Pittsburg State University's newspaper, The Collegio recently ran an article featuring this restoration! A huge thank you to Gretchen Burns for telling the story of these presses.
Restored presses moved to new home
Gretchen Burns reporter - Mikaleigh Wilson photographer
When Cat Jepson created her class and work schedules last spring to prepare for the fall, she had to schedule time that allowed her to get dirty, greasy and use muscle power.
Jepson is taking an independent-study course where she is restoring two letterpresses that sat in the basement of Axe Library.
She began her career at Pittsburg State University as a business major before becoming a biology major. It wasn’t until the fall of 2012 that Jepson found her true passion and changed her major to art.
During the fall of 2012, Jepson took the Printmaking and Paper Arts course in the art department and fell in love with all aspects of printing and officially changed her degree.
“Between that fall and the following fall, I became interested in letterpress printing and discovered a letterpress in the (printmaking) studio,” said Jepson, senior in art.
Last fall, Jepson restored a letterpress that had sat in the printmaking studio of Porter Hall for years. Jepson worked through her previous independent study as an extension and personal exploration of art instructor Portico Bowman’s printmaking course.
“I found out we had a press that wasn’t being used and I was like, ‘Can I fix it?’” she said, laughing. “My goal for fixing up these presses isn’t just for my own use. My hope is that they can be used in classes some day again.”
She submitted a proposal to the chair of the art department.
During spring 2014, she successfully restored the Vandercook No. 2 Proof Press successfully, even stripping the paint down to metal and putting a new topcoat of clear paint.
During the summer of 2014, Jepson interned at Skylab Letterpress, where she learned about and assisted with all aspects of commercial/production letterpress.
“The beauty of how I’ve approached college is that with art, you can do anything,” Jepson said.
When she returned to PSU that fall, she used her knowledge of the letterpress to embark on an independent study so that she could use the press and experiment. An open-to-the-public celebration was held in the department so that Jepson could talk about her journey with the letterpress and give a demo to those who attended.
The following spring, her boyfriend texted her a picture of two letterpresses sitting in an unused room on the backside of Axe Library. She and Bowman contacted Library Dean Randy Roberts, who told the women that the presses had sat in that room since the 1990s and granted them permission to bring them back to life.
Jepson attended and participated in the Research Colloquium where she presented her letterpress research, documenting the steps she had taken and what she had learned.
Bowman submitted grant proposals to Pittsburg State University, citing an article from The Economist website that showed letterpress printing was making a comeback.
On the website Etsy, there are 33,154 different letterpress artists alone who sell their wares and pieces.
According to the article, ‘The renaissance of printing well pressed,’ computers pushed cast-iron presses and drawers of lead type to storerooms, where they sat until taken to scrap metal yards and dump sites.
“I like how the author of this article said that younger people are becoming more aware of letterpress because they are facing ‘digital fatigue,’ and want to get their hands dirty in a hands-on experience,” Bowman said. “This is a form of art that most people had forgotten about in order to become one with the digital world.”
The grants were accepted through Pitt State from the Office of Graduate and Continuing Studies as a form of continuing Bowman’s research. Two grants were awarded, $2,000 to repair the presses, and $1,000 to Jepson for her time and effort.
Once Jepson restores the two letterpresses that have been moved from the Axe to the second floor of Porter Hall, she will teach a two-week class on letterpress to the printmaking students in November. She will film herself doing the tutorials so that they may be used for later classes after she graduates.
“The letterpress can attract a lot more students than just printmakers,” said Bowman. “We could get illustration students, drawing and even graphic information technology students interested in this.”
Here's a link to the article on the Collegio website:http://www.psucollegio.com/news/restored-presses-moved-to-new-home/article_55d2328a-7343-11e5-9a33-4bfbbb9120f3.html
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