May Day Press Prints & Broadsides 

My 2026 series of 14 different letterpress prints, Trial by Fire, are printed with wood type over Estradiol hormone medical instruction sheets. In between the type and medical information is a layer of semi-transparent white ink to represent the inaccessibility of medical care for non-white men. These prints reference the persecution of witches in Europe from the 15c –18thc. During the time of the witch trials in Europe, women were ~80% of those prosecuted, and the majority of those were women over 50. The symptoms of menopause were often the signs used to identify a witch. The signs of a witch were many, and the men who suffered commonly did not fit the masculine norms of the day. The majority of those persecuted as a witch were turned in by a neighbor. Then and now, people who embrace individuality, diversity, nature-based belief systems, or appear dissonant to the dominant cultural binary tend to be the targets of dislike, hate, and fear. 

In 2019, months before the turn into 2020, I began a series of broadsides - some of which are seen below. They were planned for a 2020 show in a local coffee shop titled Bitter on the Inside. We all know what happened. The series is inspired by my challenges with menopause, specifically the hot flashes I endured or avoided in direct relationship to my consumption of coffee for several years. Each cup is designed from an actual cup in my cupboard. They are each linoleum printed, some a reduction cut entirely from one block, and some a combination of blocks with reduction cuts on one or two of those blocks. The type is handset.

I am still having hot flashes, still drinking coffee, still printing broadsides.