Summer Print Exchanges & 2.25 Hanging this week!

2.25 International Print Exchange is a portfolio I am organizing and curating for exhibit at Oxboo Press during the month of July. The theme is simple - a square measuring 2.25" x 2.25" is all the size you have for your image. Artists were invited to print any original image with any printing technique. Earlier this spring I was in despair for my exchange. Only a few people had indicated they would participate and fewer had actually sent in their art. In the last two weeks I have received, literally, dozens of packages in the mail from Oregon, Texas, Puerto Rico, and California. Even more encouraging is that many more participants have paid the fee and have yet to send in their work! The show will be hung next week and I can't wait to see all that beautiful work up on our gallery walls.

The barbecue last night was a blast. We had free burgers and booze, and gave away all of the display posters from the Propaganda in Print exchange. The artists each sent us 15 prints, and will receive 10 prints back - the remaining 5 prints were for display, sale, other use at the press. Since the prints were all on non-archival paper (which will yellow and warp within a few months) we decided to spread the love and give the posters to people who would display and cherish them for as long as they were viable art pieces.

Saturday last found me printing an edition for Candace's participation in the Littlest Print Exchange, curated by Christopher Clark, which I am also VERY lucky to be a part of this year. I printed her solar plate and it seems that she intends to do a screen-print of some kind on top of that image. It was a lovely way to spend three and a half hours, and as I need to do my own edition for this exchange, I am very much looking forward to getting back on the press. It's been over a month since I actually printed anything. Even though I was not printing my own work, the method and the feel of the press - tight against the plate, ink of my gloves and the smell of veg oil in the air... well it obviously got my printing juices flowing again.
.