Christa Carleton

@printerpal.bsky.social

172 Followers 80 Following

Artist┃Printmaker┃Letterpress Fixation ⚲ Missoula, MT

A black and white letterpress print with an image of a 1970s fashion advertisement for overalls alongside some text that says “in this house we value handmade art”
Black text that says no war, no ice, no king, Missoula in black capitol letters with a giant red X printed over them on white poster paper
A text based letterpress print, with magenta colored ink on white paper, that says “I went to art school and all I got was this shitty letterpress print” with a little Victorian nymph lady raising her arms in exasperation from a pond. All the words are printed in different fonts and sizes.
Two cups are shown with underglaze transfers on them, matt in surface. A green manicule finger points on one cup and an antique hand press (aka Gutenberg) is on the surface of the black cup.
A protest poster with red and black text reads “Stop eroding our rights. no kings, Missoula”
A dog licking her chops wearing a candy corn hat next to a letterpress type cabinet and a print of a very glum jack o lantern.
The aliens meme guy from the history channel is saying “.918” for letterpress type high day.
My black and tan dog, Cokie Roberts, snoozing on a beach towel on the sand next to a bonfire at night.
Dirty hands stained with dust and grim are palm up in the foreground, resting on a pale sea foam green letterpress type case that is filled with dirty individual lead letters.
An old school motel is in the foreground in rusty red and desert colors. A backdrop of fluffy clouds and blue sky with mountains is in the background.
The foreground is covered in lilac purple flowers. The middle ground shows an old wildfire burnt forest. The background distant mountains. The sky is azure blue with many puffy clouds.
Two letterpress printed posters are propped up in my studio. The one on the left is printed in green and pink and says “another world is possible”, the other print on the right says “when cruelty becomes normals compassion looks radical”.
Christa Carleton’s studio is pictured. There are multiple letterpress type cabinets against the walls, some are robin’s egg blue, others green, and one a dark grey. The walls are decorated with other artist’s prints. On the floor is a black and tan dog in her dog bed, laying down, looking at the camera. Her name is Cokie Roberts. To the right of the photo is a large Master Printer Sign Press.
A woodcut print with a female figure standing in the center. Her acid green hair glows to the right of the page while her brows furrow and and hand fist up against her mouth. Above her head is the word “take” and below her waist is the word “cover” both in a bold San serif in a gradient warm grey. The background color is a cool paynes grey.
A container where folks can empty their reusable bottles before going through TSA security where large amount of liquids are not allowed. It whispers my name to drink from it…
A photo of letterpress moveable type made out of wood with numbers and letters A through Z. Missing letters K and V and some punctuation. It’s old and dirty but has a nice patina from being printed in past lives.
A Valentine’s Day card that’s says “you stir me” in red letters surrounded by 2 gold hearts. Below the text is an image from The Dreams of Pantagruel of a weird half man half cauldron who appears to be tasting his own soup body with a spoon. The soup is a gold color and a little steam comes off the soup. The cauldron has a clawfoot tub and the centaur-ish guy has a hooded cape. It is truly bizarre which is why it makes an excellent Valentine’s Day card.
A red toned piece of wood (with wood grain shining through) surrounds the carved area of a female figure with wild hair blowing in the wind. The eyes, forehead, and eyebrows have not been carved yet.
A red toned block with a drawing of a woman sits on top of my desk. Wood chips are scattered from where the wood has already been carved away. Wood handled carving gouges lay next the the block, as does a drafting brush to brush the wood chips off of the block.
A figure drawing done in graphite on a piece of wood that is stained red. She clutches her fists under her nose and looks mad as hell.
A doe leaping over a cloud with a brick red background by Acee Blue Eagle
A through Z wood type letterpress font. Most of the letters are covered in old ink (years old!) and the only clean letters are A through E and one N. The font has an Art Deco vibe.
Using shapes a multi-color card featuring a black and tan dog with a blue color is surrounded by light blue snakes. The snakes’ bodies spell out Happy New Year. They have forked tongues printed in light pink.
A watercolor painting done on lined notebook paper depicting Woodsy the owl sledding in a bright orange sled in the snow. Woodsy waves while the other wing holds onto the rope on the sled. His hat is being swept off his head because he is sledding very fast.
Look out for each other now!