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BFA in Graphic Design Faculty
Rebecca Chamlee
Adjunct Associate Professor / Book Arts & Printmaking Minor Area Head
Rebecca's website
Teaches In
Graphic Design
Illustration
Interdisciplinary Studies
Education: 

Bachelor of Fine Arts, with honors, Communication Arts, Otis/Parsons School of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California (1985)

Bio/Affiliation: 

Rebecca Chamlee is a self-taught naturalist, citizen scientist, writer, letterpress printer and book binder who has published letterpress printed fine press and artist’s books under the imprint of Pie in the Sky Press since 1986. Her award-winning work is in prominent special and private collections and has been exhibited widely.
Rebecca joined Otis as an associate professor in 2002 to teach book arts classes including Introduction to Letterpress, Advanced Letterpress, Book Structures, Experimental Printmaking and Book Making Projects.
Rebecca’s limited edition books examine the intersection of her artistic and scientific interests by collecting and cataloging the natural world. As a life-long amateur naturalist, she studies the rich and diverse elements of the natural world that her native California has to offer. From the unique flora and fauna of the arid inland valley that she calls home to the rocky tidepools of her childhood; Rebecca is inspired to record, interpret and celebrate nature.

Affliations

  • American Printing History Association
  • College Book Arts Association
  • Fine Press Book Association
  • Guild of Book Workers
  • Hand Bookbinders of California
  • Ladies of Letterpress
  • Nature Printing Society
  • San Diego Book Arts
  • Women of Letters
Awards/Honors: 
  • 2022, College Book Arts Association Project Grant
  • 2019, First Prize Award, The Art Institute of Atlanta-Decatur, Decatur, Georgia, The Book as Art, Wonders, juried exhibition, giant: a deity with leaves artist's book
  • 2019, Otis College of Art and Design, Faculty development grant to travel to The Yale Center for British Art, Yale University, New Haven, ct to research Victorian women naturalists.
  • 2019, at low water, artist's book, featured in The Love of Letterpress, edition 2, Bloombury, A&C Black, Publisher
  • 2018, Runner-up and Purchase Prize, Sixteenth Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design, University of Texas at El Paso, University Library, Special Collections, at low water deluxe artist's book
  • 2017, Merit Award, The Book as Art 5.0: Illuminated, juried show, Decatur Arts Alliance, Decatur, GA, at low water artist's book

Otis Faculty Development Grants: Spring 2022, Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2013, Spring 2012, Spring 2010, Spring 2007
 

 

Professional Accomplishments/Exhibitions:  

Exhibitions

  • Wildlife, Guild of Book Workers juried traveling exhibition, multiple venues
    • American Bookbinders Museum, San Francisco, CA
    • Robert C. Williams Museum of Papermaking, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA
    • North Bennet Street School, Boston, MA
    • Collins Memorial Library, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, WA
    • Cushing Memorial Library, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX
    • Lloyd Library and Museum, Cincinnati, OH
  • Book/Art/Artifact, San Francisco Center for the Book
  • New Impressions 2022, Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum, Two Rivers, WI


Selected Exhibitions

  • May 2020, The Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, Kalamazoo, Michigan, The Illustrated Accordion, online exhibition
  • February 2020, San Fransisco Center for the Book, San Francisco, California, (retro)(intro)spection: moving past into the forward, juried exhibition
  • February 2020, Loveland Artists Collective, ArtWorks, Loveland, Colorado, The HeArt of the Book, juried exhibiton
  • November 2019, Robert C. Williams Papermaking Museum, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, Formation, Guild of Book Workers, juried exhibition
  • September 2019 Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, Washington, The Book as Art: The Page and Beyond, invitational exhibition
  • August 2019, University of the Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Formation, Guild of Book Workers juried exhibition
     

Institutional Collections

  • Yale University, The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas J. Watson Library, Artists Book Collection
  • The Getty Research Institute, Artists' and Fine Press Book Collection
  • Arizona State University, Noble Library, Special Collections
  • Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Cynthia Sears Collection
  • Columbia University, Butler Library, Rare book and Manuscripts
  • Occidental College Library, Special Collections
  • Stanford University, Bowes Art & Architecture Library
  • Swarthmore College Libraries
  • UCLA, William Andrews Clark Library
  • University of Florida, Smathers Librry, Special Collections
  • University of Iowa, Main Library, Special Collections
  • University of Miami, Otto G. Richter Library, Special Collections
  • University of Utah, Marriott Library, Special Collections

    And multiple private collections


Presentation

  • A Tree is Born: an artist’s book in process
    November 2021 Wayzgoose, Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum

     

Rebecca Chamlee CV

Publications:  
  • Dreams of Flight, the nesting season
    Artist’s book
    Written, designed, printed, and bound by the artist

    During the long months of isolation in 2020 and 2021, Rebecca began documenting the many birds that came to her backyard feeders and noted their unique behaviors. With a telephoto lens, she was able to record detailed and intimate images of my avian visitors. As often happens, the passion Rebecca felt for the birds grew into the idea for an artist’s book. Dreams of Flight, the nesting season is an interconnected story of three different species of birds that nested in her suburban yard during the spring nesting seasons of 2020–21.