feather2pixels

I nearly forgot, I am in a show at CELLspace this weekend!  Actually, most of the new screenprinters at 2featherpress are involved.    We are displaying much of their fine work that has been chronicled in these pages over the last few months for Spring Open Studios run by Mission Artists United.

Download the guide

Saturday, April 16 and Sunday April 17, 2011
11am — 6pm.

Join us for the Mission-Wide Spring Open Studios where more than 200 emerging and established artists using all mediums open their doors to the public for a weekend of art, inspiration and collecting.

Stroll this exciting arts district from studio to studio following the red dots painted on the sidewalk. Admission is free.

Art is the MISSION.

Participating Group Studios

• 1890 Bryant St Studios (38 artists) — 1890 Bryant St
• ActivSpace (17 artists) — 3150 18th Street
• The Art Explosion 17th Street (22 artists) — 2425 17th Street
• The Art Explosion Alabama (26 artists) — 744 Alabama Street
• The Art Explosion Harrison (1 artist) — 2345 Harrison Street
• Art, Wine and Dine Artists (4 artists) — 614 Alabama Street
• The Blue Studio (16 artists) — 2111 Mission St
• CELLspace (8 artists) — 2050 Bryant St
• Developing Environments (13 artists) — 540 Alabama St
• Live Art Studios (4 artists) — 151 Potrero Avenue
• Project Artaud (14 artists) — 499 Alabama Street
• Red Brick Studio (4 artists) — 2111 Mission St – 3rd Floor
• Studio Valencia (4 artists) — 455a Valencia Street
• The SUB (1 artist) — 199 Capp St
• Workspace Limited (17 artists) — 2150 Folsom St

Yo!  I have scheduled my next screenprinting workshop at CELLspace.

In the off chance that you are not one of the three friends and/or family who follows this blog, a Nigerian hacker, or my biggest fan Googlebot (thanks for the 731 hits in April, dude), please feel free to check it out.   There is more info here.

Screenprint Intensive (4 Nights)
Date: Thursdays / May 5, 12, 19, 26
Time:7:00-9:30 PM
Cost: $95 + $20 Materials Fee
Instructor: Jon Fischer
To Register: go to http://www.2featherpress.org/2_feather_workshops.html

Look, an article about the Local Mission Eatery design.  My esteemed colleagues, architects  Seth and Kelli do a good job of articulating their concept in this piece.

One of the silk screens burned with geology book data.

I made a run of test prints from my geology book stencils. I thought I would experiment with metallic and glow in the dark inks, with the former more or less working and the latter more or less leaving me with four days of neck pain from pushing down so hard on the squeegee. (There is no glow in the dark ink in the final test prints.)

Because these types test prints often turn out better than my final pieces, I like to mail them.  So I cut down the sheets into  a large edition of postcards and sent them out to the usual suspects last week.   This gesture of goodwill generated a bit of feedback, which expressed various degrees of incredulity.

“This anonymous person who just sent us some art in the mail started to address it to my old apartment, then x’d it out, and then sent it to our current apartment.”

“It had me a bit freaked out.”

“Own up.”

“Thanks, but put my name next time!”

Anyway, you can see the edition of 6 here on my postcard page, where my official goal is 100 postcards by 2013.

Step number two in developing the DaLDR set was exposing three screens worth of test stencils from my geology book imagery.

This printing day was a struggle from start to finish.

I produced film positives from my images, which went well enough:

Film Positives

Exposing the screens went fine.

Unfortunately with a manufacturer recommended shelf life of three weeks, my emulsion was long passed expired.   Screens coated with expired emulsion will usually expose, but the most magical step in screenprinting, washout of the stencil,  is near impossible.  This typically presents the printer with two options:

• Be smart and start over.
• Use force.

Of course a Born in the USA runaway train such as myself only has one speed: full steam ahead.  And I was pissed.  Not in the mood to relive my Tuesday morning, it was time to bust out the big guns.  That’s right, the hour had approached to unleash 1600 Watts  of heavy-duty aluminum axial cam pounding 1400 psi of unforgiving H2O through any weak-ass bullshit expired emulsion in its way.  And at 651 square inches of total area, these pissant screens were about to meet (651 in² x 1400 psi) 911,400 total pounds of punishment.  Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the Husky 1600 Power Washer.  I like to keep it handy for close encounters.

Note the difference in the washout before and after power washing.  Now I had myself some stencils.

Next post: Taking it out on the card stock.

Some recent signs:

This one is for Cat

From the Castro

Lost Weekend Video elevating their case against Netflix to the idealogical.