Instructors

Brenda Cooper is a marketer and graphic designer with an interest in photography for 14 years. After discovering the alternative photographic process of cyanotypes, she has been sharing it with others through workshops and kits. Cooper has a bachelor's in communication and an MBA in Marketing from the University of St. Thomas, including photography courses at the Glassell School of Art, and her creative side draws her to artistic projects such as letterpress printing, stationary design and crafts. She is president of the MPH Printers Guild.

Charles Criner is the Artist in Residence at the Museum of Printing History. Charles is the kind of artist that likes to "exhaust" the medium. He "pulls" his prints in black and white, then in color, and on top of that he sometimes adds acrylic over the print to produce original paintings on paper. He, however, is also parsimonious, or rather, enjoys the limitations of using only three colors and no more to make his prints. Furthermore, he is the kind of artist / craftsman who prizes the concrete relationship between himself and his work. Criner always pulls prints himself, never letting other professional printers do this for him.

Kathy Gurwell has years experience in the fields of paper and printing, beginning with her graphic arts study in Paris and continuing as a Curator Fellow at Tamarind Lithography Institute in Albuquerque, NM and most recently at the Museo della Carta in Fabriano, Italy. She has demonstrated papermaking in San Francisco, Santa Fe, and Houston, where she now lives. Her artistry in this field was recognized a few years ago when Lord & Taylor invited her to display and sell her products at a show of Santa Fe artists in their principal New York City store. More recently she was commissioned to make a 40 x 40 in. piece of paper for the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft.

Cindy Haller is a graphic designer specializing in custom lettering, calligraphy, bookbinding, book arts, paper and fiber arts. Since 1979, she has conducted workshops and demonstrations for businesses, arts organization, and private individuals in Texas and New Mexico, and the around the U.S. She is a member of the Houston Calligraphy Guild and the Texas Chapter of the Guild of Bookworkers.

Charles Jones recently retired as head of the Printmaking/Book Arts program at Stephen F. Austin University. Charles is a printmaker, co-founder of the LaNana Creek Press, and the Regents Professor of Art at the University. Jones has also designed books and printed under his Crazy Creek Press imprint. His books may be found in major collections in both the United States and Great Britain. He has had a long career in Printmaking with a major interest in the relief print. His recent series of large format woodcuts may be seen here. Charles is also a player of old time and Irish music on fiddle and banjo.

Lena Le Moal is a professional bookbinder, originally from France and now based in Houston. After earning degrees in science, art history, and bookbinding, she apprenticed in studios of master French bookbinders. She has furthered her conservation skills at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin, and now in private practice. She is a member of the American Institute for Conservation and is a volunteer at the Museum of Printing History.

Melanie Wade Leslie has a BFA in painting from Sam Houston State University and an MFA in studio art from the University of Houston. For three decades she has specialized in hand-pulled transfer processes and has taught printmaking at Houston Baptist University for 13 years, continually researching low toxicity methods and materials for the benefit of her students. She feels that it is important to maintain the integrity of tradition while exploring contemporary applications and finds experimental means of expression to be challenging and rewarding.

Myssie Light: A native of San Antonio, Myssie's art education began in Montessori pre-school and was supplemented and encouraged by her artist mother. A high school graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, she earned a BA with a concentration in studio art from Trinity University. A summer in Japan with Parsons The New School for Design influenced her direction toward books and paper. Since 1993 she has attended classes at the American Academy of Bookbinding in Telluride Colorado. She is co-founder of the Houston Book Arts Group and Volunteer Bookbinder at the Museum of Printing History.

Rikki Mitman found respite in art from a very matter-of-fact career as a business and technical writer. A self-taught hand papermaker and paper caster, her love of paper and its possibilities is very apparent in her paper vessels, as well as her use of altered papers in mixed-media collage. A well-known Houston instructor, Mitman enjoys teaching nearly as much as she enjoys making. She also teaches privately, and as an adjunct at Lone Star College.

Suzanne Powney works as a freelance graphic designer and letterpress printer. With a background in both architecture and graphic design, she has worked in her own letterpress studio for seven years and teaches letterpress workshops at University of Houston and with the MPH Printers Guild. She does printing demonstrations for local clubs to share her knowledge of letterpress with the community. With a love for texture and ink on paper, her passion lies with letterpress printing and design. She currently operates BlackDog Press out of her home in the Heights.

Armando Rodriguez was born in Mexico. He received a BFA from the University of Houston in 1982. He works in many media including graphic design, photography, printmaking (etching, lithography, and monotype), and bookmaking. He presently works for the Houston Chronicle, Art League of Houston and the education department of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

David Shields is the Assistant Chair of Design in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Texas at Austin. At UT he has been engaged in the physical research of the Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection, organizing and clarifying the historical importance of the wood types while expanding the information available on the often-elusive histories of these designs. Shields holds a B.F.A. from Memphis State University and a M.F.A. from Cranbrook Academy of Art. His work may be found in many publications, as well as institutional collections. In 2001 Shields helped found the design studio, Viewers Like You.

Lee Steiner has been teaching herself and others hand papermaking and the book arts for more than a dozen years and has maintained her own art business and studio for eons.

David J. Webb is an artist working principally at Glassell School, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. His various works on paper have been seen in Glassell exhibitions. He has numerous block prints, etchings, lithographs, and photographs in private collections from Houston to Tokyo, Zürich, and Poltava, Ukraine. Strongly informed by a background in genetics and evolutionary biology, his work functions on the cusp between art and science.