I ended up finding a box at Xpedx the same exact size as the one I was building. It was totally worth the investment and gave me a couple extra hours to sleep before the big day. Everything miraculously worked out in bringing my animal heads. TSA wouldn’t give me a private screening like they promised over the phone, but US Airways was really kind and explained that since it’s oversized, it gets placed on the plane by hand since it doesn’t fit on the moving belts. Good to know.

The Open Portfolio wasn’t until the last day, Saturday, and out of the 5, hour and a half long sessions, I was given the very last one. The one that no one goes to because they are so drained they can’t even look at art without crying. And it’s not like I could even use a table. So by the 3rd round, I claimed a wall and stood for almost 3 hours, hungry and anxious. It was interesting to see what people thought my process was. I got a lot of people asking if these were the actual carving blocks and one person asked if I screen printed onto wood which kind of threw me off. They are woodcuts printed onto unbleached Mulberry rice paper, cut out, and pasted onto 3/4″ birch plywood that were jigsawed beforehand. I’m pretty pumped that Printeresting took a photo of them and posted it along with many others great work here. They also did an awesome coverage of the conference.

The closest thing to my work (prints pasted onto wood) was by this lovely, lovely lady Marilee Salvator. I was absolutely in love with her work. She was so kind to explain her process in detail, because her cut outs are by far more precise than mine. We use the same glue, same wood, but different saws. I am definitely investing in a scroll saw as soon as I can. And she gives me inspiration to continue pasting prints onto wood outside of just my animal heads. I think my favorite part in making them was cutting the wood out. There’s something so empowering to using power tools. I sound crazy now. Anyways, thanks Marilee for showing your beautiful work and talking to me. I can’t wait for her installation to finish so I can make some purchases!

Things to remember for next year’s Open Portfolio in St. Louis: bring velcro so the animal heads can stick to the wall (and not fall over or almost get stepped on), put out the extra prints you brought to sell and not be so shy about it, and register early so there’s a better possibility of getting an earlier time slot. This also means save money in advanced. Er, save money in general would be a good idea.

I’m beat. Having a day job, the flu, and a limited amount of time to work on an exchange print for the Southern Graphics Conference, “Patent Pending,” is wearing me down. And it doesn’t help when you forgot the studio space you depend on is closed for spring break. I spent the weekend running around turning my already small apartment into a studio. My bathroom is a dark room to expose silk screens, my kitchen sink is to wash those screens (probably a hazard to my health, but I don’t have time to care), my counter top is my cutting paper/apply emulsion to screen/inking up/and printing area. Wherever I could find to sit is where I carved. This was stressful. But all I have to say is woodcuts, I’ve missed thee. It’s been too long. Approximately 10 months since I’ve carved your buttery grain. No offense to letterpress, but I love woodcuts. And thanks to my new handy baren, I can actually print woodcuts without a real press. Oh, the possibilities!

This print compliments this self-portrait I did last April in school. Except this one is not a self-portrait. The blackbird wearing the bluebird mask depicts someone whom I deeply cared about, but recently found they’ve been keeping a side of who they are a secret. When the truth came out about this person, I felt like everything I knew was wrong and it scared me how easily I can be fooled. I had plans to screen print talk bubbles all around the figure and have one on the other side of the rice paper, so it’s as if they should’ve been telling me that, instead of “this.” But when I printed the bird, all alone in it’s corner, it made me think about this person and how they felt lonely and probably still does. I started to feel sympathetic towards this person, whom I’ve barely spoken to in nearly 2 months. I’ve decided to leave it alone rather than make a statement of they should’ve told me the truth in the beginning, as way of saying I’m slowly coming around. Slowly.

Anyways, ta da:

11×14 Unbleached Mulberry Rice Paper

I just got confirmation in my e-mail which means I can finally announce my Tea for Printmakers has been accepted in the AIGA 100 Show! Out of nearly 300 entries, the 2010 jury selected the years best 100 pieces of design, advertising and digital media in the state of Utah. The selected pieces will be featured at the 2010 AIGA 100 Design Gala and Benefit on May 14th at the Salt Lake City Library. There will be a silent auction during the Gala and I know of a few printmakers who are donating fantastic pieces to this event. If you are interested in donating art, let me know! Donating art is always a great way to get your name out there, especially towards a community who may not hear of you otherwise. Plus donating just makes you feel good. All pieces will be on display in the Special Collections of the Salt Lake City Public Library May 14 to June 17.

To find out more about the show and to purchase tickets, visit www.slc.aiga.org.

Printed on French Paper 70 lb. Speckletone Kraft

Here are some pictures from last Friday’s Liminal Show at Kayo Gallery curated by the ever so talented Camilla Taylor, whom by the way has been awarded the SGC Student Fellowship for 2010. Looks like I’ll be seeing her in Philadelphia! There were 37 featured artists, including myself. This was an exchange as well and I will post about them lovelies when I get them at the end of the show, which doesn’t end until April 13th so you have plenty of time to still go (the gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday 12pm-6pm)! Each print is incredibly only $20.

Thanks to my friends and family who came! Especially from Logan! What a trek. It was so good to see some familiar faces.

I wanted a quick and painless picture taken with my prints. I didn’t want to cause any attention, but then the mama wanted one as well. Hah. She gets to because she’s cute. I think she’s excited to see that I am using sign language in my artwork. My cultural background comes from her – the deaf culture and the Vietnamese culture. These two elements have made me different from most people I know and I’ve never explored that in my artwork until now. Well, the deaf culture, not the Vietnamese. But my mother being deaf has made me more who I am than being half Vietnamese. She made the world a more visual place for me and made me appreciate my two hands. I owe her a lot.

Guess what I’ve been doing today.

PS
I got quite lucky with this refrigerator box. It was the ONLY one left at the furniture store I went to. Hope my luck sticks around when I try to go through TSA with it Wednesday.

(Via Printeresting)

Now that is a cake. How clever! I can imagine delicious creations for most printmaking mediums. Too bad I lack bakery skills.

Last Friday I printed business cards to take to the Southern Graphics Conference. During this I could tell that I should have prepared a wet pack. Wet paper would’ve grabbed that black ink better and boy, do I want it black as night. When I get back from the conference, I will play around with it more and do it right as well as print cards for my redheaded business partner over in Atlanta.

I just cut down the cards and have corner rounded most of them. It’s pretty tedious to do every corner when there’s nearly 200 to do. I invested in a corner rounder cutter from a craft store, but I still long to get one much like in the video I posted on coasters. I think it would make it much more exciting to do all of them. I don’t know how many I should expect to be taken during my portfolio review at the conference. I probably made way too many. I guess we’ll see. There’s just a little over a week left until I take off and I should really be focusing on packing up my art work to take on flight. It’s going to be such a pain. The pain that makes you push things off. But my goal should really be to do it before the weekend. It’s Monday and I’m already freaking out that it won’t happen and I’ll be artless, sitting at an empty table. Probably naked too. What a bad dream.

Printed on Fluorescent White 110lb. Crane’s Lettra

OH MY. I didn’t think it would ever happen. That redhead and I did it. We designed the FMP logo!! Mad props to her for finding that beautiful typeface. I think this means we’re in business. And we need business cards next.

My feet are killing me. This past week I’ve been super busy printing for the Liminal Show which will open as a part of March Gallery Stroll on the 19th at Kayo Gallery. My friend Claire Taylor’s sister Camilla is curating. Both have talent coming out the wazoo! Seriously. I’m in awe of both of their work. I’m excited I got asked to do this; it’s my first time showing in SLC. I haven’t printed for a show in a very long time. Not since graduation really. Everything else has been assignments or experimenting. Nothing I would claim fine art (although I do have exciting news about my teabags, but I can’t say yet!).

I’m starting a series of 6×6 prints of the Origin of Sign Language words where a figure will sign a word and then I add the imagery of that word to show why it’s signed that way. I chose the word “hunter” for obvious reasons (if you know me, can you guess the next sign?). Future prints in this series will tell a story about my vegetarianism. Not sure if I want to share more details or not….I think I might just be a tease and let you all wait until I have more words printed up. I’m really excited for this series because I’ve been wanting to add sign language in my work but didn’t exactly know how without it meaning more than just sign language. This series is extremely personal. One of the four figures will be a self-portrait. I’m saying too much. Here’s a sneak peak of one out of 2 prints of the word “Hunter.” Yeah, I did 2 for the show. One reason being I didn’t want to split the two apart and the second reason being maybe it will make up for what I fear I am lacking.

Printed on Butcher Blue French Paper 80 lb. Cover.

This article makes me feel a whole lot less guilty about the poster I designed for my Undergrad Show at Utah State University last year (right). In my opinion I think I definitely turned it into my own by using the layout created by the ever so inspiring Aesthetic Appartus (left). I used Picasso drawings of bulls (my school’s mascot) instead of blind contoured horses. After reading the World Famous Design Junkies article on design plagerism, give me your 2 cents. Am I bad a person? Not once did I claim this piece to be fully original. And I don’t want to say that everyone should copy or that it’s ok. There’s a difference into what you make into your own and what you copy exact. Most pieces shown in the article are ridiculous. I repeat, RI-DIC-U-LOUS!

As many compliments I have received on that poster and how many design friends have told me, the best artists steal, I am more proud of this poster, above, which I did for the Graphic Design BFA show because the entire layout, concept, and idea is original.