Author: Ayin Es

Well today was the last day of printing during my all-too-short residency at Self Help Graphics. I am one of 10 women chosen by SHG and Yolanda Gonzalez for the 2008 Maestra’s Atelier. Here is Master Printer Jose Alpuche hard at work on my print, with Assistant Printer and son, Ivan Alpuche. We had a lot of fun taking breaks and being smart-asses, but mostly I am overflowing with gratitude that I was able to learn the art of screen printing with such a talented printer as Joe. I’m already thinking about my next print!

 

 

 

Staring at the same image for the last 2 weeks has driven me absolutely batty. My fingers seem to be permanently stained with rapidograph ink from working on the 7 different acetates. It takes rubbing alcohol to erase your mistakes or make any changes, but once the acetate is shot and exposed onto the screen, you kind of have to live with the result, so you have to be sure. Since I’m not sure about most things, I had to rely mostly on the guidance of the Master Printer. If he says to make your lines darker, you better listen, or else you’re one stupid culo.

Next week I will go in and sign and number my prints and take a good picture of how it turned out. I think it looks pretty cool, but like I said, I’ve been staring at it too long. A few SHG peeps came in and they liked it a lot. It was definitely something a little different than what’s usually printed there. The colors are very subtle. I’ll show it at you next weekend, but for now it’s relaxing time.

Self Help Graphics in the heart of East LA has been an important part of Los Angeles and the Chicano Movement since the early 1970s. They have earned national acclaim for their programs and services. Their amazing building on Caesar Chavez Ave. is surrounded by a local population of over two million Chicanos/Mexicanos. They are a vital community resource for the creation and presentation of art and culture. I am honored to be welcomed into their home.

I was also given a great gift from artist Peter Tovar. It is a little monoprint he was working on in the Etching Studio today. I’m just lucky all over.

And I will be getting a new print by Vincent Valdez since he is willing to make a trade. His new print is AMAZING! I can’t wait to have it in my home and show it off on my blog.

Guess what!?? Otis College of Art & Design is buying a copy of “1-SELF” for their Artists’ Book Collection. That is soooo cool! I am a happy clam. Woopiedoo for me!

I know I said I’d be back to tell you about the Rochelle Botello show, but instead you’ll have to read about it in my article that is coming out in the next issue of Coagula. The article is called “Down by the River on Tenterhooks.”

I am currently doing a residency at Self-help Graphics, so I don’t have a lot of time for the blog, but it’s Sunday, and I’m piecing together a bit of this and that of what I’ve started to write and didn’t have time to finish.

I really like this website where you can see the progress of a screen print by Gary Baseman. He recently did this above mentioned 24-layer screen print and sent out an email announcement the other day. Very cool.

Sunday is a lazy day for most, but Michael and I have been working in the back yard putting little stepping stones on the path that leads to my cactus garden, so we are getting sweaty. This evening we are going out with the Power Couple, Mat Gleason and Leigh Salgado and get some delicious grub and r e l a x.

I also talked on the phone with artist Jack Chipman, who I am planning to see next month and hopefully buy something from him. I love his work.

By the way, thanks to Reuben Sorenson for mentioning me on his cool blog. I also found this blog through his that I love called Chocolate Covered Xanax by 2 cousins from Humboldt County named Keri and Krisabel.

And lastly, I am STILL working on that painting that looks like a high school student painting, hardy har… (don’t worry I’m over it) and I am working and reworking it, and having fun with paint again. It’s starting to shape up and I’m about 3/4 done with it now.

(Here’s a detail)

Oh! And here’s a pic of one of Rochelle Botello‘s sculptural pieces called, “Oh Dear:”

Okay, gotta go. Bye.

What is Art But Escape? 2008, Carol Es.

I have some great news to announce. I was chosen for the 2008 Maestra’s Atelier at Self-Help Graphics! There are 10 women in all doing this special residency with Master Printer Jose Alpuche. I will be making a large edition (80-100), full-color serigraph that will be 20 x 26 inches. The project will be completed this summer, although I will have my prints by May.

For this project I will be focusing on the concept of memory. My subjects are my parents. The image began as a photograph that was taken the first time they came to visit me in my house in San Pedro in the winter of 2004. It is the first time they saw where I lived, my artwork, my life. I was snapping pictures of them while they sat in my office listening to a radio interview I did on KPFK earlier that year. My mother was nodding off as she listened. My father had no idea I was talking about him in the interview. Anyway, with these photos I was snapping, I was able to capture the essence of this in pictures: the essence of the moment and the essence of them as people separate and together. It is an image that engenders memory for me in a whole sense, and for a viewer who has no relation to the image. I began sketching from that photo and presented it to the curator of the 2008 Maestra’s Atelier program, Yolanda Gonzalez. She seemed to really like the concept and the sketch and so now here I am about to embark on this wonderful learning experience!

I wanted to also mention a couple exhibits out there that are worth taking a look at, if not valuable to your innards:

Christine Nguyen at Michael Kohn.

Rochelle Botello at Me & You Variety Candy Los Angeles.

Edith Abeyta at Wignall Museum Gallery at Chaffey College.

Mel Kadel at Richard Heller. (Opens Feb 9th.)

And then some new discoveries:

Jennifer Febbraro, I just bought this amazing and inspiring painting that I can’t wait to hang on my office wall!

Tucker Nichols, who’s art was all over the Space Rabbit Ranch house.

And Amy Wilson; an old discovery turns new again. Just been revisiting her site and reading her blog. Her blog is putting me on the right track again because originally my blog began a lot like hers. It should be a place to post my new work, works in progress, and artistic concepts. Sorry for the recent personal dramas. My work/life has an awfully thin line between them and I’m always working on making that line thicker. So I’m off to feed the line now. Bye for now.