At the Women's Studio Workshop P.2
Intaglio
1200 sq. ft. studio space
(2) 30" x 50" Charles Brand Presses
18" x 22" viscosity rollers
a separately ventilated acid room
a hot plate
flexible shaft rotary tool
Papermaking
1000 sq. ft. studio space
(2) 1 1/2 pound Hollander beaters
30" X 40" hydraulic press
vats up to 22" x 28"
4' x 6' custom stainless steel vacuum table
4' x 8' screens for poured sheets
a variety of moulds and deckles
Screenprinting
900 sq. ft. studio space
a range of screens up to 3' x 4'
power washer
photo facilities for images up to 30" x 40"
32 linear feet of textile printing surface
and squeegees from 4" to 34"
Printshops
11" x 18" Chandler and Price Platen Press
14" x 20" Vandercook Proof Press
a variety of lead typefaces
20" guillotine cutter
vacuum platemaker
Multilith 1250
Photographic Darkrooms
4 enlargers - 35mm to 4 x 5 negatives
separate finishing room
dry mount facilities
20" x 24' copy camera
photostat processor
Clay
1500 sq. ft. studio space
(2) electric kilns - 5 Cu. Ft. and 6.5 Cu. Ft.
raku kiln
pit fire
treadle wheel
(5) kick wheels
(5) electric wheels
(2) slab rollers
pug mill
glaze lab
It was in the beautiful semi woods, with a ruins and oven/caves and an old railroad bed, right down the trail from WSW.
I was finishing the thought, the arc of intention from my show in Chicago of glass and paper shields. While I believe I realized what I wanted in the glass shields, I thought I had more to express and explore in paper.
I think it will be a lifelong recurring theme.
I've written about my intention. My meanings are about healing and protection. it's on my web site and in my artist statement but I'll cut and paste here:
"Shield is the making and the telling and the creation of a thing which works. These are shields. They are artifacts that serve the purpose to protect, defend, spare, heal, and cover.
I made them because they are what I, as a nonparent but loving aunt and godmother have to offer. I didn't create these incredible gifted manifestations of light that illuminate my life, but I can helps by assisting in shielding them. How through the motive force of prayer, desire and action that they thrive. By being there to make it happen, as others were for me.
Shield is homage. The dream like steel in my soul, the hidden automatic, the incredibly deft programming that two children of the Africa to West Indies Diaspora did to their first born. I remain grateful that there is not much I wanted or needed to undo, such an expansive foundation the strength clarity and joy of which shielded me for over 40 years from the incessant and unremitting attacks on the very nature of my being, I can best honor the gift and insight by passing it on, by also shielding the Homo novis."
One of the wonderful rituals was potluck lunch. Each weekday, everyone brings something and the interns, warm, heat, arrange the offerings.
Since it was warm nearly everyday I was there, we ate on the back deck in the sunshine. This was particularly touching for me, who has now spent most of my life eating alone. It was joyous to have access to an array of food that I did not prepare.
I had read bout this potluck and so had emptied my garden before departure and had brought 3 bags of apples and another couple of bags of squashes and 4 melons from my garden. These stood me in good stead for sharing and preparing food.
Rosendale has a theater--- this two block town of 5,000 has a lovely comfy theatre and we went on Wednesday nights. Why, Wednesdays, I don't know--- it cost $5 all the days. I saw 3 films--- I disliked Tortilla Soup, a bad remake of Eat Drink Man Woman and I didn't care for, but was stirred by, the improbable American Rhapsody, disliking it more after learning it's major plot point, the return in the 60s to Bulgaria by the wild Americanized teen, was not possible. I loved and was moved by the Swedish film based on the book the Little Farm about the 40-year-old, soulful, illiterate, virgin farmer who creates the world's first personal ad.
Thanks to Anita Wetzel, the development director, I visited their ARTFARM (!!!) which is very near, but tiny windy town roads made it nearly a half hour journey, though it was 14 miles away. And yes, i told them I had the name since 1995, and Helen said there was an artists' space called artfarm in Memphis,TN.
It is also the site of a co-op. I hugged a loving tree there, met young goats with beautiful names and plucked over and underripe raspberries from 5 foot tall bushes and ate them as they were crumbling in my fingers before I could get to the bucket.
Inspired by Patricia Wilson Adams and Daniela Deeg, a graphic designer from Germany, who worked multilevel color images on silkscreen to produce her "Book of Warnings,"
i got an idea for an " artist book."
Did my first drypoint print, scratching images on an aluminum plate and then having Tonia,
one of the interns, expertly and lovingly, mash and mix sepia ink on the marble slab, then rub it assiduously on the plate, then wipe it off , then wet the paper, then make a sandwich of plate, paper and rubber blanket and roll it through a press, that looked like huge metal version of the wringers that once topped tub washing machines.
i wrote three poems and the interns letterpressed a small edition of one of them for me.
Wishing you all peace, and our world, healing,
Akua
P.S. Some year between 1985 and 1989, I met Tana Kellner at the Art Fair in Corning and bought a gorgeous handmadepaper fan, which I remember as large and dazzling. I bought it for an ex-friend who collected fans.
I remember Tana taking the time to tell me about her process and I appreciated the art so much, it was hard to part with the gift.I still possess her "card" on handmade paper, now an artifact more precious than ever.
I shared this story with her, and then with all and sundry, as I presented my first ever slide talk on my art work.
Tana Kellner and Anne Kalmbach
bring tears to my eyes and joy to my heart because they have created what few do, an institution that nurtures, presents, creates, supports, teaches, exhibits. I cherish their endeavor and their spirits. I thank them for their generosity and assistance. Bless them.
When I despair, I remember that all through history, the way of truth and love has always won. There have been murderers and tyrants, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall.
Think of it, always.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)
