Our Boxcar Talks over the past year have showcased letterpress studios from all over. But there’s nothing quite like Pangnirtung, a small community of 900 people on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic, and there’s no one quite like Jenn Robins, who took our Boxcar Plates with her during her Artist in Residence under the northern lights. Jenn, alongside a translator speaking Inuktitut to the Inuit print and textile artists, gave presentations and demos on many forms of printmaking. Jenn has shared her incredible journey and work with us.
Jenn got into printmaking, studying under Mary McCullough, at Okanagan University College. Due to some health issues she studied for 10 years – one course at a time! On her wish list was to see the light of the North, the blue spectrum. After a few trips to the western arctic, she built friendships and became enamored with the land of the North. She completed a 6-week artist in residency in the Uqqurmiut print studio in Pangnirtung, in the Eastern Arctic, where the Inuit artists are known for their exceptional original prints.
Jenn does not claim to be a letterpress printer. She is a visual artist whose work consists of various forms of intaglio and relief printing; her unique contribution to the printmaking world is her explorations of printing and embossing on various metals, using a variety of ink viscosities and the etching press.
Jenn Robins
Left - shop aprons; right - Jolli & Eva (fellow artists) with a pulled print
Spring---enough sunshine to expose outside
May workshop
Left - Josia, a fellow printmaker (and really great person); right - the shop
Top - Cape Dorset & Inlet; Middle - Cape Dorset community; Bottom - Cape Dorset Sunset
Her teaching in the Arctic had to be resourceful with only small amounts of supplies and ink available. Our Boxcar Plates were used as intaglio plates – they are made of thin metal, with a photopolymer surface – and she remarks on how they are a versatile plate, greatly used in a variety of image-making options such as photogravure and relief printing.
One of Jenn's inked plates
The equipment was limited, but was used with fantastic results. Jenn’s homemade miniature UV light box with a tiny 4†x 4†range, and our supply of photopolymer plates enabled her to create several hand-pulled prints and also to give demonstrations of this process to the printmakers and textile artists of Uqqurmiut. Jenn also took the simplest of styrofoam plates created by the textile artists and turned them into exquisite little aquatint hand-pulled prints, using Boxcar plates. Jenn proves that with a lot of hard work and imagination, possibilities are endless.
Temp lightbox assemby - photo etching
Temp burner unit in action
Temp UV light system 6x4 - post exposure
Temp contact plate for photo etch
Jenn teaches at the local colleges, VCA and VISA, and continues to give workshops at the University of Victoria. She’s planning on heading North again, as soon as the chance arises. There will be an exhibition of her work with several pieces created using our Boxcar Plates, alongside her fellow artists, this fall. To read more about Jenn, her experience and a look at many more photos, please visit her website.
Our practice of donating letterpress paper to local art programs and schools has become one of the most rewarding things we do, and it never goes unappreciated by the kids who benefit. Recently, we received a visit from a local teacher whose students used the donated paper to create books that they then read to children in the local area. The visit was a happy reminder of why we do what we do to help the kids in and around Syracuse.
As show of their appreciation for our recent donation, the seventh grade students at Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse made us our own book full of their praise and thanks. Each student wrote us a personal, heartfelt and touching letter. The book is absolutely one of the coolest things we’ve ever seen. It’s awesome for us to know that our donation touched these kids and that, in turn, the stories they wrote, the books they made and the time they spent with younger students, touched even more kids in a positive way.
One student wrote, “Dear Boxcar Press, Thank you for letting us use your paper. We got to touch many hearts with the books we provided for the children…”
Thank you, to the students of Jenny Albicelli’s seventh grade English class. We are so happy you enjoyed the paper and so grateful for your gift to us.
Speaking of the wonders of children’s artwork — some of you know that Boxcar Press has a Boxcar Baby, and we’re pretty laid back about parental things. We are totally okay to have the Boxcar Baby grow up to be whatever person he wants to be — though ideally, that person would be a creative, artistic, kind, adventurous artist who loves travel and hiking and letterpress printing too. It’s true, we bought crayons for our little one when he was 3 months old and then wondered – why isn’t he coloring? So we’re thrilled that, at 25 months old, he is drawing everywhere — on magazines, sometimes in books (ugh!), on paper, on chalk boards, in coloring books, on sidewalks. He even is enrolled in his very first art class! We’re totally unbiased, but we do think everything he makes is brilliant. I mean, look at those lines! Those color choices! There are few things as joyful as 2 year olds making Art.
Several times a year, Boxcar Press donates some of our letterpress paper to the local public schools & local art teachers. It’s one of our favorite days ever, where we get to help out cool local teachers dedicated to art & children….so when we received this email message and photos about our paper donation — well, it just made our year.
“Thank you so very much for all of the supplies your company donated to MOYA, The Museum of Young Art and also to Chestnut Hill Elementary School. Attached are photos of the museum space and the artwork created on your papers and cardstock. The photo of the young girl working on the McCaw is a fourth grader from Chestnut Hilll. The oil pastel rendering of the chair was created at MOYA from Boxcar’s cover stock and is hanging as a permanent piece, the first in our collection. One man’s trash is another artists’ treasure! We appreciate all of your generosity, more than you could know. Happy Holidays to all at Boxcar and a heart felt thanks.” — Susan M. Fix, Executive Director, MOYA and Art Teacher at Chestnut Hill.
