Even if some of the participants were noticeably showing the effects of a late Saturday night on the town, the second day of the 3rd Dawson Daily News Print & Publishing Symposium has been just as busy — and exciting — as the opening Saturday.
John Steins’ repeat of the Wood Block Printmaking workshop had even more enrollees, with a wide variety of concepts and designs being executed. Never have so many been so happy to get ink on their hands, as the workshoppers proudly took away the black-and-white prints of their finished woodcuts.
Borrowing the gallery room, current and former Berton House Writers-In-Residence Anik See and Dan Dowhal gave a seminar called Make Your Print Leap Off the Page, which was well received. Since both have design experience in addition to their writing endeavours, they talked about how editing and good design can take text from being average to being exceptional, and discussed some of the advantages and options for creative self-printing.
Meanwhile Rebekah Miller directed a Community Quilt project that saw participants collaborate on the creation of distinct squares telling their individual stories in order to form a larger quilted work. Often running outside to do sun printing, Rebekkah’s group’s work combined printmaking, photography, and fibre mediums.
A number of other ongoing projects took shape over the day. Marc Bell’s project, A War With Paper, saw him produce a booklet comprised of altered and/or collaged printed materials. In addition to meticulously cutting up, rearranging, and modifying existing printed matter into new, unique content, Marc supplemented the work with his own hand-drawn (and hand-cut and printed) cartoons .
Labouring nearby in the lobby of the heritage Dawson Daily News building, which is lent to the symposium by Parks Canada, Amy Ball and Elif Saydam saw their ongoing Patina Overhang project near completion. The duo has actually been working on their concept for over three weeks, as they conducted a series of writing workshops with guided, site-specific exercises around Dawson. Over the weekend Amy and Elif have been combining the various submissions, and handcrafting the physical container for the finished journal.
Ashoona Ashoona also drew an impromptu crowd as he finished his weekend’s carving and produced the first printed proofs from the stone plate. Throughout it all, Peter Braune has been a multifaceted multitasker, assisting the participants with their materials and processes, helping to produce a variety of prints, and generally lending his experience and knowledge.
Paul Henderson has kept an open studio throughout the weekend, producing and facilitating a collaborative publication that documents and responds to the symposium. (Paul also found time to do another live interview for CFYT 106.9 FM, this time speaking with Marc Bell.)
All the ongoing projects will have their big reveal tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the symposium’s wrap-up presentation. More on that in the next blog post.
— Danny D.
