Response to Trafficking

My book making class just completed a project to increase awareness of human trafficking. Its kind of an intense subject, but its a great opportunity for artists to enact social change since the primary roadblock to stopping human trafficking is a lack of visibility. The aim of the project was to react to an issue of human trafficking. My book, Bind, is currently on display in the John and June Allcott Gallery.

Here are the pics:

December Print Sale at UNC

It's almost December, which means that we are gearing up for the 4th annual print sale at UNC. This is a sweet opportunity to buy some really cool artwork, especially the ceramics which are always unbelievable cool and reasonably priced. All of the proceeds to students and to maintaining the art department studios. These are the perks of going to the print sale:

1. Really awesome artwork is on display, including prints, artists books and ceramics
2. It supports the UNC Art Department
3. I will be there, so you can hangout with me
3&1/2. If I sell a lot of prints I can buy Christmas presents


Now that I've sold you and you are definitely coming, you need to know that it is at the Artery Student Art Gallery at 136 Rosemary St, Chapel Hill, NC, on Friday, December 10th, 9am to 10:00pm. This is the Artery';s new address; it is right next to the old Artery space, which has been turned into a hookah lounge, so don't get confused.

Book models...

What the heck is an artist's book? More than the fine art equivalent to scrapbooking

My artistic life the last few weeks has been dominated by books...I'm not talking about doing research or reading literature or even trashy novels, I'm talking about the kind that are sculptural, conceptual, reflexive and critical of their own form, AKA the ARTIST'S BOOK. What is an artist's book, you ask? Its a book that has intrinsic value outside of the information it contains, so it is in itself a work of art. Sounds like the nerdiest art form ever, right? Making books doesn't really have the heroic monumental action painting vibe, does it? But I'm really embracing this concept because it lends itself to printing and just by using a book form introduces a ton of notions about how we approach information. Plus, tiny books are so freakin cute!

Josh Hockensmith's Blog

I just found out Josh Hockensmith (aka my boss at the Art library) has a great blog about book artistdom: http://bluebluerbooks.blogspot.com

290 Hours Down and 30 to go!

As the title of this post suggests, I have completed 290 hours of my internship and have only 30 more to go in the next week and a half. I have been obsessively updating my Slimtimer account (my online time sheet) at the end of every day. Its my Carolina Countdown. I really do love my internship, I couldn't have imagined anything better for my summer. I feel much more competent as a printmaker and I learned about all of the administrative work that goes into running a studio. Plus, I get to work with an awesome group of people who are really dedicated artists who feel tons of ownership for the shop.

Last night we had our July meeting, the only one we are having this month because so many people are on vacation, including the shop manager, so I got to run it. Needless to say it was laid back. We went to the bar across the street and discussed scheduling and scoop coater etiquette over Abitas. We got a lot accomplished. For one, we made a new policy that leaving burned screens in the shop over night will henceforth be a privilege for monitors only. We discussed the need for everyone to pay monthly dues in a timely manner so that we can order materials. Our new monitor, Maureen, offered to create a chart to keep track of who pays monthly dues where each payment is earns the monitor a gold star sticker. Some things work at any age.

For the next week, I will be working to make sure that the monitors have everything they need until Meg gets back August 5th. This includes prep for Teen Screen, the week long summer printing intensive for teenagers which is completely full with ten students. I'm stoked the class is full, because this summer will pave the way for teen programming for the rest of the year. My other project is photographing all of the projects I've been working on the last few weeks and uploading photos to the blog!

A Thorough Update

I got back last night from a weekend vacation in Orlando where I met up with a bunch of friends from Carolina, so returning to work mode this morning is extremely tough. Not only do I miss my friends more than ever, but half of them are done with their summer plans and just get to chill at home. However, I think the dose of good friends and Seaworld did me good. I have almost 250 out of 320 hours logged for my internship, which means I'll be done really soon, and I want to finish strong.

Ariel, one of the people I work with at Artworks has been trying to organize a printshow for the beginning of August, which could be awesome. We spent much of Thursday talking about hanging options, figuring out entry fees, etc. We wrote a call to artists for the show to send to all of the printshop members, about 15 artists. I got really excited when we went upstairs to see the event space where the work will be hung. I'm also trying to barter a deal with one of the monitors who has a framing business to have everyone's prints framed at a rock bottom discount (Ken is so awesome). We decided to require pieces to be framed to protect the work and give everything a uniform, professional look. The only issue we are still having is choosing an opening night. A month is a really short amount of time to put together a show. One option would be to open on White Linen Night on August 7th.

Letter Press!

So, I'm learning letter press. That is printing, Gutenberg style. I had heard of letter press and even seen type but never understood why anyone would want to sift through minuscule lead blocks of type when a laser jet printer is always available. But, I've started working at Hot Iron Press three mornings a week and they are teaching me letter press so that I can help print posters for their gallery, The Front, and organize the hundreds of shelves of fonts.

Last week, Meg and I had a meeting to plan fall programming and protocol for people to propose their own classes to teach in the shop. We made a promotional calendar, a schedule that teachers have to follow to promote their classes to make sure they fill. All of the classes (except for mine, thanks Aunt Nancy) in June were not filled, mainly because teachers failed to market their classes. Hopefully they just weren't sure how to go about it, so this schedule will help them out. The schedule will insure that we can make really beautiful screen printed posters for each season that include all of the printshop's programming, and that someone makes Craig's List ads, Facebook events and posts flyers for every event.

I moved into our new apartment yesterday! It's a block from St. Charles Avenue, really close to downtown. I took the streetcar to work today, which was really strange, because it was full of tourists ooing and awing over the historic architecture and the Mardi Gras beads still stuck on the streets from February. I realized for the first time that I don't feel like one anymore.

I'm spending all of tomorrow morning working on designs for the class I'm teaching with Meg Wednesday. Its a private class for my aunts and mom and their friends, which is great because they did all of the recruiting for me. The materials for the class will cost $35 for paper, $70 for emulsion shots, and $50 for ink, so a total $155. Each student is paying $45, so we are taking in $450, meaning $295 of profit, which is awesome because the shop really needs it. We are also contemplating a fundraiser before July which will probably involve water ballons and a dance party!!!

These pictures are of the screen we were printing and out stand at the free market, notice the poster for summer classes I made (the blues on faded pink). Also, check out the work wardrobe, I get to wear tank tops and short to work every day.

The Really Really Free Market

Out of all the contenders for favorite thing about my internship, one just took a spectacular lead, the Reall Really Free Market at 1614 Esplanade Ave. I was just having a typical boring afternoon until my boss texted me that the shop was going to have an impromptu screen printing demo at the Art House. The Art House has gained a level of local notoriety for regular attempts to evict its residents and tear down the multi level tree house complex build in the backyard. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. By the time I got to the house, the party was in full swing, piles of free stuff everywhere, a dj and a huge turnout. The idea was that people could fish out shirts and we would show them how to print and have them sign up for our list serve. I spent the afternoon doing the messiest screen printing of my life and left splattered with ink. It was a great marketing idea and was basically free since all of the ink was was donated by one of the artists who live in the house. Plus I got to meet Scott Pterodactyl. Can't beat it, really.

http://www.nola.com/arts/index.ssf/2010/02/visiting_scott_pterodactyls_ne.html

High School Entrepreneurship

My cousin and her friends came in this week to print notecards for a fundraiser for their youth group (great example of a self-sustaining non-profit). They did such a good job; I am so proud! I really enjoyed getting to show them the shop. I am going over to her house tonight to finish folding and packaging the cards. I really hope I get a set of freebies...

Ken, one of the artists at the printshop, adapted an image he has been working on to make this poster.

Posters and Politics

The print shop has burst into a flurry of oil-spill related activities as people mobilize their graphic talents to print posters for protests and merchandise to raise revenue for cleanup efforts. While no amount of prints will halt the spill (the top-kill method didn't work) the outlet is doing something positive for New Orleans residents.

The Test?

My first project at work was to design and print an edition of 40 posters to advertise the printshop's summer class schedule. I got this assignment about 20 minutes in, with my boss not having seen any of my work. The biggest edition I've made up til now was 14, so I was a little intimidated. Plus I wasn't sure of the expectations for level of creativity (the people at my work are so talented!). Fortunately, my boss seemed to think I could handle it, which in turn made me think I could handle it.

After three days, a minor set back when a pipe in the building burst and there was no water for a few hours, I finished the posters, and they look good!

I also went to my first monitor bi-weekly meeting on Wednesday night. A group of 8 to 12 monitors who are really dedicated to the success of the shop get together every other Wednesday to discuss the budget, fundraising, policies and projects. We talked a lot about different ideas to implement during the summer. I will probably be making a ton of promotinal materials for fall classes. Our next meeting is a show and tell, followed by pizza and beer at Slice. Now that is corporate culture.

Update: I need to be a bit more disciplined about posting

I can't believe I have already been in New Orleans for two and a half weeks already, and I haven't posted anything on my internship blog...

My computer has decided never to connect to wireless internet again, and I am seriously thinking its time for me to trade in my UNC issued clunker for a Mac. But enough with the excuses, I will be better about posting.

My first day at work was an open studio night, which happens at the printshop every Tuesday from 6 to 10pm. After a week of traveling and trying to get oriented in a new city, it felt really good to be back in a studio. The smell of emulsion and the sound of squeegees gliding over silkscreen frames just make me feel at home somehow. Open studio nights generate most of the shop's revenue and draws a big crowd of new folks every week. People come in with designs ready to print and the shop monitors on duty coach them through the process of printing. I love it. The people who drop in range from total beginners to experienced artists.

Its the jam and definitely my favorite part of my internship so far.

Publish Post

Bienvenue en Louisiane

As the Louisiana border sign catch phrase indicates, I am now in my home state of Louisiana after a three day, 17 hour drive from North Carolina. I have been here less than 72 hours and have already been to a crawfish boil and been flooded. I woke up this morning to a fairly bad thunderstorm and drove through 8 inches of water to get eggs for my grandma.

Not very much art related activity in the last few days, but I will hopefully start my internship tomorrow. It has been a really nice break from printing, but I'm excited for this opportunity to do something that is actually related to my major. How many art majors get to do that and get paid for it?

Summer

The end of the semester is just about here and I am gearing up to start my internship in New Orleans. I will be at Louisiana Artworks, a facility that supports visual artists in New Orleans. I'll be in, you guessed it, the printshop, where I'll be a monitor, working on marketing projects and developing a visiting artists program.

And I'll be documenting it all here!

Hand-made maps are fascinating, especially when you can sees the little inaccuracies of the hand. This series of maps document how the landscape changes over the seasons, through the overflowing river in spring, a lush summer, fall storm season and sparse winter.

NOLA Map, Spring 2010
Copper Plate Etching/Monotype Combination
22"x30"

This is a giglio, a symbol for a lily that is on everything in Florence, from soccer jerseys to bumper stickers to guide books, basically anything that stays still enough to be printed on. I screen printed it in some bright, youthful colors to represent the hipness of Florence, which has perfected blending old a new.

Giglio 2009
Screen Print on Paper
11"x15"

The Boeuf Gras, meaning in French, “Fatted Ox,” is a traditional symbol of the last meal eaten before entering the sacrificial season of Lent. It is a celebration of the final nights of excess consumption before a period of fasting. In New Orleans, a fiber glass boeuf gras, typically white, posted on a float is lead through the streets in Mardi Gras parades.

New Orleans Boeuf Gras 2010
Linocut on Paper
14"x 30"

You may recognize the niche as one of the 14 that adorn Orsanmichele in Florence. This is St. Jame's niche, but I replaced him with the text [Insert Your Idol Here]. The idea is that the viewer can place in image behind the Plexiglass covering the print to change was is in the niche.

[Insert] 2009
Screen Print on Paper, Plexiglass
6"x18"

There are two aspects of hospitality; welcoming in and sending out. Pineapples are symbolic of welcome, but like all produce, pineapples, like guests, can overstay their welcome.

Pineapple Diptych 2009
Screen Print on Paper
22"x30"