Next up: Cowboys and Indians at Spacecraft first Thursday. My new pieces will be there in some form.
Spacecraft: Cowboys and Indians
November 3, 2011
CELLspace Gallery
2050 Bryant Street
7-Late
Here’s my next step in the Cowboys and Indians piece: painting the quilted cowboy comix. I did this with a mix of Mod Podge, water, and screen printing ink.
Selling it like a decoupage pro:
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I finally got the chance to visit the home of Keith W in Sacramento. This long overdue trip gave me the chance to check out Keith’s outstanding collection of Temporary Spaces, which is said to be the finest in the world. This long overdue trip also gave me the chance to check out the size of the embryo growing in his wife Tiffany. Needless to say, both art and kid are taking up a lot of space. I didn’t pass up the chance for a photo-op with the former. K.W., next time I hope you jump in there, too.
An instant classic:
(Didn’t he read the syllabus? I only accept cash.)
The theme of this November’s Spacecraft First Thursday show at CELLspace is Cowboys and Indians so I have been inspired to use the Italian comic book I bought in Venice last summer. It’s called “Tex” and it’s from 1977.
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My first step was to photocopy the pages and sew them together in 3×3 foot paper quilts. More soon!
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Well, I investigated another presentation for my Screen Prints on Trash series at the recent Spacecraft first Thursday show. The theme of the show was “Unresolved,” and I decided to panel the Precita prints from the ceiling to the floor, inviting people to step on them. Maybe this is laying it on a little thick, but as an experiment to reconsider the value of art, I liked the way this worked out.
Of course next time this idea needs to be taken much further. I had visions of an entire art show that forced guests to navigate exclusively along a narrow walkway of art like the one I started here. I was thinking maybe beds of nails could be laid out to prevent people from cheating. Or lava or something.
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Sighted last weekend: my first California wild Tarantula. Heather tells us all about it.
[flv:tarantula.flv 640 480]
To make up for full speed ramming me on skis in 2010 Because he admires my work, ex-sailor Tommy Stillwachs allowed me the honor of printing the open/closed sign for Arbor, a new taphouse cafe in Oakland he is involved with. Owned and operated by Chris Marquez and Suzanne Stillwachs, Arbor opened last Saturday. And that night it closed. The next morning it opened and after precisely nine hours it closed yet again.
I would like to think my sign made all of this activity possible.
The sign was screen printed on some beautiful and seriously warped scrap wood. Precision screen printing requires a very uniform separation between screen and substrate, so I was happy this wasn’t a precision job. The final prints turned out appropriately sloppy.
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Open Studios 2011 has come. And Open Studios 2011 has gone.
Gone fast, I should add. I forgot that the many interesting people and opportunities that pop up during the weekend make time fly. I even got a little photo-op at Mission Local (not to be confused with Local Mission), thanks to blogger Molly Oleson. Click to slide number 5.
My goal was to turn a humongous pile of scrap cardboard into an series of serious work that anyone who wanted could afford. And if anyone didn’t look like they could afford it, I probably just gave the piece away. I think that’s what Open Studios is best for. Opening your studio to the public shouldn’t just be about self promotion, but also engagement. As a screen printer, I am lucky enough to have the means to make this sort of thing work because I can make a shitload of prints. So I hadn’t really thought of it exactly like this until now, but I guess my goal was to make the weekend an experiment less about promotion and sales and more about art as an act of engagement. I really want to explore this aspect of printmaking further.
Thanks to my new friends from Mexico City to City Hall to 22nd Street. Special thanks to the old friends who showed up, Phanna, Serai, T-man, Michelle, and of course EB. It’s nice to be supported.
Cellspace open studios 2011 (click to enlarge)
Prints on cardboard