Press Notes--She Has Neither

The first run and the various red swatches. Below, the rollers
being inked for the run.

Boxcar Press, the printer who is made the photopolymer plate and printed She Has Neither is in Syracuse, NY.  I went there to be on press a few days before my artist talk at Ft Tilden.

Prior, they had sent a few samples of the different reds they have available, with their PMS equivalents, as well as papers they have that would work well with my piece.

You might ask why I went to Syracuse when there are so many presses--letterpress is so hot right now--in NYC--especially in Brooklyn. The reason is that for my piece has a very large plate that has to be run on a cylinder press, not a platten press. I also needed a press that would be accustomed to run a small edition, so Boxcar, which prints thousands of wedding invitations for clients around the country, was the perfect fit.

The bus ride takes you through Pennsylvania, and you get to see all the factory towns hard hit by unemployment. Syracuse is built up since it's a university town with several medical schools and their surrounding medical centers. Remnants of their manufacturing history remains as freight trains and trestles are ubiquitous.

Boxcar is a large operation with many presses, as I wrote in a previous post. Yet, the place has a homey style to it, and while in New York State, the feel is definitely kind and polite, like being in the Mid-West.

My pressrun was quick; I was picky about the registration since the shapes of the image and the type are critical to one another. After a tour of the place, I was on the bus home, with my cardboard package under my arm.

Sweet Home Alabama

Last week was a tough one.

While it's not surprising that Alabama's male congress would vote yes on the most restrictive abortion policy in the nation, effectively overturning RvW, it's a disgrace that the state's governor, a woman, signed the bill.

"She has neither". 15 x 22" 2-color
letterpress print from polymer plate.

I come from a life that respected the tenets of Catholicism. I practice weakly, but strive to be compassionate, understanding, charitable and helpful. Lots of things could have gotten me further in my everyday life that I just won't do. I'm no goody-two-shoes, but I don't hurt anyone. Not intentionally, anyway.

However, when it comes to a woman's right to choose, I have to go against what the Church wants for the rest of the nation and place myself firmly in the Pro-Choice category. Needing a procedure is a private and painful choice to make. It shouldn't be made more painful by people who don't know you or your circumstances.

A significant number of women who need the procedure are in fact mothers of families who do not have the ability to add another family member. And while insensitive anti-abortionists cruelly slap the term "inconvenience" to those having late-term abortions, no woman--none--enters that procedure without something very wrong going on with either her body or her child's.

The Pro-Choice/Pro-Life issue is one of female oppression. It's easy to call yourself "reformed" after two or more abortions and fight for others not to have one. Being Pro-Life is easy with social support and economic prosperity: If something doesn't go as planned, you can get what you need by going to another state--like New York--for a "theatre weekend". But, how about being Pro-Woman for a change, and allow women to choose what's safe for their bodies and their lives?