New York City

LPE 2010

Well, the Littlest Print Exchange 2010 is officially finished. The last of the completed portfolios went out in today's mail. I also uploaded a gallery of all the prints to the website. So take a couple of minutes and check out the collection. Several artists were nice enough to send a few extra prints so I created a web store where they can be purchased for only $6.00. Most of them are in very short supply of only one or two prints, so if you want one, get on top of it before it is sold out. There is one complete portfolio available for sale. Send me an email if you think you might like to buy it. It will be about $300 for all 50 artworks.

A bunch of exhibitions of the portfolio are in the works. Currently scheduled are a showing at Tiny Meat in Portland Oregon and two Canadian exhibitions at Cram Gallery and Spark Box Studio.

I've already received a bunch of submissions for the 2011 exchange and will start accepting participants in January, so if you want to be included check out the website and send in a portfolio.

Bowling for a Cure

Things have been pretty slow on the creativity front. I've been overwhelmed with my photography class. The semester is flying by but I've spent a lot of time making sure I have everything together for my students. I also started working in a t-shirt screen printing shop and that is seriously messing with my time and sleep habits. I had the day off today from both those jobs though, so I spent it working out this poster design for my friend's annual charity bowling event. I think I might make a website for the event next time I get a few free hours.

Strong Reaction

I've been busy sorting out all the prints for the print exchange. There are still two editions which haven't arrived, but when they get here, everything will be ready to go. I really want to get these things sent out as soon as possible.

Collater

It is just a little more than a week past the deadline for the 2010 Littlest Print Exchange and there are just a few more sets of prints working their way through the mail. I spent some time today getting things set up so I can get everything shipped out as soon as those last editions come in.

Publication

This weekend I put the finishing touches on the zine that we made at a Feed workshop last week. It turned out to be a Halloween issue so if you want to take a look at it be for the holiday, get over to Libro Bookstore in the Majestic Center and pick one up. Or go to the Feed website where you can order a copy for $2.00. We're hoping to make this into a regular thing, publishing a new zine four times a year or so.

Multiples of Four

I don't know why I start on these kinds of projects so late at night. I just spent the hours between midnight and four a.m. writing, and laying out a tiny little zine on the subject of, you guessed it, writing and laying out a zine. Friday of this week I'm putting on an informal zine making workshop with our friends at Libro Bookstore down in Feed's old stomping grounds at the Majestic Center. I'm going to have copies of this zine made to give out to anyone that shows up. It contains a handful of simple layout diagrams and a few ideas for binding I think I've crammed a lot of info into fourteen 2.75" x 4.25" pages. If you're looking for something to do on Friday, stop by and help us work on a collaborative zine. P.S. I know the picture at right makes me look like a crazy person.

Welcome Home

Now that I'm teaching I have the opportunity to take part in this annual exhibition at GSU featuring the work of regional art instructors. I wanted to get something new done for this show since everybody around there has already seen most of my work. I also wanted to do something directly photographic since I'm teaching photography. So I spent the last couple of weeks shooting a series of tiny, pinhole photographs and then today I screen printed a layer of color over the top of the photos. Tonight I'm going to get these things framed up and presentable. Shown together in a group, I think they'll look at least a little bit interesting.

The show opens this Thursday, October 7th. There is an artists reception next week on Wednesday, October 13th at 5:00p.m. Based on previous experience, I'm guessing this show will include artwork from:

Javier Chavira, Christopher Clark, Michael Costanza, Daniel Falco, Eric Gorder, Michael D. Hart, Jane Rhoades Hudak, Joe Milosevich, Jean Janssen, Elise Kendrot, Erik LaGattuta, Carrie Ohm, Heather Page, Beth Parin, Gary Schirmer, Lou Shields, Cheliese Slowik, Jerry Slowik, Michael E. Smith, Jeff Stevenson, Jessica Van Swol

Coding

We're coming right up on the deadline for this year's Littlest Print Exchange, so I decided it was time for an update to the project's website. I spent a few days working this new site out and registered a real domain name for it. Check it out at littlestprintexchange.com. I'm also opening up submissions for next year's exchange so take a look at the participation page and if you seem like you'd like to take part, send me an email.

Heat Rises

I spent some time over the last few days working on my contribution to the Littlest Print Exchange. First I screen printed a white background onto sheets of yellow paper. Then I ran those sheets though my inkjet printer. I like this combination of digital and traditional techniques. Last night I sprayed the sheets with a plastic paint which soaks into the paper, sealing the layers together. Today I'll trim them down to the proper size and get ready for the prints from the rest of the participants to start coming in.

Itty Bitty

I decided to spend the day working out exposure times for the tiny pinhole cameras my photography class is making. Next week I'll send everyone out around the school to take some pics. I want everything to be as simple for them as possible so the experimenting I did today will help me to make an exposure guide. This system aught to be foolproof, but we'll find out for sure on Tuesday.

Weak End

I spent a few days this week doing some more work for Novelty Closures. If you ever give a bottle of wine as a gift, you should check out their website. They have focused in on basically two good ideas: a gift card which hangs around the neck of a wine bottle, and a unique cork with a compartment for stashing a tiny little gift.

This weekend, I'm going to work on some print exchange business and try to get moving on a short series of photographs for an upcoming show. I'm also trying to make some progress on some logo and business card designs.

A Memory Aid

I spent a bit of time today cutting a stencil and spray painting these Feed cards to pass out on Sunday. I found these paint samples at the hardware store that are almost exactly the same size as a standard business card so I grabbed a bunch of them in nice, autumny colors. After painting, I used the stencil to trace out the letters in black. Whatever. We'll probably run out before the end of the day.

Fall Arts Stroll

It looks like I'll be out this weekend with Michael and, hopefully, Jessica selling artwork at the annual Fall Arts Stroll organized by the Community Arts Council and The Kankakee Events Partnership. Michael and I will probably have the same stuff we've been pushing at other events lately. I think Jessica might have a few new things. I wish we had something to promote, but there aren't any big Feed events planned right now. I'm hoping to get some new cards printed and paint some kind of backdrop for our tent before the event. Maybe if I'm feeling super ambitious, I'll print a few shirts to sell.

The Arts Stroll is this Sunday, September 19th from 11L00 to 4:00. This year it is spread over two blocks of Schulyer Avenue on either side of Court Street.

Boxing Day

Jessica came and spent the day printing box tops for The Littlest Print Exchange. It is really nice to have someone willing to do the work that I don't really want to do. The deadline for finished editions is quickly approaching and I haven't done much thinking about the prints that I want to make for the portfolio this year. I'll probably do some mixture of traditional and digital printing. I have a few other project that I need to finish before October so the rest of the month might be a bit busy.

Closure

It has been a while since I've posted about anything I'm working on. That's because I've been busy working on lesson plans and handouts, and assignments for my new photography class. Also it is because I haven't had any ideas for a while. I did figure out how to print these stoppers for a friend's company that makes wine bottle corks and gift cards. They are having a meeting with some representatives from the Food Network and are hoping these examples can help to sell some products. I hope they can too.

The Unbroken Thread

Stefen over at Just Aesthetics is putting out monthly downloadable mixtapes themed around social issues. Somehow I was given the opportunity to put together one for the month of September. Though I don't have any real science education, I am fascinated by the scientific process. If I had the opportunity or if I had unlimited time and finances, I would go back to school to study evolution. As it is, I just read the occasional book or science journal on the subject. Even this limited amount of research has convinced me that the part of the population (reportedly more than 60%) which doesn't believe in the reality of evolution, probably just hasn't been properly exposed to the theories. Anyway, if you're interested, head over to the Just Aesthetics site and download the mixtape I made which is composed of songs all about Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution by natural selection.

Moleman

Anybody in Chicago this weekend should run over to the Music Box Theatre for the advanced screening of The Mole Man of Belmont Avenue the movie co-written, and co-directed by my old friend Mike.

Merchant Street Day Two

Day two of the Music Fest was even better than day one. The weather started out overcast and we were worried about rain. By 3:00 all the clouds were gone and the blistering sun was beating down again. It didn't seem to stop people from coming out though. By sundown the place was packed with tons of serious dancers enjoying Chicago Afrobeat and Liquid Soul. Even the sloped lawn in front of the local stage was filled for Jaik Willis, Mykel Boyd, e3po and Poundcake. The final count of art and craft vendors is still up in the air, but I'm sure it was more than thirty, which was much better than we expected. We sold enough stuff to make it worthwhile and, more importantly, had a lot of opportunities to promote Feed. Best of all, Jessica made it back from Maine.

Merchant Street Day One

Despite the cloudless heat followed by sunburn followed by intense rain. The first day of music fest was pretty awesome. When the rain came in everybody rallied together to keep the show going. Joel Paterson and the Modern Sounds were totally awesome professionals, playing under the pavilion of the depot with no sound system. They just turned up their amps and serenaded the drunk dancers. Devon Allman canceled out, so when the rain let up their slot on the main stage was taken over by Red Buffalo who were scheduled for the second stage. In the end we had to cancel two performances from local bands, but I think it went over fine. Everybody who stayed during the rain seemed to be enjoying themselves and most of us were rewarded with free pizza from Parmesan's. Tonight I'm sleeping while covered in aloe. Tomorrow, we'll be back at it starting at noon and we're hoping for better weather.

Nicest Prints

A friend asked if I would enter some of my prints in an exhibition she organized at her church. I had a few framed prints sitting here anyway, so I brought them over today and then helped to hang everything.

After that, I started working on these business cards to pass out at the music fest this week end. They're two colors and hand screen-printed. I'm hoping to get some jobs designing and printing shirts and things for people and I thought this would be a good opportunity to start marketing myself. I registered a URL, for Nicest Prints and put up a really basic site. I actually already have a couple of jobs in the pipeline. Hopefully I'll get a few more.

Print Zero

My selection of prints from the Print Zero Exchange came in the mail today and I'm pretty happy with the ones I received. These kinds of open exchanges are something of a shot in the dark. There's no way to know what prints you'll receive or if you'll like them or not. My selection included prints from:

Margaret Ashman, Emily Bean, Pamela Fanelli, Wayne Henkel, Melody Knight Leary, Joshua McGarvey, David Mohallatee, Noah Overby, Karen Peters, Vicki Plahs-Brown, Charissa Schulze, Linda Whitney, and Prue MacDougall.

You can see these and all the rest of the entries at the Print Zero website.

Merchant Street

Surprisingly, I never really posted anything on here about what we're doing with Merchant Street Music Fest. A few months ago, at a Feed event, Michael and I were asked to help out with organizing this annual music festival put on by the city of Kankakee. Obviously we were flattered by the offer and have been meeting every Monday to work out the details. The festival has been a major event in Kankakee for the last nine or ten years. This year it is bigger than ever with two stages, at least thirty musical acts, a kid's activity zone, a bunch of food & drink vendors, and an arts & crafts fair.

The main stage will feature 13 bands including the Ploughboys, Liquid Soul, Devon Allman and his band Honeytribe, Joel Paterson and the Modern Sounds, and the Chicago Afrobeat Project. Feed was given the opportunity to book the second stage so it is filled with local and regional musicians like nikku neko, Sneaky Gene, Lupe Carroll, Pony Boy, Poundcake, lighttribe and tons more.

We've also organized the art and craft fair, inviting merchants like Acorn Design Source, Darling Clandestine, Hooptopia, the Swell Crafters of Kankakee, Lundmark Studios, and of course the Feed Team, among many others.

That's all happening next weekend, August 13th and 14th so mark your calendars. This event is absolutely FREE. More info can be found at merchantstreetmusicfest.com

Lil Bits

As of today the Littlest Print Exchange has 36 definite participants and another 13 just waiting on entry fees. That's a total of 49 artists. Just one more spot left to fill. I'm really starting to get into it now. This year the project seems to be much more international than last year with an exciting list of participants from the United Kingdom, Canada, India, Germany, Italy, Israel, Argentina, Edinburgh, Slovakia and the United States. The deadline for finished prints has been set for October 15th, 2010. We've already received editions from our two most industrious participants, Melody Leary and John Bergmeier. I don't really have an idea for my own submission but I need to get going on it. Then I need to produce packaging materials. I think there will be one or two little surprises as well that might take up some of my time.

Flush It Down

I spent the day printing a second run of Musicfest tees on brown shirts. These are intended to be given to the volunteers who have helped organize the event and who will be taking care of business on the day. I deleted the fountain element of the design to shorten the printing time since I had to double print the light tan ink on the dark shirt. I was hoping that my clothes dryer was hot enough to heat-set the ink, but some washout tests I did today proved that it definitely is not. It seems like I'm going to have to either iron every one of these shirts for 3-5 minutes or pop them in the oven a couple at a time. I'm not wild about either idea. As soon as I recoup the money I've been spending on printing equipment, I'm going to have to buy a flash dryer. Maybe I can find a cheap used one.

Speed Ballistic

After getting rid of some old junk on freecycle, I printed about 34 of these Musicfest shirts today. There's been a little bit of a learning curve printing on fabric after spending so much time working on paper. I picked up a few cheap Speedball squeegees and was surprised to find that they work a lot better than the expensive ones I already had. Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to print a bunch of brown shirts with a two color variation on this design. Then, I'm going to try to get paid for them.

Once and Again

Here's the first run of Feed shirts. It has been tough getting everything together to print like this at home. I'm used to having everything I need right where I know I can find it. Anyway, I printed 13 shirts in various sizes and colors left over from old projects. Some of these shirts have probably been hanging around for more than ten years.

Get Busy

OK. Here's the first screen produced in my new, home "print studio". I'm going to start printing t-shirts for local businesses, bands, churches, etc. My first job is to make shirts for the Merchant Street Music Fest. While I'm waiting for new screens to come in, I started making some shirts for Feed.

Kitchen Experiment

My friend Nate asked me if he could use one of my prints for the cover of his band's album. I put together a design using an awesome disco font. Today, the album is available on Bandcamp. As far as I can tell, the whole thing is free as a digital download so you should listen to it.

Intelligentsia

Yesterday, I finally managed to get a few pictures of my prints hanging at Intelligentsia.

Ms. Brown's Lounge

If you happen to be in Australia this weekend, specifically Alstonville, New South Wales, then stop in at Barratt Galleries where an exhibition of the exchange portfolio organized by Ms. Brown's Lounge is opening. The show features artwork from 54 international artists in the form of a deck of artist's playing cards. If you are unable to make it to Australia, then simply take a look at the project website, on which, I understand, all of the cards will be available for viewing by the 24th, when the show opens.

Ave Milwaukee

I'm heading up to the city tomorrow to drop off some artwork for the afore mentioned Print Exhibition at the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival. The show is happening at Anywhere Space - 2328 North Milwaukee and is open to the public Friday through Sunday. There's a ton of other exhibits and musical/dramatic performances happening during the festival, so take the kids over and have a nice weekend in Logan Square.

Whew

I spent the better part of the day rebuilding my home made press. Originally, it was built mostly of 2x4 boards which would flex a lot when printing. It worked fine, but I knew it was just a matter of time before the pressure of the jack pushed the whole thing apart. So I replaced the wooden, top cross beam with a piece of steel I got from my brother. I also shortened the uprights and removed big, wood pieces I had attached to them before. They were there to make it look a little nicer by hiding the angle irons. But really, they just added weight to the press, making it too heavy to port around easily. It is a little lighter now, but still kind of heavy. While I was at it I put in a little frame to help keep the jack straight and in the best position for printing. This has been quite a job, not only because I don't really have the right tools for cutting metal, but also because it is outrageously hot today.

Gutted

About six years ago I bought one of these guitar/mandolin packages offered by Musician's Friend for the low price of $80. I gave away the mandolin to my brother and kept the guitar. I knew some other people that have had these $40 guitars and they typically sound pretty bad and have high strings, rough on the fingers. By some fluke, the guitar I got was a joy to play and actually sounded really nice. I'm not much of a guitar player, but I really enjoy fooling around with it and do so pretty much every day, at least for a few minutes. Today, I knocked over my $40 guitar and broke its head off. This is a real blow. I'm sure I'll never replicate the quality of this particular guitar without spending a significant amount more than $40. If anyone out there has a nice guitar they want to unload for $40 or less, please let me know. Otherwise, I'm going to have to go back to playing banjo.

Opportunities

On Saturday the first set of prints came in for the Littlest Print Exchange. John Bergmeier is an awesome artist and a real professional. His were the first prints finished for last year's exchange too. I'm still looking for artists to take part in this year's exchange. So far we've got 21 participants and still need 29 more. Take a look at the Littlest Print Blog and submit a portfolio.

Did you know I'm also involved in organizing an art fair? It is going to be a component of the annual Merchant Street Music Fest here in Kankakee. All the info is available on the Feed website. We want to have as many vendors as possible, so if you have some awesome stuff you want to sell check it out. It is going to be completely free for artists so you really don't have an excuse not to do it.

Braap

Remaking

The printing continues with a layer of cyan ink and the science fiction continues with a couple of episodes of the US remake of Life on Mars. More in about 50 minutes.

I stopped to eat some dinner so it took me a little longer than 50 minutes to print the final, black layer of ink. After 2010 gets over, I'm going to start cutting these prints down and numbering them so I can get them in the mail tomorrow.

Harness the Power of Time Travel

I've been watching a ridiculous amount of science fiction TV shows and movies while doing some linoleum block carving over the last few days. Tonight I started printing the blocks. I'm trying to get this print finished for an exchange, however, the edition is due on the tenth and I don't know if I'll get everything finished and shipped before then. I think I can though. As soon as Lifeforce is over I'm going to print a second layer.

Well. That's finished. The red layer went pretty quick. Less than 50 minutes for 25 prints. Maybe I'll work on a third color before I go to bed. Maybe instead I'll eat something and watch Cypher.

Lacking Lustre

A new show went up at Captive Werewolf. It is a selection of photos produced during Feed's View Finding Workshop a couple of weeks ago.

I made a little progress today on the art fair we're organizing for the Merchant Street Music Fest. If you are an artist interested in having a booth at the fair, check out the Feed Website for the info. In my opinion, the more people we have the better it will be.

Intelligentsia

Today I dropped off a bunch of prints at The Millennium Park Intelligentsia Coffee Bar. They should be hung tomorrow and be ready for viewing by Thursday. If you're in Chicago in the coming weeks, go to Millennium Park to see the famous, multi-billion dollar artwork and then stop in at Intelligentsia to have some coffee and look at some of my hundred dollar crap.

Yeller

Polaroid film is no longer available. This pack expired in 2002. I don't know what is really happening here. I started fooling around with color correcting some of these pics. It is kind of amazing how much detail is hidden behind the bad developing.

View Finding

Last weekend's View Finding workshop was nice and laid back. Seven people showed up with vintage cameras, ready to point a digital camera through them. Today I edited, formatted and printed two photos from each participant. Tomorrow those prints are headed to Ireland where they will be included in John Baucher's TTV exhibition. The rest of the photos are available for viewing right now on Feed's flickr stream. All in all it was a nice, fun, easy project and I hope to be able to do it again for next year's World TTV Day.

Saturday. In the Park

Today started out with a trip to the farmers market to listen to The Oak Street Ramblers play some bluegrass. Then I cruised over to Perry Farm for the View Finding event. I guess there were about seven of us wandering around the park carrying conspicuous photographic contraptions by the end of the afternoon. There were a bunch of people at the park racing dogs, so that was interesting. Pictures from all the participants will be showing up over the next few days. There are already some good ones posted.

After that I visited with Jeanie for a couple of hours before heading up to GSU to attend the gallery reception for the Brainstorm Exhibit. I didn't win any prizes but Michael took second place as well as selling both of his pieces. A few minutes ago I realized that I haven't had anything to drink all day.

Salt

While preparing for tomorrow's View Finding event, I took this shot through the viewfinder of an old Bronica S2A. The weather is supposed to be pretty nice tomorrow so drop by Perry Farm around noon if you want to join in on the fun.

The Last Post Ever

This should probably be the last time I'm mentioning these prints. I finished cutting them down to size and my corner rounder came in the mail today so I used that on all of them too. Then I stamped the lower right corner with this cool self-inking, automatic numbering machine that I bought when Office Depot was going out of business. The final edition came out at 71 which is a pretty weird number. 55 of those print are headed off to Australia tomorrow. That leaves 16. I'm not sure if anyone would want a tiny little picture of me, but I'll happily sell them for $5 each.

Black

Four posts in a row about this stupid print and it isn't even done yet. I didn't finish the whole edition yet, but I did print enough of the last two colors to see what the finished print looks like. I think its pretty cool and, if done on a larger scale, it should look a lot more hi-def. Once everything is printed on this little print, I'm going to round off the corners and send the edition off to Australia for an exhibition and print exchange. I guess the theme of the project is supposed to be "travel." I'm not really into themes.

Blue

I finished off the rest of the red layers today (I only misregistered two prints out of 80 which seems like a pretty good ratio) and then I got to work on printing the blue layer. The process seems to be working. Once the black layer goes on hopefully everything will come together. I think I might try doing something similar on a larger canvas. Did I mention how small these are? They are only the size of a playing card, so about 2.5" x 3.5".

Red and Yellow

I finished carving my four linoleum blocks on Friday and began printing today. (Saturday was filled up with a Feed event and my Mom's birthday.) I finished printing the yellow layer on about eighty of these and just started on the red layer. So far, I think it is working out ok. You can already begin to see how the mixing colors is making a face come through, especially if you squint or look from kind of far away.