Paper Talk

By Helen Hiebert StudioArts Visual Arts

Paper Talk episodes

June 15, 2018 Tom Leech
In this episode, Tom Leech tells us about his early memory of the smell of paper, when his missionary aunt sent him toys from Japan wrapped in Japanese paper; his first experience with papermaking when he studied sculpture and printmaking with Winifred Lutz; and how his interest in environmentalism led him to make recycled paper at 18,000 feet on Mt. Everest. He also tells us about reintroducing monks at a monastery in Tibet to hand papermaking and how the word ‘recycled’ wasn’t translatable so the closest they could come was to call it reincarnated paper. At that point, everyone at the monastery was interested! Continue reading Tom Leech
44 min
June 15, 2018 Tom Leech
You can listen to this episode by clicking on the white arrow above, or subscribe to the Paper Talk podcast in iTunes so you never miss an episode. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it! Thank you so much.
Thomas Leech, director of the Press at the Palace of the Governors, has more than 40 years’ experience in printing, paper-making, and related book-arts. A curator at the New Mexico History Museum since 2001, Leech has organized a number of successful exhibits, including Album Amicorum: Gems of Friendship in a Frightened World; The Saint John’s Bible; Jack Kerouac and the Writers Life; Gustave Baumann and Friends: Artist Cards from Holidays Past; and Shakespeare from Stage to Page.
Books and broadsides that Leech has printed include Doctor Franklin & Spain, Jack Thorp’s Songs of the Cowboys; O’Keeffe Stories; Word Art Poetry Portfolio; and he has published all of Santa Fe’s Poets Laureate in fine limited editions. He also authored a number of articles for El Palacio and Hand Papermaking magazines, and has been included in many Hand papermaking Portfolios
Under Leech’s leadership, the Palace Press received the 2014 Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design, the 2015 Edgar Lee Hewett Award from the New Mexico Association of Museums, the 2013 City of Santa Fe Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.
Tom was a member of the 1990 and ’92 Everest Environmental Expeditions, and in 1994 co-founded the Paper Road/Tibet Project, teaching traditional papermaking to disabled and orphaned children in Lhasa and rural areas of Tibet. Since 2010, Tom has facilitated Alzheimer’s Poetry Project events at the New Mexico History Museum.
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Music featuring excerpts of Makin’ Paper folk song by Peter Thomas. Listen to the full song and find out about other paper and book arts folk songs.
Gary A. Hanson did the sound editing for this episode. You can find him making audio magic with his podcast series, I’ll Have a Beer and Talk, a show about tech news, culture, weird animal stories and of course, beer.
44 min
May 18, 2018 Pat & Peter Gentenaar
Today I’m talking with husband and wife Pat Gentenaar Torley & Peter Gentenaar in the town of Delft in The Netherlands. Peter & Pat met in the late 60’s at the California College of Arts & Crafts (now California College of the Arts) in Oakland and settled in the Netherlands shortly afterwards. Peter talks about how the struggle to make three dimensional prints led him to envision making his own paper, and how an introduction to commercial papermaking at the Royal Dutch Paper Factory got him started. Pat talks about how studying fiber arts at CCA with well-known fiber artist Trude Gueromonprez ultimately led her to creating pulp paintings before there was even a name for the technique. We discuss how they navigated the financial support system for Dutch artists, raised two daughters, and restored the historic farmhouse where they still live and work. Continue reading Pat & Peter Gentenaar
53 min
May 18, 2018 Pat & Peter Gentenaar
You can listen to this episode by clicking on the white arrow above, or subscribe to the Paper Talk podcast in iTunes so you never miss an episode. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it! Thank you so much.
Photo by Jean Babtiste Mondino
Peter, a student from Holland, and Pat met at California College of Arts and Crafts, where Peter was doing his masters in printmaking and Pat, her bachelors in fiber art. Peter moved back to the Netherlands in 1970 and Pat joined him in 1971. They started exploring the many possibilities of using paper pulp to create art in the early ‘70’s. Working with fibers in sheet form and working three dimensionally, they’ve discovered a whole world of paper during the last 45 years.
Pat developed a very personal technique of painting with many different paper fibers in an aqua solution. By varying the milling time, a hollander beater can produce a large variation in textures from even one type of fiber.  Paper is not just an image bearer, but becomes the image itself.
Peter has excelled in paper sculpture. When he had an exposition at the Gothic church at Saint Riquier in France, so many people put pictures of the pieces in the church on the web that his work finally found international recognition. He has made a list of commissioned installations since then, the most noteworthy, two atriums at the Yas Mall, Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, 2014 and in Suzhou Center’s 50 meter long atrium, Wind Surfers in a Porcelain Sea, Suzhou, China, installed 2017.
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Visit Peter & Pat’s website.
Find out more about the Holland Paper Bienniale
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Music featuring excerpts of Makin’ Paper folk song by Peter Thomas. Listen to the full song and find out about other paper and book arts folk songs.
Gary A. Hanson did the sound editing for this episode. You can find him making audio magic with his podcast series,
53 min
April 17, 2018 Mina Takahashi
In this episode, Mina Takahashi reveals how a college internship in Philadelphia planted the seed for her career in hand papermaking, she talks about a key moment when a Japanese papermaker showed her his hands and she understood what it means to dedicate yourself to a process, material and way of life, and she discusses her visit to a Thai village where they made hospital gowns out of handmade paper. We also talk about her work as an advocate and promoter for hand papermaking as an artistic medium as director of Dieu Donne Papermill and her current position as editor of Hand Papermaking Magazine. Continue reading Mina Takahashi
45 min
April 17, 2018 Mina Takahashi
You can listen to this episode by clicking on the white arrow above, or subscribe to the Paper Talk podcast in iTunes so you never miss an episode. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it! Thank you so much.
Mina Takahashi is Editor of Hand Papermaking magazine, a non-profit biannual publication chronicling the finest work in the field while advancing the scholarship and facilitating the production of handmade paper and paper art. She is a member of the board of directors of Dieu Donné Papermill, New York, where she served as executive director from 1990 to 2004. Trained originally in Japanese papermaking, she teaches and consults on the artistic and craft applications of hand papermaking across the country and internationally. Takahashi is currently co-curating an exhibition with Susan Gosin, titled Paper/Print: American Hand Papermaking, 1960s to Today, the first comprehensive retrospective tracing the development of hand papermaking as an outgrowth of the printmaking renaissance. The exhibition, accompanied by an illustrated publication, will be presented at the International Print Center New York, April 5 through June 14, 2018. Takahashi lives in upstate New York, where she is a working member of BUSHEL Collective in the town of Delhi.
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Find out more about Hand Papermaking Magazine, the journal for our field.
Paper/Print: American Hand Papermaking, 1960s to Today, co-curated by Mina Takahashi + Sue Gosin is on view at the International Print Center, New York, April 5 – June 14.
Mina Takahashi is former director and a current board member of Dieu Donné Papermill, a leading non-profit cultural institution dedicated to serving established and emerging artists.
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Music featuring excerpts of Makin’ Paper folk song by Peter Thomas. Listen to the full song and find out about other paper and book arts folk songs.
Gary A. Hanson did the sound editing for this episode. You can find him making audio
45 min
March 15, 2018 Susan Gosin
In this episode, Sue Gosin discusses her childhood in a commercial papermaking family and her desire to get away from paper. But she saw paper in a new light during her college years at the university of Madison and shortly afterwards moved to NYC to start a paper studio in a loft in Soho in 1976. She tells the story of how the mill almost fell through the floor when they first turned on the Hollander beater and how she met the painter Howard Hodgkin when he walked into her bathroom. We talk about how young the field of hand papermaking was when she started and how she had to find rags in the garment district, research chemicals to come up with the proper pigments for coloring pulp and commissioned a press that looked like a tinker toy compared to the other equipment in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Sue’s journey ends with a glimpse of the show she is currently co-curating with Mina Takahashi at the International Print Center New York, which will tell the story of how hand papermaking has been revolutionized from a craft into an art form. Continue reading Susan Gosin
39 min
March 15, 2018 Susan Gosin
You can listen to this episode by clicking on the white arrow above, or subscribe to the Paper Talk podcast in iTunes so you never miss an episode. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it! Thank you so much.
Susan Gosin received her MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1976, she co-founded Dieu Donne Press and Paper, Inc. in New York City. As an educator, she has developed curriculum and designed studio programs at The New School, NYC; Rutgers University, NJ and Phumani Archival Mill. Johannesburg, SA. Her artist books have been exhibited and collected by institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Getty Museum and the Library of Congress. In 2006, she received the Printmaker Emeritus Award from the Southern Graphics Council. She has served as an organizer, presenter and curator at numerous conferences, including the 2014 IAPMA conference in Fabriano, Italy, the 2016 IAPMA conference in Brasilia, Brazil, and recently, the 2018 CBAA conference in Philadelphia. As President of Dieu Donne Press she collaborates with international artists and writers such as William Kentridge and Wislawa Szymborska. She also serves as Co-Chair on the Board of Directors of Dieu Donne Papermill, Inc.
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Music featuring excerpts of Makin’ Paper folk song by Peter Thomas. Listen to the full song and find out about other paper and book arts folk songs.
Gary A. Hanson did the sound editing for this episode. You can find him making audio magic with his podcast series, I’ll Have a Beer and Talk, a show about tech news, culture, weird animal stories and of course, beer.
39 min
February 16, 2018 Priscilla Robinson
Priscilla Robinson is an artist who divides her time between studios in Austin, Texas and Taos, New Mexico. In the early 1980’s she began working with handmade paper, when she was exhibiting abstract paintings in Santa Fe. Her work has been shown internationally, she exhibits regularly in national and international galleries and she has created commissions for Boston University, Chevron, Vanderbilt University, and Kaiser Permanente to name a few. Continue reading Priscilla Robinson
40 min
February 16, 2018 Priscilla Robinson
You can listen to this episode by clicking on the white arrow above, or subscribe to the Paper Talk podcast in iTunes so you never miss an episode. If you enjoy the show, tell a friend about it! Thank you so much.
Priscilla Robinson is an artist who divides her time between studios in Austin, Texas and Taos, New Mexico. In the early 1980’s she began working with handmade paper, when she was exhibiting abstract paintings in Santa Fe. Her work has been shown internationally, she exhibits regularly in national and international galleries and she has created commissions for Boston University, Chevron, Vanderbilt University, and Kaiser Permanente to name a few.
© Priscilla Robinson, Garden of the Summer Moon, 37″ x 72″ x 2″, cast paper with acrylic, fused glass insert, commissioned by Inova, Fairfax, VA
© Priscilla Robinson, Flora and Fauna, 84″ x 72″, three panels of abaca pods, sewn and fused glass, commissioned by Webster House, Palo Alto, CA

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Music featuring excerpts of Makin’ Paper folk song by Peter Thomas. Listen to the full song and find out about other paper and book arts folk songs.
Gary A. Hanson did the sound editing for this episode. You can find him making audio magic with his podcast series,
40 min