So, what we found here is a project that fuses form of art with a medium of a different art. Tyree Callahan, a Washington-based painter, transformed a 1937 Underwood Standard typewriter into a medium for painting. What the artist did is turned the keystrokes into brushstrokes. Callahan replaced the letters and keys with hue pads and color pads to create a fully functional painting typewriter . Chromatic Typewriter, he dubbed it and we find it a pretty fascinating object.
“I’m constantly amazed at the play of light through our moist air and over the varied landscape of the Pacific Northwest. I especially enjoy early morning light–that short interval of time just before the last of the fog burns off–and evening light, especially on humid evenings, when the atmosphere itself is aglow with evening’s hues. We live in an environment that can produce both vivid and somber landscapes, often both within an hour’s time.” says Callahan in a statement.
In an interview for Gizmag, the artist reveals how the idea of this interesting project was born: The idea for the Chromatic Typewriter came about one day in the studio as I was struggling along with a watercolor. I had an old Olivetti typewriter laying around and I thought to add some text to the watercolor. I rolled the watercolor into the carriage and started typing and that’s when the inspiration struck. I knew that an older typewriter would be more ideal for the final version of the project, largely because of the design-sense the old manufacturers had.
Honestly, we doubt that this painting typewriter can ever replace the quality of an artist with a brush, but we really love the mix of these two.