Press Notes--She Has Neither

The first run and the various red swatches. Below, the rollers
being inked for the run.

Boxcar Press, the printer who is made the photopolymer plate and printed She Has Neither is in Syracuse, NY.  I went there to be on press a few days before my artist talk at Ft Tilden.

Prior, they had sent a few samples of the different reds they have available, with their PMS equivalents, as well as papers they have that would work well with my piece.

You might ask why I went to Syracuse when there are so many presses--letterpress is so hot right now--in NYC--especially in Brooklyn. The reason is that for my piece has a very large plate that has to be run on a cylinder press, not a platten press. I also needed a press that would be accustomed to run a small edition, so Boxcar, which prints thousands of wedding invitations for clients around the country, was the perfect fit.

The bus ride takes you through Pennsylvania, and you get to see all the factory towns hard hit by unemployment. Syracuse is built up since it's a university town with several medical schools and their surrounding medical centers. Remnants of their manufacturing history remains as freight trains and trestles are ubiquitous.

Boxcar is a large operation with many presses, as I wrote in a previous post. Yet, the place has a homey style to it, and while in New York State, the feel is definitely kind and polite, like being in the Mid-West.

My pressrun was quick; I was picky about the registration since the shapes of the image and the type are critical to one another. After a tour of the place, I was on the bus home, with my cardboard package under my arm.

By All Means

Got the prints back last week, I wanted to post but was getting ready for another press run and I was invited to give an artist talk at Ft. Tilden.

When I got to the press in Greenpoint, the office associate patiently opened the meticulously packed edition and I went through them, one by one.

I could see the difficulties; they worked really hard on it. I also requested and got five proofs they had done on other clients' makeready, which I'll look over; the blast of color is a departure. A completely different piece.

Here's some video. I love the sound of the ink burping as it's squeezed from the ketchup bottles; I always found applying ink to a screen immensely satisfying.

How seductive....like spreading colored
peanut butter....
Top: ink application for By Any 
Means. They applied two blacks and two
grey for the X; after a few prints, the screen
needs to be cleaned since the inks run into
one another.

You can also see the master printer working with an automated squeegee. Totally love the art; I'll be pulling the next series myself, though I don't know when.

On the last day of the show at Ft. Tilden, I   brought this and another print I'll write about in another post. The reception was good; there's something very seductive about a silk screen with a blend, or any other print with a blend for that matter.

On his website, Andrew Keir describes the process beautifully, with images of the process across offset, letterpress and silk screen printing. In offset printing it's called split fountain printing, and in the image you can see the pressman applying the two colors to the roller. Here's the link, definitely worth a visit:

http://www.andrewkeir.com/split-fountain-printing/

Exhibition

A few weeks ago, answering a call for entries from the American Print Scholars, I submitted a few pieces for consideration. Some are finished, while a few were in prototype.

I was accepted! I had missed their congratulatory email because it went to spam; however, their persistence (kindly calling me) got three works in the Rockaway Artist Alliance annual print show, Stories in Print.

The large gallery is housed in an army barracks in the Fort Tilden complex in Fort Tilden, New York, nestled in between the upscale, shore-front neighborhood Neponsit and the "Irish Riviera", Breezy Point. Hurricane Sandy took a huge toll on the area; in parts it's still recovering. However, Fort Tilden is a wide open space, with playing fields, wild vegetation and other attractions I have yet to explore.

The building, Studio 7, houses a full etching studio, a yard for contemplation, an enormous gallery, and a few rooms complete with parlors and kitchen. An adjacent building has an additional artist's studio, where I saw a painter's work.

The RAA accepted three pieces: the lenticular, Fire! Fire! and another I'd completed shortly before, called BLDM. Fire! Fire! will always remain a digital print, however BLDM, now a digitally printed diptych is slated to be a silk screen in the future.

BLDM, two-part print, digital prototype, 22 x 60 in. (56 x 153 cm).

That very week, during the fourth day of testimony in a disciplinary action against a police officer who held a Staten Island man, in a choke hold, leading to his death, it was revealed that a commander responded "Not a big deal" when a police officer on the scene informed him that the man, Eric Garner, wasn't breathing and was DOA.

During the incident, seven police officers were trying to arrest Mr. Garner for--ready?--selling loose cigarettes. One wrestled Mr. Garner to the ground and held him in a chokehold, during which he pleaded with officers 11 times with the phrase "I can't breathe".

The method is prohibited by the NYPD and the officer was never indicted by a Staten Island grand jury. A federal inquiry went nowhere and until the Civil Complaint Review Board brought charges against the officer, and the case was at risk of expiring the 5-year statute of limitations on July 17, the five-year anniversary of Mr. Garner's death. The result was the hearing, and Mr. Garner's final words have become a potent slogan of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The response by the lieutenant--is proof positive that Black lives don't matter; not to the cops, anyway. It's not a big deal.

More on the show in the next post. 

By any means necessary

Printing By Any Means was not an easy task. The prototypes were a digital breeze. Tried them on coated digital paper and Arches 88. The coverage was nice. Getting it to screen porperly was another story.

I was a silk screening lunatic once, going as far as pulling prints with a cigarette hanging out of my mouth (geez!). Decidedly reformed, the methods have transformed--some shops are water-based, others still print with oil-based inks but cure the prints in a 700-degree (371 C) conveyer kiln. Cleaning screens is no longer with liquid solvents, rather with solvent from an aerosol. Much better.

The blend just was't
working.

There are a number of screen printers scattered throughout Brooklyn and Queens, some in the Bronx. T-shirts are the favorite mode of expression, but the raw edge and large-size capacity make it great for all kinds of communication. The inks lend themselves to various opacities and while some don't like the thickness of the inks layered one on top of the other, that's one of the qualities I like about silkscreen. I never cared for a large edition of prints. I needed many proofs because I pushed the registration with fine lines. I'd only get 10-12 good ones and that's fine by me.

Which is why By Any Means needed to go through a number of file alterations before going to press. The first press requested AI files. I sent those, with PDFs of the two layers of text. I had advised that the X print as a blend, but the shop felt that it wouldn't work over such a large area (the X blends over a 20-inch (51 cm) span.

Yet another shop felt that screening the blend would work, but the dot screen ended up as a moiré and didn't work out.

However, digging a little deeper got me Kayrock Screenprinting's address. At the edge of where Newtown creek pierces Queens and Brooklyn, a huge brick building houses a number of industries, some relating to art making.

Kayrock is decidedly lefty; unafraid to say so on various printed material in the shop. They have handsome work they've printed from other clients; I am amazed at how different artists use the medium. I'll be posting some soon.

Just got this from the master printer at Kayrock Screenprinting in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, life is good.

Press Notes--"She has neither"

I've been thinking on why my entries to this blog are so spotty. Of course, media trends make blogging almost obsolete; records of one's progress are held on IG, as a running to-the-minute image diary, recorded by phone with a caption.

Going forward, I probably will abandon blogging, since my viewers just don't have the time or interest to read the tech notes and progress of this project. They'd prefer to see images and videos. A picture is worth 1,000 words.

However, there have been some twists in the printing. The image in the previous post, She has neither, is set for 3-D polymer plates and printed in Syracuse, NY by Boxcar Press. 

Totally patient individuals, my CSR informed me there were issues on several fronts. I'll post these separately. In one hit, I can picture people's eyes glazing over.

Press size. The press size, obviously, determines the paper, hence the size of the piece. Since I've been prototyping on a digital inkjet printer, the roll widths are 24" (61 cm). I've been putting Arches 88 through the machine, which has a width of 22" (56 cm). We'll talk about Arches later.

Offset sheets are larger, but can only take certain types of paper and have huge make-ready needs. DSH is a boutique piece, and, although funded, a consideration is what to do with all the material that is eventually printed. Another discussion.

Boxcar has an affectionate relationship with their equipment, lovingly displayed on their equipment page:

https://www.boxcarpress.com/our-presses/

From the company's website. On its side it says "ZWEI
FARBEN", meaning two colors in German. I've always
worked in Heidelberg shops. They're great machines. 

Here's the info on the press that most likely will be printing my work:

press name: Heidelberg KSBAZ

press nickname: 2C-K

year built: 1973

serial number: KSBAZ345369

largest printable area: 16.5 x 21.375 inches

weight: 7,250 lbs.

why we (Boxcar) love this particular press: Dave C. (the pressman): It treats me right and keeps me out of trouble! We could all use a press like that. It prints like a Cadillac. No problems at all.

Sweet Home Alabama

Last week was a tough one.

While it's not surprising that Alabama's male congress would vote yes on the most restrictive abortion policy in the nation, effectively overturning RvW, it's a disgrace that the state's governor, a woman, signed the bill.

"She has neither". 15 x 22" 2-color
letterpress print from polymer plate.

I come from a life that respected the tenets of Catholicism. I practice weakly, but strive to be compassionate, understanding, charitable and helpful. Lots of things could have gotten me further in my everyday life that I just won't do. I'm no goody-two-shoes, but I don't hurt anyone. Not intentionally, anyway.

However, when it comes to a woman's right to choose, I have to go against what the Church wants for the rest of the nation and place myself firmly in the Pro-Choice category. Needing a procedure is a private and painful choice to make. It shouldn't be made more painful by people who don't know you or your circumstances.

A significant number of women who need the procedure are in fact mothers of families who do not have the ability to add another family member. And while insensitive anti-abortionists cruelly slap the term "inconvenience" to those having late-term abortions, no woman--none--enters that procedure without something very wrong going on with either her body or her child's.

The Pro-Choice/Pro-Life issue is one of female oppression. It's easy to call yourself "reformed" after two or more abortions and fight for others not to have one. Being Pro-Life is easy with social support and economic prosperity: If something doesn't go as planned, you can get what you need by going to another state--like New York--for a "theatre weekend". But, how about being Pro-Woman for a change, and allow women to choose what's safe for their bodies and their lives?

78 cents

All policy aside, it's a known fact all over the world that women get paid less than men for the same work--even if there is better performance. The percentage varies by country and culture, of course.

Sports, notably soccer, has gotten the most publicity since, while a winning team is a source of national pride, and investment has been made in the national soccer team, it's dwarfed by the investment made in the US men's team, as well as the salaries they receive.

According to the NYT's article March 9, 2019:

One of the biggest differences in compensation is the multimillion-dollar bonuses the teams receive for participating in the World Cup, but those bonuses — a pool of $400 million for 32 men’s teams versus $30 million for 24 women’s teams — are determined by FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, not U.S. Soccer.

however:

[Friday’s] legal action is the latest flash point in a years-long fight for pay equity and equal treatment by the national team, which has long chafed — first privately, but increasingly publicly — about the compensation, support and working conditions it receives while representing U.S. Soccer. The women’s players argue that they are required to play more games than the men’s team, that they win more of them, and yet still receive less pay from the federation.

Entering public academia where one's salary is listed on the internet, things got a lot easier. Having a union stick up for your salary rights helps, too. However, in the past, I've worked in places in which I was hired the same week as another colleague, handled accounts worth millions to his in-house assignment, and was paid--get this--$20,000 less than he was.

OK water under the bridge. But women are paid less in every way imaginable. Especially so with the working poor, whose salaries are held hostage against a life of hunger, homelessness, independence or just plain quality of life. And, we're a country in which a stay-at-home mom usually has a husband who earns well; most women need to work so their families survive. So, they're afraid to ask for a raise. They don't want to hear, like I did--in a multinational firm in Manhattan--"You're luck you have a job.

So, this in their homage:

78 cents, 16 x 16 in. (40.5 x 40.5) 4-color silkscreen