In this hands-on workshop, you’ll dive into experimental relief printmaking alongside a community of fellow bird enthusiasts and curios makers led by Florida book artist and printmaker Rachel Simmons. Using plates representing the silhouettes of local birds, you’ll explore layered colors and patterns of your own choosing—bold, unexpected, intuitive—as you bring your favorite bird to life in print.
Each participant will join the Flock, a decade-long collaborative art project spanning communities across the United States and Eastern Iceland. You are invited to print as many birds as you like, as long as you leave some behind for the project archive.
Local artist Yoshi Nakagawa will be joining us to simultaneously lead a native plant transfer workshop so our bird friends can have some foliage to hang out!
No printmaking experience necessary—just bring your curiosity, your bird stories, and a willingness to get your hands inky!
Before the workshop, spend some time visiting our PNW Climate Week Resource Fair where partners will be sharing climate mitigation and climate action resources!
This event is a collaboration between Springtide Press, Tacoma Public Library, Write 253, W. W. Seymour Conservatory, and Tacoma Tree Foundation, the lead artists, and is supported in part by Tacoma Creates.
About the artists:
Rachel Simmons
Rachel Simmons is a queer artist and educator in Orlando, Florida, specializing in book arts and printmaking. Driven by curiosity about creativity, astronomy, philosophy, and nature, she explores challenging questions through her practice. Her artist’s books are held in prestigious collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Newberry Library, and the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. She founded and directs the Rollins Book Arts Collection and champions artists’ books through leadership in the Book Arts Guild of Central Florida, Orlando Zine Fest, and CBAA: The Association for Books Art Education.
Yoshi Nakagawa
Born in Tacoma and raised by Japanese parents in Portland, Yoshi Nakagawa’s path to finding her artistic voice wound through multiple continents and cultures. After pulling her first print at University of Puget Sound in 1999, she lived in Japan for two years, spent eight years in Seattle honing her craft, then made her way to Oaxaca, Mexico, where she would spend nine transformative years as a full-time visual artist. Through the meditative repetition of intaglio, relief, monotype, and mixed media printmaking techniques, Nakagawa’s artwork celebrates cultural enrichment, natural beauty, and reciprocity as environmental stewards. She has exhibited and taught workshops regionally and internationally.