Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Tom Virgin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Tom , we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
I have to attribute growth in confidence and self esteem to my teachers and mentors, starting very early. I went to great public schools as a kid and always loved school. Fiercely independent, my “go to” was books for almost everything. With my own library card and bike, the world was mine. I was hooked on books. About the same time, Mom started to teach me how to cook, mostly because I was always hungry. Her trust and investment in my early cooking education kept me well fed, and led to bakery/ restaurant work in high school. When I learned to swim, it was not long before I became a lifeguard/ swimming teacher. The cycle of learning and teaching started early. The process brought me confidence through repetition and reinforcement of shared skills.
When I began studying visual art, this “learn and teach” cycle again built a community around me. Shared presses, workshops, and relatively small communities, had me teaching art before I became a teacher in public schools. When I began teaching full time, summer artist residencies added specialized knowledge of book arts and printing, to my repertoire. The jump from my beloved school/ public libraries to special collection libraries was the beginning of my book arts path. I also shared those learning centers with my students. All of my classrooms have been collaborative studios. The longer I taught art in public schools, the more my students expanded and enriched the cycle of learning: teaching, feedback from students, new skills, and embracing new points of view and techniques.
My work at Extra Virgin Press has expanded this model into a community resource that teaches letterpress printing, book arts, and collaboration for artists and writers of all ages. Posters, broadsheets, books and prints are created in a studio around shared presses. This community comes to us with words and images, or just a desire to print. That shared space, like school, encourages collaboration. Miami Dade County Cultural Affairs, Oolite Arts, Miami Dade Public Library, the Vasari Project, and other community partners that initially brought me to residencies, workshops, and classes around the U.S. now bring the artists, writers, and kids to me. I share what I have learned. The cycle engages experience, knowledge, and community with new printers.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Since I retired from teaching in the public schools, I have been printing in Little Haiti (Miami) on a 1949 Vandercook 4 Proof Press and a Challenge 15KP Proof Press from the early 1950’s. These remarkable machines require printers to operate them, no automation. I have been training new printers and book artists to keep the presses in the service of our community. Everything that is printed can be broadcast on a screen, but not everything on a screen can be printed. Letterpress printing reveals the hand in the work.
With this method of relief printing, blocks with images, and wood or metal type are locked into the form or bed of the press. A hand crank moves inked rollers across a sheet of paper with pressure over the form on the bed of the proof press. Every sheet is individually printed one color at a time. With prints, broadsheets and books many runs are required to create a single completed sheet or page.
I enjoy teaching printing and book arts, especially to young people. We all have a desire to tell our stories, and when the power goes out, those books still do a pretty good job of telling stories. Ink on paper can be as simple as a poster with a few words and an image, or a multi page book, printed, folded, hand sewn, and bound with a cover. You can find my books at The FIU Green Library Special Collections, the Permanent Art Collection of the Miami-Dade Public Library, The Vasari Project at MDPLS, the Jaffe Center for Book Arts at FAU, and other collections around the United States.
http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/JaffeCenter/collection/books_as_aesthetic_objects/working_philosophy_1.php
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
When I look back at my journey into printing and book arts, it is clear that reaching out to local organizations helped me to grow and learn. Although I am a small organization, I am grateful that my community invested their resources into the work that I do, so that I may share my knowledge with other people that do what I do. Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs Department has been pivotal in creating art in Miami across a wide spectrum of disciplines. They introduced me to nationally recognized organizations that helped me find my path. Research is key.
1. Build a local community in your field. Ask experienced artists/printers how and where they learned their craft. Ask them who are their teachers? At my first workshop, I learned one isolated skill that could be completed in a few hours. However, most of the process for printing involves preparation, or clean up & maintenance, which is not usually part of a workshop, but still essential knowledge. Share your knowledge.
https://www.miamidadearts.org/artists
2. Work with other disciplines. Ask other artists/writers who are you reading? As creative people grow in their careers, they follow best practitioners. Experienced artist/writers generally can tell you two or three folks you can learn from, just by following them on Instagram and/or reading their books. Ideas are a part of everyone’s practice. Writers share words, always.
https://omiami.org/
3. Create an opportunity to travel and work with others in communities that are rich in your discipline. Ask your teachers “what should I study”? Seek new knowledge, and give yourself the luxury of learning from your peers. They are doing what you do, and can share local knowledge of materials and supplies.
https://www.miamidadearts.org/artist-access-art-grants-program
https://artistcommunities.org/artists/find-residency
Books remain a influential aspect of my education. My time in residencies brought me close to practitioners in other disciplines. The group that influenced me the most, not surprisingly, were the writers. I suppose that all my time in libraries led me to collaborations with writers, printers, and ultimately book arts. Last year, I invited many of my colleagues from around the United States to Tropic Bound Artists’ Book Fair, Miami’s first in 2023. I will go to my first Codex, February 2024. Please make plans to visit Miami’s second Tropic Bound 2025, February 6-9.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
When I came to the book arts community I was already a teacher. I was working with young people in Miami high schools. They were an audience that provided early feedback about my work. During my first summer artist residency in a National Park, I made a series of woodcut prints and photographs of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, in Michigan where I grew up. When I showed the kids photos of Lake Michigan, they said, “Mr., that is an ocean, not a lake.” Those students from Cuba, Venezuela, Guatemala, Peru, Columbia, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and the rest of South and Central America barely knew Miami, let alone the United States. When I showed them a satellite photo a few weeks later, that included Hurricane Katrina, Michigan, Florida and Louisiana, they replied, “Wow, that is a big lake!” My response, “No, those are the Great Lakes.” That was an indelible learning lesson for these newcomers to the United States…And for me.
In the residencies that followed, I went to places in the United States, very different from where I grew up. When I showed that work to my students, they often told me “that looks like my country”. This exchange of “my country” stories between me and my students connected me to my audience. Spending nine months a year in Title I Public High Schools brought me many stories from young people that did not reflect my experience growing up in the suburbs of Detroit. In the process of teaching my students/audience about my country, they each taught me about their own countries. Those students who were early consumers of my work, now follow me as adults. Trading our stories, has been an essential part of our education. Find your audience.
Building community in residencies with printing presses was the beginniing of my work in collaboration. Sharing a house and meals with writers brought me face to face with the people who wrote the books I read. Their words, and my printing skills created a bond, starting with a few words on a broadsheet. After printing in residencies for a few years, I began to collaborate with people in Miami. My audience grew. I introduced artists to writers, and writers to artists. Our community collaborated and connected.
http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/JaffeCenter/collection/sweat_broadsides/index.php
Contact Info:
- Website: www.extravirginpress.com
- Instagram: @extravirginpress
- Other: www.tomvirgin.com/wp
Image Credits
Images: Portrait photo credit, Javier Alba. Portrait photo credit, Javier Alba. Photo credit for other images, Tom Virgin, Extra Virgin Press Vicki Silvera, Director of FIU, Special Collections, Green Family Library. FIU. Extra Virgin Press, Green Endowment Exhibition 2024. Special Collections Department. Arismmer McCoy, Tom Virgin, (Chris Friday drawing installation at MoCA) 2023 Tom Virgin and Rosa Naday Garmendia, at Extra Virgin Press 2023 Vasari Project Workshop, 6 Word Story Workshop, Edison Branch MDPLS 2024 Tom Virgin, Campbell McGrath, MDPLS Main Library with SWEAT Broadsheet Exhibition 2024 Tom Virgin, Hungry Hungry Caterpillar, Campbell McGrath at MDPLS Main Library 2024 Rosa Naday Garmendia, Banned Books talk, Oolite Arts 2024
