SGCI in San Francisco was a great time. There was a lot going on, almost too much to handle, but I made some solid connections and have some strong possibilities. The portfolio and the panel were a hit for those that saw them and I had some great feedback and interest by others in wanting to do similar work.
On Thursday, I was able to make my way out to one of the demos after going to the SGCI member meeting that morning. It was the Iron-On Intaglio demo put on by three of the printmakers from Zea Mays Printmaking. The process used an engineering sheeting that is typically used for etching circuit boards, but the ladies of Zea Mays figured out a process for using it for photo imagery on copper plates. Though not as good as gravure, it has a lot of possibilities for teaching basic photo-etching processes that actually etch the plate and not create a relief surface, like ImagOn. Check out about 20 of their tests at this link: http://www.zeamaysprintmaking.com/research/technical-research/intaglio-photo-transfer-with-pcb-press-n-peel/
After that I went to The Aesthetic Union to set up the portfolio for the reception on Saturday. James Tucker, a friend of mine from Ringling, is the proprietor of the studio. He transferred to MICA halfway through college and got a summer internship at Hatch Show in Nashville. After graduation James made his way to SF and worked for a few different studios, including Hello Lucky with Aaron Cohick, before he was offered this space a few months ago.
View of the portfolio hung on the shop wall.
Signage for The Aesthetic Union
On Friday, we made our way out to UC Berkeley for the panel. Georgia Deal, Ruth Lingen, Justin Strom and I gave talks about different collaborative experiences we have had that were outside the standards of printmaking and how we all looked at and dealt with them. As I have posted before, my part was about this portfolio and the experience of creating editions with non-artists. Georgia’s was about our experience, last summer, working with Mia Feuer and creating prints on tar paper for her installation in the Fall. Ruth presented her experiences working with the artists Leonardo Drew and Shepard Fairey for Pace Paper. She worked with both artists during a 1 and a half year long period, going back and forth over different months, and how she had to look at and conceive of things differently for each. And lastly, Justin talked about the experience of the symposium he created in 2009 at the University of Maryland, but then further how that expanded into a series of one day print collaborations between University of Maryland, George Mason University and Corcoran College of Art and Design students to allow the students from each school to host and show off their facilities, building stronger ties between the printmaking community of DC.
Image of title page for presentations.
The response after te panel was great, we each had multiple people come up and ask us about our experiences or how they might get into doing similar work and collaborations. We actually had to be asked to leave because we were moving into the time for the next presenter.
Saturday was the last big day for the conference. The education panel in the morning was great and had some really good points on how to bridge printmaking into the general curriculum of art programs. There were also some great demos, especially the one by Shannon Collis that should off a new technique she was working on to create sound from prints. But the afternoon/evening Mission Art Walk was a bit of a let down, part bad weather, part bad planning. We had a few people come by The Aesthetic Union, but not as many as hoped. Either way the conference was a success and I look forward to the one next March in Knoxville, TN.
For now, I am working on the next edition for the press and trying to finish the press packet for the portfolio to send out for possible exhibitions.
R&D Editions 