Don Kilpatrick Art and Letterpress

The written page is perfectly balanced and beautifully constructed. The hand writing is a work of art. And yes, you are looking at a single page from Thomas Jefferson’s Garden Book (1766), featured below.


Obviously the great outdoors and all of its beauty provided Thomas Jefferson a clear head to author the Declaration of Independence adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776.


And his stroke of genius was preceded by Thomas Paine’s bestselling 48-page pamphlet, Common Sense published January 10, 1776. A letter press document, the celebration of hand set metal typography, applying black ink and hand stamping every page. (Above, right).



Detroit artist and college professor Don Kilpatrick III reinvigorates the old letterpress into a modern producer of beauty. Don is one of those guys who knows what it takes to inspire his community, roll up his sleeves and apply a do-whatever-it-takes-attitude to everything he does.

Loving the fine art of printing so much, Don teamed up with his good pal Joe Benghaueser, (above left), and started the Detroit Wood Type Co. Resourcefully dedicated, Don and Joe print masterful assignments on antique office supplies and carve out their own illustrative motifs out of linoleum and wood. Yes, they make their own unique wood type specimens for their projects.


Recently, I was able to catch up to Don Kilpatrick III in between finals, summer break and project work at the shop. Don is participating in the Culture Lab Detroit exhibition and is exhibiting a new printing kit built out of reclaimed wood and doubles as a sculptural object.

Mark Murphy : Don, please describe the new exhibit and share with us, your first steps in compiling your materials.

Don Kilpatrick III : Culture Lab Detroit, founded by Jane Schulak, is becoming a catalyst for conversations and collaborations, and a platform for engaging world-class design and entrepreneurial talent in a series of thoughtful discussions to stimulate new relationships and deeper connections between Detroit and the international community of artists designers and innovators, with the goal of increasing awareness and the imprint of Detroit’s creative community internationally. (Photo, Michelle & Chris Gerard).


I have been invited to participate in this year’s upcoming Culture Lab, and at the first meeting held to discuss the ideas and themes this year’s lab events are about, this idea hit me after it had simmered for a couple of years. This work will be included in the Culture Lab curated show at NORA in Detroit.


In my most recent work consists of printmaking, painting, and a lot of woodcarving, engraving, as well as linocut. A couple of years back for my first solo gallery show at The Butcher’s Daughter Gallery, the work consisted of both large scale prints and taking the idea of the wood carving as the finished original piece.


I have wanted to further explore the idea of my carvings being a multilayered, multi-depth piece that only reveals the uppermost layer of relief carving if printed, but then you would have to display the block in order to see the entire narrative or sequence of the piece. The theme of this year’s Culture Lab centers on green spaces and the greening of Detroit. I wanted to create a sequence of images that relates to this idea, as well as incorporate my idea of this being a multilayered carving.

When I was invited to participate and submit my ideas for Culture Lab, I immediately thought of how I could take all that I have done in traditional lino-carvings and wood carvings and combine all of that with creating a work that was a one of a kind as well as a useful tool in teaching others the basics of printing. This “kit” is as portable as one can get considering how many tools and equipment one must use in letterpress and relief printmaking. I set out to create a multi-layered work of “interactive” or participatory work of art for people of almost all ages.


I was determined to make sure that all of the materials that the box, carved blocks, printing registration jig, and printmaking spoon were all made from an old oak door from a recently deconstructed building in Detroit.

Mark Murphy : Your final object looks to be comprised of many layers that can be pulled apart and utilized to print with. Please share your vision of your piece and how it works.

Don Kilpatrick III : I wanted this to be a work of art that is participatory in its nature. The nature of printmaking lends itself to be participatory, and is something that allows someone to print the work of an artist that they have never met before. I usually am a control freak when it comes to either my painting or printmaking, and I wanted to let go of those controls for this work of art.


The kit consists of four carved printing blocks, a rubber roller (for ink), a printing or registration jig for printing from the blocks, a piece of plexi-glass to roll out ink upon, a rubbing spoon for applying pressure to make a print, and some rags for cleaning up.
My hope and vision for this is that it can be something that someone uses to teach printmaking to children, or themselves, and also possibly give them enough knowledge to create their own carvings to print from.  Just today my business partner and I have pre-ordered a CNC machine in order to create wood type as well as use it to possibly scale up production of this kit.
The hand carved printing blocks can be displayed on a wooden stand that has slots cut into it to give the effect of a tunnel book that gives the viewer a sense of depth, or can be stacked right on top of each other as a if to give the effect of one carving with multiple depths.


Mark Murphy : What inspired you to approach the project in this way?

Don Kilpatrick III : I consider myself a serious student of the history of art and illustration and their relation to printing, and in the course of the past few years I have studied off and on a lot about printmaking and its origins in Europe.

I am currently studying about how in medieval Europe that priests and teachers used what is called the “horn book” for their pupils. The hornbook usually consisted of what appears to be a cutting board, but actually has the alphabet, or a religious scene carved into it. The priest of teacher would sometimes take a piece of charcoal or roll out ink and make a print for their parishioner to take home with them. I also have always been intrigued with “tunnel books”, and I have included a slotted stand in this kit to view the blocks as a tunnel book, you can see through one carving to the next to view the narrative and sequence.


I wanted to have this be a work of art that can produce multiple pieces from it, or just keep the original wood blocks and display them as the work of art. It can produce multiple prints from the blocks that can either be in a small edition, or bound together in book form.

The story that I have told through these four carved blocks is based on something that I saw in northern Michigan a while ago. I saw how a small tree was sprouting out of a massive tree stump, and to me that visual is very powerful. It is as if the tree had decided that it wasn’t finished with being a tree.

Seeing that led my mind to wander and think about what an amazing resource wood is, and how useful it can be as it translates into many different forms. In many ways it reminds me of my experiences here in Detroit, and ties into what Culture Lab is all about.

Call him old school, Renaissance man, husband, father, artist, illustration chair, teacher, pen and watch tech, salvage aficionado, letterpress shop co-owner, but call on him and check in on Donald Kilpatrick III and see what he’s up to. (Photo, Michelle & Chris Gerard).


(More reading: Wish Diamonds Article and Introduction, Heidelpark Park Detroit, Detroit Wood Type Co., College for Creative Studies, Culture Lab Detroit, Jesse David Green and Michelle & Chris Gerard contributed in-studio lifestyle photography with kind thanks to Don Kilpatrick III).