feather2pixels

I do my all my screen printing at an art collective called CELLspace.  It’s a big warehouse in San Francisco’s Mission District and to make rent we sometimes rent it out for events.  In conclusion, look how much trash a weekend of parties produced. (more…)

My apologies for the recent spate of secretive posts.  I am glad to report this entry represents a return to my self-centered general-interest ramblings.  Mission open studios was last weekend and as far as I am concerned, it was an indisputable success.  Lots of people showed up to see art, many of them to my corner of the CELLspace warehouse, where they fed my ego.  This is surely the reason I do anything.

To pass the time, I set up a little screen printing station next to my work, which turned out to be a good way to engage people with my process–I learned that many people are interested in how screen printing works.  As they should be.  It is the ultimate in instant gratification.  I even got to print with some kids, which itself made the whole weekend worth it.  Well, that, and the hundreds of dollars people seemed to be willing to give me for my art.  But mark my words: printing with kids is my calling and some day I will see it through.

For right now, my calling is posting digital images of last weekend.  Thanks for coming, everyone.  If you didn’t come, just wire me money and we will call it even.
My corner:

Screen printing in action:

The panels:

Even screen printed a wall decal:

Sold some postacrds and posters for the low rollers:

On Friday I had a very impromptu opportunity, in the form of a CellSPACE Sew-Op benefit, to hang all my panels on a wall. A real one.

Once our renegade sewing group-in-residence, the CellSPACE Sew-Op is undergoing a reboot by Ariel, an energetic newcomer with a decidedly unCellSPACE-like sense of determination.  By sheer will, she arranged a lineup of artists, musicians, and DJs to appear at the warehouse to conjure $10 contributions from visitors.  The night before, she offered me a space to show and so I got the chance to test run this nearly done project.  Of course the wall changes everything, but I thought the stuff looked decent.

I was surprised how little I had show for eight months of printing.  There are four copies of everything, but the project still seemed a lot more ambitious in my head, I think.The next day at the Ocean Beach, I was reminded how a real artist executes the exploration of scale:

“Surfers and dog-walkers heading onto San Francisco’s Ocean Beach Friday found themselves in the company of 100 wooden Indians on horseback, with face-paint and feathered spears glittering in the morning sun. The life-size plywood cutouts lining the beach just below the Cliff House are the work of Western artist Thom Ross, who based the richly colored tableaux on a famous black-and-white photo of Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show.” The Chronicle

This was impressive.  But the the pieces were a lot more interesting from behind.

I am not above web-logging about the weather. It was a real nice weekend. Nice enough to wear shorts to Adrienne‘s house on Sunday morning, where she made:

(a) breakfast.
(b) a laytex cast of my right ear.

Then, by the light of the rotting Cellspace skylights, I finished the principle printing involved with the first of my first large format panoramas. For reasons too boring for even a weather post, this has taken two months! That’s a long time for something so unremarkable. As I was cleaning it all up, I ripped one of my $40 screens. That’s a lot of money for something so unremarkable.

I biked to a bonfire at ocean beach with CW, where the air was much less wet than it was at my last ocean beach bonfire experience and where we witnessed a child double his body weight by eating marshmallows. Totally outdone, I drank merely 1/70th of my body weight in discount beer.

I could also mention bluegrass, thai noodles, and unhealthy amounts of time on craigslist, but I wouldn’t be telling you anything you didn’t already know.

This key recently came to be in my possession. It looks quite ordinary. Friends, this is no ordinary key. This is the key to my screen printing dreams. This is the key to CELLspace.

Even dedicated feather2pixels readers who recognize the name CELLspace may still be confused about what exactly goes on there. The confusions ends here. CELLspace is one of several adjacent warehouse spaces on the 2000 block of Bryant Street that serves as a community-based art space. It hosts after school programs, private art studios, adult art workshops, and events. Lots of events. This weekend there was a massive clothing swap, which is a great place to pick up loads of Old Navy clothes that Mission hipsters are embarrassed to wear. If there is a roller skating party in San Francisco, it’s usually here. Also, there is a screen printing loft and I like it. CELLspace always seems to be on the brink of financial ruin and, as a result, working there has always been an unpredictable affair. Some days I get in, some days I don’t, and some days I end up crying on the sidewalk. But not anymore. Now I have a key.

Most recent project: Jill’s save the date cards.

These writings are getting awfully negative. C.W.(formerly unhappily known as Freckles) pointed this out to me on a midnight bike ride to the sea and I think she’s right. Here are some positive thoughts to kick off the last even year of the decade.

-The grilled halibut at our 2008 faculty retreat was excellent.
-The biker I ran over last week insisted on a ride to 24th and Potrero instead of money for his broken foot.
-No class on Tuesday or Thursday this semester.
–CELLspace (where I screen print) is making me a spare key so I can come and go as I please. It could even be ready for the summer.
–The Mountain Goats on three consecutive nights at three different SF venues this winter.
-Ten predicted feet of snow at Tahoe this weekend.
-A too-good-to-be-true Kasper Hauser/Will Franken show at SF Sketchfest this January.
-Chance encounters at the no left turn sign at the intersection of 19th and Church streets.
–Double decker busses, killer tigers, and SPAM maps.
-BYOB with no corkage fee at Tajine. Lamb.
-The excitement back in my fitness goals, with inspiring expert instructors, personalized whole-body workouts, and the greatest outdoors in San Francisco.
-The U.S.P.S. Marvel superhero and America’s superlative stamps.
–Pitt 13 WVU 9
–Pitt 65 Duke 64
-End of semester emails from happy students.
-New neighbors, old penpals, family fans, calls from New York City, afternoons at Vesuvio.
-And of course: The Shanghai Dumpling King.

The principal printing for my new series of San Francisco postcards is finally complete. I squeezed out the fourth layer of the 720th postcard just as some kind of Tango event was beginning at CellSpace, where I screen print. Then I biked up Nob Hill and drank alone in North Beach.

I have been experimenting with a bastardized CMYK printing process. It interests my inner scientist: how do three essentially florescent colors manage to fool the eye into experiencing the entire spectrum, and how far can one take that illusion with screen printing?

I took three full days to conduct an initial study at the Cellspace silkscreen loft (It’s great: there are no workshops going on and so, with the exception of the vaguely territorial tabby cat, I have the whole place to myself). I took six different 669 peel-apart Polaroids from the first half of 2007 and reproduced them on a series of two hundred postcards.

The original photograph was scanned:

and digitally separated into it’s four base channels: cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. I forced each channel to exaggerated halftones and exposed each one on a separate screen.

I mixed my own batch of transparent cyan, magenta, yellow, and black and printed the four screens on the same postcard in that order. This example of Bartlett Street was probably the most successful of the six, though they all looked interesting. Here is the progression from one to four colors:

I can definitely move forward from here. I like the exaggerated halftones because the image and the colors only resolve themselves from a distance. On a more cerebral level, I like how it draws attention to the optical illusion of the printing process: at one glance its a cluster of dots and at another glance it is a photographic image. I want to experiment with making the halftone dots even bigger.

I experienced my first San Francisco earthquake last night (magnitude: 4.6. time: 20:40:00, location: 37.901°N, 122.098°W, depth 16.6 km). Of course there are hundreds of seismic events that take place every day as California continues its steady drift into the Pacific–I just happened to feel this one because I was in the silkscreening studio, gingerly painting at a rolling table. I looked up at Josh as it started to sway and we both laughed. Anyways, there are only a few Bay Area conversations more insufferable than earthquake pissing contests (passive whining about the cost of living and about national politics come to mind), but I was excited to finally feel one. Considered with the Telegraph Hill landslide and the stock market slide, it’s been a strange week around here.

The 2007 CMA Automation midterm is officially in the books.

The sudden (re)emergence in my life of the Ashby BART station in Berkeley has yielded interesting results. The area seems like ground zero for the classic back to the earth, crafts night, east bay living. Maybe that atmosphere is a result of proximity to the Berkeley Bowl (the most well-known of the Bay Area’s left-leaning groceries), the Thai Temple (where you can get a Sunday morning curry feast, mega-church picnic style), and/or the enigmatic semi-private hot springs someone set up in their backyard. Anyways, I’ve found myself with less patience than usual for San Francisco Cool culture in the last few weeks.

Like, I went to a public roller skating party on Friday night (coincidentally, at the place where I am silkscreening) and it was lots of fun, but part of me couldn’t help feeling a little disgusted at what an event it had to be. And, at the risk of sounding self-righteous, why do people wear hip clothes to make messy art? And why do the alternative weeklies seem to exist primarily for purpose of beating the city down with their perverted vision of the San Francisco dream? Why does everything seem so trifling?

So I convinced my screening instructor to let me print with him on Saturday. I should have a series of 6 new postcards by Thursday. I’ve enthusiastically got $40 worth of postage waiting in the wings.

Big postcard developments are happening. Get excited. I got a backing coat on a series of two hundred forty last night at silkscreening. I also got covered in blood red acrylic. My workshop-mate, Joanna who has a sloped pointy nose and a soft touch, was working on a valentine for her boyfriend. I really liked the way they came out and convinced her to donate one to feather2pixels. Apparently, her boy friend is really into pork. Do you see why I am so excited about silkscreening?
Anyways, it’s a symbol of the first of several predicted stupid, fucked-up situations that I will be torturing myself over in 2007: one valentine, two women. It’s not a simple situation and feather2pixels has been vague about details. In the hopes that I can finally shut the fuck up about it:

Morgan Jameson is bad bad bad news. It’s hard to imagine what good can come of my dealings with her.

“you want to be close to me and i have a problem with that. i
have a problem with anyone wanting to be close to me. i know
this. this doesn’t mean there’s anything i can do about it. you
seem to think this has something to do with you but it doesn’t.
at some later point i’ll feel better about life and i’ll feel better
about myself and i’ll feel more secure and optimistic, and then
i’ll be ready to open up to someone. but that’s just not right now.”

Hmm. You would think that would be the final word, but the fucked-up begets the fucked-up and she surely needs my attention (which, given the proper circumstances, is not effected by such secondary concerns as my job, life, and happiness) as much as I crave her breath on my shoulder. I am crazy about her.

Sarah is gentle, active, and stable. It’s hard to imagine someone with more positivity to offer.

The polarity of the situation was recently pointed out to me. I have all the power with one girl and none of it with the other. But relationships are not supposed to make you feel dreadful. It’s obvious that I am a classic control freak–it got me to California–but what precisely is the noxious relationship in the acids of my brain between power and love? Who will receive the pork valentine?