it's going to be fun. there will be treats. there will be wine. there will be a moveable type truck. and there will be limited edition letterpress prints from artwork by kate bingaman burt, michael c. hsiung and me.
here's a sneak peak of the drawing i made that's since been turned into a letterpress printing plate for the event:
this was a really enjoyable project for me for many reasons. first and foremost, getting to work with the peeps at poketo was great...i love their store & their vibe. couple that with kyle durrie's moveable type letterpress truck (i'm still blown away by the brilliance of her combo), and i'm all smiles.
while painting will always be my true studio love, i confess to crushing on printmaking in general. there have definitely been on again/off again affairs with woodcuts, colographs, and monoprints over the years. but letterpress, by nature of the equipment required, plays a little hard to get as far a printmaking techniques go. i love that this type of printing is so old fashioned, mechanical, and that the results are so tactile and, in general, very romantic. this is the first time i've had an opportunity to have my own drawing made into letterpress prints, and i'm really excited about it.
what's with the bear and the kid in the bunny costume, you ask?
as a little kid, i grew up between monmouth beach, nj & long island, ny. my uncle drove a big rig semi-truck cross country. as i got older i would randomly recall a dream i'd had that went like so: one super sunny winter afternoon, my uncle rolled up in front of my grandmother's home, where i'd been playing out in the snow with my cousins. my uncle waved us over to the back of his trailer, grandly unhinged the lock and threw open the doors to reveal an enormous, full-bodied roaring polar bear. my cousins and i stood awkwardly in front of the bear until the flash popped on a camera.
a few years ago, my grandmother died and i was going through the photos that didn't make it into her albums. a polaroid of me, my cousins, and my uncle's taxidermy hunting trophy floated out of a pile of photos. turns out that scene wasn't a dream after all, but i love that i thought it was for all those years.
i've made many self-portrait drawings and paintings based on the polar bear imagery from that dream, and then from the photo as well. when playing with ideas for what to make for the letterpress/typetruck/poketo event, i thought of this image and how changing the snow-suit into a halloween costume could maybe be fun.
nostalgia, memory, bears and bunnies. happy halloween!
also, here's a nice article about the event over at the la times.
if you're in la today, please do come by and say hi:
poketo flagship
820 east 3rd street
la, ca 90013
5-8pm
it's free, open to the public, and all ages are welcome. however, please do rsvp here.
(however, if you're on the east coast, hope you're huddled, cuddled, safe and dry, and within easy reach of good food and good wine. xox)
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