Due to situations beyond our control, this event has been cancelled.
Discover how to integrate the fine art of letterpress into your practice. Letterpress has been in practice since the 15th century, transforming itself from simply a means of reproducing text into a tactile art form that packs a visual and textural punch in the digital age. Explore how letterpress can meet your artistic needs from custom made marketing to the art of the book.
Learn the basics of setting a line of type and print using a letterpress at The Soapbox. We'll look at multiple ways of printing on the letterpress - from setting wood and metal type to using polymer plates created from digital files to linocut to creating experimental prints using inked plexiglas and paper collages. Try your hand at our clamshell platen press as well as the easy-to-use Line-o-Scribe proof press.
Mary Tasillo is a paper, print, and book artist, community arts activist, and educator. Mary is co-founder of The Soapbox, where she wears many hats. Her teaching experience includes papermaking, letterpress, and WPA Poster workshops at Fleisher Art Memorial, Naropa University, and the University of the Arts, as well as teaching at The Soapbox. She also works as Outreach Coordinator for Hand Papermaking, Inc., and has organized conferences, panels, and events, as well as worked as a Gallery Director and Office Manager. She earned her MFA in Book Arts/Printmaking from The University of the Arts in 2006. She will be joined by other board and studio members of The Soapbox.
Empowering individuals through access to equipment and art-making space as well as workshops, The Soapbox remains driven by the beauty of letterpress printing and the power of community-based art making. With an active creative and volunteer community, and serving hundreds of individuals each year, The Soapbox preserves the craft of the handmade book while supporting the community in telling its stories in a compelling way - sharing, preserving and archiving stories that are outside the mainstream media and publishing worlds. This print shop and maker studio provides affordable access to education, equipment, events, and a library, inviting community members to come together to read rare self-published zines, letterpress and screenprint, bind books, assemble comics zines, and make paper.
Made possible through the generous support of The Knight Foundation with support of the Center for Emerging Visual Artists.
