Professor Vinzani Collaborates on International Art Project

University of Maine at Machias professor Bernard Vinzani recently collaborated with paper artist Emma Sovich on work published in the Hand Papermaking, Inc’s 30th anniversary’s 12th Portfolio titled Intergenerationality.

Vinzani is a professor at the University of Maine at Machias and has a Master of Fine Arts in Printmaking from Indiana State University. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally in such venues as The VI International Print Biennial, Cracow Poland and the Maine Invitationa. Portland, Maine. Vinzani works with students, teaching them the craft of Book Arts and the knowledge of Papermaking.

Vinzani and Sovich’s work, along with the work of 15 other collaborations were completed over the past year in studios worldwide. Vinzani and Sovich completed their work here at the University of Maine at Machias. Collaborations from Intergenerationality were composed equally between well-established paper artists who were active in the field when Hand Papermaking, Inc. was founded, and up and coming paper artists who were born around the time Hand Papermaking, Inc. Together, they explored the interdependence and exchange of a constructive relationship between generations.

The completed result gives a feeling of young energy combined with the wisdom of experience. Together, the pairs decided individually how to express these concepts in their work.

“I made a sheet of paper with my thoughts about the craft of papermaking, and what I would like to say to a younger person to pass the craft to the next generation,” Vinzani said this week. “Each of my sentences were put in the paper as a watermark, a thin spot in the sheet that can only be read if the reader hold the paper up to light. I made 150 sheets. Then, Emma Sovich crafted her responses to my sentences and letterpress printed the words on the paper. When the reader viewed her words, the pattern suggested more was needed to complete the thought. Our poem only comes to full understanding when the reader holds the paper to light reading both her words and mine.”

Vinzani and Sovich’s work is part of a boxed edition, one of which was recently purchased by the Newberry Library Rare Books Collection in Chicago. All proceeds benefit Hand Papermaking, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the traditions and contemporary developments of handmade paper and paper art.