Myrna Keliher | Expedition Press

2006.

I set my first type in a windowless basement. I composed this sentence in 12 pt: “My grandfather was a newspaper man.” The letters made sense in my hands, and from that moment I never looked back.

I first learned as a student at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA. The bulk of my printing knowledge and experience however comes from my apprenticeship at Stern & Faye Printers, where I worked off and on for seven years.

Daryl Morgan (woodshop professor); Jules Faye (master printer); Carolina Veenstra (master bookbinder).

To never have to sleep.

Mostly alone, but it is a welcome and exciting relief to collaborate. I need a good balance of both, but it requires more energy for me to work in a group.

Steadfastness, loyalty, comfort, support, passionate dogged perseverance, willingness to laugh at themselves and reminding me of that too.

In my daily stream-of-conscious morning writing, on a long hike with a heavy pack, bicycle riding, rowing, and when I’m washing my hair.

I’d like to pick something sexy but I suppose it’s more likely be something stalwart like Standard Medium.

Pica pole. I sweat bullets until I’m within a half-point for registration.

Self-Consciousness, John Updike
The Gift, Lewis Hyde
Collected Poems, Lucille Clifton
To Love the Coming End, Leanne Dunic
Dear Ghosts, Tess Gallagher
Thunderbird, Dorothea Lasky
Overpour, Jane Wong
+ a smattering of literary journals (Pacifica, Spartan, Stringtown, Poetry Northwest…)

I wish I could have met Chris Stern, and studied with him in person.

Colt’s Armory Press, 14×22, 1906
Golding Jobber No. 6, 8×12, 1901
Craftsman Imperial, 5×8
23″ Challenge guillotine
Viagelli board shear
Nipping press

Six cabinets and three gallery racks of metal type, a few cases of wood type.

More type! And soon, I think, more space… and I dearly need an oscillating roller for my Colt’s.

Hiking on a mountain ridge, moments before an international flight, and when I pull the very first proof of any new type form.

Not being good enough.

Everything I print comes to some basic function of a reminder – reminding me, and hopefully others who encounter it, of something I want to remember but keep forgetting.

Typographer, printer, publisher, artist.

Painting, hand lettering, mixed-media/collage, writing, web design.