SHAKER TOOL PRINTS
Laser etched woodblock prints on handmade paper, thread, ~72"x24, 2013
Shaker Tool Prints are a series of large-scale prints on handmade paper created in 2013. The original image is a Photoshop rendered panorama of a tool bench in the basement of the Enfield Shaker Museum in Enfield, NH. Their caretaker had carefully organized his tools on the walls of the workshop, outlining each tool in sharpie. When he retired, he took all of his tools with him. Conversely, the new caretaker leaves all of his or her tools on the workbench. I was taken by the Shakers’ devotion to craft and hard work as well as the logic/illogic of the organizational methods folks in charge of maintaining the grounds and buildings currently use. The panorama was then laser etched onto a butterflied piece of hemlock removed from a barn in upstate New York, and then printed it traditionally, inking with a roller and printing with a Takach press. Much like Photoshop stitched together multiple images to create a panorama of the workshop, I printed on multiple sheets of recycled handmade paper that consist of cardboard, printer paper, a red wool sweater, and whatever else gleaned from my recycling bin, then stitched the sheets of paper together. The resulting images represent both old and new methods, reflecting the multiple histories embedded in materials, processes, photographs, and space.