Old Port Union printing presses used during artist residency

A Newfoundland artist has wrapped up a residency with Port Union's Sir William Ford Coaker Foundation.

While in Port Union, Jennifer Morgan worked extensively with a movable type printing press that was originally used by the Fishermans Advocate newspaper.

She was the Coaker Foundation's first artist-in-residence in Port Union, and used her time there to lead workshops using the printing press with school children, and to work on wood block engravings.

Students would come in to the Fisherman's Advocate Building with a four word political slogan, and learn to use the printing press and moveable type to produce the slogan.

For a generation raised on apps like Instagram, Morgan said that the students quickly took to and became fascinated with the mechanical process.

"The kids would lock up their forms, we'd roll up the ink and then we'd put it in the presses and pull it out," she said.

"They were so amazed when they pulled it out and they could read it. It's like magic."

Art project mixes pop culture with N.L.

Morgan also created a piece of art using a wood block technique while at the studio in Port Union.

"It's got a picture of four mummers crossing a street with a conspicuous crosswalk, and it looks rather similar to the Abbey Road album cover. [A] combination of modern culture and Newfoundland traditional culture with the mummers," she said.

The foundation is hoping to offer further residencies in the future, and is planning to have three artists-in-residence for the busy tourist season next year.