Summer update
Well, I am officially done with my apprenticeship at Landfall Press... It got a little busy there for a minute and I wasn't able to update as much as I wanted to.
In short, Peregrine Honig was a blast to work with! In one week, she produced five spit-bite etchings with chine-collé and an eight-color lithograph. She was incredibly funny and super sweet. It was nice to be able to separate the myth and celebrity from Peregrine and just experience her as an artist and person.
The summer wrapped up with non-stop printing to finish as many jobs as we could. Kelsey and I swept through three of the eleven Charles Ginnever etchings, each needing to be editioned to approximately 60 prints. We finished two lithographs by Boston artist Barbara Grad and continued to print runs on prints by Terry Allen and Judy Chicago as well. I don't think I've ever produced so many prints in one single sitting. It's quite an experience to enter into such a productive mindset.
I often find myself over-working an image and being unable to decide what to do to finish a piece. But working in this environment meant having to set all of that aside and just become decisive in every aspect of what you are doing. Find the answers you need to questions you have, locate the materials you need and budget to acquire them; troubleshoot quickly, stand back and assess what is happening, make appropriate decisions, and execute in a timely manner. It's going to be good to go back into the studio and make work again.
Derek Dobbins and I will be beginning work on a collaborative figurative exhibition for the spring. The work produced will be quick and loose and be involved in a back-and-forth collaborative effort meant to challenge the other artist and create works that aren't labored over. Each piece will have a set time-limit to be worked on so that the artist is forced to be decisive and distill an image down to its essentials. It's going to be fun to just produce tons of work again. First thing on my list of things to do will be to find Derek and I a drafting table for our studio in our apartment and get us a functioning space. I'm super excited to start this new chapter of my life.
It has been the busiest summer I've ever had. I have nothing but immense respect for the entire Landfall crew. I am going to miss them so much. It won't be the same without the conversations on the nature of art and printmaking education with Steve Campbell, the bitch-face and humor of Christina Campbell, or the wisdom and skill that just exudes from Jack Lemon when he takes on the press.
If you have the opportunity to intern with Landfall Press, do it. It will be the most beneficial experience you have involving printmaking. It will be hard work. You will sweat. But you will learn so much about technique and execution. You will learn about having integrity with the work you produce and pursue. You will learn what it means to be a real outlaw of printmaking (Sorry Tom Huck, these guys have owned the mantle of "Outlaw" for decades now). You will also learn a little bit about jazz, country, and westerns. And if you're lucky, a little bit about the Rolling Stones.
