The Chromatic Typewriter is a conceptual art piece by Tyree Callahan. The Bellingham, Washington-based artist modified a 1937 Underwood Standard typewriter, replacing the letters and keys with different colours and associated pads. The typewriter was entered into the 2012 West Prize competition and since then it has exploded in popularity online. Prints are now available (more info here) and the response has been overwhelmingly positive for the painter.

It’s important to remember this is a conceptual art piece and not entirely functional. To type out an actual painting would be fairly cumbersome as the paint would have to be manually reapplied each time it was used. Not to say it’s impossible, but the design would need some further modification to produce the type of artworks suggested in the images below.

Tyree Callahan is a member of the Waterfront Artist Studio Collective located on Bellingham’s waterfront in the Dairy Distributing building at 1220 Central Avenue. To see more of his artwork check out any of the links below: