Hatch Show Print

I love letterpress and woodblock printing, so when Steffen gave me a book about Hatch Show Print a few years ago, I instantly became a big fan. Hatch originally printed the posters and such in the old days of Nashville, and in the past years, under the guidance of Jim Sherraden, has gone on to design and print posters for musicians and others around the world.

We only had a little time in Nashville, and Hatch was my primary goal. We were there a bit before opening, but waited a few minutes to go in. We entered, and just marveled at the setup beyond the "Employees Only" sign, the walls lined with old woodblocks and type. We poked around the front with its souvenirs and poster-covered walls as a few folks worked, setting up the presses. When FedEx came, I overheard that the man signing for it was Jim Sherraden, and approached him about signing the book I brought along.

And he couldn't have been nicer. He drew a wonderful design in my book, asked us our destination and offered his best wishes on our relocation. He encouraged us to wander into the back to look at the work in progress and the blocks and type. He passed along the name of a letterpress shop in Santa Fe (that we must've missed). And on our way out, he made a point of saying goodbye.

But our time there was just amazing. The work runs from the more traditional to modern interpretations using old artwork. There were gorgeous monoprints, around, and I just stared at the walls of type and watched as one of the resident cats was chased off a press that was about to be put into use. And we went through the "root pile," which looked to be an assortment of recent jobs, and bought a few, along with some postcards and a hat (I can't help myself).

It was just all so great.









And the obligatory self-portrait: