Description
About this piece:
The coming-of-age story of David Samuel Chamlee, born in 1857, told by his grandson in a Humanities term paper written while attending Claremont Men’s College in the 1950s.
The story begins with Dave Chamlee’s boyhood on a homestead in Tennessee, his travels as a young man to work on the docks of the Mississippi River and on to his years as a working cowboy in Texas. It concludes with his arrival in California where he spent the remainder of his days.
The text is accompanied by research notes supported by public records and census data, a map and photographs from the family archive.
The Young Manhood of Dave Chamlee is letterpress printed with hand set Centaur and Arrighi, Massey Initials on Khadi paper. The map background is a reduction linoleum block; the map and photographs are printed from polymer plates. The signatures are sewn into a bison leather cover with a wrap band, ties, tackets and deer horn buttons. All design, presswork and binding are done by Rebecca Chamlee.
Materials:
paper, ink, bison leather, bone button, leather ties, thread
About the artist:
Lives & works in Simi Valley, California, United States
Rebecca Chamlee is a writer, letterpress printer and book binder who has published artist’s books under the imprint of Pie in the Sky Press since 1986. Her award-winning work is in prominent special and private collections and has been exhibited widely.
