Phoenix Exhibition, Napa Workshop, SB1070 Exchange, SGC Conference Print

It has been an extremely busy month or so but a lot of art and art related events happened.

APG EXHIBITION AT BEATITUDES 

Stu, Joan, Eric

Stu Biscoe coordinated a really nice exhibition for the Arizona Print Group at the Beatitudes Church, 7^th Avenue and Glendale.  Here are a few photos from the opening reception January 23rd.  The work will be on display until March 2^nd.

NAPA VALLEY REDUCTION LINOCUT WORKSHOP

The last weekend in January, I had the pleasure of teaching a two-day reduction linocut workshop at Nimbus Arts in St. Helena, the heart of Napa Valley.  Nimbus is a wonderful family arts center with a beautiful space and dedicated and fun staff.  I have spent a lot of time in Napa Valley since my sister lives there, but this was my first January.  I loved the mist in the mountains and the mustard growing in the vineyard.  It is a very special spot on this earth, lovely every season.

 

St. Helena, California

January in Napa Valley

 Speaking of my sister, I was lucky to sit in on one of her NVCC painting classes.  34 students!  But great teaching and much learning took place, even so early in the semester.  It was impressive to see so many participating in the critique.  Nancy made it fun and safe for them to express their opinions and ideas.  I have to say that she is one of the best teachers I have ever seen in action.  She spends a lot of time preparing and organizing her materials.  With 34 students and two levels, it is like teaching two classes during the same 5 hour class.  After it is over she writes up a summary of class activities and assignments and sends it all out in an email to her students.  They love her.  Lucky, lucky students.

SB1070 PRINT EXCHANGE

"Native Son"

I was invited to participate in a print exchange on SB1070 by an artist in Reno NV who has since moved here to attend graduate school (drawing) at ASU.  Rossitza Todorova was a student in my first ever Reduction Linocut workshop and I am thrilled to hear that she has done her print for this exchange in that medium.  The primary work for this project was finalized and I printed the edition during the second and third week of February, all the while Marlys and I were working on our major SGC project…

REALITY/DISTORTION

 

The 30 members of the Arizona Print Group each printed an 8 x 10 or 10 x 8 inch solarplate print (either etching or relief) for the group project that Marlys and I developed and curated.  Our intention was to submit the group print to be exhibited at the printmakers’ conference – Southern Graphics Council Int’l in St Louis in March.  Our project was approved and accepted for the conference in July 2010.  We chose our theme, Reality/Distortion, to fit in with the conference theme of Equilibrium.  We asked everyone to include a horizontal line in their print that we would use to unite the prints together.  About a third of the group were not well versed in Solarplate Etching/Relief so we held several open studio sessions in Phoenix and Tucson to help our members work through the process.  These were happy events, great interactions and studio sharing, the best part of being in a printmaking community. 

 

Finally, from Feb 3^rd to the 13^th, Marlys and I determined the layout and adhered 30 prints to a 22 ½ feet long roll of Masa paper; and then we ran it through the press.  We did this 8 times, for an edition of 8.  We mailed our exhibition copy to St Louis and it was received Feb 11^th.  We also mailed one to the SGCI in Mississippi for their archives and we mailed one to Dan Welden, in Sag Harbor (he donated the solarplates for the project).  When we finished the last print, we high-fived each other, feeling quite happy that this year long project was at last completed.