Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Lil' Lindsay Lohan

I was invited to participate in the annual mini-print for the University of Utah's printmaking department. It is a fundraiser to raise money to send the printmaking students to the Southern Graphics Council convention. Last years exchange was probably the best I've been in. Here is this years (last years is still up from December, 2009).

  
letterpress printed from linoleum blocks, photopolymer plates and wood type; glittered heart necklace

Here are 95 of them strung up on our "drying rack."

that's a lot o' Lohan

SCREENPRINTING SET-UP / Saltgrass Printmakers Fundraiser

We have finally set up our screenprinting studio!
Our excuse was for the Saltgrass Printmakers annual fundraiser. Max and I were asked to participate this year by printing on prayer flags. The open house is Dec. 4 and 5th at Saltgrass.
This has been in the works since before we moved into our current apartment. Our studio (which is also our living room) is only about 100 sq feet so we had to be creative. Our "drying rack" is a hot-pink clothesline zigzagging across our ceiling and my desk doubles as a screenprinting table. Unfortunately, we haven't built our dual exposure unit/coffee table, but we'll get there soon. For the time being we are just using work lamps and washing out screens at the car wash. Here are some pictures of the set-up and our prints.
Max printing his flags

Printing mine, they were on the same screen to save emulsion
 
Here is our set-up. Max's print is the bowling ladies
My print was of my cat Charles
We also printed on shirts. It was an experiment that worked well. We are planning on printing more shirts with many more designs. Stay tuned for those as they come.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

BIRDBRAIN press interviewed!

BIRDBRAIN press has officially been interviewed! Thanks to Gavin Sheehan of Gavin's Underground and the Salt Lake City Weekly for writing us up. The article went up the other day and has been very well received.

Here is the link http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/blog-4602-birdbrain-press.html

Thanks to everyone who made this possible!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

4 Months in 40 minutes!

Ok, it has apparently been since July that I have posted anything. This is ridiculous because I have been crazy busy. I have been in several shows and done several things.

First of all, Max got a blog! He is concept birdhouse, check it out!

In August there was Craft Lake City. This was the 2nd annual craft fair in Salt Lake City. Max and I, under the guises of BIRDBRAIN press, had a booth where we sold our wares. See the BIRDBRAIN press website for the things we had for sale. We did surprisingly well.

I also participated in the second Kayo Gallery fundraiser: Box Paper Scissors 2. It was the same format as last year; every artist gets a cigar box and makes it into an art piece. The only restriction is that it must still close because the night of the fundraiser, the boxes are closed and there is a silent auction. My box went for $40.00 which was pretty exciting! Here are some pictures of "Ecolocuties."
box cover


close up of explorer and bats

side view of interior where you can see the tunnel book aspect

inside of the cave where you can see a little glimpse of the glitter crystals in the very back


September came and went with a few shows. Members of the Saltgrass Printmakers group invited me and a few of my friends (including Claire Taylor) to participate in a traveling show they were doing with the Utah Arts Council Traveling Exhibition Program. Check out the website, the cover image is of one of Claire's prints! The show is traveling around Utah for two years. It is going to schools and Universities as an educational experience for the viewers. Each artist was asked to write a little blurb about their process. I entered these two prints:
this is "the dude wrestles a tiger" that I made last year for the "Impressed?!" show


"Monster Threshold" originally for the show "Liminal" at Kayo Gallery in March. Letterpress printed with watercolor, color pencil and glitter




I was also invited to participate in the "Mutation Exchange" at Copper Palate Press organized by Emilee Dziuk. The theme was mutation so I made a flex-a-gon about Lindsay Lohan. It documents the transformation of her from cute child starlet into crazy Lilo mess. It is called "Lilo" and is letterpress printed from linoleum reduction cuts with photopolymer plates.
side 1 and 2 unfolded




when folded it reveales side 1, flipped over is side 2

folded in half and flipped out is side 3, repeat for side 4


October is over (it has been for a while now). I was working on some more sketches for my celebrities with animals series, but have nothing substantial to show yet. Some images to come later. I'm very excited about the series. It is the same series I made Amy Sedaris with tiger and leopard for the Paper Show: Friends of Friends at Garfo in March. The only problem is that they are so big and we live in such a small apartment; there is no storage space. I'm hoping they will get picked up for a show so that I can make them life size. So far on my short list are: Alec Baldwin with unicorns, Janelle Monae with velociraptors, and Lady Gaga (I haven't thought of a good enough animal for her yet). I think I need to finish my sketches first and foremost though.

November, finally the update for the current month! My sisters birthday is today. She is a sports fanatic, especially baseball, most specifically the Boston Red Sox. I made her this picture. It is the team from 2008 which is when she went to school in Boston. She went to many of their games. It is made with pen & ink, watercolor and gouache.

sketch


final



I also made this picture for an interview Max and I have for BIRDBRAIN press. Gavin Sheehan from Gavin's Underground (a portion of the Salt Lake City Weekly online) contacted us and we just finished the interview. It comes out soon. The picture is of Max and me working in our studio space which is the other half of our living room (approx. 100 square feet total).
  "BIRDBRAIN studio" pen & ink, watercolor, gouache


Saltgrass Printmakers recently asked me to participate in their annual fundraiser. This year, they are embracing the prayer flags from Tibet. Each artist was asked to make an image that was inspired by the traditions of the flags. We were then given a bunch of flags, straight from Tibet, to print on. I am making a picture of my cat Charles. It is due soon, so I'll have photos up soon (hopefully).

I think that might be all for now. It has been a pretty intense few months. December is coming up with a print for the mini-print show at the Gittins Gallery at the U. It is the annual fundraiser for the University's printmaking department. That is also a print of Lindsay Lohan. I think she is my muse right now. Uh oh.