Finding the time to do your own work
The sustainability of my artistic practice is related to the sustainability of your artistic practice
We started WIP because the tools and equipment our press needs are the exact same ones a lot of other artists need. In the big picture, Late Night Copies Press is a micro-publisher. But compared to many individual artists, we’re doing production on a larger scale, and have more reach, cashflow, and ability to fix up and store secondhand equipment. At this point, we’ve sunk pretty much all the press’ profits into building a DIY print space with shared equipment that (pretty much) breaks even.
Is this a smart financial decision? It’d be easy to look at WIP from the outside with some reservations from a business perspective. Mostly, we’re following a hunch, that the long-term sustainability of our press is intimately related to how feasible it is for other artists, zinesters, comix people, poets and writers, and everyday people to get involved in independent print networks.
Either way, WIP is an experiment that has been open for a little over six months. I’m having a great time. Besides training volunteers, scheduling events, developing riso curriculum and documenting it (and cleaning the bathroom), another thing I get to do with WIP is provide project support. It’s exciting to be there while other people are making new prints or zines or chapbooks happen, and to see their process up close. A lot of times I’m supporting WIP members or volunteers on their new/ambitious project using the shop’s equipment; we’re both investing energy in the space together, figuring stuff out in real time about WIP’s capabilities and workflows. It’s pretty satisfying, but occasionally leaves me wondering: what could happen if I gave myself some project support once in a while? I figure the only way I’ll get any personal creative work done while WIP is still so new is to designate a specific container for it, with some pretty set delimiters.
So, this summer my goal was to produce one issue of a variety magazine about homemaking, The Domestic Partner. The initial impulses …
produce a cozy indie publication about cooking, cleaning, and decorating
not worry about whether this is “real art”
combine laser and riso printing in the same project
produce four issues with a limited run … usually our press keeps everything in print perpetually (open editions). But not every project needs to be maintained forever.
The starting place was to create a cover image, which celebrates an everyday moment of enjoying the 100-year-old old kitchen in our rented apartment, complete with an orange cat perched on the counter.
Even if I’m using a reference photo, I always like to start with a drawing; it really helps me think through constructing an image. Then I photocopy the drawing and use the copies to measure and cut pieces for a collage.
Scraps from riso printing projects make great collage fodder, especially any artifacts from the printing process like test sheets, roller marks, and crop marks.
From here, it felt like I knew what the publication might look like, and other people might be able to picture it, too. Asking for submissions was a pretty delightful process. I got to know new-to-me bodies of work, like Carloyn Williams-Noren’s recipe comics, collaborate with people like Ed whose soap zines I’ve long enjoyed from afar, and feature local artist Margi Grill’s charming attic studio. I also got to write some sweater repair instructions, and learned a lot about one of my favorite appliances while researching the instant pot article. I was the only contributor to write a tutorial, probably because that kind of stuff is so time-consuming to put together.
Some challenges for the first issue: I wanted contributors to be able to directly edit text and graphics in their spreads, so I set up some of the pages in Canva … turns out that 9pt type in InDesign is a pretty different size than 9pt type in Canva (when printed). There is no perfect tool for digital DIY publication layout. InDesign has a learning curve and it’s expensive (and also sometimes slow; it’s optimized for control and not always speed); Canva and google docs are great for collaboration but have serious limits to their design capabilities.
I wanted to include a way for readers to find digital sources and recipes referenced in the articles, without having to host a dedicated webpage for this project, so Robert Baxter suggested uploading a digital supplement to archive.org, which ended up being a good solution.
Ultimately, there are a lot of imperfections in typesetting, etc, but when the project reached a make-it-imperfectly-or-don’t-make-it-at-all point, the choice was clear: it was time to print. Production was pretty fun; laser printing each spread, then layering riso-printed elements on top.
One thing I really liked were the spreads that shift color at the gutter. In the future I’d definitely keep any laser-printed photos outside of the roller zone; lots of toner coverage is just such a slippery texture for the riso feed.
True to the name of Late Night Copies Press, this project mostly happened between 9pm and midnight, squeezed in at the end of the day, and then it was printed on shared equipment. The logic of LNC is to make art anyway, despite the everyday crap. The logic of a community printshop like WIP is to just print stuff & get it out there. The logic of publishing is to invite the quotidian miracle of reading: separated by time and space, we can read about instant pots, together.
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The Domestic Partner is launching alongside a nice bunch of riso prints to keep individual issues affordable while still offsetting the copier bill. Use code PRINTSALE to save $4 on a copy of the domestic partner + a print of your choice. Also, the LNC shop also has a second edition of Gentle Laundry and even a few DOILY STICKERS. (!)
If you’re local to the Twin Cities: free local pickup with code ‘612.’
Lots of people have asked about subscriptions … I just suspect managing them would take some joy out of this project, so for now they don’t exist.
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LOVE the collage piece you did for the cover! Also... CostCo poems? Can we sort out a reading of them by the rotisserie chickens? Cannot wait to order a copy. Running, not walking <3