UICB MFA Group Show

The 2015 graduating MFA's at the UI Center for the Book are currently showing selections from our thesis work at the K.K. Merker Gallery in the basement of North Hall. I'm proud to be a part of it—there's some pretty fantastic work by Maggie Heineman, Alexandra Janezic, Andrea Kohashi, Candida Pagan, Steph Rue, Leslie Smith, and Kalmia Strong. The reception is this Friday, May 8th from 4–6 pm.

Catholics on Display

I'm debuting a new artist's book, Catholics, as part of my MFA thesis show at the UI Center for the Book. I'll be showing work along with Alexandra Janezic at the K. K. Merker Gallery in the basement level of North Hall from April 13–17. The reception will be from 5:30–7:30 on Friday, April 17.

Both Janezic's and my work features images built and printed from metal type (see below). To learn more about Catholics, click here and here. I'll be posting more images from the book in the coming weeks.

Mission Creek Lit Crawl: BAP & Poetry magazine

Brooklyn Arts Press is collaborating with Poetry magazine for Mission Creek Festival's Lit Crawl this Friday, April 3. I'll be reading between 5–5:45 pm at NoDo Downtown along with Erika Jo Brown, Robert Fernandez, Robyn Schiff, Mary Hickman, BJ Love, and Emily Brown.

Typographic Transfiguration

I've finished printing the content for Catholics, an artist's book I'm working on at the University of Iowa Center for the Book. It is a limited-edition memoir that relates my Catholic upbringing as it interweaves several themes: Church history, pre-Christian mythology, and the places where such spiritualities resonate with twentieth-century pop culture.

One of the book's features is a series of seven communion wafers/solar crosses. These images are surrounded by Bruce Rogers–inspired frames letterpress printed from metal typographic ornaments that alchemically shift throughout the course of the book. The wafers/solar crosses animate their own narrative, a transmuting framework that comments on the book’s other threads. I also adapted the sequence into a suite of prints.

To see a post about some of the book's hand-drawn illustrations, click here. I'm excited to start binding the edition of 25 this week. Meanwhile, check out the wafer/solar cross series below.

'Intimate in detail ... wide in scope and variety'

Foreword Reviews has posted a new review of The Story of How All Animals Are Equal & Other Tales. They describe the collection's stories 'as intimate in detail as they are wide in scope and variety,' and calls them 'vignettes, hints at the lives of characters who come and go throughout the book, often while leaving an indelible mark on the reader.' You can buy the book from Small Press Distribution!

Jan/Feb Bestseller!

The Story of How All Animals Are Equal & Other Tales spent another two months on Small Press Distribution's Fiction Bestsellers list! Learn more about the book (hanging in there at lucky #13!) HERE.

This Into That

Two of my altered books are appearing in This Into That: Found Object Art, Assemblage, and Other Transformed Work, opening tonight at the Nave Gallery Annex in Somerville, MA. The Phoenix House and Tarpaulin Kingdom will be on display through March 28.

Three saints for the Caxton Club

The Caxton Club is celebrating their 120th anniversary this Wednesday, Feb 18 at the Newberry Library in Chicago. The celebration will be accompanied by a pop-up exhibit featuring artists funded by the organization. Last year the Caxton Club awarded me a grant for my artist's book-in-progress, Catholics, and the exhibit will include three drawings of saints (played by Joan Crawford and Tallulah Bankhead) I made for the project. In order from top to bottom, it's Joan of Arc, Saint Veronica, and Therese of Lisieux:

February Reading at Prairie Lights

I'm excited to read from The Story of How All Animals Are Equal & Other Tales at Prairie Lights later this month. If you're in Iowa City, come join me on Wednesday, Feb 18 at 7 pm!