I Need Help Fixing a Vandercook.

Yesterday I went on a little bike ride to the University of Louisville with a side bag full of my work at Hatch Show Print to show my professor. We were all talking about the work, and letterpress printing and then he took me into a small storage room off the side of the Graphic Design rooms and under ceiling tiles and light bulbs was a Vandercook!

Another professor came down and looked at my work and the two of them began making plans to bring out the press, or at least uncover it, get it working, and make that little storage room a room for letterpress. They want my help in revitalizing the press, but I don't know where to even begin to look for resources. I checked out Briar Press a little bit, but couldn't find too much about DIY repairs of presses.

SO I thought that since 5 people at least are reading this, maybe one of you might know of locations on the web or otherwise, that would offer info about printing press repair. I did find a PDF of the manual that comes with a Universal I and a Universal III, but I think I might be working with a Universal II. It is just really hard to tell with it being buried under all that other stuff.

Win a Very Short Version of a Hatch Show Print Internship!

As a part of the Fossil collaboration with Hatch Show Print and other artists, Fossil is giving away a chance to go to Nashville and make your very own Hatch Show Print. I find it interesting that a place like Hatch is taking part in a contest, but I also love the fact that a chance to work in a print shop and make art is a prize. So I approve.

In some ways it is like you are winning a very short version of the Hatch Show internship. Instead of sending a coverletter, resume, going through the interview process, finding a place to live for a few months, and using all your savings to work for free, you just go to the website, and fill out the contest form. I'm not dissing it by far, I would do it again in a heartbeat. I was wondering actually if I am eligible to win since I am a former intern. I was only there for 2 months, and had not yet begun to explore the potential of Hatch Show Print's extensive archive. I say sign up for this contest, and if that doesn't work, try to get an internship. You will not regret it.

One Page Artist Book.

Our friends at Firecracker Press (or at least our facebook friends, since I've actually never met them.) have just uploaded pics of their new posters for the Billiken Club. I don't know what that is or anything, but the new posters look pretty rockin, and turn into one page artists books! How cool is that? In Chicago during the Southern Graphics Council Conference a few years back they had a demonstration on how to make what they called "One page artist books". These books were made from one sheet of paper without requiring staples or glue, but made more pages than you would get with traditional folding, and didn't do that whole blank sided double folded pages thing you would get with traditional folds.

So when I went to see the demonstration, the room was packed and we were in the back. I couldn't see a damn thing!! So I didn't get to see the demonstration in full effect, but I bought one in the Shop Columbia gift shop. Anyway, here is a cool link that shows how you fold a piece of paper to get a book, and also shows off one of Firecracker press's new posters. Click the link if you canDIG IT!

AT&T Commercial and Signature Styles.

This is a pretty interesting commercial. I wonder how many college age art students were chilling at home watching TV when this commercial came on and made them recall one of the most talked about artist duos in art history.
Jean Claude and Christo, the artists who are known for wrapping things that are not normally wrapped, and The Gates(google it if you don't remember) in NYC a few years ago, seem to have collaborated with AT&T to create this commercial. But wait! At the end of it, they say that Jean Claude and Christo have no direct or indirect part in this commercial. Isn't it weird that they even have to make that disclaimer? I think that is the thing that is the most curious to me.

Should there be a disclaimer for something like this? I wonder if AT&T thought that they would use the same colors and techniques as Jean Claude and Christo's The Gates from a few years back to somehow connect to the collective pop cultural unconscious, by making us nostalgic for that one year where people who knew nothing about art, just talked about how stupid that whole thing in the park was. This memory of jokes from late night talk shows would some how influence us, making them able to sell a crapload of cellphones or something.

Did they have to put the disclaimer because Jean Claude and Christo's people tried to sue them, or was it a preemptive strike against suing? I like to think that AT&T made this commercial similar to The Gates (for some reason), and Jean Claude and Christo said:

"Hey, we don't sell out to people, and you are ruining our good names! Put a disclaimer on this commercial so art students don't think were corporate sell outs, and maybe we won't sue you!"

In reality, it could have more than likely been the opposite. Maybe AT&T did the commercial for some reason, and Jean Claude and Christo said "Hey, you didn't pay us for that! We're suing!"

I guess it doesn't really matter how it happened, but it is fun to think about. I like copyright laws, but I have mixed emotions. I enjoy the option of appropriation, and use it often in my work. Look at people like Shepard Fairey getting sued over his HOPE image, and people like Jeff Koons who I have heard gets sued all the time. Their work is hugely appropriation driven, but it is in a way which changes the original images, and removes the context, makes them barely noticeable.

Could this be a valid argument for the AT&T commercial? I mean Jean Claude and Christo never wrapped the Hollywood sign, or the St. Louis arch as far as I know. They just used the same artistic process. Yet the disclaimer remains. But do we put disclaimers on every advertisement that uses screenprinting, simply because artists like Lichtenstein, and Warhol used the same process? Or is the process of wrapping things in fabric, such a unique and clearly identifiable process, that it makes it unavoidable to use it without clearly referencing Jean Claude and Christo's copyrighted artistic works?

I was trying to think of other techniques by contemporary artists that used methods singular to that artist, but until we start seeing advertising using the same methods as the "Piss Christ", that dude who made a mold of his head out of frozen blood, the person who made paintings out of elephant dung, and a guy who, if I recall, nailed himself to a Volkswagen as a performance piece, we will just have to let our imaginations run wild with AT&T and Jean Claude and Christo.

Fossil's LONG LIVE VINTAGE campaign @ Hatch Show Print

I can't believe I didn't show you guys this sooner. During the internship we did some work for Fossil(the clothing and watch people). Since we were new, we kind of showed up at the end of everything, but if you look closely, you can see the other interns and myself, running super-speed in the pan of the shop. It was a very cool experience.

Right now at Fossil's website you can find out more about the Long Live Vintage/Long Live Art Campaign. You can also buy a Hatch Show Print poster, and some T-shirts and things like that also.

I < 3 Printmaking.

This video is selling Levis but that's ok. If you don't think about the advertising, and just think about the sound of printing presses, the smell of ink, the swipe of a squeegee across a screen, or the feeling of a blade cutting through a block of wood, then it makes you feel kind of warm and fuzzy. Or at least it does for me.

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.