Bill and Vicky Stewart show Vamp and Tramp art collections
Please mark your calendar for a return of Bill & Vicky!
Bill and Vicky own Vamp & Tramp, a unique business representing over 400 fine press and book artists from around the world. They will share examples from their collection. Those attending their presentation will learn more about the unique world of artists’ books. 1:00-2:30 p.m., Archives & Special Collections Seminar Room, Collins Library.
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Contributors to the campus and community embroidery project “Refashioning Identity” will gather to view the collection and share remarks about their work. Artist and stitcher Diana Weymar will join this event to share updates on her own work and exciting information about exhibitions organized that will include our pages. This is an open event, so all are welcome. 4:00–5:00 p.m. Light refreshments will be served. Archives & Special Collections Seminar room.
Denver based curator and artists’ book dealer Alicia Bailey (abecedarian Gallery) will be giving an informal Artists Books on the Road presentation. The presentation will provide a unique opportunity to learn more about this engaging and intimate approach to art making through hands on interaction and Q & A. 4:00–5:00 p.m. light refreshments and an informal lecture. Archives & Special Collections Seminar room.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has created a new set of campus resources to counter the alt-right movement.
SPLC releases campus guide to countering ‘alt-right’ – With college students returning to class in the coming weeks, the SPLC released a new guide today that advises them on how to respond when speakers associated with the growing white nationalist, or “alt-right,” movement, appear on campus.
Thursday, September 7: Behind the Archives Door: Collecting Incunabula. David Wertheimer, an avid collector of early printed books and a Director at the Gates Foundation, will share his story of collecting. Many of the books that he owns, all printed before 1502, will be available for viewing. 4:00–5:00 p.m. light refreshments and an informal lecture. Archives & Special Collections Seminar room.
“TheProposal” (2012) Artist Book by Clarissa Sligh
Join us for a conversation with visual artist and social activist Clarissa Sligh. For over 30 years, Sligh has woven together the cultural, historical, personal and political to explore concepts of memory and transmutation, and perceptions of boundaries and identity: themes that have roots in her own experiences. Her photo-text images, artists’ books and installations have been exhibited in places such as The Museum of Modern Art and the Jewish Museum, New York, NY, Walker Art Center and the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, MN, The National Gallery of Art and Corcoran Gallery of Art and the National African American Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. The Archives & Special Collections holds six of Sligh’s artists’ books, which will be available for viewing.
Two books on view here in the Equal Justice exhibition.
An interesting podcast to listen to: Facing America’s History of Racial Violence
Clarissa is joined by Kim Purser, an artist, poet and teacher she met while at the Penland School of Crafts in the mid-nineties. Kim is a photographer and book artist and has worked with Clarissa on many projects. She is currently employed as a clinical director working with young people and professionals at Eliada Homes in Asheville. In 2005, she taught Clarissa how to fold cranes and has been helping her fold cranes ever since. Her academic degrees include the BA, BFA, MA, and MSW. 5:30–7:00 p.m. (Reception outside the Archives & Special Collections, 5:30–6:00 p.m.) Talk and questions 6:00–7:00 p.m., in the Archives & Special Collections Seminar Room, Collins Library.
Thursday, September 14, 2017
4:30–6:30 p.m.
(Informal Remarks by Mare at 5:30 p.m.)
Collins Library
August 21, 2017 – January 19, 2018.
Mare Made, spans over 4 decades of the work of local artist Mare Blocker. Teacher, mentor, writer, illustrator, printer and book artist, Mare Blocker’s work incorporates wit, humor, personal reflection and commentary about our world using a variety of techniques, formats and materials. In her own words: “In 1979, I made my first trip to the Special Collections Library at the University of Washington, which literally, changed the pathway of my life. I realized that one form, the book, could encompass my interdisciplinary passions. This was my epiphany, and I have been a book artist 
since. I purchased my first printing press, a Vandercook 219 and founded the MKimberly Press in 1984. Teaching affords me the opportunity to print with my students, while teaching them to print. Our exchanges have informed my work, and added another layer to my interdisciplinary practice. I like to think of the lab as a contemporary medieval workshop. When everyone is working, and the presses are running, there is a feeling of community that is magical. Nothing can prepare you for that first proof, that alchemical moment of turning lead into words on a finely printed page. I feel honored to be able to pass this tradition on.”
Collins Library is honored to showcase the career of Mare Blocker in this retrospective exhibition that runs through January showcasing her early work as well as the most recent project My Beloved Community Dictionary Project. For this project Mare invited 200 of her closet friends to contribute a 6 x 8 linoleum block of a single word that will be woven together to form a community quilt of words. According to Mare, “I have always been drawn to illustrated dictionaries. I love their little pictures, charts and lists of cities and places. I’ve been contemplating a dictionary project for years, and now that I have my power press up and running smoothly, it’s time to jump into it.” Mare received her M.F.A., University of Idaho, 2006 and her B.F.A, in Ceramic Sculpture, University of Washington, 1982. She is a member of the faculty of Pacific Lutheran University and serves as an Assistant Professor of Art and Design. She teaches classes in the art of the book and printmaking and was instrumental in established the Thornily Printing Center at PLU last spring. She is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades and you can read more about her work by visiting her blog site.
The Collins Memorial Library search tool Primo is getting an upgrade in early August as part of a collaborative regional effort by the Orbis Cascade Alliance, the Pacific Northwest consortium of academic libraries that also delivers the popular resource sharing program Summit. The library’s Primo search box on the library home page will have a new look based on feedback from focus groups.
Benefits of the new search tool include:
object n. object v. by Diane Jacobs. (http://23sandy.com)
Diane Jacobs has been making artist’s books under her imprint Scantron Press for 20 years. Her work is held in distinguished collections including The Getty Museum, SFMOMA, and the Walker Art Center, among others. She holds an MFA in printmaking from San Francisco State University and has taught book arts and letterpress printing in the Bay Area, at the Oregon College of Art & Craft, and in the Women’s Studio Workshop’s own Summer Art Institute.
