Up Against the Wall opens at the Rubin Center in El Paso

I see that there is a new exhibition in El Paso at the Rubin Center focusing on poster artists called Up Against the Wall. I have to commend the Rubin Center for always curating fantastic engaging exhibitions, each different, and contemporary. In a context of poster work, one would expect from most institutions the easy sell of having some Sheppard Fairey posters on the wall, with a few others, yet the Rubin Center succeeds in tying the democratic form of poster art to the borderland area that they serve. It's a great thing to see a museum so well tied to contemporary are while staying true to the southwestern culture which is so unique in the U.S.

The penny broadsides of Mexican graphic designer Jose Guadalupe Posada addressed the political and social issues of his day using imagery that was accessible literate and illiterate alike. His work was widely believed to have increased public support for the ideals that would spark the Mexican Revolution. Building on that history, this exhibition brings an international and contemporary framework to the use of design as social protest. This bold and colorful display of 100 posters from a group of 13 high-profile graphic designers highlights the power of design to engage people in creative thinking about world problems. If you can get down to there, this would be a show worth checking out.

Let's make a 10 year old photographer famous!

And let's over-publicize his photo! And put his photograph in all the major newspapers! Overlook lots of other thoughtful and challenging art and focus on the image created by a kid who is merely reflecting on a local event in a creative way!

I guess I just wanted to show this image, since some venues choose not too, ie., the major papers like the Wall Street Journal. I saw this on Art Fag City, a great art blog, and they made the right point. It's about time for someone to name a new art genius, and why not a 10 year old? Let's leave it at this. Maybe look up the kid in about 10 years and see what's come of him.

Rad Woodcut Animation

This video was featured at the Philigrafika Print fest recently taking place in Philadelphia. I was impressed with the back and forth between additive and reductive footage, done simply by reversing the footage as they carved down these black painted pieces of wood. They displayed about 400 of the blocks, but likely it took many more than that. Talk about a tough project to do and with outstanding results.

re: Control P(rint)

In 2007 London's Royal College of Art did a research project involving digital printing today, and how much of society considers printing as an accessible ubiquitous format for media multiples. Not only has it been streamlined for the home, but also for industry.

A widespread perception of digital printing seems to be one of high street convenience, where the emphasis is regularly placed upon affordability and functionality over and above an appreciation of production values or visual aesthetics. This attitude is of course understandable, given that the success of the digital print industry so far has been based upon its ability to provide practical print solutions for its domestic market in tandem with a commercially acceptable proofing systems for the professional sector. To continue to associate digital printing with only these qualities however is to miss out on the opportunities it is able to offer and more importantly under play its influence on the future of printed matter.

Following their treatise, it seems to me proper that in the digital age, printing is something to very much consider, especially for the average person, but for me as a printmaker as well. What I find interesting is related to something I heard a printmaker say the other day. She was proudly talking about some blind embossments she had done, but when queried about a different work, there was a total change in tone when she described her work as..."oh, that's a digital print." The tone of voice that separated and lowered the level of the digital versus the handmade was palpable, and something I'm not sure about. And this is what Control Print delves into, our obsession with the tactile, the hand made, and all things object.

In a digital age, information is infinite. I would say that the number one way of experiencing visual art of all types today is on a computer screen whether it's 2D or 3D. We all feel the need to place our images in the cloud, and thus our art exists in a very functional form accessible to all with a web connection. Pretty useful if you ask me. But what is the difference that I know I feel, that printmakers feel, and that artists take defense against time and time again? It's there maybe because we are physical entities, and we interact with a physical world and access the virtual one through a physical terminal. The web functions more like a brain, and is immaterial.

Download and read Control Print if you're interested in thinking about this more.