Steam Roller Printing - Hey Yo!

Wow, did this really happen today?


I'll get to what exactly is going on here in a minute, but first, an apology.

Sorry it's been awhile, and I'm sorry I haven't blogged since returning to America for anyone who may be interested. Lord knows the beginnings of new postings have run through my head. Things like:

-The initial reverse culture shock upon return to the US, the weeks of observations of things I had forgotten about the South and the US in general and its eccentricities, the plethora of shiny cars everywhere, and I mean everywhere, and the way they stay in their lanes, and the way they move at such high speeds on these immaculate huge roadways with elaborate landscaping and shiny new road signs,


-Regrets and relief at leaving mother India and returning to reckless but fun-loving and boisterious, ruddy-faced and loud, and surprisingly resilient and crafty uncle America with his vast amounts of pleasent weather, landscapes, restaurants, and ridiculous servings of meat and food in general,
-the discovery of new and wonderful things in my newly adopted city of Wilmington, NC, and more specifically Carolina Beach, mainly, a bar with skeeball and an excellent Jukebox called the Blue Post,
-Ruminations on life in general, and what its like to be my age, at this point in my life and back in the culturally decrepit land of my birth,
-updates on my thoughts on the economy, politics, and India, random discoveries and internet fascinations, updates on my carryings-ons and movings abouts, doing shows, art, etc. etc.

But with that all being said, something has finally gotten me off my internet non-posting ass. And that something was this:


where they actually printed massive 4ft x 8ft blocks like this:




using a steamroller like this:



to make beautiful prints like this (copyright Martin Mazorra by the way):




As you can see from the pictures, I basically stumbled upon nothing short of the largest live block printing I have ever seen and possibly might ever will see. (if you don't know what the hell printmaking is click here. for a sweet primer from MoMA)

As you may know my devoted readers, I am a printmaker myself, and I've just recently moved to Carolina Beach, near Wilmington, North Carolina, where I had become slightly distressed as of late at the realization that I was living in what basically amounts to a tiny redneck town on the beach with the height of cultural events being live music at the local bars (which ain't half bad actually), too many miles away from Wilmington, so you can imagine my excitement when I saw this going on.

I was actually alerted to the event more than a month ago thanks to a flyer I found at one of my favorite dive bars of the area, The Fat Pelican, and luckily, a few days ago, I remembered to check a photo I had taken of it with my iPhone, so that today I was able to jump on my bike to go take a look at what was happening just 10 blocks down the street. To make a long story short the event was amazing, thanks in no small part to the wonderful artists and people behind it.

The main organizer behind the thing was this awesome artist named Jennifer Page who has her own press in Carolina Beach called Cape Fear Press, and who, as it turns out, is a bad ass printmaker and artist in her own right, a photo-etcher-collager like me,
and just a rad person in general. I mean, I can't tell you how excited I am to find out that Jennifer lives in Carolina Beach! She was wearing baby blue cowboy boots as she drove a steamroller over her massive plate depicting mystical musings on here-for-to unknown to me mysterious crop-like circles that exist in the Wilmington area and are kind of an underground secret! I mean, what's not to love?

Anyway, turns out she got the inspiration to bring this event to Carolina Beach after seeing something similar in NYC I believe, and invited these other rad printmaker dudes, Mike Houston and Martin Mazorra, who are two young chaps that started their own press in NYC called Cannonball Press. and yes, they are really f-ing awesome. Just look at their site and get hyped. Go ahead. I'll wait . . .

But not only are they bloody brilliant artists and printmakers, they were really nice guys, kind enough to answer all my endless questions and entertain notions of bringing them down to Myrtle to do the event again (stay posted on that by the way).

I should mention the wonderful shop Le Soleil as well, who provided the venue for the event, and is undoubtedly the coolest and most loving art shop in the heart of Carolina Beach, featuring and focusing intently on homespun crafts and artwork by local artists. Big ups to Jenny the owner and her associate Charma, just lovely people.

And last but not least check out all the local and regional artists who provided their finished plates and printed their work live. Artists participating were:

Stephan Bode & Seagh Mulligan Wilmington NC collaboration
Todd Carignan Wilmington NC
Alex Clark Charlotte NC - www.jonesclarkart.com
Kristin Gibson Carolina Beach NC - www.fineartandfabric.com
Fritzi Huber Wilmington NC
Rebecca Jones Charlotte NC - www.jonesclarkart.com
Jeremy Millard Wilmington NC
Jennifer Page Carolina Beach NC - www.capefearpress.com
Robert Pleasants Carolina Beach NC
Loulie Scharf Wilmington NC

&

of course, Martin Mazorra and Mike Houston of Cannonball Press - www.CannonballPress.com, who I must thank for selling me this beautiful hand-pulled and signed print of Mike's for only $20:



So happy to have it in the collection!

And please, if you are interested in buying any of these prints, do take note that they are all for sale through Jennifer Page at Cape Fear Press. First things first check out her site: www.capefearpress.com and give her a shout to inquire about prices.

Ok, and really, truly this time last but not least, do check out my flickr set for more pics from the day here:




Don't forget to enlarge and then click "show info" in the upper right to get the full play-by-play. (check my last blog if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

Oh and P.S. all art copyright the respective artist. Please do not reproduce without permission OK!?

Cheers mates, enjoy.