Guadalajara Laser Engraved Prints

I asked Xavier Moreno of Tres Gatos Press in Guadalajara, Mexico to send me an image in email, which I could laser engrave into linoleum, using the laser cutter at Quelab in Albuquerque, New Mexico:

TWO VARIATIONS

The final prints on 8x8 inch paper,

The two different linocuts:

Background cut out (left)

Image lines cut out (right)

The fundamental idea is to continue to exchange and exhibit small prints over long distances -- as we did with Ambos Lados, a print exchange between the US and Mexico (currently on display at the El Paso Museum of History).  

Last year we received prints from Mexico in the mail and successfully showed them as part of the BUCKET EXHIBITIONS pop-ups.  While sending 8x8 inch prints did not cost that much, even through the International mail, they did take a long time to arrive.  

REMARQUE Exhibition in Albuquerque --

Old Mexico prints (top row)

and New Mexico prints (bottom row)

However I am impatient.  Email is immediate, and now with LightBurn software I can laser engrave a 6x6 inch linoleum square in about an hour or less at Quelab in Albuquerque -- and print that linocut even faster on our Tortilla Press.  This way I can easily prepare an International print show inside of a a week -- and ten framed small Mexican prints would be a good pop-up show in the USA.  Moreover those ten framed prints would fit in my Bucket which I could carry anywhere on a moment's notice.

THE PROCESS

Xavier Moreno sent me this image in email from GUADALAJARA:

Xavier Moreno sent me this image

from Guadalajara in email

I laser engraved this image into a 6x6 inch linoleum square using LightBurn software and the laser cutter at Quelab in ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico:

Laser engraved using LightBurn software --

Speed: 150

Max and Min power: 80

Video of the laser cutter at work

TWO VERSIONS

I laser graved two versions on two different pieces of linoleum -- a positive and a negative version:  

1)  In the first version I wanted black lines, so I laser engraved the negative space around the images.  Note however that was difficult to ink, and the brayer dipped into the negative spaces:

Inking with Akua Carbon Black ink --

note that the brayer dipped into the empty spaces

I printed using the Tortilla Press and the Iron Frog Glass Baren:

NOTE: Xavier Moreno and Alejandra Mares actually taught us how to make prints with a Tortilla Press when we visited them in Guadalajara in 2019:

Printing with a Tortilla Press

in Guadalajara in 2019

The positive version print came out a bit weak, with some random smudges in the negative spaces:

The first print

2)  Therefore I made a second linocut from the negative version, laser engraving the lines (instead of the negative space around the lines).  I knew that the lines would be white in the final print:

I laser engraved the lines,

which would then print white

I liked the second negative version better.  The black background really gives it a punch, and it is easier to ink and print:

The second version

made a better print

UPDATE: We printed Xavier's laser engraved linocut in front of Hecho A Mano gallery in Santa Fe on April 29th, and gave them out to visitors for free, during a live printmaking event with the Tortilla Press (the Tortilla Press idea also came fromh Xavier Moreno and Alejandra Mares of Tres Gatos Press in Guadalajara):

Fresh Guadalajara print

made on the Tortilla Press idea we "borrowed" from Guadalajara

during an opening on Canyon Road in Santa Fe