y’all, has it ever.

So far this has been a strange school-year for me, getting caught in between BUSYBUSYBUSY and dull moments of trying to figure out what to do next.

I did promise myself though that I would post about speaking about community interaction through travel at the 2011 Alliance of Artistic Communities conference. I discussed my roadtrip, of course, as a way to explore a community that I otherwise mainly interact with on the internet. You’re probably familiar with this (since you’re reading my website and all), but, I also found three other Book & Paper interested artists who have taken up travel as part of their practice, and I’d like to introduce them to you. :)

The first fellow traveling book artists I found were Peter and Donna Thomas, who write about their experiences at Adventures of the Wandering Book Artists. These two artists started out their practice by doing hand papermaking demos at Ren Faires and craft fairs, which is where their love for the gypsy wagon they travel in developed. So in 2010, they spent two-third of the year traveling to over 35 states, teaching and visiting art centers along the way!

The next person I digitally-”ran into” was book artist Simon Goode, who came over from the UK to the US to visit book arts centers–he’s looking to open the first book arts center in London. He blogs (posting photographs and writings) about his travels here at Simon Goes, and I narrowly missed him when he came to visit Columbia College’s Center for Book and Paper Arts. awwh. :\ maybe next time, right?

Finally, there is Kyle Durrie of the Moveable Type Truck, and whom my last post was halfway about. She’s still traveling the country, showing off the goodies of letterpress, and she also just visited my dear friend Rachel at Green Pea Press in Alabama! I’m still excited about it, even though it was a month ago and of course here I was in Chicago.

ever onwards~

how’s everyone doing out there?
I know it’s been a hot minute, but there’s been a lot of fun (and sorta-fun) things going on in my life:

we hosted our own couchsurfers for the first time (!!!) during the 2011 Chicago Couchcrash (and we loved having you, Nick and Rudy!)

Matt and I with one of our 'surfers, Nick

We didn’t get to go to a ton of events, but let me tell you, the ones we did make it to had the most welcoming and friendly people I’ve ever met. Where else could you find 150 people at a party, 95% who have never met each other before, half of whom don’t even live in the state, and everyone having a fabulous time?
There’s really something here about generosity building community.

Then classes started, which means thesis. Ah yes, that word that inspires so much creativity and dread. Who knew it would be so hard to write about my thesis proposal in under 150 words?

And, last but not least, last weekend I visited the Renegade Craft Fair, a now-international DIY craft market that started here in Chicago in 2003.
I was merely wandering around finding cute things (like these gems)

until we stumbled across…dun dun dun…Moveable Type! I wish I had gotten a better picture, but if you’ve ever been to Renegade, you know it was packed–but that’s a good (even great!) thing. :)

I had heard about Kyle Durrie’s traveling letterpress project (yup–another traveling member of the bookarts world!) and knew she was hovering around the Great Lakes area, but didn’t know she’d be here!
Squee!

visitor printing, Kyle on the right

I only got to geek out for a minute over her travel maps

before I got to use her proof press to make my own Chicago-themed Moveable Type print

ILSSA print from 2010's Printers Ball on top, Moveable Type print on bottom

thank you so much for coming to Chicago Kyle! I wish you the best on your travels. Happy printing!