Monday, October 18, 2010

The International Printing Museum Needs Our Help!

I know everyone has been affected by this tough economy but the International Printing Museum in Carson CA has been hit especially hard. They are facing a $30,000 deficit this year. Not only do they have an amazing facility filled with the history of printing staffed by volunteers, they also take their program on the road to schools where they have an interactive printing lesson for kids! If you love letterpress or book arts but are not a member of the museum, consider joining today! (it's tax deductible) You'll get their mailed newsletter and other goodies throughout the year.

Printing A LOST DOG poster for Ace - vintage sesame street

 
I know some of you may have seen this video but I just watched it again recently. I adore this video!

LA Printers Fair - Daniel Gonzalez

We had the pleasure of meeting artist Daniel Gonzalez printgonzalez.com at the LA Printers Fair. His booth was hopping with people the entire day! He is a does amazing wood carvings. His work is inspired by the folk stories that his parents and grandparents passed down. He creates and shares his narratives and vision through printmaking. He did a wonderful series of "opposite" prints--I loved the Good Artist / Bad Artist. prints and here are two that we acquired--Good Worker and Bad Worker.

You can see more of Daniel's prints and letterpress books at his website: printgonzalez.com

Monday, October 11, 2010

LA Printer's Fair 2010

It was the 2nd annual LA Printers Fair at the International Printing Museum. It is one of our favorite events. Here are some pics all the fun!
Our booth--we mostly brought wood type to sell--clearing out those duplicates!

 I love the color of  the patina on this type!
 Poster Gothic got a new home!
  Our friend Paul had the busiest booth--here's a rare pic of him sitting down.
 Paul must have bought over 1000 letterpress cuts. His booth was swarming like a bee hive!
 Guys considering the ginormous Vandy.
 This was a riot. The guy drove up in this semi and sold both Heidelberg's and most everything else very quickly!
 Gary testing a sweet pearl press.
 We did not get the pearl even though it was super cute.
I printed on this civil war press they were demo'ing. What a behemoth for a portable press. Prints well though.
Nice little British Parlor Press in the Book Arts Institute.
Some pics of the finished goods vendors that were outside.
We brought the hot weather with us. Was the hottest day they had all summer thus far.
Lots of nice printing going on.
Some nice handmade paper leaves.

 Some photos inside the printing museum.

There are some nice photo streams at the Prinitng Museum site. Check it out!

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art - Visions Program

Gary and I had a wonderful experience teaching 3D paper sculpture for SMOCA's Visions Program. The Visions program, now in its twelfth year, brings together 40 high-school art students from diverse Phoenix metropolitan-area high schools for a year-long series of activities designed to cultivate artistic skills, collaboration and civic engagement. The program is based on a strong community partnership between the Museum and participating schools, which represent economically, ethnically and culturally diverse communities. Students are chosen for participation by their visual-art teachers at the start of the school year. During the course of the year, participating students, teachers and professional guest artists and speakers work side-by-side in workshops, lectures and discussions. This is such a fantastic program!
At their 2-day retreat in the cool pines of Prescott AZ, we taught the 3D workshop, Kate Timmerman rocked the students with encaustic and Chandon Thorell taught alternative photography--I was so excited to see the student work in these areas that I forgot to take pictures.  Not only were the student fabulous, we had the extra bonus of getting out of the Phoenix heat! Gary and I were so impressed with the event. Laura and Michelle with SMOCA do an amazing job of programing for these students--it makes you wish you could go back to high school!

In the paper sculpture workshop, the first thing we did was take a hike in the woods so that the students could observe the shapes, textures and forms in nature (nature does it best!).  Armed with found objects and ideas, the students came back to start creating their sculptures. The thing I love about the students in 3D is that they know how to MAKE things with their hands as opposed to those who just create on a computer screen.






















Students used wire and branches to create structures and formed  wet sheets of abaca and kozo pulp around the armitures. The great thing about kozo and abaca is that they have high shrink rates so they dry tight around the forms. We worked outside and it got a bit windy. Only in AZ do things dry TOO quickly! Here are some pics of work in progress.

See the whale?

It was a fun day and we were so inspired!