The second day of the 4th Dawson Daily News Print & Publishing Symposium saw the weekend’s ongoing projects hitting their stride. Rainy weather outside also helped to bring passersby inside to check out the works in progress and join in the workshops. One of the advantages of mechanical technology became obvious when the power went out in the DDN building, but the old-fashioned presses and hand-crafted creations kept rolling along.
Emily Davidson, from Halifax, continued on the second day of a new project called Alphabet Soup: Queering A to Z. When completed, this alphabet book expands the LGBTQ acronym, pushing for inclusion for all marginalized genders, sexualities, orientations, and queer identities. The project forwards the idea that even the most hated slurs can be reclaimed and celebrated by young and old queers alike.
Another ongoing project has been two custom comics being produced by Edmonton’s Jill Stanton. Jill has been enrolling visitors to collaborate on a mini comic/zine using an Exquisite Corpse Comix narrative building technique, which generates similarly weird imagery and spacey narratives. Jill drew the first four pages of the comic, and then a chain was created where each new contributor views only the previous four pages, continuing until the comic is completed. The comic is then photocopied and transformed into a simple take-home zine.
Local artist Mathias MacPhee joined the symposium crew, working on a hand-carved woodcut for block printing some illustrations for The Riverside Reader, a small publication of local writings. Being painstakingly produced on an old hand-operated letterpress that resides in the building, the Reader is an example of traditional printing craftsmanship.
Vancouver master printer Peter Braune is back for his fourth symposium, helping to explain various printmaking techniques to visitors, and providing expert assistance to the ongoing open studio projects. Peter has been involved with from the beginning, and has also been the driving force behind restoration of the vintage Chandler & Price Letterpress that resides in the Dawson Daily News building. He is especially pleased — and a little amazed — to see the venerable press being used again for printing materials.
