¡¡¡Viva the Tortilla Printing Revolution!!!
This lightweight Tortilla Press for Printmaking
will make 8 x 10 inch linocut prints
on paper
Joseph Velasquez of
Drive By Press built and sent us this tortilla press from Florida. In the video below he demonstrates how to use the tortilla press:
STREET PRINTING
Guadalajara 2019
We have made prints on the streets before. In the summer of 2019
we made prints on the streets of Guadalajara with
Los Tres Gatos, the inventors of this tortilla press (
Xavier Moreno and
Alejandra Mares), and
Meño Miranda!
LAS CRUCES 2019
For the opening of the Desert Triangle Print Carpeta in Las Cruces (November 1, 2019), we printed on the streets of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Next Stop: SANTA FE
The day after the August 2021 downtown
Albuquerque Art Walk we are planning to tortilla print in Santa Fe, at the top of Canyon Road, with the
Hecho a Mano gallery, on August 7th. It should be fairly casual printing on Saturday afternoon.
We are planning to return to
Hecho a Mano on Friday, August 27th, and tortilla print during the opening of
Alberto Cruz, printmaker from Oaxaca.
We will tortilla print on 8 x 8 inch paper. Therefore we distributed a few 7 x 7 inch, and 6 x 6 inch, linoleum squares for artists to cut for tortilla printing.
I left some linoleum squares in Santa Fe
for Frank Rose to distribute amongst his artists,
which we will be able to tortilla print during the August 27th opening
7 x 7 inch uncut linoleum square
on the tortilla press
From GUADALAJARA with Love
TRES GATOS
Inventors of the Tortilla Press
Los Tres Gatos are sending us two linoleum plates from Guadalajara, Mexico to print on the streets of New Mexico. The tortilla press is their idea and design:
Alejandra Mares' round linoleum plate
Xavier Moreno's round linoleum plate
Woodzilla on Etsy is also selling a version of a tortilla press for making relief prints.
POP-UP PRINT
International FANTASY!
The TORTILLA PRESS should easily print on 8 x 8 inch paper. This size is large enough to make impressive prints, but small enough to send in the mail cheaply, even to Mexico. So why not have international pop-up print exhibitions!!!
If we make five good 8 x 8 inch prints in New Mexico and El Paso, we could send them to Los Tres Gatos in Guadalajara. They could exhibit them with five of their 8 x 8 inch prints. 10 good prints would make a great pop-up exhibition one night. Those of the host venue could even sell their prints, and augment the pop-up show with other bigger prints.
Likewise Guadalajara could send up five good 8 x 8 inch prints to the USA, and we could have that same pop-up exhibition in Albuquerque and/or El Paso. Ultimately there would be TWO pop-up print shows in two countries. Going international in the 21st century is exciting!!!
MOREOVER the 8 x 8 inch prints look great in inexpensive 10 x 13 inch frames:
We really have to thank
Eric Thomson, owner of
Argos Studio Gallery in Santa Fe, for not only coming up with this framing solution, but also matting 158 pieces of 8 x 8 inch prints for the
Ambos Lados International Print Exchange.
The 158 framed 8 x 8 inch prints of the Ambos Lados International Print Exchange looked great hanging at the Taos Center for the Arts in 2020 (right before the Covid lockdown):
Perhaps we would have many 8 x 8 inch print pop-up shows, that could even blossom into a larger show like the Ambos Lados exhibition above in Taos.
We could keep up the print momentum by posting on Instagram and a print blog (
like the Ambos Lados blog).
Moreover we could curate and self-publish a catalog, like we did
for Ambos Lados. It's
free to upload the catalog
to Amazon, so there is little initial cost. This is the 21st Century!
PRINTS TRAVEL EASILY AND NEED TO BE SEEN!!!
One cannot send paintings and sculptures far and wide, and across borders, and spark and buoy this kind of art dialogue.
SUMMARY
The tortilla press is perfect to fan grassroots exhibitions. This would take some kind of organization, but if everyone were enthused, it would not cost that much. Moreover as exhibitions of 10 prints are manageable, the load and cost could easily be distributed amongst all the printmakers, if done with love.
PAST EXAMPLES
Past pop-up print show:
Showing prints together, from two distant cities (but not two different countries):
Instagram long distance print interaction -- Juan de Dios Mora of San Antonio interviewing Manuel Guerra of El Paso:
This event in June at the Ruben Center in El Paso (on the UTEP campus) ignited this surge to print with small presses on location:
Irving Herrera, one of the master printmakers of Oaxaca:
UPDATE
300 squares of Rives Lightweight White,
hand torn 8 x 8 inch paper
for printing on the tortilla press
ABQ ART WALK
August 6th, 2021
We are printing live during the downtown Albuquerque Art Walk on August 6th, 2021 --
807 4th Street SW in Barelas.
We are setting up in the parking lot
at the "Art Print Station"
for the Albuquerque August Art Walk
Manuel Guerra is driving up from El Paso to print on the tortilla press with us on Friday, August 6th; and in Santa Fe in front of
Hecho a Mano on Saturday, August 7th (
830 Canyon Road).
Poster with Instagram addresses
We are praying that
the ABQ and Santa Fe tortilla printing events
unfold well
THE OTHER SIDE
OF DOWNTOWN
While we are printing on the street in Barelas,
Julianna Kirwin will be showing prints on the other side of downtown --
8th and Mountain. This exhibition also runs from 5 - 8 PM on August 6th, during the same Albuquerque Art Walk.
showing prints during the same Art Walk
SANTA FE
Printing at HECHO A MANO
Saturday, August 7th, 2021
We are TORTILLA PRESS printing in Santa Fe the next day at
HECHO A MANO gallery, from 1 - 4 PM, August 7th. --
830 Canyon Road.
OTHER PRINTMAKING ACTIVITY
