KRЯRL DЯAWINGS: Printmaking Rising

On May 1st I went to the print talk at the Albuquerque Museum by and Bill Lagattuta, Robert Arber and Marge Devon, for the exhibition: The Printer’s Proof: Reflections on Printmaking:

Bill Lagattuta speaking on stage

with Robert Arber and Marge Devon

2022 has started off with a bang for the printmaking community. "The Printers' Proof" exhibition continues until May 15th at the Albuquerque Museum. We just took down the Ambos Lados print exhibition at the Outpost Performance Space on April 30th. And we still collecting 8 x 8 inch prints for the PRINT BUCKET, with an exhibition coming the first part of July in the Axle Contemporary mobile art van in Santa Fe, and hopefully another soon in El Paso this month. Plus there is the "Print Matters Festival" coming to Santa Fe on July 10th; and hey, the Southwest Print Fiesta on October 7 - 10, 2022 in Silver City.

Santa Fe

April 29th, 2022

I took the Rail Runner train up to Santa Fe to see the Nani Chacon exhibition at Site Santa Fe. Nani made a print for the Desert Triangle Print Carpeta.

Nani Chacon showing at Site Santa Fe

April 8th - August 21st, 2022

Nani Chacon at Site Santa Fe

While I was there I delivered prints to Greta Young, which she carved in Santa Fe, but I printed on the Tortilla Press in Albuquerque:

Greta Young

receiving her prints

One of the three prints I delivered

that Greta carved

I ran into the printmaker Jesse Wood at Site Santa Fe.

We made one of Jesse's prints

on the Tortilla Press last August

Jesse told us about the Print Sale at Michael McCabe's studio on 2nd Street.

Michael McCabe in his studio

Santa Fe was very smoky that day as there was a big fire in the Jemez Mountains. On the way home the Rail Runner train passed through a huge cloud of smoke:

April 30th

On Saturday, April 30th, I went to the Open House at Remarque Print Workshop in Albuquerque:

Open House

at Remarque Print Workshop in Albuquerque

BUCKET EXHIBITIONS

Prints

While I was at the Open House I got three more prints for the BUCKET EXHIBITIONS:

MIKE KIMBALL

Mike Kimball gave us this silk screen print

HOLLAND HARDIE

Holland Hardie is the newest owner of Remarque

and made a fresh 8 x 8 inch print for us

Holland Hardie

PAMELA WESOLEK

Pamela Wesolek has been printing

at New Grounds/Remarque for years --

she did this demo on March 7th, 2015

During the April 30th, 2022 Open House

Pamela Wesolek made a quick 8 x 8 inch print for us

Pamela Wesolek

plate and print

Tortilla Press

and Experiments

I took the Tortilla Press to the Open House at Remarque Print Workshop on Saturday, April 30th, and made free prints for visitors:

My Tortilla Press and BUCKET PRINTS set up

Remarque Open House bigger set up

A visitor makes her own print

on the Tortilla Press

Shania Mares from Valley High School,

in front of her prints,

while showing off the Tres Gatos print she received

Experiments

While I was at the Open House I wondered if we could use any of the other techniques to print on the Tortilla Press, which they were showcasing (monoprint, collagraph, etc...):

Simple monoprint:

Mary inked up a piece of plastic

and we removed the ink with a brush and a Q-tip

However the monoprint came out really weak

on the Tortilla Press

à la poupée:

Then Mary rolled gold ink on my linocut and added colors with a brush. The idea was to get a multi-colored print with just one pressing through the Tortilla Press:

Rolling on gold ink

Painting colors in select areas

with a brush

The multicolor print

after one pressing with the Tortilla Press

Then we rolled black ink on the linocut plate to print a key color on the multicolored print above. We registered it by eye, laying the inked linocut plate on top of the paper (instead of the below it, like we do normally):

Printing a second plate

on the Tortilla Press

While the result was not a masterpiece, it did prove that the technique worked:

Multi-pressed, multi-colored linocut print

(imagine if we had used brown ink instead of black)

Mokuhanga: Dan Noyes was making mokuhanga prints in the back. He liked using a different ink (Creative?) than Akua to make his multi-colored prints. We experimented on my linocut, sponging on color through a stencil:

Sponging on ink

using a stencil

The print failed, but I am sure there is a way to do this, probably with the Akua ink. This technique is not that different from the monoprint experiment we tried with Mary above:

Fail: the colored ink did not print

with the Tortilla Press

OTHER

There was a print exhibition in Uruapan, Michoacan, Mexico -- Miradas sobre la Ninez -- from April 30th to June 18, 2022. There are 137 prints from studios in Mexico, Argentina and the US.

"Mirada sobre la Ninez" print exhibition

in Uruapan, Michocan, Mexico

Henry Morales and I

submitted this collaborative print to this print show

Our collaborative print

hanging at the opening in Uruapan, Mexico (I believe)

Galeria Cinco Puntos had an opening in El Paso on Thursday, April 28th, of Mexican artists from Coatepec, Veracruz -- "Taller de Grabado Experimental" -- curated by Puro Borde: