A Few of the Rynearson Daughters Contributions Part 3

This final installment truly is all Rhea. The only thing I contributed was encouragement since Dad was always so proud of Rhea's work (I found boxes of her printing he had kept while going through his things after his death) and the picture on the front. Rhea printed a really beautiful and completely perfect tribute card to be given out at both of Dad's memorials. I still can not look at it without tearing up.

I love everything about it. It is so Rhea and also so Dad and really reflects our playful sense of humor. I think my favorite part about it is Rhea's signature on the back, calling herself "daughter number 2". Since I was the first born and for many years was first child to grow very close to him many of his friends would always assume it was me when Dad introduced Rhea as his daughter (I lived in NYC for many years and visited less often, though spoke to Dad every week by phone). Rhea started saying, "Nope, I'm daughter number 2". She really owned it, making it sound as honorary as the silly "first born" title I had received.

My contribution to this was the photo of Dad holding the two Josslyn's. Dad's girlfriend Mary has two granddaughters. Josslyn and Grace. Our Josslyn was born on Grace's birthday and Rhea was unaware until after she has picked Josslyn as a name that not only did Mary's 2nd granddaughter bare the same name, but also the same unusual spelling! This picture was taken the day of our brother Eric, Dad's only son, funeral in late January 2008. We had all braved a snow storm to attend Eric's funeral and it was the only time in my then 30 years that I distinctly remember Dad wearing a dress shirt and tie. It was possibly the saddest thing I had ever seen, seeing my father dressed in black and grey standing in the snowy graveyard holding the flag the army had given Dad at my youngest siblings funeral. While he had changed back into more comfortable clothing, this picture was taken at Mary's sons home. Dad had both the Josslyn's on his lap and the two were hugging and pawing at ear other and Dad thought it was hilarious. We all did. Those children were a bright light in an otherwise bleak and heartbreaking week. While this picture isn't the best, it definitely captures Dad perfectly and is why Rhea picked it for her tribute. I am proud to be a part of it.

A Few of the Rynearson Daughters Contributions Part 2

To continue where I left off...since our 2001 collaboration went off so well, Rhea and I decided to give it another go the following year. We wanted to do something that honored our entire family, not just the Rynearson name. Rhea thought maybe we should mix up the various family names and make a new one.

One of the incredible facts about Rhea becoming a printer is that she is severely dyslexic. Her hand writing and spelling looks like a child's and she reads with great difficulty. Despite this, she is a wonderful printer - she can set type faster than anyone and has a low error rate since she can mimic what she sees and easily convert it upside down and backwards.

So despite how much Rhea has over come with her disability, she often turns to me with things requiring words. So she gave me the task of coming up with the new last name. I cant remember which of us first thought of creating a cross word puzzle, all I know is I also created it with impute from Rhea and sent it off to her for printing. The cross word wasn't actually printed on the letter press, but below is the final result of our work.

(please note you can click on any of the images in this blog to see the image larger!)

A Few of the Rynearson Daughters Contributions Part 1

Many of you know that my younger sister Rhea is a master printer at Studio Z in Northern California. I'm about to show you some of her work, but if you haven't seen it before you should check out Studio Z's website: http://www.studio-z.com/ Rhea's boss,Zida, does the design work, Rhea the print work. It is old world style letterpress printing, as in, they set type by hand and run the paper through presses, sometimes multiple times for a single piece of paper. It is highly specialized, labor intensive and rare. They use only the highest end paper and Rhea will painstakingly work on each project, ever a perfectionist. There are only something like a dozen such companies in all of the United States. Any one who knew our father would already know without me having to say that he was pretty impressed by this. When he visited Rhea he would spend hours at the shop with her mesmerized by all the equipment. Rhea says he also had a bit of a crush on Zida, but that's no surprise.

Ever since Rhea and I were young we have occasionally collaborated on projects together. We are very different in so many ways - but when it comes to creativity we both inherited our parents artist eyes and often what I can imagine but can not create, Rhea can, and visa versa. I wanted to share some of these collaborations we did for Dad's benefit. I'll post it in a few parts, Rhea really is the mastery behind these as she did all the printing - I only added small touches to help her along the way.

Dad turned 50 in 2001 and he threw himself a four day party on the coast of Oregon at an inn right on the ocean over Thanksgiving weekend. That weekend is a story in itself but what I'd like to share now is the menu Dad asked Rhea to print of the food that would be prepared for an actual sit down Thanksgiving dinner (very rare for our family - usually our Thanksgivings are endless cook-offs and constant eating with no real formality) on one of the nights. Since it was Dad's 50th and decade birthdays always inspire practical jokes, Rhea and I wanted to add something funny to it as a surprise. At some point I had come across one of Dad's old high school ID's with a rare picture of his teenage beardless goofy dimpled face. Rhea and I conspired. I sent Rhea the ID, it was scanned and a picture of Dad was glued onto each menu card. Rhea had printed the menu and then created a menu card that held the menu and was sealed with a place card saying "Thanksgiving Dinner At the Oregon Coast 2001 - Family and Friends of Steve Rynearson". What no one knew was once the seal was broken and anyone went to open the menu the picture of young Dad would be revealed. It went off perfectly and Rhea and I were pretty proud of ourselves. If I remember correctly, Dad gave one of his famous giggle laughs that he gave when he was truly amused.

(please note you can click on any of the images in this blog to see the image larger!)

Deb's Ode to Dad

I have been really busy with school but want to get a few new things up. I found more photography, etc. during my last trip to Oregon...so stayed tuned. I promise to get it out soon.

In the mean time, I recently was able to aquire a new printer/fax so I can scan some things more often/easily. I have always meant to share Dad's friend Deb's ode to him that she brought to his memorial last December. Deb is married to one of Dad's best friends, another Steve, who we always refer to as "Steve the Brewer". It's a very touching tribute. Double click on the images so they enlarge for you to read.