Open Studio - May 1

Join us in person or in spirit on May 1st 6-10 pm as we open our studio to celebrate three new letterpress editions.

the Forest Drive, which was completed earlier this year is a collection of poems by Sophia Kidd, Jackson Wheeler, Desiree Morales, Brynn Saito and John Charles Shippey interspersed with typographic images created by Cameron Leggett and printer's blocks of yore.

Windfall which is currently being sewn is an edition of poems by Erin M. Bertram, the winner of our First Lettre Sauvage Poetry Contest. The poems are marvelous and the cover art is a hand-carved wood cut by John Charles Shippey. We are currently folding, collating, sewing by hand. See me dragging a piece of bone over a folded sheet.

The beautiful broadside of Kim Andrews' poem "As in Nowhere, No-One" features an interesting take on the "sandragraph" print process. Genevieve had a geometric concept that I rendered using scraps of waste polymer stuck to a clean linoleum block. Kim was the braodside winner of our poetry contest.

May 1 marks the deadline for entering the Second Lettre Sauvage Poetry Contest. Hopefully a few entries will be hand-delivered. We're looking forward to all the poetry in store for us.

Our open studio parties are opportunities to show our work, demonstrate our presses and provide a backdrop for creative friends. In the past, our backyard has been transformed into a theater, our living room into a disco and our basement into an experimental noise happening. The photo below of our tarp/screen taken by John Nichols of the local gallery conjures memorable parties past.

Yma's art sale

Yma has been hosting an art sale this weekend in the front yard of the Lettre Sauvage studio. She is selling drawings of various sizes, and has also taken this opportunity to sell some toys and housewares. When I arrived to print this weekend, she greeted me at the car and convinced me to buy some of the work.

Yma's artwork has long been an inspiration for us at the studio. She's learned about printing from her parents and creates strikingly original work. We've also included some of her poems in the zine, brick. There are times when words seem to just spill out of her with tremendous poetic force. Just last week she said to us, "What do you know? Pomegranates can be secrets."

I'm particularly fond of this drawing. It demonstrates an unusual amount of restraint and shows how Yma is aware of the borders of the paper. The color choices, alternating between strong and soft tones, work so well with the smudging and blurring that are otherwise occurring in the piece.

When I asked Yma to sign her piece, she was at first confused and insisted that I sign it, since I would be the work's owner. I am impressed with her willingness to let go of her objects, to release them into the world without names or titles or figurative reference to cling to. It is a good lesson for artists of any age.

NEGATIVE SKY Book Release Party Tonight

Tonight we're hosting a book release party for Genevieve Yue's NEGATIVE SKY, a hard-bound collection of eight poems and essays based on a set of photographs found in a Taos, New Mexico novelty shop. The book was hand-sewn and printed by Lettre Sauvage Editions.

All are welcome! The gathering will be at the Lettre Sauvage studio, from 7-10 PM. We'll hear electronic tonalities by Opal Gann and watch 16mm films in the backyard movie theater, including Merkin's THE PAIN OF GOATS and other surprises. There will be wine, fire, and friendship.

NEGATIVE SKY is also available for purchase.

the party

was so successful it took us 13 days to tell you about it! my god, there were so many hot girls and brilliant films screened in cameron's creative back yard projection-en-scene. naked three foot high plastic dolls, or a leg only, strewn about the property, handsome french wine-makers who talk about wittgenstein on vintage couches.

oh come along now, you should have been there! not just in house when dept. was rocking the spanish adobe print up imagination, liquid gel projections on our living room's inner walls. odd bulbs, colors, in each of the globe lamps. globe or some other shape more parabolic...ok, not just dept's incredible mix and progression of beats,...you should have been there, too,

when sophia kidd performed,
spoken word scribe, off the page (is recitation a lost art?), she explained how al gorisma brought zero from india to the muslim world and then to europe via moor encampments in spain...it went well, with interruptions that were so glandular, we all thought saturn had gone rhomboid (your author's been reading a titular lot of ezra lb.)


kameron and ceith

(keith ok)

rocked out of water in the basement studio, composed into psychic states from the ethers...many filmmakers were present to witness and document these two's wizardly states with a theramin (sp?) and odd casio intruments, instrument kinds and fucked up circuitry. scuze me for wearing skirts on this one, guys...i only know the sound you put forth stimulated me in ways i kuldn't keep b track of.

Geneveive spoke moments of truth, whispered with her eyes, from the next vortex, she was calm, bringing with her alan d. glass II, who hooked up a posse of mongolian horsemen to take him across the gobi desert, filmed it. we were so lucky. that guy drinks a glass of water with every cup of joe he drinks...never met a more sober genius.

and this part i nearly can't talk bout, is the heidelberg press that cameron got going, and going well. after performing, for about 25 minutes around 7:30, cameron hung out for a few of ken's video projections. then he did the unthinkable. he went into the garage and chugged up the heidelberg

and commenced printing a huge job and printed until one in the morning. after that, the ink and cleaning, after gen left.

there's so much else about the party you should know...people who were there, deals that were struck, minds...but ah's outta hea...maybe more later.

you know tho that the most important thing or person of all was fiona.

she reigned queen. she was the queen of the party. and yma, oh i'm gonna start crying when i think about how she handled that whole party. so damn regal.

lovely

(in case you din' notice by now, sophia kidd wrote this)

open studio party tonight!

1310 Forest Drive
Santa Paula, CA

6-10 PM

backyard screenings
electronic tonalities
an unstoppable press

crank the machine!

If you're in the area earlier in the day, you may also want to stop by the John Nichols Gallery for the opening of "Working in the Canyons," from 4-6 PM at 916 E. Main St., Santa Paula.

Open Studio

We’re having our first party!
All Lettre Sauvage print work will be on display. There will be demonstrations of our equipment and the opportunity to print greeting cards.

Entertainment includes Opal Gann’s electronic tonalities, Sophia Kidd’s performance art and possibly some film screenings.

Jean Benoit, wine maker at Casa Baranca, will host the vin.

All are welcome. Please stop by and power our machines with your regards.