Cynthia Marsh

 

I consider myself a note-taker and a record-keeper. I record the visual noise that surrounds me. By juxtaposing images that cross my path, I can open a discussion about contemporary values. For instance, I may receive shopping coupons, a telephone bill, and a birth announcement jumbled in the afternoon mail; I may pick-up the morning paper and there, next to a movie ad, read about the premature death of a friend. How do we (you and I) absorb and prioritize such disparate information?

 

Cynthia Marsh is a in a narrative artist. She uses large, hand-carved wood letters to begin a conversation that takes form in books, broadsides, and printed environments.  As the director of the Goldsmith Press & Rare Type Collection @ Austin Peay State University, she invites people in the Clarksville community to express their opinions and tell their stories using the vast collection of wood type, The Goldsmith Press has received numerous local, regional, and federal grants to support its creative work.

 

For 18 years, before moving to Clarksville, Cindy operated a successful freelance illustration and print workshop (Studio One Eye Open) in Los Angeles. She served as a professor of print and design at California State University, Northridge (1976-1992), chair of the Communication Arts department at Otis College of Art + Design (1992-1995), and as chair of the APSU department of art (1995-2003). Her work has won a number of awards and has been featured in publications in the U.S., Great Britain, and Japan.