Print Events - Spring and Summer 2011

This spring will bring my first chance to attend a printmaking symposium:The Rocky Mountain Alliance Printmaking Symposium. These gathering of educators, practitioners and newcomers to the printmaking world encourage the collaborative and experimental spirit of printmaking. For students and amateur printmakers these conventions provide a way to expand one's education and network with professional individual artists as well as artist co-ops and presses. From a symposium attendees can walk away with supplies, internships, artist residencies or portfolio exchanges as well as offers to appear at the next event.

Print exchanges are fundamental to building a portfolio of work  - the more an artist participates in them the more deadlines, themes, and art they have to produce. For me this system is great. Currently I am involved in three printmaking exchanges with people outside Nevada and two within (admittedly, I organized both of them :D.) The Leftovers print exchange is due in a couple of weeks, this exchange encourages printmakers to get creative with the prints that didn't work out, or did, but left behind a beautiful miasma of paper and printed materials. Next is Propaganda in Print, a poster print exchange where we encourage artists to print on newsprint and other non-archival paper. The show will go up on April 20th, and the work will be pasted to Oxbow Press' Gallery walls, we also are accepting individual work for display in the other gallery space if it is in keeping with the propaganda theme. Then this summer we have 2.25, the print exchange that asks artists to keep it small, 2 1/4 in square prints are already coming in to Oxbow from all sorts of places! In August I am lucky to be participating in the Littlest Print Exchange, a 3in square exchange for which I have to print and edition of 51! Finally (so far as I have planned) I will be carving one of 1000 Woodcuts, as opposed to a conventional exchange this is actually a very large collaborative wood cut that we will receive some other "puzzle pieces" when it's finished and printed.

All of these things cost money, from the symposium's registration fee to the participation fees of the exchanges. It's completely fair for people to charge, the amount of work to corral all the prints, care for and display them in a gallery, then ship them all back to people is enormous. However, it is one more expense. Since I've already paid to participate in these exchanges I probably won't take any more on this year. But that doesn't mean I can't have fun!

I'm teaching an Intro to Intaglio class in March, a beginning book arts class in April, and a few things in July associated with the Reno art festival annually held during that month called Artown. Also, as part of the etsy team Handmade Hustlers, I will be part of a craft fair in May - the Indie Reno May Day Craft Fair is coming soon!