About the workshop
Have you been wanting to jump in on the papermaking craze? Join us for a Pulp Painting workshop, which combines technical papermaking techniques with your own creative imagery. Participants will learn the basics of making handmade paper and then create imagery within the sheet using colored pulp. Instructor Don Widmer will teach several techniques of applying pulp to a wet sheet, including stenciling bird imagery (one of his specialties); participants will leave with 2-3 pulp paintings to take home. No experience neccessary!
About the Instructor
Don Widmer is a book and paper artist whose work incorporates papermaking and artist bookbinding. His papermaking utilizes detailed pulp painting with numerous layers of stenciled pulp. His artist books pair storytelling with the architectural form of the book. His tunnel book Fanny and the Doll Corpse, inspired by criminal forensics pioneer Frances Glessner Lee, was included in the Newberry Library's 2023 exhibit "Pop-Up Books Through the Ages." Images of his work will also be included in the upcoming publication The Art of Pulp Painting by Lynn Sures and Michelle Samour. Don has exhibited throughout the Midwest, most recently at David Smith Studio, A+C Architects Studio, the Paper Discovery Center, Tall Grass Art Gallery, and Morgan Conservatory. His work is represented in university, museum and library collections. Widmer received his MFA in Interdisciplinary Book and Paper Arts from Columbia College Chicago.
About Artists Book House
An interdisciplinary arts education organization founded by Audrey Niffenegger, we teach and promote the literary and book arts, offering non-credit arts curricula open to all. Through community, courses, exhibitions, and events, ABH helps people tell their stories and transform their worlds into books.
The book and paper arts movement has spread all over the world, with multiple centers dedicated to the art form; unfortunately, Chicago's centers no longer stand. Our vision for an independent and expanded book and paper center has persevered through the pandemic and endured as Artists Book House.
