Tuolumne Meadows Poetry Festival Broadsides

By Jim Cokas

Jim Cokas has been designing and commissioning the printing of poetry broadsides for the Tuolumne Meadows Poetry Festival in Yosemite National Park since 2003. Jim and Sandy met in 2011 at the CODEX Book Fair in Berkeley, CA. The lone goose press broadside series resonated with Jim at the time he was looking for a new letterpress printer for his broadsides.

After contacting Sandy in the spring of 2012, they agreed to collaborate on the 2012 poetry broadsides which included four broadsides and have been working together each year since. Typically there are three broadsides a year. lone goose press provides the option of digital as well as letterpress printing, allowing a wider range of imagery. Jim and Sandy discuss paper options and select a high quality printmaking paper that is appropriate for the broadside under consideration.

The broadsides are printed in a limited edition and signed by the poet. They are all 10 x 14 inches and may have a vertical or horizontal format. The series is truly a collector’s edition produced to commemorate the Tuolumne Meadows Poetry Festival. All profits from the sale of the prints are donated to support this ongoing event.

One may purchase the broadsides on Jim’s Etsy site.

Since starting this collaboration Jim and Sandy have combined their talents producing broadsides commissioned by poets and other entities.

Untitled poem by Gary Young

The original art/illustration was created using a sumi brush for the legs and feet and some torn paper which were scanned and combined with some renderings of bird tracks. The text is printed in a dark blue with the artwork being printed in an opaque white. The paper is a beautiful lightly textured sheet, mouldmade in Germany by Hahnemühle (Ingres).
Tablet by Chris Dombrowski

Jim was particularly struck by Dombrowski’s imagery of water and the “blue sky no one built,” which find a symbolic reference in the arching blue brush stroke. The “emergent mayfly shaking his wings dry” is rendered graphically with a hint of vibration in the rendering. A metallic silver ink dusted with pearlescent dry pigment adds a subtle shimmer.
**** by Jay Leeming

This is a hybrid print that combines letterpress printing with archival digital printing. The vibrant willow leaf and the blue brush strokes were printed digitally. The remaining graphics and typography were printed letterpress. The paper, Canal, was made by Saint Armand, a small mill in Montréal, Québec.