Oh hey there

Boy, have we got some explaining to do. Though traditionally holiday cards, well wishes, and updates are sent before the New Year we’ve decided to take the time on Martin Luther King Jr. Day as there was never spare time beforehand. See, we’ve had a pretty crazy year.

Tracy graduated from the University of Utah with a degree in Psychology and got promoted in the microbiology lab he’s worked at for 7 years. If Tracy had a therapist, she would call this irony. He then celebrated the new chapter in his life by surviving appendicitis all summer long until a few or so thousand dollars later and a real hosipital doctor narrowed down his stomach pains. Meanwhile Nic found herself in a lot of work putting both her printmaking and graphic design degrees to good use. She too had a big promotion – from in-house designer to Marketing & Art Director for a few vegan establishments in Salt Lake City, she learned how to ship her life size animal head woodcuts near and far and to not let anyone haggle with her art because they may be Josh Groban.

Sheila turned 3 and learned to swim after a handful of trips to Lake Powell. Tracy decided to surprise everyone by adopting a similar mutt from the same Humane Society as Sheila and named him Mate. But he also goes by Ralph Mater, Mate Dawg, Tomater, Darth Mater, and Jelly Donut Doggy. Mate opened our eyes to live together and soon came searching for rentals but somehow we ended up as homeowners in Sugar House for our 2 year anniversary. While remodeling a few things here and there in our 1914 home, Nic prepared for her first ever real-life solo show in a real-life gallery and Tracy grew his first manly beard. We’re becoming adults. Gasp!

Onward.

Our New Year’s Resolution is to keep working on the house and go hiking as much as possible, snow or shine. Tracy wants to grow facial hair more often and learn to build stuff like a real man. Nic wants to organize her computer files and build her inventory, for the love of all that is Holy. Sheila wants to learn how to be quiet on command and Mate wants to learn that not every dog at the park would like to be humped. And most importantly we want our friends and family to be apart of our lives as much as our adult lifes allow. Here’s to 2012!

Christmas has come early for this girl. I was gifted a Wood Engraving workshop at SaltGrass Printmakers with Koichi Yamamoto, a printing genius who currently teaches at the University of Tennessee. I first heard of him in 2005 when I was at Utah State and he was the head of the Printmaking Department there. I hadn’t yet dipped my pretty little hands into the inky world of printmaking and when I finally decided to do so, he was gone. I never even spoke with him and only got to know him through his work left on the walls and I always wondered how my art and skills would be if I got to learn from him. So, the guy surprised me early by saying he bought me the two day workshop, which took place last week. I was thrilled and couldn’t wait! I went in for the experience and came out with wide eyes.

The maple woodblocks we carved are type high. They are meant to be printed on proofing presses or on a letterpress. Gasp! I have always wanted to letterpress with woodblocks but I carve on  .25″ plywood and knew I had to work with some backings to make it type high (.918″) but I also worried about how easy wood can warp. But this maple wood was smooth and beautiful. And the wood engraving tool is another story. I currently have 14 wood carving tools of different shapes and sizes. The single engraver I was given can create different widths of cuts solely by just how deep you carve. Although I was most definitely not use to carving on such small blocks such as 2″x3″, I learned a whole new world of carving wood that I would like to explore more with my press. Koichi even suggested, after seeing my show Horny, that I use my scroll saw on the woodblocks to eliminate the negative space if I wanted to carve shapes and objects. Great idea!

If that wasn’t fascinating enough, I was encouraged to look into grad schools. Koichi spoke with me about my show and said I am in the right direction and to keep moving. When I told him it might be awhile before I apply for grad school he even encouraged that and admired the time exploring different printmaking mediums, styles, and messages. He also got me thinking more about applying for artist residencies and told me to keep in touch with what I do. In two days I was connected, inspired and educated in a whole new way.

So real quick, I bought a house with the guy. In a nutshell the rental we were at wasn’t a good fit for us and the pups. When the opportunity arose, we took it and took it fast. While at the rental which was then an upgrade in square footage but still small for two people, I used my Pinterest boards and sketched a bed frame for my flat file drawers to fit under. Soon it became the perfect area for where the dogs sleep too. I think they think it’s their own personal dog house and we just like to hang out on the roof. My friend Di helped me sew new shams because adults have shams on their bed. But then we moved into our very own home, built in 1915 and built without closets. So again, I went to Pinterest to get inspired and sketched out custom closets to go on each side of the bed. I really wished I snapped a before picture to see the drastic change in the color (light green, ew) and space. But when you live at your boyfriend’s parents house 25 minutes from the city while spending any spare time available working on your first solo show, and you’re tired of your life in boxes, you get the keys, you get the paint and get working until the bed is built and you can sleep in your very own place.

It’s pretty exciting to be able to make improvements and changes to my own home without any permission. And I love that I can make sketches to build things and the guy and our dads can build them easily. And not to toot my own horn, but Grandma Ruthie’s Buffalo looks pretty awesome above the bed. I can’t tell you what interior style I am going for, but I love clever confined spaces – probably from living in a 300 square foot apartment for 2 years – patterns, and splashes of accent colors. I guess as we remodel each room I’ll explore what my style truly is and I’ll be sure to keep sharing.

It’s been a week since the opening of my first solo show in a gallery setting. The energy spent on creating it during the same time as living with the guy’s parents in West Jordan (25 minute drive from the studio I work in) until moving into our first real adult home (post to follow!) a week prior, burnt me nearly to a crisp. The goal was to cut 204 birds but only made it to 114 before time ran out. I am surprisingly happy with the results though. The challenge I had for myself, beside the large 6 point Rocky Mountain elk, was to take the largest wall in the gallery and fill it solely of birds. I still had a handful left to spread throughout the room as well as with humor add to Stolen & Escaped Gallery‘s hand painted logo. I giggle each time I look at my new screenprint, “Horny Utah Dudes,” (right) where a Big Horn Sheep is standing on a Deer standing on a Moose standing on an elk standing on a Buffalo. I kind of had an epiphany while sketching of how similar my marks can be as when I carve wood. You see, I don’t think I can draw very well. Carving wood seems easier for me to achieve realistic imagery. But that might change as I really enjoyed how it turned out and want to explore it more. I almost didn’t show Birds, Bees & Hunger (left) as I was super unhappy with how the yellow ink from the canary birds sat against the tan paper. It was really harsh on the eyes and the paper felt empty. I usually really love negative space, but there was nothing to love about the print until I experimented with bleach. I used straight bleach, a paint brush, a fan and an open window to discolor the paper and make more interesting results. Then the elks. I didn’t think they were possible when I measured them then I jumped over joy when I thought more about cutting the block in half such as Mary’s Grizzly Bear. I didn’t want the same obvious line through the body, but finally I got smart and realized the divide could be at the antlers. If you look super close, you can see they are separate on pieces of paper from the body.

The title Horny, might just seem like a really fun pun – especially when you make cracks about wood and such. But really there is more to it and I haven’t gotten a chance to talk about it until now. I created the idea about 6 months ago. The idea was that no one would get it and that’s how I want it to be. No one would get that the two beautiful elk who are looking at each other are men. They are looking at each other like they are meant to be together and yes, I am implying that they are gay. But the funny thing is, no one thought about it like that during the opening. At least not openly. They just saw the beauty in the creatures and admired them for what they are. Elk. Male. Strong. Large. Bold. Beautiful. And that’s how I want the world to work. Everyone is beautiful and everyone is admired and never is orientation in the picture. The red chested Robin Birds are swarming to the elk in support and protection. They are the eyes on the ground.

So this is my way to have fun with support of Gay Rights without being Gay Rightsy. Because all in all, I just want it to be Right.

Horny is on display until January 13th and is located in the basement of Frosty Darling (177 East Broadway) Tuesday-Saturday 12pm to 6pm. Purchases can be arranged with gallery owner Amanda Hurtado at stolenandescaped@gmail.com.

I wouldn’t have guessed that being asked to make a bathroom sign would excite me. Using my scroll saw for other work beside my animal mounts has been an idea I’ve been playing with for awhile so it was a great opportunity to be handed such a project to see what I could do. I was given limited time to create the bathroom, recycling, and trash signs which after some brainstorming I choose to go with washroom, recycle, and waste for those words better fit the setting for this vegan and 100% gluten-free quick cuisine eatery. The space is also shared with Prana Yoga Trolley Square so, “washroom,” seemed best with that business as well. The only direction I was given was to be minimal with a sans serif typeface. It’s hard to tell in the photos, but the signs extend .75″ out and only the top layer is stained so the sides are natural with the layers of wood exposed. It matches really well with the seating – especially the booths that have the same layer exposure.

Ian Brandt’s newest concept Cafe Supernatural is opening any day now and the interior is stunning. Here’s a little preview to get ya’ll excited:

This menu for Vertical Diner has been a project that has taken way too long and I’m so excited it’s off my project list! This is the first time the owner, Ian Brandt, had a menu professionally designed as well as my first time professionally designing a menu. Plus changes in recipes and local food sources affected the overall menu and half explains the lengthy process. Obviously there’s an upgrade of black ink vs. color and the way it’s printed won’t smear on the new menu covers. But other than that, organization and overall design kicks the old menu’s ass.

I wanted to do an obvious diner design without having to go back in time as the atmosphere is not of any kind of time warp. A modern and timeless design fits well with this vegan restaurant which is in itself is a modern food service. This also created a challenge on handling text without coming off as a vegan or vegetarian restaurant. The original menu never clarifies that chicken is not really “chicken” and sausage is not really “sausage,” and etc. This obviously created confusion to some. But Brandt’s goal is to not advertise his establishments as vegan because a) Sadly, most people have a negative response to the word vegan mostly because they assume they are being judged for eating meat by said vegan and b) The cuisine prepared should be liked by everyone regardless if they are omnivores or herbivores and c) This is a sustainable restaurant supporting as much local and organically grown ingredients as possible and believes in the full circle of local supporting local. I also believe, as a practicing vegetarian, that even the plant eaters can take offense to a menu that appears to showcase any animal related words. And that some vegans can feel ultra defensive to how their small world is treated and can rebel against other vegan supporting businesses under small circumstances. So, we had to find a happy balance and I feel we achieved it by italicizing cheese, sour cream, ice cream, and so on as quotation marks surrounding the meat words caused too much attention. I look forward to see how the community reacts to the menu and if it does anything to their sales now with the better understanding of the industry that this menu translates.

I was also able to condense the drink menu which is permanently placed at each table so that the last page is blank to have interchangeable ad space for Brandt’s other establishments and to announce any events, specials, etc. such as the opening of his newest concept, Cafe Supernatural, another 100% plant-based foods restaurant that specializes in 100% gluten-free dishes, small plates, and quick cuisine. The new establishment will be located at Trolley Square and opening date is TBD, but should be next month. In the end, I didn’t have time to design the logo for it but I will be able to help with design here and there (currently working on the web design).

Vertical Diner’s menu has been a really encouraging project that I hope will help re-designing the menu for Sage’s Cafe with ease. Then their websites, then their signs, then labels and the list goes on and on.

Take a good look ya’ll. Because the rust ain’t comin’ back after these next few days. I’m finally, after emptying that mystery box and doing a lot of online research, restoring this press and the goods it came with. The most common solution I found for removing rust was Evapo-rust, which is awesome because it’s environmentally friendly and extremely strong. A couple nights ago I did the first bath using metal furniture. I was hoping there was a small amount of rust that a half hour would do but it ended up being an overnighter. And to my surprise, I need much much more Evapo-rust to get the rest of the furniture and my press pieces cleaned.  I’ll be sure to post how much I used in the end.

Also found in the mystery box were:

A lot more metal furniture and some wood (I purchased a good amount of wood furniture from Lyon Printing’s Estate sale not too long ago)
Another chase
Various sizes of leading and slugs
3 galley trays
3 composing sticks
2 quoin keys
2 sets of wedge quoins
1 challenge high-speed quoin
Type planing block
Pica ruler
Old ink
Gauge Pins

This is in addition to what I’ve previously discovered:
Lead cutter
Roller (still in awesome condition as far as I can tell)
1 truck
Number machine
Chase
Tympan paper
and various paper work from the 1980′s!

The only disappointing thing was not finding the second truck. I was really hoping to put the rollers on, especially after I’m done cleaning up the rust. I assume by the time the truck comes in the mail, the press will be rust-free and waiting! I’m pretty excited about all I have. It’s really all I need to start printing besides new ink and wash, which I’ve already ordered, and some good thorough cleaning. Oh and a furniture cabinet would be nice. I’m on the hunt for one.

Last night was a fun last minute event for me. A week before during Gallery Stroll, I met a boy named Isaac outside of Copper Palate Press where he was smoking. We were chatting it up and I learned his booth was near mine at Craft Lake City. When he asked what kind of work I did, he soon transferred his cigarette to his left hand and stuck his right hand out to shake mine. I couldn’t help but say, “Oh my,” at the gesture of needing to shake my hand but it was with great esteem. I learned his studio was at Poor Yorick and lightly discussed about the open studio they were having. The day before the opening, Isaac asked if I would like wall space. Not entirely knowing what that meant I said yes and quickly brought pieces I had ready and it turned out to be a great display.

As I arrived I had people holding a couple of my pieces ready to buy. One lady had my framed piece of “You Lied to Me,” and she said that today was a very special day for her – 5 year anniversary of her mother’s passing – and that her mother named her Robin, after the bird, and the back of the frame had “V-W” standing for vintage white, but Robin said it were the initials of her and her partner’s last name. She said it seems meant to be to have the piece. After asking to sign the back of the frame, I wrote, “Today is meant to be,” and she showed me a lot of gratitude and kind words. The event was a huge turnout and it was fun to ease drop on people talking about my work.

Poor Yorick open Studio only happens every six months. You can still swing by and check it all out today from 1-5pm!

Sigh. Jessica Hische (hiss-shh).

What an amazing lady. No, that’s not right. Girl. No, that’s not right either. Doll face. That sounds about right.

If you haven’t heard of Jessica Hische you are probably not a graphic designer. If you are a graphic designer and haven’t heard of her, then you must not use letters. Jessica is a very young and famous letterer. Graduating from the Tyler School of Art only 5 years ago, making a name for herself is an understatement.  Jessica works as a freelance letterer and illustrator with big name clients such as Tiffany & Co., Target, The New York Times, and American Express, just to name a few. But she doesn’t stop there. She’s a secret web designer creating several educational micro-sites such as Should I Work for Free? and Mom This is How Twitter Works. She pimps her mom’s services at Studio Momager and pimps a variety of printing services at Inker Linker. Cannot wait to sign up for that once I get the rollers rollin’! Her biggest online project is her claim to fame (besides being super talented and awesome), the Daily Drop Cap is a year-long, give or take, of illustrated drop caps – a letter a day/2 hours a day.

It truly felt like an honor to hear her speak on Thursday. As most lectures do, we learned about how Jessica came to be. But not as most lectures, we got a bit of a comedy show and a lot of motivational speaking. Jessica made her presentation as if we can do this too. Advising us that we can still have a specialty, it’s never too late, and do what you love. She definitely tooted the horns of all the ladies in the room saying there needs to be more female presence in the lettering world.

I’ve been following Jessica since 2009, as most people have, and I really am just in awe of her drive and talent. Only a few years older than me, I’m inspired by all that she does.

Andy and I finished up our first collaboration last night at Leia Bell‘s [old] studio. It’s always nice to print with a friend, especially one that you find yourself constantly laughing with. And it’s good to learn how other people print and learn from it. We hope it’s not the last, even as much as we are glad this one is over with.

The studio is amazing – a lot of elements are handmade and I admire Leia for it. The drying rack is especially clever.