OBEY in Cincinnati and Print Collection Vol. 6

For months I have been wanting to see the current Shepard Fairey exhibit that has been making its was cross country, and this weekend I will get the chance. I thought about going to check it out at the Warhol,(since this past year would have been my 3rd bi-annual pilgrimage) but time and money didn't allow it. My family and I will be spending a day in the Newport/Cinci area to check out among other things, the Supply and Demand show at the Contemporary Art Center. It closes August 22nd I think, and I was afraid that with all of the things going on in my life right now financially, and personally, that I wouldn't get the chance to see it when it was going to be at its closest. So I am sure there will be more to report when I get back on Monday.

Did you see the image above? It is quite a coincidence that I am going to Cinci this weekend to see this show because according to the Obey website, Saturday the 7th is the release of a new print on the occasion of the closing of the show. It is printed on canvas too, much like the current string of Obey print releases. Hopefully it won't sell out in 24 hours and I can add another Obey print to my print collection, and have a nice souvenir of my trip to Cincinnati and seeing the show.

The last time I was in Cincinnati, I was working, and ended up going to a great record store called Shake-It records. They were selling concert posters by a company called Powerhouse Factories (WWW.PHFDESIGN.com). It was a tough call because a lot of the posters were very well designed and printed, but I didn't like the bands, while others were bands I liked, but the design work was not as impressive as some of the other posters. I think I found a happy medium and got a Matt and Kim poster. It has a pretty basic-yet solid design and great colors. The layers are not too complex, and the colors are pretty much laid down one on top of the other without having to wonder how they will overlap, and what the sense of space will feel like. One of my favorite parts of this piece is that it fit perfectly into a frame without it being custom made. This so rarely happens.

Print Collection 3,4 & 5

Kelsey Iwanski
Pin-up 1, 2, & 3
Screenprint

Last year around this time was the Southern Graphics Council conference in Chicago. It was here that I acquired the three prints you see above. This was from the Columbia College campus I think. I don't remember what the name of the building is, but it is the same building that houses the Shop Columbia store. Inside the doors to one of the rooms on the first floor was a spinner rack. You would often see these racks inside of stores where you could display postcards, or it could be used as a way to display pamphlets. This was the latter. Inside this display rack were show flyers, and other information, but along side that were two pockets with a different pin-up print in each.

It was like finding a small printed sexy treasure. The prints have a D.I.Y. feel to them, and make me think more about the zine and concert poster culture than the gallery culture in art.

The third print we found was later in the same building. Up a few floors and after seeing some demos or visiting some gallery's-whichever may have been happening in this particular building at the time-we stumbled upon a table near the stairs with lots of other college information, and concert flyers scattered across it. In with the other printed ephemera was the third in the series of Pin-up prints. I am curious to know whether there were more in this series scattered around. I also can't help but wonder if there was some sort of artist statement attached somewhere along the lines or if this. Was this a part of a larger exhibition? Did it have anything to do with a Shepard Fairey-esque study of phenomenology?

As I mentioned before, the images seem to lend themselves more to a low-tech or counter-cultural printmaking aesthetic, and as such are probably nothing more than a way of spreading the joy of printmaking, and the joy of images with others.

Print Collection 2

This print from Hatch Show Print has an interesting story for my personal history despite the fact that it was not acquired by me personally, but instead was a gift from my mom when she went on a business trip to Nashville about two years ago. When I found out that she was going I told her about Hatch and where it was and what kind of stuff it was that they did, because I thought it would be great if she could bring back a souvenir that was Hatch Show Print related. At this point I was well on my way to graduation, and had been involved with various forms of printmaking for a few years, but had yet to return to Hatch Show print with my new knowledge and respect for letterpress printmaking. I also asked her (mostly joking) to see if they were hiring.

The result of this trip was the print you see above, some post cards (posted in another Hatch related blog post somewhere around here), and the information that Hatch Show Print was not hiring, but had intern positions. I don't know if I have ever been so excited in my life! That was all I could think about, all the time! I mean I guess that, and my BFA show. I visited Hatch that summer, I sent off my resume and cover letter, and now almost 2 years later I am prepping myself for the move to Nashville and an internship at Hatch Show Print.

One of my favorite things about Letterpress prints, is that when you turn them over, they are dirty and imprinted. This print is no different. The yellow and red ink seems to have bled through to the back side of the poster because of the pressure involved in the printing process. I don't know if that actually IS why this happened, but it reminds me of printing reliefs with oriental papers and the image almost shows up on the back of the paper from rubbing. I guess I will find out in a couple of months.

The red ink used for the word "Hatch" seems to have a marbled effect that resembles what the ink probably looked like laying on the roller. Red with blackish drips smudged in it. Those mystery globs of dark paint or ink that you can't always seem to get rid of no matter how clean you are, but don't always ruin the work.

The yellow in used as the background for the window has a similar feel to it. In addition to the smudges here and there, the yellow background contains imprints of a skull pattern that I assume is not an intentional part of the original image. The skull design makes me think of a chapter in the Hatch Show book that talks about how old wood blocks were reused not only on other images, but sometimes the old blocks were dismantled to make shelving in the shop. This yellow block of windows could have at some point been a block from a Halloween print, or rock n' roll concert poster.

The yellow bleeds through the black ink layer in some spots from inconsistent inking and seem to reveal a wood grain pattern. All of these unique traits, in my mind at least, make me think about the different layers, the process, and the history of the process, associated with letterpress more than I would with your average computer designed and printed poster. That's the way I like it.

Print Collection 1

My Morning Jacket Plays the Tennessee Fire
Triangle Poster CO.
Pittsburgh, PA
Screenprint and/or Letterpress

When I was younger my friends and I would load up the car and head down to Bardstown Rd. where we would wander around and check out the stores, hang out and have a good time. During these days there were no social networking sites so if you expected someone to come see your show, you had to make real life flyers, and stick them to real life telephone poles. If I would see a really well designed flyer while walking around, I would sometimes take them from the poles.

This is where I got this print. I dare say it is the first print in my collection, even though I took less than great care with it. It has pin holes in it, and drawing on the back, but when this poster was printed I highly doubt it was created to be "high art" and the whole gig poster/printmaking fad hadn't yet arrived.

The band is one I had never heard of when I acquired the print, but recently had appeared on TV's American Dad, and I believe they also had a live concert on television for New Year's Eve 2008/2009. The popularity of the band as well as the trendiness of printmaking and gig posters makes me wonder how long a poster like this would have survived stuck to a pole these days. This same poster I took from the streets is actually for sale(or was at one time) at Ear X-tacy.

When I found this print I had no knowledge about printmaking. I didn't know who Andy Warhol was, I had never been to Hatch Show Print, and I had probably never even had any experience in my high school art classes, but this was a cool poster. The paper was thick, the colors were bright, but it had a certain hand made quality that normal posters did not. I could see the impressions in the lettering, I could see slight imperfections, and the ink seemed to sit on top of the paper more than normal posters.

Based on my printmaking knowledge I would say this poster is a combination of screenprinting and letterpress. The image at the bottom seems to be a generic screenprinted design that is available for everyone and the text at the top seems to be a letterpressed custom design. If you visit the Triangle poster company website they have pictures of pre-printed images that you ca use for your event, and this is one of them. This particular elephant image is "style #531" according to the bottom of the poster.