A Great Day in Santa Fe

I took the Rail Runner to Santa Fe and had a great day in the City Different on November 8, 2023:

Ricardo and Harriett Romo

Vicente Telles

I was pleasantly surprised to fine Vicente Telles exhibiting at Hecho Gallery, and further surprised to find Dr Ricardo and Harriett Romo with him:

Vicente Telles (left)

with Hariett and Dr Ricardo Romo (right)

at Hecho Gallery

Vicente Telles had organized four exhibitions, at the same time, in Albuquerque during August 2023 -- "Son de Allá y Son de Acá."

Manuel Guerra

taking a photo of Vicente Telles' painting

in the South Broadway Cultural Center

Dr Ricardo Romo and his wife Harriett are print collectors, and have an impressive traveling exhibition -- Estampas de la Raza: Contemporary Prints from the Romo Collection -- which we saw at the Los Angeles Community College in 2015:

"Estampas de la Raza"

exhibition at the Los Angeles Community College in 2015

"Estampas de la Raza" was the catalyst for our Desert Triangle Print Carpeta (currently showing at the University of Arizona Art Museum).  We were inspired to commission and show big prints by the example of Ricardo and Harriett Romo and their print collection.

Dr Ricardo Romo's writings:

• La Prensa (of San Antonio)
• Latinos in America (Substack)

Possible Vladem Museum

 Print Workshop(s)

I also talked to Chris Nail, Head of Education, at the New Mexico Museum of Art, about having some relief printmaking workshops in the classroom of the new New Mexico Vladem Museum of Contemporary Art.

Chris Nail

at the New Mexico Museum of Art

Our Pink Print Bucket

in front of the Vladem Museum

The classroom was locked up at the Vladem Museum, however I took some pictures through the windows:

Our Pink Print Bucket at the Vladem

in front of the entrance to the classroom

(polka dots on the classroom door)

Inside the classroom

at the Vladem

Inside the classroom

at the Vladem

PROPOSAL

I am proposing to have linocut print workshops in the classroom at the Vladem art museum. We would bring the Tortilla Press, 6x6 linoleum squares, paper and ink. All of these supplies fit in plastic boxes that we carry to and take away from the classroom, as we've developed a "portable workshop."

Tortilla Press

Ideally Julie Sola would run the printmaking workshops.  She has a huge letterpress studio in Las Vegas, New Mexico -- Fat Crow Press -- and a couple of decades experience of making prints for Hatch Show Print in Nashville, Tennessee:

Julie Sola

at her printmaking studio, Fat Crow Press,

in Las Vegas, New Mexico

Both Albuquerque and Las Vegas, New Mexico are an hour's drive from Santa Fe (and Taos is an hour and a half). Thus a workshop at the Vladem would be the perfect location to bring in artists from around the WHOLE STATE to meet and work together.

Also we have had a great response from Santa Fe whenever we make prints with Hecho A Mano and Hecho Gallery, always finding a lot of enthusiasm in the City Different:

Live printmaking on Canyon Road

in front of Hecho A Mano gallery

Previously we have had a few printmaking workshops in Albuquerque that were a success:

Linocut printmaking workshop

at the North Fourth Art Center

in Albuquerque, May 27, 2023

Note that both Tamarind Institute and Takach Press are located in Albuquerque.  I can conveniently get printmaking supplies from Takach Press for the workshop. It seems that New Mexico and the Southwest is just primed to have a bigger printmaking presence.

Again, I think an afternoon printmaking workshop is a great way to interact, and share techniques and content with other artists from all over the state.  6x6 inch linocut printmaking (on 8x8 inch paper) is cheap and simple enough so that anyone can participate.  However this proposal is more of a workshop than a class, so while beginners would be welcome, they also might want to take a printmaking class at Santa Fe Community College to get more involved.

Our workshops have come from the desire to show prints, not just in New Mexico, but in our neighboring states of Texas and Arizona, and also in Mexico.  8x8 inch prints (from 6x6 inch linocuts) travel nicely in the mail to places all over the globe (we have even gotten prints from Australia):

183 small prints 

exhibited in El Paso in May 2023

Ten small framed prints in a bucket

can be a good pop-up exhibition,

especially with a bottle of mescal

We showed 66 prints in the Axle Contemporary Art Van in 2022:

66 framed prints

showing in Axle Contemporary

Our previous 8x8 inch print project --

Ambos Lados International Print Exchange ,

exhibited at the El Paso Museum of History in 2023

It's too expensive to exhibit sculpture and painting out of state, or across the oceans.  However prints are easy to ship and show, even across borders; and doing so can even be within the budget of an ambitious individual.  Thus prints are the more accessible medium to have an artistic dialogue worldwide.