increased flexibility of portable projection, the realm of experience quickly expands. The individual works will often overlap and sometimes even merge, producing a total environment that is more than the sum of its parts. Ultimately, this loose, free form format will mirror the chaos of the internet. Gallery visitors will stroll in a forest of browser windows much in the same way one browses sites on the web.

Curated by Rafaël Rozendaal

Animated GIF by Travess Smalley

Time to "Hunker Down"

2010-11-03T08:00:00.002-04:00

Letterpress Improv Workshop Print! - October 16, 2010 at The Common Press

2010-10-18T10:22:00.001-04:00

Indefatigable

2010-10-13T14:48:00.003-04:00

THANK YOU to everyone who signed up for the Esherick/Letterpress Improv Workshop. Just heard that "enrollment" is now full! See youse-all on Saturday!

Cut & Paste & Dance

2010-10-07T12:29:00.000-04:00

My Dream-Language is Purple Cartoons w/ Wheels

2010-10-06T23:32:00.003-04:00

Charlottesville Checking In...

2010-10-04T12:40:00.006-04:00

Charlottesville News & Arts Interviews Avery Lawrence, co-captain of mail truck & mobile adventures!

Everyman Everywhere! Esherick Everywhere!

2010-09-26T16:29:00.004-04:00

Thoughts turn South...

2010-09-24T20:35:00.003-04:00

Typographic Self Portrait

2010-09-22T19:27:00.002-04:00

Letterpress Improv Workshop: October 16, 1-4 pm

2010-09-20T20:54:00.008-04:00

To download the full event brochure, CLICK HERE

Find out more about The Exhibition & Symposium...
-----
Here's what happens:

1. You sign up for this event by calling or emailing Andrea Gottschalk at 215.746.5824 or gottsch3@upenn.edu, and make a nominal donation of $10 to The Common Press for paper, ink, and supporting the creative respirator machine for fine letterpress printing in a digital age.

2. I fly down to Philadelphia with a sack full of wood type, which I will probably have to check (gah!).

3. You meet me at The Morgan Building (34th & Locust) on Saturday, October 16 at 1 pm.

4. You listen to me give a succinct and hopefully not terribly awkward talk on The History of Wood Type in America.

5. You receive some delicious reading material for at-home-consumption.

6. I walk you through setting wood type into a lockup, and then how to prepare, ink up, print with, and clean up a Vandercook Universal letterpress.

7. We pick random pieces of paper out of a bunch of little bags with instructions that dictate a free-form composition of wood type.

8. You go home with some CRAZY prints & ink stains under your fingernails that (don't worry) will come off in 3-4 days.

9. Your heart is full of sentimental typographic memories of our time together.

Getting Older Means Getting Sassier

2010-09-20T09:36:00.000-04:00

Proofs!

2010-09-19T16:26:00.002-04:00

Act Locally, Think Globally

2010-09-19T16:17:00.002-04:00

List of Items for Serious Review in Contemplative Bath

2010-09-15T17:35:00.004-04:00

1. Nicky Minaj

"We got tom-toms over here bigger than a monster."

2. Solidified Bacon Drippings

3. All Tomorrow's Parties

I could while away the hours, conversing with the...drawer pulls

2010-09-14T14:04:00.000-04:00

For Friends (Part II): Denver-bound...

2010-09-13T23:36:00.003-04:00

Ugh wow, this is seriously enough. Time to replace the digital camera that closed its eyes to the world after hanging out with me in a rainstorm...whoops.

Futility in Repetition.

2010-09-09T15:29:00.002-04:00

for Friends (Part 1)

2010-09-08T18:12:00.001-04:00

Faux-fesore Cloister

2010-09-02T20:30:00.000-04:00

Creating "course packet material".

Recent Hollers!

2010-09-02T20:19:00.006-04:00

Sight Unseen (The Farm Exhibition at Art In The Age - 2/10)

We Love Typography (You.Me.She.Him - Letterpress Pattern Design)

hermeneutics

2010-08-27T18:52:00.005-04:00

"Seeing isn't saying. Writing isn't seeing."

2010-08-25T17:26:00.002-04:00

SUMMERHOUSE

Our New Puppy

2010-08-23T20:29:00.007-04:00

See the skeleton of AN IDEA...

ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE

2010-08-21T12:20:00.001-04:00

Correspondence

2010-08-20T19:06:00.004-04:00

Pretty sure that I have a secret admirer. Two letters in the same week!

Grimy, Sleazy, Salty // So My Type

2010-08-17T12:05:00.001-04:00

Happy Birthday, The American Modern

2010-08-15T20:31:00.005-04:00

CLICK to Download Full Proposal
The first installment of the workshop is scheduled to occur during the afternoon on Saturday, October 16, 2010 at The Common Press at The University of Pennsylvania. Details forthcoming.

To Join

2010-08-01T20:51:00.000-04:00

Egg Mold Part 2

2010-07-29T09:59:00.001-04:00

Egg Mold, Soon To Be Plastic Type Mold

2010-07-21T12:30:00.001-04:00

Marcel, I Just Remembered You!

2010-07-14T14:43:00.003-04:00

via MoMA

Neue.

2010-07-12T17:04:00.001-04:00

ROBINBOEUN.COM

2010-07-10T13:09:00.000-04:00

Ejercicios in Truncation

2010-07-07T17:08:00.000-04:00

"Nearly everyone has an empathy with fine wood products..."

2010-06-27T07:56:00.001-04:00

"There were types for which I would have traded by car, house, or wife, and my reputation as a bore at cocktail parties grew immeasurably during these years, for not that many people were interested in wood type."

More later...

2010-06-20T20:01:00.000-04:00

That mountaintop on high. That star up in the sky.

2010-06-17T10:46:00.000-04:00