Printmaking for Los Ayotzinapos 43

Back in March, I was invited by Stephanie Martin and Melissa West to participate in a project they were organizing called Printmakers for the Ayotzinapa 43. For this endeavor, they invited printmakers to make a print that commemorated one of the students who was a victim of the Iguala Mass Kidnapping.

Although I intellectually understood the importance of the project, I didn't realize what I had gotten involved in at first. The artists were given a list of names, and I selected Giovanni Galindes Guerrero, for no particular reason. All I knew about him was this short bio, and so, armed with this small amount of information, I began to think about how I could honor him.

My difficulty was that I had more information about how Giovanni died than about his life. I've done portraits before, but usually of people I knew and connected with. But in this case, I knew very little about his personality, his quirks, his individuality. I knew he was studying to be a teacher; I am a teacher. I knew his nickname was El Espáider (the Spider). I knew he was twenty years old at the time of his death. And I knew there had to be so much more that filled his life, that made up his soul.

Somewhere in all these perambulating thoughts, I turned to art history. The prints of Taller Grafica Popular, particularly Leopoldo Mendez, always inspire me, and felt very relevant to my subject matter. This print has always stayed with me, and became my visual guide. The most haunting part of the print is the smoke of the train, evoking the final destination of the Holocaust deportees to the cremation chambers of the concentration camps.

Giovanni's body was also burned after his death. Thinking about that, his nickname, and Leopoldo's print, I started sketching. I decided to include a spiderweb as the first layer as a reference to his nickname (see the print above), but also an allusion to interconnectedness.

The next layer was his portrait, and a layer of smoke.

This was followed by a chain of buses, like the ones the Ayotzinapa 43 were riding when they first clashed with the police.

When I'd been sketching, I'd originally thought this print would be three layers, and that when I reached this point it would be finished. However, once the imagery was printed, it didn't seem complete to me yet. Sometimes a drawing translated into print needs more. I've been a printmaker in some form or another for over fifteen years, and I still learn, again and again, to listen to the process.

So went back to sketching, and asked a few friends for their thoughts. I felt that the smoke in the print made the image unbalanced, so I added another layer.

The bottom still felt empty, it needed just something a little more to send it home. With all that gray, I felt that it needed a moment of color. After some deliberation, I decided to add the number "43" using pochoir. Several of my students this semester have been experimenting with it, so I thought I'd give it a try.

The prints still need to be curated and signed, but I think the image is complete now. I hope it honors the memory of Giovanni Galindes Guerrero well.

It's been a busy spring, with finishing this print, my regular teaching, two residencies, and editioning an artist book. I'm fortunate to be a part of so many things, and trying to remember to pratice self-care during this insanity, rather than putting it off till after. However, moments like these, it's nice to step back and see the work complete.

Opening of Material Print Machine

Back in the rush to finish Future Tense, I did take an evening to pop over to the opening for Material Print Machine, the community run print studio at Omni Commons.

I'm just going to confess that I love print shops,(obviously), but there's something so sincere and powerful about a startup print shop, where the machines are all gathered from older shops and peoples' garages and Craigslist and other random places, and they all have some weird little caveats to make it all work, but dammit they don't let that stop them.

Above is their working 219 proof press, and that evening they were showing people how to run a piece of paper through it. They also had a little tabletop clamshell (pictured below) as well as standing C&P that needs some parts before it can get going - so if any readers can help out, please contact them.

They also had this offset machine that Grendl is helping them get going. Just seeing it made me miss Mandy and wish she could be there.

Here's to Material Print Machine!

Watermarks in Corn Husk

Work continues on my Corporate Corn series since my last post on the topic. Above, a mould with the McDonald's logo. Below, its result, along with the Monsanto logo.

A detail of the Monsanto watermark while still wet:

A General Mills watermark, freshly pulled:

Some results fresh out the drying box:

I'm planning on a series of ten in all, all of corporations that drive our corn-based food system. I'm hoping that when seen as a group, with the knowledge that the fiber itself is corn (husk), the overwhelming basis for GMO corn in processed food systems will be apparent.

Late Night Papermaking

As a promotion for my upcoming Watermark Workshop, I thought I'd post some of experiments for a new suite of watermarked handmade papers that I'm working on.

I'm tentatively calling the series Corn and Corporations, and the suite, of which this is the first, will be a series of logos of corporations that are part of our corn-based food systems. Though I guess technically, the USDA isn't a corporation, but it's part of the overall system.

Above is one of the laser-cut vinyl watermarks that John Sullivan of Logos Graphics made for me on a mould. Below are some tests.

The watermark, made of corn husk fiber, has been couched onto a sheet of denim. Together, these two fibers with this watermark embody the mythology and reality of our food systems and the American heartland.

I'm curious how the paper will look dried, if the denim will be too dark and the corn husk too light for clarity.

There is still time to register for my Watermark Workshop! And check out the photos from our past workshops - Papermaking with Plants and Pulp Painting.

Sneak Peak - New Work for Upcoming San Francisco Center for the Book Exhibition

Some sneak peak details from a new piece, Fugitive. It's going to be part of the next exhibition, Left to Chance: The Accidental Book Art, at the San Francisco Center for the Book. As it reads on the colophon page for Fugitive:

"The title of this portfolio derives from the term used for pigments and dyes that fade when exposed to light. More commonly, it refers to someone who is avoiding arrest. The corporate logos and symbols that appear are representative of entities and activities that benefit from a global corporate monoculture that has led to financial and environmental devastation. The actions and organizations depicted have no fear of repurcussions for their criminal behavior.

The handmade papers for this portfolio were selectively exposed to light, causing their natural pigmentation to fade to create the images. Fibers used are from Andean Pampas Grass (Cortaderia jubata), a species invasive to the United States. Invasive species such as Pampas Grass decimate native ecosystems, drive out diversity, and their presence is due directly to globalization. Through their use as a fiber base for this portfolio, a symmetry between material and content is created, with the awareness that financial and environmental justice often go in unison."

No piece is ever made in a isolation, and I could not have made this work without the advice I received on the Yahoo Papermakers' Group, particularly the help of Winnie Radolan and Catherine Nash. In addition, thanks to Hanna Regev, curator of Left to Chance as well as the Get Lucky exhibition at SOMArts, for including me.