It’s a small exhibit for such a big mountain, but Chandler O’Leary’s exquisitely made “Local Conditions” combines drawing, letterpress and craft to reveal a love for Mount Rainier that speaks to all who live near it.
The book display takes up only about 30 square feet in the Collins Memorial Library at the University of Puget Sound, but it packs a punch. Nestled in four cabinets just past the information desk as you walk in, “Local Conditions” isn’t just a book – it’s a show that explains an artistic process from inspiration to intricate completion.
Since moving here just a couple of years ago, letterpress artist O’Leary has been fascinated with the mountain: how it looks, how it is perceived, how it dominates every city view. And so, just as Mount Fuji inspired Japanese printmaker Hokusai to create his “Views of Mount Fuji” nearly 200 years ago, Mount Rainier inspired O’Leary to create her own views of Mount Rainier.
But this is no ordinary book of prints. It’s a beautifully made box of individual Rainier prints – foreground, mid-ground and background – that can be rearranged by the owner in a clever slotted frame that allows as many permutations as you can think of.
The four cabinets show how the whole thing works. They are full of the maps and vintage postcards that inspired the project, topped by two books of Hokusai’s works. A third cabinet details the process: O’Leary’s drawings and photographs of Mount Rainier sit next to the film negatives she created from them, and finally the yellow plastic photopolymer plates with ridged lines she created from the negatives.
O’Leary, who creates posters, books and other art as part of Anagram Press, then made letterpress prints from these plates using indigo ink as a tribute to Hokusai, who incorporated the then-innovative technique as his dominant color. On the reverse of each image, O’Leary printed the “local conditions” for each view: date, weather, geographic coordinates and so on.
Finally, in the fourth cabinet, we see the images in watercolors, and finally assembled in a tiny chest of drawers about 10 by 8 by 8 inches, lushly covered in indigo and dark gold silk. On the top is the slotted wooden frame that’s able to hold seven cards to assemble a unique “view.”
Not only is “Local Conditions” an astonishing display of skill and two years’ hard work. It also is a sheer delight to look at. O’Leary’s drawings show a clear, well-composed line, starkly shadowed and vaguely Tolkien-esque, with dollhouse-level detail. Her watercolors are cool shades of pink, gray and green that interact with the indigo, and the fonts are simple with slightly calligraphic tips, a document from some other past.
You are going to want this book, though at $2,600, it’s not in everyone’s range. O’Leary has put her finger on what people truly want to do with art, and that’s play around with it. It also is a heartfelt homage to a beautiful mountain. Hokusai would be proud.
Also in the library: Marita Dingus’ wire-and-recycled-fabric figures, leftover from the Race and Pedagogy Conference, which speak eloquently to cultural perceptions and stare with long-suffering eyes. ‘LOCAL CONDITIONS’
What: Chandler O’Leary’s “Local Conditions” artist book display
Where: Collins Memorial Library at the University of Puget Sound, 1500 N. Warner St., Tacoma
When: 7:30 a.m.-2 a.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 7:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Fridays, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturdays, 9 a.m.- 2 a.m. Sundays through January
Admission: Free
More information: 253-879-3229, www.pugetsound.edu, www.anagram-press.com
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