TBT poetry, printmaking, papermaking!

In 2016, we had a great workshop led by printmaker Susan Webster and poet Stuart Kestenbaum. Susan taught a variety of printmaking techniques and Stuart led daily writing exercises. Meanwhile, in the paper studio Mary Hark and her students were busy making beautiful sheets of paper. Several times during the session, Stuart had people give him a series of words, which he then used in a poem.

All of this came together in Penland How-to Manual, which presents a poem Stuart wrote incorporating words supplied by his students, their printed images, and paper made in Mary’s workshop, all put together as a boxed accordion book that Mary designed. The book was sold in the scholarship auction, but the poem and this set of photographs remain.

The Penland How-to Manual

Consider it an experiment.
Even the wind that moves

the weeds and bees invites
ecstasy.  Listen to the process.

Failure refreshes.
Hug the inner fool and get

to work, not in isolation
but in community, where

at night you can invite memory
to carve an empty plate,

make paper out of air, make
a family from nothing.

Look through the isinglass
of this day see how clear life can be:

In the field fireflies alight, moon rises,
llamas ears listen and twitch.

Stuart Kestenbaum
© 2016

Words offered: hug, listen, highlight, carve, refresh, invite, isolated, process, experiment, play, make, excite, ecstasy, community, bees, plate, air, family, isinglass, llama, weeds, wind, memory, paper, fool, nothing

Words and images from Dan Bouthot, Roberta Durham, Kayleigh Efird, Shan Ellentuck, Nelida Flatow, Elizabeth Guinn, Sandy Hartmannsgruber, Frank Lortscher, Laura Martin, Mia Mueller, Jro Robinson, Mary Smyer, Susan Webster

Handmade paper by Beverly Ayscue, Yoen Hee Cheong, Melissa Cowper-Smith, Sarah Evenson, Jasmin McFayden, Rosemary Peduzzi, Alyssa Sacora, Tony Santoyo, Sophie Smyer, Autumn Thomas, Holland Williams. Book design by Mary Hark.