Green Cat Press/ Green City Press was started in 1985 by Susan Makov and Patrick Eddington, two artists living in Salt Lake City, Utah. Both of us have taught art full time for a total of 63 years. Patrick teaches at Highland High School and I teach printmaking at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. We have been working with writers and visual artists since 1985. Our focus has been on work about animals and nature. Most of the work of Green Cat Press is done as letterpress books and prints, printed by hand on a 62 year old hand cranked Vandercook cylinder flatbed press at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah.
Many of the following authors and visual artists have produced original works for us to create broadsides (text with image printed on one side of archival printmaking paper) and hand made artist’s books with: Rudolfo Anaya, Gus Arriola, Margaret Atwood, Lee Deffebach, Brian Aldiss, Greg Keeler, Ray Bradbury, Kenneth W. Brewer, Charles Simic, William T. Wiley, Lewis Nordan, Roddy Doyle, Cees Nooteboom, Terry Tempest Williams, Tony Hillerman, MFK Fisher, Gary Stein, Joy Harjo, Marshall Arisman, Chuck Bowden, Patrick Eddington, Mikel Vause, David Lee, Judy Elsley, Alan Cheuse, Peter Sís, David James Duncan, Diane Ackerman and Wendell Berry.
Although the prints began with poems about cats for Green Cat Press, for the past two years, I have been printing poems and art about the natural world. I have wanted to work with poetry concerned with a sense of the earth. Most recently, when I have asked various writers to send me something about nature, I have gotten several “prayers” or meditations for the earth. Given the limited time we are here on earth, I would like to spend my time addressing aspects of nature around me and looking at questions summoned by living in this world. I am a visual artist, who finds it exciting to work with writers who can talk about the natural world in various ways.
Susan Makov has headed the printmaking emphasis in the Department of Visual Arts at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah since 1977 (http://departments.weber.edu/dova/). Susan teaches all print processes including letterpress, serigraphy, intaglio, relief and lithography, as well as design and illustration. Her emphasis over past years has included photography and digital media.
“I have always greatly admired the graphic arts talents of my father, Boris Makov, an illustrator at Timely Service in Brooklyn, NY until 1960; and my mentor, Todd Walker, photographer and letterpress printer. They would have been pleased with this direction to produce broadsides and books.”
Patrick Eddington has taught art at Highland High School in Salt Lake City since 1976. Patrick teaches painting, drawing and graphic design. His personal work is in illustration and painting, currently creating a series about a fictional Lake Corot.
Together, in 1994 Patrick and Susan wrote The Trading Post Guidebook (Northland Publishing, Flagstaff, Arizona), a guide to the artists and trading posts of the American southwest.
