Walter SH Hamady | Perishable Press Limited

Walter Hamady

We have now posted the third and final segment of our restored, revised and somewhat redesigned series of websites about Wisconsin artist Walter SH Hamady. On each of the three sites, there are active links to the other two. This one is mainly a listing of the 131 books that Hamady produced as The Perishable Press Limited, beginning in 1964. more>>>

Walter SH Hamady | His Gabberjabb Books

Walter Hamady / The Gift of Gabberjabbs

No, you are not seeing double (or maybe you are). This is not a duplicate earlier post. Many years ago, we designed and posted a trio of websites having to do with the letterpress books and box assemblages of Wisconsin artist Walter SH Hamady. One about his boxes, a second on his Gabberjabb books, and a third that featured a list of all the books he published as The Perishable Press Limited. A couple of years ago, those sites were disconnected and destroyed in the confusion of adopting better web software. So we are now rebuilding them. You've seen the first in our previous blog post, and now here's a link to the second. The third will follow very soon.

Walter SH Hamady | Books Boxes and Collages

According to someone, there are two types of people in the world: Those who believe that there are two types of people—and those who don’t. Among the former was the Greek poet Archilochus, who believed that people tend to be either foxes or hedgehogs. Foxes are centrifugal, hedgehogs centripetal. “The fox knows many things,” he said, “but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
     

For years I have admired the work of Walter Hamady (his extraordinary handmade letterpress books, his collages and assemblages), but now and then I’ve asked myself: “Is Walter a fox or a hedgehog?”…more>>>

National Parks Posters | Roy R. Behrens 2019

National Parks Posters

In late December and early January 2018-19, we designed twenty-three posters to commemorate National Parks and Monuments. These are currently on exhibit in the interpretive building at the Hartman Reserve Nature Center in Cedar Falls IA. They will remain on view throughout March and April 2019. The exhibition is free and open to the public. It can be viewed any time during building hours (it's open every day but Saturdays).

As of today, they have also been posted on our website in an online virtual exhibition.

Good, Bad—and Philip Evergood (in Iowa)

Philip Evergood in Iowa

Above Back in the late 1950s, the American painter Philip Evergood was a visiting artist for two summers at the Department of Art at the Iowa State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Iowa). Some people still remember it. We wrote an essay about it in 1998, which we've now revised and posted on our website. more>>>

Oh, the farmer and the cowman must be friends

Dude (2019)

Rodgers and Hammerstein, Oklahoma! (1943)—

The farmer and the cowman should be friends,
Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends.
The cowman ropes a cow with ease, the farmer steals her
butter and cheese,
But that's no reason why they cain't be friends—
Oh, the farmer and the cowman should be friends.

•••

The American poet Robert Penn Warren (whose voice I love to listen to) came from Southern roots, and some of his ancestors had served on the Confederate side during the American Civil War. In Warren's wonderful memoir (which I have just finished reading), Portrait of a Father (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1988), he recalls a misunderstanding he had when, as a boy, he was visiting his maternal grandfather's home. Here's the story—

There was another remark among the daughters which seemed related to the notion that the old man [his grandfather] was a visionary. They had said, more than once in their protracted and loving diagnosis of their father, that he was a "Confederate reader." Or so it seemed. I would wonder what a "Confederate reader" might be. But as my vocabulary widened, it suddenly dawned on me that the old man was an "inveterate reader." In fact, he was. As long as eyes held out.

New National Parks Posters | Hartman Reserve

National Parks Poster Exhibition (2019)

Above In recent days a new exhibition has been installed of full-color posters on the theme of National Parks and Monuments. The exhibition will remain on view throughout March and April 2019 in the interpretive building at the Hartman Reserve Nature Center at 657 Reserve Drive in Cedar Falls IA.

Of the twenty-six posters featured, three were designed in 2016 by Allison Rolinger, and can be viewed online here. Rolinger, a graphic designer at 5IVE in Minneapolis, is originally from Cedar Falls, and a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa, where she earned a BA degree in Graphic Design in 2017.

The remaining posters were designed in recent months by Roy R. Behrens, UNI Professor Emeritus and Distinguished Scholar. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, he taught graphic design, illustration and the history of design for forty-six years at American universities and art schools, including UNI. He retired from teaching in December 2018. His National Parks posters can also be viewed online.

The Nature Center's interpretive building is open to the public from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday, and from 1:00 to 5:00 pm on Sunday. The building is not open on Saturdays. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Poster (2019) © Roy R. Behrens