Sky2Five

This semester Jill Zevenbergen from VCU is filling in as Lithography instructor. Though I love how metal photo plates work, I’m eager to observe the Pronto Plate process.

This coming week, I’m teaching a continuing ed class at the Corcoran College of Art. We have 5 days of down and dirty screenprinting. Newbies will learn the basic mechanics of pulling a print, and will be good to go if they sign up for credit courses. Hopefully we will have a limited amount of screen rips.

I’ve heard great things about Ben Jurgenson’s show at the Meat Market in D.C. Although I couldn’t make it to the opening, I was still around the Corcoran when Ben was constructing a lot of these sculptures and his process is amazing. He was an excellent lab tech in the sculpture department and really helped me while I was auditing a class after graduation with tips and tools that made my ticky-tacky houses piece a hell of a lot easier. Ben is truly a wunderkind, and is one of the best artists coming out of the Corcoran this year. You want to buy in to an artist before they make it, get yourself down to the Meat Market and scope up a great investment, as well as a really cool piece of art!

Waiter there is a child in my soup!

Recently, my cousin and his family came down for a visit. He has an affinity for Amish country for some strange reason. Maybe it is to balance off his life in NYC? Well aside from watching buggies and eating at one of those extroverted family style eating establishments, there was some actual culture going on in Lancaster City – an Art’s festival. Even better, they had a few locations that were dedicated to hand’s on projects for children. So Sarah, who is two, had a fun filled day with art. The coolest event took place at the Lancaster Art Museum, which had an exhibition based on the works of Maurice Sendak. The show had some neat interactive elements that were perfect for Sarah. One piece was a replica of Max’s boat from Where the Wild Things Are and the other (which is pictured above) was a slide that tied in with the book, Chicken Soup with Rice. To paraphrase my cousin Ian; if this exhibit was in Brooklyn it would have been mobbed. Luckily it was in Lancaster and she was the only child there. Hence, no waiting and she slid, and slid, and slid.

Hope everyone had a beautiful St. Patrick’s day. Better have indulged in your shamrock shakes while you had the chance. Though as you nurse your hangovers, I’d just like to remind people that Ireland has one of the lowest alcoholism rates in Europe. Then again we have a family legend about a relative drowning in a vat of beer at the Haffenreffer brewery. Personally, I’d prefer a jacuzzi full of Cape Codder’s. 

A cold and windy day on the washington mall.

Dennis and Sasha are right on track with this new print. It is halfway there and looking great, especially for fans of orange, like Dr. Wifey and Esq. Doug.Some more details and a bit of cold wax, then finito! Good to be back in a working studio. Brushing off 6 months of rust from my screenprinting knowledge. Plus there is always new tricks to learn from the master. P.S. Alexandria and still building like there was no housing crunch. Well location and a constant turnover of government work will keep this region busy.

Dennis O’Neil has Alexander Djikia coming into the Hand Print Workshop International studio for the next two weeks. Very excited about assisting them. Alexander will be the 2nd Russian artist that I’ve worked with at HPWI. I’m sure this will be as educational as work with the great “Lenny” Tishkov. Hope there is some vodka involved.

Tali Gai