BROTHERS
Letterpress printing, pressure printing, digital printing
4.5 x 5.75"
Edition of 6

The book “Brothers” deals with the ephemeral nature of close human relationships. Through the imagery of silhouettes and cast shadows along with the accompanying text, the book contemplates the duality of absence and presence in the feelings that surround memories of important people in my life.  While the hand cut silhouettes of old friends speak to absence, the text lists concrete objects that are physical remnants of a person who has left my life.

“Brothers” was created through a process of pressure printing and polymer plate letterpress printing mixed with digital printing and photographic imagery bound into a sculptural structure.

 

A DIARY OF DAYS (Honorable Mention)
Pamphlet binding with decorative sewing. Images are Sandragraph and linoleum; the handwriting is printed from photopolymer plates. Text is handset Baskeville metal types on Mohawk Superfine. Covers are flax UICB Case Paper.
7 x 5"
Edition of 25

With text compiled from the diary of an Iowa farmwife, this book explores the narratives projected on found objects and the growing nostalgia for Midwestern farm life. Found at a property auction, the diary contains 14 years of a woman’s life—from 1939 to 1953—in brief entries. A Diary of Days pulls poetry out of these entries, locating themes and beauty in the writer’s plain, domestic language. Direct excerpts of the diary in the form of images of handwriting are printed alongside the culled text set in metal type. As A Diary of Days progresses, the handwriting appears to be erased by time or overshadowed by the imposed narrative of a modern-day reader.

 

BURROWING
Digital and letterpress printed from photopolymer plates on Somerset paper with pop-up elements.
4.125 x 3.5"
Edition of 9

The concept for this piece titled “Burrowing”, deals with the relationship I have with my son.  The first book in this two volume set edition discusses a feeling of being drained by the demands of motherhood. I am using images of my own ceramic works as a metaphor for my body. The text in relation to the images represents the symbiotic relationship of mother and child. The second book illustrates the struggle I feel while attempting to balance the time I need to myself and the time I spend with my son, and the fear of losing my bond with him in the process.

REACHING
handmade paper sheets with pulp painting and line bleeds, letterpress printed, housed in a handmade paper folio with pulp painting on the interior.
7 x 5"
Edition of 5

Reaching discusses the feeling of being pulled under by the demands of motherhood. In this piece I use the roots of a mangrove tree as a metaphor for myself. The text, in blue, suggests the surface of the water.

ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE MOON (Honorable Mention)
Handmade book with stiff leaf binding, pyrographed wood cover, digital and hand-painted water color combination.
19.5 x 8.5"
Edition of 1

 

SANCTIFICATION
Rives BFK, Masa, Assorted handmade papers from Nepal. Handset type. Letterpress Printed.
3 x 3 x 1"
Edition of 10

I grew up in a small, southern California town with a lot of fruit trees. I’ve always been interested in fruit as a symbol of love and experience. The red of the pomegranate, and the seeds crammed inside are a vision to me of love, of hope, of faith. Especially the kind of moments of love, hope and faith that bind a marriage together—and make the individual more holy. The structural text of the poem is pulled in pieces from the outside of the book, while pieces of auxiliary text exist in the hollows of the star-shaped center.

 

ELEGY FOR THE WILD AT HEART (Honorable Mention)
Letterpress printed with micro-density fiberboard and photopolymer plates. Accordion structure.
4 x 5.75 (closed); 4 x 32" (open)
Edition of 35

Elegy for the Wild at Heart is a playful look at the truths that people squeeze from each other as they flee from various forms of love and commitment. In this narrative, a herd of deer are speaking to each other, repeating the break-up lines and excuses that they have seemingly overheard from their human counterparts.

 

MIGRATION: A FIELD GUIDE TO LOVE THAT WAS AND MIGHT HAVE BEEN
Letterpress printed with carved polymer plates. All papers are handmade by the artist.
5.5 x 8"
Edition of 45

Written and illustrated by Lauren Faulkenberry, Migration is comprised of two narratives. One is a collection of anecdotal stories that allude to romantic encounters that the narrator experienced or imagined. The other is based on observations of bird behavior that mirror the habits of the narrator. The result is a tongue-in-cheek look at the patterns that emerge between the speaker and her avian counterparts.

 

GALVANIZE
Letterpress printed with woodcut reductions, printed on a single 18” x 24” sheet that collapses to 6” x 6”.
6 x 6" (closed)
Edition of 70

Based on the mythology of the Greek Furies, and the vengeance they sought for women who were wronged, this text explores how this vengeance might be manifested in what we perceive as love. Galvanize questions if we, as people in love, may bring this on ourselves as a form of self-destruction.

 

COUPLED VOICES (Honorable Mention)
Watermark, pulp painting, line bleeding, and letterpress printed text on handmade paper, encased in a handmade paper portfolio.
5 x 7"
Edition of 5

Coupled Voices, the first piece in a suite of two, records the moment when I met my father and the short-lived time thereafter. We are each represented by a piece of string, both of which come together to form knots that correspond to a particular occasion, but I specifically chose to incorporate the fisherman’s knot to symbolize my desire for our relationship to become impossible to untie. The iridescent spots in the background are abstracted views of the spots from the coat of a whitetail fawn deer. They represent my timidness when it comes to repairing my dysfunctional relationship with my father.

 

FORSAKEN SUBSTRUCTURE
Watermark, pulp painting, line bleeding and letterpress printed text on handmade paper, hand-marbled papers, housed in a clamshell box.
8.5 x 5.75"
Edition of 13

Forsaken Substructure uses cracked terrain, which represents the unstable foundation my relationship with my father began on, to portray the preclusion of a bond with him. The topographical mapping is a metaphor for the peak moments I had with my father and also references the water that revives the nutrient-lacking, cracked ground. The beginning of our bond and a constructive relationship is symbolized by the girder, which abruptly ends and causes the situation between us to reach a point of complete neglect.

CORD
Accordion structure, hand-cut inkjet prints with decorative sewing on Arches cover paper; commercial bookcloth on cover with handmade polymer plate imprint.
3.25 x 3.25 x 0.5"
Edition of 15

Cord chronicles the life span of an autumn leaf as winter slowly drains it of vibrant pigment. The leaves are hand-cut pigment inkjet prints of digitally scanned leaves. Decorative hand sewing spells out the text of the book, stitches the leaves to the accordion, and visually links the sequence. The cord attempts to connect and repair, but in the transience of life, sometimes things break and fray beyond mending.

 

ROMANTIC
Handmade paper, letterpress printing, & clamshell box. Techniques include pulp painting, line bleeding, and watermark.
9.5 x 6.5 x 1.5"
Edition of 13

This piece focuses on the habit of romanticizing personal experiences. The artist used imagery that is present in multiple popular fairy tales in order to relate to a larger audience. The text of the piece is from the Grimm’s Fairy Tales, interspersed with the artist’s own words.

 

•• 3rd PLACE WINNER ••

CAMEO
Digital printing, letterpress, & pressure printing.
5 x 5"
Edition of 5

This work deals with the idea of losing a close relative. In Cameo I express grievance for the passing of my grandmother in a linear progression of memories and mementos from my time with her. The memories, however deeply impressed upon the pages, are fleeting shadows as time progresses. In Silhouette (see following page), my grandmother’s shadow and mine are repeated, occasionally making it difficult to trace which shadow belongs to whom. My memory of her life has ultimately impacted the individual I have become.