Cover for museum exhibit catalogue. Ten different variations of this cover design were created within the run of 1,000 to push the concept of variation within an edition.
Reading area created for the CAM Raleigh exhibit.
20th anniversary traveling exhibit first presented at Cassilhaus.
We often hire musicians for our receptions. Lexi and Sterling from The United Strings of Color performed during a reception for Ippy Patterson’s exhibit in the summer of 2021.
HISTORY
During my senior year at N.C. State’s School of Design I attended a visiting designer’s slide lecture. Asked his opinion of a book he had designed, he admitted he hadn’t read it as he doesn’t have time to read the books he designs — and without so much as awkward pause, it was on to the next slide. Mustering up the vim and vigor of an idealistic 22-year-old, I vowed I would not become like this. It may very well be the way of the world, but it was not going to become my world.
After graduating in 1994, I headed for the hills—specifically, Mitchell County—and the Penland School of Craft where I participated in the Core Student work/study fellowship program. Learning from a revolving group of visiting craftspersons (and fellow students from all walks of life) in a workshop-centered environment, I concentrated in letterpress printing, bookbinding, and papermaking. I gained inspiration from potters and metalworkers who were making functional everyday items and turning the use of utilitarian objects into elevated acts of aesthetic enjoyment.
In 1996 (along with Ray Duffey who has since gone on to pursue a career in woodworking/sculpture) I established Horse & Buggy Press at “Antfarm”— a still active self-governing artist/artisan cooperative established by a group of fellow School of Design graduates. A former washboard factory in Boylan Heights, this was H&B’s home for seven years. One of my last activities was organizing a 33-person, 400-piece exhibition at the Gregg Museum for Antfarm’s tenth anniversary. This included co-writing and designing the exhibition catalogue.
In 2003 H&B trotted over the county line into Durham, and in 2005 I co-founded the Bull City Arts Collaborative with filmmaker Kenny Dalsheimer (The Groove Productions). Housed at 401 Foster Street for a dozen years, we enjoyed being a part of the revitalization of Durham’s downtown and an active participant in the Central Park community.
In 2015, the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscripts Library at Duke University began to collect the books, broadsides, and special projects of H&B and will be continuing to purchase and archive the works of the press. Many special collection libraries hold H&B books, however the Duke special collections library is the only one to hold a copy of all our major book and broadside projects.
In 2016, I celebrated the 20 year anniversary of H&B with retrospectives at Cassilhaus and the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh. Exhibitions included author readings and talks with artists whose works I had turned into book editions over the years. Also in 2016 I was honored to be one of the Core Fellows profiled in the book Inspired: Life in Penland's Resident Artist and Core Fellowship Programs.
As of February of 2017 I've been working from 1116 Broad Street. The studio is in an old grocery store building shared by two restaurants, and just up the block from Craven Allen Gallery and House of Frames, Joe Van Gogh coffeehouse, The Green Room Pool Hall, and several other independent businesses. I curate a 500 square foot gallery Horse & Buggy Press And Friends and curate a book stall which features interesting artist monographs and books by other small presses publishing lively work.
In 2019, I curated a two month pop up exhibit in a downtown Durham storefront, and had much fun doing it. Upon seeing the enthusiastic response , I decided to scale up and go year-round with PS 118, a 1,300 square foot gallery and event space. Within a month covid struck. For two and a half years PS118 persevered, offering a host of exciting exhibits and events during the ‘good’ covid months. In June 2022, due to a changing downtown landscape, we decided to close the gallery and event space in favor of having more time for design projects.
In the studio I work as designer/art director/project manager/typesetter/ production coordinator on all things ink on paper. Please visit the design services section and the embedded portfolio to get a sense of the range of our work, and just give a holler if you’d like to sit down to talk about a potential project.
While the beginning years of the studio were heavily focused on in-house letterpress printing, we have transitioned away from the letterpress in order to work on a wider range of projects that have more content to sink our design teeth into.