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james alea

@fireecologypress

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letterpress printmaker & aphant artist
teaching artist, @wnybookartscenter
art education '27, @artdesignbuffalo
ICE out of our communities 🚫🧊

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my fascination with circles continues

i learned to make this dot mandala at a wonderful workshop yesterday at anderson gallery, it was so fun and relaxing and the result is so cool! i've already ordered my own set of dot mandala tools (because you know i need another hobby lol) by @fireecologypress

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6 days ago

just something i've been working on lately this week! these 2 are finished but there's 1 more in the series before the whole piece is finished (: by @fireecologypress

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10 days ago

i like being creative by @fireecologypress

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12 days ago

"self portrait of an aphant" (2026)

for one of my art education classes this semester, we were asked to make abstract self portraits. after just having done a set of portraits using concentric circles and beads, i thought, why not take a crack at myself next?

this piece is really about my process and what that looks like to me with my aphantasia. that means i'm unable to visualize anything in my mind's eye, i'll often say "there's nothing but black in there." i consider my aphantasia a disability and it's something that i struggle with a lot, but ive also been starting to incorporate it into my work and my process, so it's something i've been learning to work with. i'm becoming very artistically interested in the color black lately.

here, the center of the circle is where my thoughts originate from. while they're still in my mind, they're black, tough to see against the black concentric circles, black on black on black. but once the ideas leave my mind and become actualized in the real world, only then can i see them 🖤 by @fireecologypress

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19 days ago

to celebrate our 7 year anniversary, @isaiahchoczynski and i renewed our vows earlier this month 💚

this is related to a hot take i've long had about marriage: it should expire every 7 years, so you have to make a conscious decision about if you want to renew or not. i really think this would make the world a better place!! so many people are staying in bad relationships because they haven't thought about what they actually want, or maybe it feels like too much work to leave. besides, it's even more romantic to keep purposefully choosing each other, over and over. and why not celebrate that??

i don't get to choose how legal marriage works, but we decided to take our 7 year anniversary to take stock of the past 7 years and after some discussion, we decided to stay married!! so we had a fun little subscription renewal ceremony and exchanged these beautiful new wedding rings made of oak wood and connemara marble 💚💚

love you isaiah, here's to the next 7 years 🥂 by @fireecologypress

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23 days ago

i've been sick the past couple weeks, and it's got me reminiscing about the wonderful time i had last month at @incahootsresidency 💚 i've already shared the prints i made, but i'd be remiss if i didn't also share about the friends i made there @wischer @blackdogletterpress @oltimmons and of course our fantastic host macy! (and my bff rosie in slide 3 lol)

it was a really special place and i feel very lucky for the experience. wish i was there making one-hour-books right now 💚💚 by @fireecologypress

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24 days ago

We had a great time at the Central Library showing people how to letter press!

Thank you @fireecologypress & Timiyah for representing Book Arts!

@robinleejordan was also there showing people how to make zines!

Much gratitude to @buffalolibrary for including us in this awesome event 📚💕 by @fireecologypress

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a month ago

happy type high day! my favorite letterpress holiday

type high = 0.918 inches = 9/18 = september 18th

(ok i missed it by 63 mins whoops) by @fireecologypress

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a month ago

Book Arts will be out on the town this weekend! Find us & print something cool!

On Friday, Sep. 18 at 10pm, we’ll be at Curtain Up! celebrating the season opening of downtown Buffalo’s theatre district. Visit us alongside other artists, performers & local bites, on Main Street between Chippewa and Tupper. Teaching artist Jamey will be there have an antique letterpress for guests to hand-print cards with vintage type & buffalo-based imagery.

On Saturday, Sep. 19 from 11am-2pm we’ll be at the Central Library’s How-To Festival - where patrons learn “how to” do new things! Topics will range from creative and practical skills to local organizations and services. Learn how to letterpress print with us! All-ages & Free! by @fireecologypress

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a month ago

"untitled (double portrait)"
inspired by an artwork of the same name by felix gonzalez-torres

i think i'm entering my circle era by @fireecologypress

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a month ago

here's my finished contribution to the @centralprintstudios print exchange! they choose an author to honor every year, and when i saw this year was all about mark twain, i couldn't help but sign up! central print is located in missouri, so i understand why they picked him, but not as many people know that buffalo has a claim to him too! this will be in a show in st. louis and i couldn't pass up the opportunity to teach people a little about buffalo ;)

plus ive been looking for an excuse for like a year to use one of these historical blocks! they're on loan to wnybac from the buffalo history museum and they've been in careful storage since they were first used in the 50s, so they're in incredible shape (swipe to second photo to see the plate itself)! it was a joy to print with this!! by @fireecologypress

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a month ago

fire ecology triptych
the mighty tree 🌳 is burnt away 🔥 and then grows anew 🌱

this was the main project that i worked on while i was at @incahootsresidency a few weeks back, and wow what a project it was! these prints were made completely with wooden type - so EVERYTHING here is a letter or number, even the colored areas were wooden letters, turned upside down for that sweet sweet wood grain texture. (ok i guess it’s not ~really~ a triptych but i can’t imagine showing any of these without the other two!)

i am SO very proud of these prints. i worked hard all week and i genuinely think they’re my best work yet, i wouldn’t have been able to make something so conceptual even just last year. this was the project that i pitched way back when i applied for in cahoots - tree portraits using type - and i really didn’t know how possible it would be at the time, so i didn’t necessarily expect that it would end up being the project that i actually did. when i got to california, i decided i wanted to try it, even though i didn’t feel confident about how it would go. seeing each step come together, moving towards this final vision i had, was really special and gave me a lot more confidence as an artist to try things.

i’m also so so glad that i was able to visit the redwoods just before my residency started, it influenced it a lot. not just the fact that i used a redwood as my tree, but i also had the idea to focus on fire ecology in this way while i was visiting the forest. seeing the burnt out husks of mighty redwoods really impressed on me. (the last slide here is a photo of me standing inside a tree that was hollowed out by fire, and it basically captured the moment where this triptych project crystallized in my head!) by @fireecologypress

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a month ago