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The Itinerant Printer project won’t officially kick off until 2015, but in the meantime I thought it would be wise to do few test runs at letterpress shops closer to home. Luckily, I had a few friends who were very accommodating – in this case, Mitch Cohen, the Printing and Book Arts Program Director at the Genesee Center for the Arts and Education. What a mouthful – from here on out, we’ll call them PABA and GCA. I landed at GCA PABA on December 20th and spent the day.

The GCA started in 1970 as a community art space, and it was incorporated as a 501(c)3 in 1973. It’s housed in an amazing old brick firehouse (c. 1904-1905) and features a full letterpress studio, a paper making studio, a nascent screen printing studio, a pottery studio, and a fully functioning community darkroom. Members are provided access on a monthly basis for a modest fee, and different tiers designate different levels of access.

The space at GCA PABA is clean, well-lit, and fundamentally romantic – who doesn’t love the idea of a studio in a cool firehouse with exposed brick walls and 15 ft. ceilings full of Vandercook proofing presses, a Heidelberg, a C & P, and hundreds of drawers of metal and wood type? The studio is well-organized and well-appointed, and Mitch was his calm, cool, relaxed self when I enquired about using the space.

Perusing the collection that Mitch has acquired and curated since PABA was established in 2005 was exciting, but daunting. I quickly realized that I wanted to print hundreds of things, not just one. I realized my main task during The Itinerant Printer tour was not going to be printing; it was going to be choosing what to print. I decided to keep things simple and selected a number of lower-case gs from the more idiosyncratic drawers of wood type and laid them out in a forme. I pared that idea down even more, and simply went with two gs overprinted in 3 colors: yellow, purple, and fluorescent pink (how could I resist?).

The conversation was easy, the tone was light, Mitch and I had a beer (Genesee Cream Ale of course, my grandfather’s favorite, brewed in Rochester) – but what was really surprising, and worked just as I had hoped, was that other printers in town stopped by to visit. I was really excited to see that Geri McCormick and Matt Rieck from Virgin Wood Type stopped by, as well as my friend Chris Charles from Fly Rabbit Press – present in spirit (via text) was Amy Rau from Green Girl Press. Chat, print, sip, chat, print, sip. Geri was kind enough to bring me a few pieces of wood type (french stars and knickbocker birds, see below). A few hours passed, and I had the very first postcard for The Itinerant Printer project.

If you’re ever in Rochester, NY, hit up the PABA at GCA. It’s not to be missed – you’ll marvel at the wood type, the presses, and the building itself, and if you’re lucky, you’ll meet Mitch and a few of the locals.

I’ve wanted to do a few short test runs for TIP before the whole project really kicks off; I’d like contributors to get a sense of what kind of work I’ll be making, what shop visits will be like, and what kind of pics to expect from the road. I was lucky enough to find some amazing and accommodating people to help make it possible: Elizabeth Emery from Zygote Press in Cleveland, OH, and my friend Mitch Cohen from the Printing and Book Arts Center at the Genesee Center for the Arts and Educaton in Rochester, NY.

I’ll be in Rochester on Saturday cranking out some work using their amazing collection of wood type – excited to be working where many of my friends got their start printing (or continue to print) – Rachael Hetzel from Pistachio Press and Chris Charles from Fly Rabbit Press, as well as Geri McCormick from Virgin Wood Type.

Sunday until Tuesday, I’ll be in the grand metropolis of Cleveland, on the not-too-distant shores of Lake Erie. Zygote is a space that will be all new to me – so I’m excited to see what challenges await me. Until then – keep in mind this quote from John Edward Hicks Adventures of a Tramp Printer:

When I first envisioned The Itinerant Printer project, I knew that I’d have the opportunity to meet so many new people and see so many new places, but one thing that I didn’t envision is that it would bring me closer to old friends. I’ve been working for the past month and a half on a pitch video with my friend Nate Peracciny, who I’ve known for almost 20 years. We’re the kind of friends that don’t need to talk much (although Nate rarely stops talking) to understand one another, and it’s that kind of tacit trust that’s required when you give someone the creative license to manifest your vision visually. At times we bickered, but in the end, Nate put together a solid video that really expresses the motive, the goal, and the essence of the project, and for that, I’m really grateful.

Here’s to shooting the same skate sequence twenty times in a row; here’s to driving around country roads listening to Radar Love ten times in a row; here’s to repeating myself six ways to Sunday but saying it slightly different every time; here’s to the hours of footage left on the cutting room floor; and finally, here’s to laughing and joking our way through most of it.