'jamais deux sans trois'

I’ve been busy getting my family prepared for our annual trip across the country to my home town of Gatineau, Québec, Canada. We are leaving next week and for the first time in eight years, we will travel the Trans-Canada Highway from Alberta to Québec.

This is the snail way across the country. The slow driving gives me the opportunity to photograph manhole covers along my journey. With the intention of publishing an artists’ book of Canadian anecdotes, I will collect photographs that catch my eye along this 10-day trip.

In between preparations, I’m trying to finish phase seven and eight of City Shields by printing and cutting inserts, collating and packaging.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, front and back of inserts ready to cut

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, phase seven, cutting the inserts

©2016 Louise Levergneux, probably the last 10 pack of Iomega Zip disks jewel cases in the world!

If any of you know where I can purchase more of these Iomega Zip Disks Jewel Cases, please email me. They have been discontinued by the manufacturer.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, fresh off the press Vol US 26 : No 1 Dakota

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Last week, I posed the question “Has the manhole cover become a point of interest for other artists?”

I received a link to Raubdruckerin Printers’ website. They print t-shirts, hoodies, tote and gym bags inspired by banal urban street manhole covers. People who buy the garments and bags become themselves a part of their project. So, the project is a refinement of the everyday culture as well as a permanent consciousness-changing connection with our surroundings. 

The video below demonstrates Raubdruckerin using a manhole cover at the Centre Pompidou in Paris to print a t-shirt. 

Raubdruckerin continue their journey to Berlin. The t-shirt prints are taken directly from a manhole cover using water based ink without solvent, flexibilizer, PVC or heavy metals. 

What a fabulous idea! What I found even more interesting, believing in the French expression—'jamais deux sans trois' ("never twice without a third [time]"), is that I received not two but three emails with the same link. Three of my regular blog readers are thinking alike! Peggy Seeger and Cathryn Miller must hang out in the same places on the web. Betty Mallorca, a friend and painter based in Nampa, Idaho, seem to frequent the same circles as Peggy and Cathryn since she sent me the same link to this project.

How should I respond to this phenomenon? The never twice without a third is a sign, I’m sure! Do I contact this group based in Berlin? Do I start a dialogue of my project City Shields with Raubdruckerin? Do any of you know the group? 

Back to packing!

The Tiny Book Show

This week I was preoccupied with cutting and collating manhole covers.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

My garbage bin is overflowing with paper. Sheet after sheet filled with negative space. It piles up by the hour.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, one of my favorite covers today

Did you ever foresee an action in advance? While carrying many die-cut manhole covers from a drawer of my printer cabinet to my work table, I dropped the whole stack. I have five steps to go from my printer table to the other side of my half measure studio!! It took hours and hours to collate the manholes to fit each volume. My eyes crossed a few times while trying to recover the sequnces of the manhole covers; but now, the manhole covers are collated by each volume. My next phase in publishing City Shields is to print 28 double sided inserts.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, manhole covers on the work table ready to collate, AGAIN!

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, manhole covers finally collated

In 2012 when I was creating my flip book project Outside the studio, I dropped sheets of unnumbered pages of my first flip book. It never dawned on me to number the pages, it appeared simple enough to collate. Each page (frame) of a flip book portrays a fraction of a second. This means each image is very, very, very similar! This mistake taught me to number my pages. With City Shields there’s no way to number the covers. I have two sheets of templates to print for each volume. The second template has a variety of covers. I prefer not to waste paper, it’s too expensive! The lesson here is not to drop the sheets, butterfingers!!

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I took a break from these wonderful die-cut photographs that brought me back to my travels. So, I drove to Nampa and visited The Tiny Book Show hosted by the Nampa Public Library. 

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, Amy Tingle at the Nampa Public Library getting ready for the workshop

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, The Tiny Book Show, awesome!

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, I enjoyed reading this wonderful blue book "Cooper" by Harold Wilson

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, This is a Goldendoodle story!

Amy Tingle and Maya Stein are a mobile creativity company based in northern New Jersey. They travel in a vintage caravan, named MAUDE (Mobile Art Unit Designed for Everyone). The caravan allows them to deliver unique experiences and inspire communities everywhere. 

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, MAUDE

Amy Nack, a local printmaker who goes under the imprint Wingtip Press was on hand to help with the tiny book-making workshop. Everyone is invited to The Tiny Book Show. Amy and Maya stop at select locations around the country to display tiny books made by artists and writers from around the world. Check out their next venue here.

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Back at my studio, I cut binders boards for different projects. The days are going by fast and my summer time back home in Canada is approaching.

For entertainment, I watch Garip Ay create Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry night and Self-portrait with ink marbling animation. Enjoy!

Manhoru

Back to work, I realise my studio is a mess. I’m in full production of City Shields.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

My curiosity grows with the pile of manhole covers. Has the manhole cover become a point of interest for other artists? I continue my search on the internet after communicating with Lucinda Ziesing featured on my blog post dated June 26th. Artists and graphic designers all over the world have noticed and are inspired by these works of urban design on our city streets.

My latest find is a wonderful fluoro colour publication entitled Overlooked, the 45th publication produced by design studio Pentagram in the UK. This colourful book celebrates the “gatekeepers” to the subterranean world beneath London’s streets.

© 2016 Pentagram Paper

After many hours of searching, I discover Remo Camerota, a dedicated manhole cover photographer. Camerota’s new book, Drainspotting, is dedicated to the his fans or the ‘manhoru’ maniacs. Manhoru is the Japanese word for ‘manhole’. A trip to Japan is worthwhile just to photograph the brightly painted manhoru covers.

Remo Camerota, Cherry Blossoms by Tokyo Five

Going down the rabbit hole, I come across Russell Muits, a graphic designer who embarked on a coast-to-coast odyssey. Muits travelled from Camden, New Jersey, to Seattle, Washington, and back. Russell searched out unusual manhole covers and, through hands-on application of ink and canvas, transformed the covers into prints. We share the same goal of finding every interesting manhole cover across the US. Of course my goal is to add the cities of the Canadian provinces.

Aaron Windhorst, Philadelphia Daily News/TNS

How can I finance City Shields and the travel to attain my goal? Any ideas?

Dilemmas!

Surprise! Surprise! My new refurbished refurbished Epson R3000 arrived early. Astonished, I was able to unpack the printer, set it up, and print. Oh my God! Epson is finally getting it together—hopefully they have. This R3000 is working well at the moment. Touch wood! It has only been a few hours! 

I printed my manhole covers sheet after sheet. The printer is not noisy and spits out printed sheets with no blotches of ink! I’m back in business!

I haven’t given up printing my own artists’ books; but still thinking of a printing service in the future, will see what this refurbished printer brings.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

I printed 30 sheets of manhole covers in one day with no problem. Alléluia!! 

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

I leave the printed sheets twenty four hours to settle and dry before phase six of the project. This step entails die-cutting the printed manhole covers and collating them.

Throughout my project, and time passing, I’ve had to go with the flow on how to cut, print and present City Shields.

For the first time in sixteen years I’m running short of my packaging of choice for City Shields. My dilemma is finding Iomega Disk Jewel Cases. They are no longer manufactured. If you know of a place I can buy jewel cases for Zip disks, please let me know.  

I had ordered thousands of Iomega jewel cases back in 2000 when they were popular for the original seven volumes of City Shields. The first volumes included a volume of Scotland; three volumes of Ottawa, one volume of Toronto, Ontario; and three volumes of Hull, Québec. Doculink International printed the original volumes and were die-cut by Capitol Box in Ottawa, Ontario.

In 2006, with new camera and new printer, I printed the volumes of the series myself with an Epson 2200. Capitol Box created a cutting jig to cut one manhole cover at a time. Unable to create the correct assembly to use the jig, it caused the paper to tear every time. I bought a Fiskars Circle Cutter from Michaels Arts and Crafts Store. This tool is super easy to use, it only cost $19.99 and works well. The clear plastic base makes alignment easy with no guessing games. Where do you find your tools?

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

This year, I needed to replace a discontinued Aspen paper for the insert. I chose an Inkpress Plus paper. I can still order the Generations G-Chrome Lustre paper to print the manhole covers. How do you cope with discontinued favorite papers? Do you enjoy trying lots of papers? Maybe you print on different paper for your projects and the brand doesn’t matter.

My goal was to collect manhole covers from each Canadian province and the 50 states in the US. Changes and finances are making it impossible to achieve! My project is at its end!

Printing and Hiking

Spit and spitting more ink! I tried to ignore the problem since the ink was only touching the sides of the sheets I was printing. How many more sheets can I print? Five to be exact.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

The next print had gobs of ink right in the middle of a manhole cover image. This problem is not going away! Printing is always stressful.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

My Epson R3000 is a refurbished printer replacing the first R3000 that died over a year ago. I rubbed my worry stones together, gathered my nerves and called Epson AGAIN! 

My printer situation is an ink cartridge gone bad or a print head problem, I was told. 350 dollars of my hard earned bucks is needed to revive this printer. “No way will I spend another cent on this one!” was my answer to Epson. Miracles of miracles, Epson felt my pain and will replace my refurbished R3000 with another refurbished R3000. If it lasts a year, great! Optimistic I will stay. Hopeful the printer won’t fall on its head in shipping? I might go with a print service in the future to publish my artists’ books. The thought of getting another Epson lemon, aye! &@!$#!!

Do you resort to a printing service or do you want control over your prints? My preference is being in charge of my own prints. No need to go back and forth to review prints. You can choose your paper of choice and not depend on the current inventory. No need to email inadvertently forgotten fonts. You can stay in the comfort of your studio and print to your heart’s content. Are the frustrations of the newer printers worth that comfort? What are your thoughts?

My production has stopped, waiting for said printer. I’m thinking of using my Epson Stylus Pro 2200 while I wait. 

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To quiet the mind, we hiked the foothills. Time has circled back in Avimor, it’s grasshopper season. Hundreds of Differential Grasshoppers jump in and out of the tall grass on both sides of the narrow Baun’s Eye Trail. It was amazing to see how high they jumped. Topaz annoyed by the sight focused on the thin path. 

Taking a photo or video of a grasshopper with 999... other Attention Deficit Disorder grasshoppers is difficult. I took this picture of one who had the nerves to stop and stare at us. Then it jumped in my face! What a surprise!

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

At the summit we paused for the view, then watching the sunset we made our descent carrying Topaz who could no longer stand the grasshoppers.

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During a conversation on my project City Shields, an associate suggested biking as a way to cover a lot of ground for photographing the covers. Handles, peddles, brakes, camera and dog I don’t know! Flyboard seems like a lot of fun, same problem though and I can’t carry my pooch. And again, few manhole covers on water.

I might as well stick to walking the streets or driving around town. Next weekend if you see me on the streets of Boise with camera in hand and my head down, I'm taking photographs of manhole covers, please say hello.

What do your city's manhole covers look like?

Printing Session

I received my ink, I replaced the old cartridges and I’m ready to print again. 

Printing is a long process, there’s lots of waiting. Wait, add a new sheet, check the print settings, send the print job and wait... 

This stretch gives me time to reminisce on trips and places I’ve visited to create the volumes of City Shields. Many memories float in my mind of scenes experienced throughout the Incessant Journey.

© 2010 Louise Levergneux, crossing the Utah, Nevada border on Friday, May 13

© 2011 Louise Levergneux, walking on West San Francisco Street in Santa-Fe in the early morning

© 2013 Louise Levergneux, searching for manhole covers on Woolman Street in Butte, Montana

Sheet after sheet, printing is going well. With patience, I sit and search the Internet to view kinetic sculptures. I stop on a sculpture by Varol Topaç’s which amuses me.

I enjoy viewing kinetic sculptures on YouTube, it keeps me calm. I also find it a good time to keep current on the discipline. If I pursue other activities while printing many sheets…yes, multitasking!... I lose track of where I am, confusion sets in, the printer stops and I don’t realise it. These videos help me to stay focused and I can concentrate on the next print. A little icon jumps back and forth on the right side of the screen when the printer is not functioning properly. You’ve seen it! It’s not always good news!

The latest fascinating installation at Changi Airport, Singapore, was conceived by Art+Com, a German design firm. This kinetic sculpture led by Jussi Angesleva, a German-based Finnish artist, helps me to unwind while I wait. Does it works for you?

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As we travel the world, we are often fascinated and often find a new muse to work within our imagination. As we discover new cities, we are mindful to what differs from back home. Many photographers and artists stumble on the manhole cover as a new interest.

Artist Lucinda Ziesing found a magnificent cast iron manhole cover inscribed with Telefonica Espana lying on a Barcelona sidewalk. Lucinda, awed by its presence and industrial design, is drawn to record its surface. 

Since her trip to Barcelona in 2006, Lucinda has made rubbings wherever she travels. As artists we both have these portals to the underground in common, “It’s a way to connect to places”, she says.

 I begin by making a rubbing of a utilitarian surface on a sheet of mylar with a litho crayon. Then in my studio, I add oil paint, sand, and repaint until the work is done. I noticed mandalas and labyrinth designs in the utility covers in Italy, which evolved into paintings and catch the stillness in the streets.

Lucinda’s Public Works were exhibited at 10 High Street Gallery in Camden, Maine. These paintings tell a story of portholes right under our feet.

© 2016 Lucinda Ziesing, Lucinda, unknowingly the collage of a New Orleans water meter rubbing and a rubbing from the floor in Pompeii painting have a curious connection. The date of the Vesuvius and Katrina natural disasters is August 24th. No accidents, Right?

© 2016 Lucinda Ziesing

© 2016 Lucinda Ziesing

© 2016 Lucinda Ziesing

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Shit, my printer is spitting black ink, got to go!!@!?

The Hunt for Manhole Covers

WOW! another week flew by, a repetitive occurrence nowadays. The hours come and go without warning. Busy is good; but life is fleeting. Did you carry out what you intended to do this week?

I went hunting for more manhole covers in the town of Emmett, northwest of Boise on Wednesday. A quaint region at an elevation of 2,362 feet (720 m) above sea level and below Freezeout Hill—a steep terrain overlooking Emmett. Following the winding road constructed in 1919, we noticed a welcome sign to Gem County. The only gems we saw were dark red, soft and round, juicy and sweet. Cherry Festival! 

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, descending Freezeout Hill

We drove around the streets till we came upon a manhole cover that might be the oldest manhole cover in Emmett. Most are run-of-the-mill, I call them ersatz. The hunt is part of the experience and we had a lovely afternoon. 

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, manhole cover at N McKinley Ave & E Main St, Emmett

On our way back home passing trough Meridian, we found two manhole covers with stunning designs.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, manhole covers designed for The Village Mall in Meridian

Friends viewing the volumes of City Shields often ask questions about the designs of the manhole covers and the reason for so many? Where or how I find the covers?  A manhole is used for many types of utilities: cable, sewer, telephone, sanitation...  So each design of the covers differentiates the use of the manhole. I find the covers wherever my life brings me. They are part of the city I live in or visit; and I’m obsessed with finding the most striking designs. I’m interested in bringing these entryways to the world beneath our feet to the forefront of city dwellers as art. At this point as an artist, I am more interested in the visual designs of the covers.

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I had to stop my printing process till the delivery of more ink cartridges. Two printers are expensive to keep. Now, I buy separate ink cartridges when needed. My delivery arrived today, now I have no excuses. 

Except, I’m entertaining another excuse, I would like to photograph and document my book Finding Home in ample detail. Finding Home is part of the Wanderlust exhibition at 23 Sandy Gallery in Portland. Laura Russell, the owner, sold two copies last week. What wonderful news!

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, artists' book Finding Home

I took numerous photographs before mailing my last copy to 23 Sandy Gallery. The number of an edition is tricky. Will every copy sell or will my closet of inventory get bigger? I remember contemplating on the question and thought I may need to create one-of-a-kind books soon if my studio gets smaller and smaller. Well, I was wrong and should have made a bigger edition according to Laura.

It’s a crap·shoot!! Publishing and editions are an uncertain matter.

Download, copy, Photoshop, prepare, templates, print—it’s all waiting for me to publish more volumes.

City Shields, Phase Four

Sometime during the week I lost a day. Today is Sunday, and I still have not finished the tasks at hand for City Shields.

I’m entering my detail work phase before printing. I find it necessary to pay attention to details—titles and text—to avoid mistakes. Je dois mettre les points sur les I et les barres sur les t, (I’m required to dot my i’s and cross my t’s).

Since I’m doing the volumes as an assembly line, it's a long process. Did I say boring, noooooo! Not at all, my obsessive-compulsive disorder is in full force and I don’t mind repetitive tasks. According to my key job list, I’m at phase 4, this is where I verify every individual elements of my templates.

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, transcribing addresses and intersections from the original file names of my photos in Bridge to a template in InDesign.

Details, details... I felt I needed to clear my mind to better focus. I took two days to clean my studio or should I say purge it of unwanted documentation—paper, paper... Who needs to continue carrying that stuff around! Last year I decided going digital was best, but the job never got finished with the move and other artists’ books in progress.

By scanning and copying the original paperwork to DVD. I created a stack of paper, this stack will be very useful for glueing books and boxes. Binders know what I mean. 

© 2016 Louise Levergneux

I took an hour to review my inventory of Aspen, Inkpress and Generations G-Chrome papers for the completion of two copies of 18 volumes, maybe more. The list grows as I work! A copy for me which will be part of the installation. The second copy is for the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives / Bibliothèque et Archives du Musée des beaux-arts du Canada. Peter Trepanier my contact, an avid collector of City Shields will be purchasing a copy of these volumes for the library. I will need to communicate with the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montréal, Québec, in case they want to keep their collection of City Shields complete.

I resume my detail work... To assure myself that the metadata transcribed is correct, I take the time to check the addresses and intersections from my journal in Google Maps. Street signs don't always indicate the cardinal directions, I love details!

© Google Maps, according to my journal we should have been on 2nd Ave N, it was necessary to determine which cardinal direction was the proper one for the location of a manhole cover

© 2016 Louise Levergneux, detail of my journal with corrections indicated with red circles

This task brings me back to the location in question. The city, the heat of the day, the rain, an elaborate design, a city named manhole cover, the surprise, the hooray! moment even the make my day moment... 

After googling an intersection, I had to check for the location of an exact manhole cover I had photographed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The address information in my journal was incomplete, yet again, those cardinal directions! I needed to find the exact location of this manhole cover. Was it a North or South street, East or West avenue?

© Google Maps, on September 6th, 2013 at 7:36am I was standing at the corner of E St Paul Ave and N Broadway in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

I found the manhole cover as I browsed in street view in Google Maps. It's circled below in red. 

© Google Maps

© Google Maps

As I navigated my mouse around and around the intersection in Google Maps, I noticed a new manhole cover. How could I have missed this cover while standing at the corner of N Broadway and E St Paul Ave? I searched on the internet till I found the manhole cover designed by Melanie Ariens, an environmental artist in 2015.

© Google Maps, the new manhole cover references a cleaner environment

Another visit to Milwaukee is in order!

I spent last Wednesday afternoon driving around Nampa, Idaho, eager to find an exciting manhole cover. I found a couple with the name of the city. That’s good, but I didn’t go wahoo!

While I continue my hunt, I receive manhole cover photos from different people interested in my project. Cathryn Miller sent these manhole covers taken in White Rock, BC.

© 2016 Cathryn Miller

Cathryn made use of the manhole covers in her book no skateboarding. This artists’ book is a book, a puzzle, a box, a photographic essay regarding surfaces. Text takes second place to visual images in no skateboarding as with City Shields. The visual takes precedent in the context of both artists’ books.

© 2005, Cathryn Miller, no skateboarding

© 2005, Cathryn Miller, no skateboarding

Many people are interested in manhole covers and lots of articles have been written on these items. My searches bring me to the conclusion that the manhole cover has made a name for itself by getting cities and artists working together.

I think I’m procrastinating the printing phase! Phase 5. I have to get past the impatience and get it done! Make it so number one!!