SGC Conference Wrap Up

There are just a few more things I want to show you from the conference.

At PAFA there was a woodcut animation by Tromarama that blew me away.  On the walls were 402 woodcuts that were used in a video for Serigala Militia.  In the center of the room, they showed the video.  You can see it here.

After PAFA, I walked over to Moore College of Art to see the Philagraphica exhibition they had there.

The first piece you see when you enter was a relief tire print installation by Betsabee Romero.

In Mexico, tires are driven until they are entirely bald.  Romero comments on this by carving the tires in relief, and prints them on to scrolls.

After visiting Moore, I ran to Reading market for a quick lunch, then back to the Loews Hotel for the portfolio viewings.  I only took photos of these awesome woodcut "trophies" mounted on to wood.  I forgot the woman's name who made them, I have to dig her card out of my pile of stuff from the conference.  I really, really want to get one for over the fireplace. A little tongue in cheek, no?  Which one??? I'm thinking the moose....

Going to the SGC conference was very inspiring.  I learned a lot, saw some great art work, and met some new people. Next year will be in St. Louis. Want to go?

The Crane Building Exhibition during SGC/Philagraphica

The Crane Building in Philadelphia is an old factory turned gallery and studio space.  On the first floor they had several exhibition spaces filled with printmaking. Here are some highlights

I was immediately drawn to these pieces by Piper Shepard

Detail

Detail

Detail

This was a large installation of woodcut printed on fabric over an armature by Brandon Gardner

Detail

Detail

This was interesting piece on the floor that transitioned from white to black from one end to the other

Want to Spoon?

After working on my large print for White Space that I had hand printed, I was excited to see the demonstration, Spooning Large Format Prints by Dan Miller, a printmaking faculty member at PAFA.  As I got of the elevator, I saw these incredible woodcuts by Dan in the lobby.

Detail, they were hard to photograph under glass!

Another detail.  The carved lines are incredible.

Then I went in to the demo to see more of his work

Placing paper over the inked block into the wooden registration guide.  Dan simply hand printed with a bamboo rice spoon from Chinatown, a few blocks away.

A woodblock is in the foreground, and the registration guide is in the middle of the table.

His tools

The first color printed

Woodblock for the second color

The finished print

Detail of woodblock- I like to write the titles on the side of my blocks too so I can find what I need amongst the stacks of blocks on the shelf

Woodblock

The print

Seeing these large prints that were printed by hand was very inspiring.  Dan said he likes to print by hand to get subtle nuances that you don't get with the press. I was going to print my big piece on a press, but will now spoon it by hand.