The name, Red Bat comes from the first postcard of a series of 8 animal cards. According to Chinese symbolic tradition, bats are symbols of good fortune. The word for 'luck' in Chinese is fú, and the word for bat is bian fú. Red Bats are especially lucky because the color red is protective against misfortune.

Luck, folklore, and word-play are all themes Red Bat Press is interested in.

Hand-printed pictures matched with words are also the focus. The pictures are original wood-cuts designed and hand-carved by Carye Bye. Many of the pictures are also hand-colored. Words are hand-set metal type printed on a letterpress.

While the framework for Red Bat Press will always be changing, so far the intent of the Press is to make mailable art such as postcards and small blank books, as well as cards & printed items for the "fringe" holidays of Halloween, New Years, and Valentine's Day. Eventually the press would like to print larger hand-printed illustrated books.

Carye Bye currently lives is North Portland. She has been interested in self-publishing since her high school days of making 'zines. She was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and has lived in Illinois, Georgia, Ireland, and San Francisco. Carye has a B.A. in Studio Art (Printmaking & Photography focus) and Art History from Augsburg College in Minneapolis. Travelling, collecting, bike riding and going to small museums are few of her passions aside from Red Bat Press. Carye is also the director of the online Bathtub Art Museum.

Click Here to read a detailed biography of Carye Bye written by her close friend and art historian, Emily D. Haraldson.