My New, Old Typewriter

In several paintings and woodcuts in my Film Noir series, I integrated typewriters into the drama.

I had actually bought an antique, non-functional typewriter off Craig’s List as a reference.

We met in a parking lot, and exchanged it from one car trunk to another for cold, hard cash-like some kind of nerd's drug deal!

It's a big, beautiful machine, weighing in at probably 30 pounds!

I recently took a new creative direction by making artist books, where I utilize collage materials and text. Rather than merely depicting typewriters, I wanted to actually TYPE stuff and integrate it into my books.

So, I wrestled my Woodstock back into my car and had it repaired at Type Space, Portland’s Vintage Typewriter Shop!

My first typed page!

Several months later, it has came back to me. I had assumed it was from the 1930's or 1940's.  It turns out it was built in 1917!

Even refurbished, it shows it’s age. It’s sort of a beast, I must admit, and the results are well… unique.

Even so, I love it and am already incorporating typed pages into my artist books.

Below is a video of me tussling with my new contraption.

In the video, I am writing a piece about having ADHD, which I will use in my new artist book, Analyze.

Curiously, the act of typing echoed what it can be like to have ADHD. The process was long and laborious, and the result is a bit messy and garbled, yet totally unique and beautiful in its own way.

Typing also made me reflect on this unique moment in our history. Now our keyboards require a light touch, and with tools like spell check and AI, we can rattle off whatever pops into our head, unthinkingly. Combined with the web and social media, this can lead to oversharing, thoughtlessness, and even trolling. It made me imagine a world past when we had to be so deliberate with our communication-where everyone had to take a breath and consider each word before committing it to the page.