— Printers Fair GUEST ARTIST for 2024 —
Pie in the Sky Press
Booth A-27
Rebecca Chamlee is a book artist, printer, writer, and bookbinder who has published innovatively designed, letterpress printed, limited-edition fine press, and artist’s books under the imprint of Pie In The Sky Press since 1986.
Her work is in prominent special and private collections throughout the U.S. and has been exhibited widely. As a self-taught naturalist, Rebecca’s artist’s books examine the intersection of her artistic and scientific interests by collecting and cataloging the natural world.
Rebecca is an associate professor at Otis College of Art and Design where she teaches bookbinding, letterpress printing, and artist’s book classes and heads the Book Arts minor program. She also holds workshops at her studio and book arts centers throughout the country.
At Low Water
As a self-taught naturalist, my work examines the intersection of my artistic and scientific interests by collecting and cataloging the natural world. I am inspired to record, interpret and celebrate nature.
My new artist's book looks back to the beginnings of my passion for exploration and observation of native species to a time when I collected sea animals gathered at low tide to bring home and live in an aquarium in my girlhood bedroom.
The main text recalls the story of filling the tank with mollusks, fish, crustaceans, echinoderms and invertebrates—anything unlucky enough to be captured by my bare hands—and the life-and-death drama that took place among the captive inhabitants. A poem, told from the viewpoint of the child in the moment of discovery, runs through the book on translucent leaves that overlay closeup images of the intertidal habitat. Field notes contain data from the year spent in the tide pools of Southern California researching and collecting images for the fourteen detailed plates of marine specimens and twelve habitat images found throughout the book.
At low water was made fifty-odd years after the events documented by Rebecca Chamlee of Pie In The Sky Press. the 10 and 12 point Deepdene and the California Old Style figures were cast by M & H Typefounders, while the 14 and 36 point Deepdene italic were cast by Swamp Press. A Nikon 7100 dslr equipped with a 60mm macro lens and a polarizing filter mounted on a monopod. The specimen images, created using photopolymer plates made by Boxcar Press, habitat spreads and handset type were letterpress printed on thick Awagami Kozo with Niyodo Kozo overlays using a Vandercook Universal III abp Press.
The standard edition, numbered 1-60, is a drum leaf sewn-board style binding, its unique gloved spine is Ginga backcloth with printed St-Armand Old Master paper covering the boards. A printed paper chemise and slipcase protect the book. 64 pages, 5x8x1inches, $800.00.
Marine Animal Prints.
This limited edition print is part of the eight native sea life print series, "Common Objects of the Seashore". This print features the Ochre Sea Star. The prints accompany the deluxe edition of "At Low Water"
printed on 100% cotton printmaking paper on our Vandercook Universal III press.
Where Stucco Meets Chaparral
Like the self-taught naturalists of the Victorian era, my recent work examines the intersection of my artistic and scientific interests by collecting and cataloging the natural world. I am inspired to record, interpret and celebrate nature.
In my new artist’s book I observe the natural world around me. Where Stucco meets Chaparral explores the trails though the sandstone formations, chaparral and oak woodlands that surround my home in an arid inland valley in Southern California and my connection to the landscape.
Where Stucco meets Chaparral is a printed herbarium of local California native plants with stories of local and natural history and personal observation gathered during many years of daily walks. Detailed images of seven indigenous plants are letterpress printed in multiple colors in tight registration through their seasonal life cycles that contrast hand-carved representations of the environmental context where they prevail.
Special Edition, numbered 26 - 60, each signature consists of a folio of custom abaca paper by Katie MacGreagor wrapped around a Somerset book wove folio with a quarto-folded sheet of handmade kozo forming the center spread. The books are longstitched sewn with waxed hand-dyed linen thread through a cover of rough heavyweight Twinrocker unbleached abaca. The spine is reinforced with a folded piece of green goat parchment. A bone button wrapped with a braid of linen thread forms the closure. 96 pages, 6 x 9 x 1 inches. 40 copies are offered at $750.00.
Giant: a deity with leaves
A huge Valley oak has stood in Corriganville Regional Park for over 400 years. This is the story of how, on countless visits for more than twenty years, the great oak has become a cherished and prominent presence in my daily life. I have experienced the old tree as its leaves undergo seasonal changes and finally drop to cover the ground. I have watched season after season as spring flowers give way to plumb acorns. Beside the imposing tree, just outside its broad canopy, vulnerable seedlings have appeared and grown into sturdy saplings.
The letterpress printing was done on the Vandercook Universal III power press using Centaur and Arrighi type, cast by M & H Type Foundry and Swamp Press, wood French Clarendon and photopolymer plates on Zerkall Book Wove, handmade Kitakata and Korean Hanji papers. The botanical pages are contact prints on Strathmore Aquarius II watercolor paper. The longstitch binding, sewn with hand-dyed Kinglet Cottage linen thread through a white oak spine, has a cover of contact printed and dyed handmade Indigo watercolor paper.
The standard edition is offered for sale at $850.00.
64 pages, 7.75 x 11.25 x .75 inches.
Prints of California Native Oaks
The Valley Oak grows into the largest of North American oaks. It ranges over the hot interior valleys of California where there is a water table within reach of the roots. Valley Oaks grow quickly, reaching 20 feet in 5 years, and 40 feet in 10 years, and up to 60 feet in 20 years. Mature specimens may attain an age of up to 600 years. Its thick, ridged bark is characteristic and evokes alligator hide. The sturdy trunk of the Valley oak may exceed two to three meters in diameter and its stature may approach 100 feet in height.
