INDU: Commensalists and Hand Me Downs Mixed media installation 12 ft x 12 ft x 12 ft 2008
This work came from an earlier residency at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 2006. I finished cutting the plates and printing the prints that came from that residency, while I was in residence at the Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2007. This installation was created for the 2008 AIR Exhibition that brought back all the participating artists for a show. I combined a large drawing, archival digital C-prints, woodcut prints, commercial mesh banners and ephemera to create the effect INDU had on me in 2006.
This work has been featured in a National Parks Publication,
green denim covered boards, katazome end sheets, kettle stiched book block
katazome end sheets for Escape 2
title page of Escape 2
contents and opening text in Escape 2
page 3, map showing location of “Tracy and Bahia Honda Bridge”
page 4, “Tracy and Bahia Honda Bridge”
page 6, map showing location of “Key Deer”
text and “Key Deer”, second print in Escape 2
page 10, “Half Bubbles and Big Pine”
pages 11-12, map showing location of “Half Bubbles and Big Pine”
pages 13-14, “Bat House”, text about Bat House
page 15, map showing location of “Bat House”
pages 16-17, “Dolphins” print, Sarah and Brea, text
page 18, map showing location of “Dolphins”
“Imp II”, Charter boat of Captain Victoria Impallomini
pages 21-22
pages 22-23, words, facts and figures about the Florida Keys
colophon, thanks
Escape 2 11 inches x 15 inches x .5 inc 2004
Escape 2 picks up where “escape*… restrictions apply” left off, from the 7 Mile Bridge, headed west, geographically, and from my status as a solo traveler to becoming an honored guest of the native Florida Keys’ residents on my escape. Here I take the highway to places only a native would know, and join friends on, in, or under the waters of the Florida Keys.
The book has seven woodcut prints colorized from the original prints, unryu overleafs, altered charts, and a 1,500 word essay by the artist that speaks to the mysteries of the Keys and their residents. I am joined by a hunter/killer and earth mother in my travels from the 7 Mile Bridge to Key West and the waters off shore.
An artist’s residency at Oregon College of Art and Craft in 2007 was a rich experience, kitty corner across the world from what I am used to. The Cascades are incredible, volcanoes popping up from the ground, from California through Washington State. I came with the hope of creating an homage to Hokusai and the people of Portland. I left with renewed friendships from my youth and new friendships with Portland’s finest.
All images in this series 16 inches x 20 inches, black ink on Japanese paper, edition of 20.
Flood I, 2011, poem by Michael Hettich, letterpress
Flood II, 2011, poem by Michael Hettich, letterpress
Flood II and IV, 2011, poem by Michael Hettich, letterpress
Flood V, 2011, poem by Michael Hettich, letterpress
SWEAT: My Last Day as an Altar Boy, 12 x 18, broadsheet, with Gabriel Spera, 2009
SWEAT: Water and Land, 12 x 18, broadsheet, with Yaddyra Peralta, 2009
SWEAT: Snapshots, 12 x 18, letterpress, with John Dufrense, 2009
al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here: Burn, 12 x 18, letterpress, 2008
Rise: Youth, 2009, mixed media
Rise: Raft, 2009, mixed media
Rise: Joplin, 2009, mixed media
Rise: Jam, 2009, mixed media
Agua, Fango y Factoria (for Cindy) 2009, mixed media
Boy and His Dog, 2009, mixed media, poem by David Svenson
Gone?, 60 in x 72 in, 2006, Mixed Media
Miami Herald/ Art Basel Broadsheet-Banner Proposal, 2006, Mixed Media
Miami Herald/ Art Basel Broadsheet-Banner Proposal, 2007, Mixed Media
2008 brought a new wrinkle to my production: Broadsheets. John Cutrone taught an introduction to broadsheets at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts that was anything but beginning. His teaching and guidance helped me to become a part of al-Mutannabi Starts Here group of artists. For more on this, check out the Jaffe website: http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/JaffeCenter/collection/al-mutanabbi/index.php
Another opportunity to work with writers came through the Miami SWEAT Portfolio. A group of Miami writers and artists responded to a call for broadsheet collaborations that responded to the concept of “sweat” in any or all of its permutations. Two meetings at Sweat Records in Miami in 2009 and 2011 provided a venue for the meet and greet between the visual/word artists. The portfolio continues to grow.
The SWEAT Portfolio also introduced me to several writers with national reputations and local addresses. Several years of artist’s residencies have brought a wealth of experience from artists in other disciplines to bear on my practice. I am always amazed and charmed to find that that guy (or girl) who I say hello to at Book and Books in Coral Gables is also a writer. Poet Michael Hettich and I began collaborating as a result of meeting during a SWEAT get together. In 2011 we collaborated on his poem, “Flood.” The effort produced four broadsheets that weave images through this beautiful poem. Our broadsheets were purchased for the collection of Alberto Ibargüen at the 2011 Locust Projects “Smash and Grab” Fundraiser.
Various other works spinning out of public art projects and other ventures are included in this gallery.
Next Door: From Above, 16 x 20, 2007Next Door: With Car, 16 x 20, 2007Next Door: With Corner, 16 x 20, 2007Next Door: With Steps, 16 x 20, 2007
In 2005, in the middle of the real estate boom in South Florida, I began taking photographs of of buildings that fell victim to the need for more land to build on. One of these buildings was a humble apartment building, no more than 15 units, at most. Latin music, parties, children’s voices, the smell of barbeque grills and more vanished literally overnight. Knowing that my apartment of over 15 years may well have been the next complex to go led me to do this series of prints of the semi-demolished building. This was 3029 S.W. 27th Avenue, Coconut Grove, Florida. As I write this, it is a large condominium building with several vacant units.
Each of the prints in this series is 16 inches by 20 inches, in an edition of 20, black ink on Japanese paper.
Doll's Eyes, 16 x 20, 2006Pyramid Point, Sleeping Bear, 16 x 20, 2006Dune Overlook, Sleeping Bear, 16 x 20, 2006Fishing Boat, Glen Arbor, 16 x 20, 2006Maple Forest, Empire, 16 x 20, 2006Right There, 16 x 20, 2006Thorsen Granary, Sleeping Bear, 16 x 20, 2006
This work came from an artist’s residency in a place very close to my heart, Glen Arbor. The Glen Arbor Art Association gave me two weeks in Glen Arbor, Glen Haven, Leeland, Empire, and of course… Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I grew up in Michigan. This residency brought me back to my childhood. It also produced an installation at Art Center South Florida in the 800 Building’s Large Window Gallery and the 2006 Florida Artist Book Prize for “Right There.” This spot continues to generate images in my head, looking for a space to hold them.
All prints from this series are 16 inches x 20 inches, black on Japanese paper, in an edition of 20.
carrying bag with “Right There” visible, all seven chapters
front cover of “Right There”
back cover of “Right There”
Chapter 1 contents, “Right There”
Chapter 1 photo and essay, “Right There”
Chapter 1, print and photo
Chapter 2, contents
Chapter 2, photo and essay
Chapter 2, print and toy
Chapter 3, contents
Chapter 3, photo and essay
Chapter 3, print and toy
Chapter 4, contents
Chapter 4, photo and essay
Chapter 4, toy and print
Chapter 5, contents
Chapter 5, photo and essay
Chapter 5, toy and print
Chapter 6, contents
Chapter 6, photo and essay
Chapter 6, toy and print
Chapter 7, contents
Chapter 7, photo and toy
Chapter 7, toy and print
“On Birds” (Ashlynn), essay, Tom Virgin, 2006
“The Bitch,” essay, Tom Virgin, 2006
“Right There,” essay, Tom Virgin, 2006
“Mountain Dew,” essay, Tom Virgin, 2006
“On Direction,” essay, Tom Virgin, 2006
“On Toys,” essay, Tom Virgin, 2006
front cover
Thirty years of Florida living did not dim the memory of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Actually when I was a kid it was just plain Sleeping Bear Dunes, complete with Dune Rides in great big American Car dune buggies. A residency at Glen Arbor Art Association in 2005 gave me an opportunity to visit the area and recreate the the park and my childhood memories in this book. “Right There” was the Florida Artist Book Prize winner in 2006 and is now part of the collection at the Bienes Museum of the Modern Book.
Colophon
This book is a tour through time and space, bouncing around the artist’s head, Glen Arbor/ Glen Haven, Michigan, and the early 1960’s. Much of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore has remained unchanged. Memories however may have become better with the passage of time. The book’s covers are basswood, planed, sanded and tied together with leather thongs. The cover art is laser etched into the wood, front and back covers of each chapter. The papers used are Thai Unryu and Arches Cold Press Watercolor 300 and 140 lbs. The book was created in Adobe Photoshop CS2 and Pagemaker 7.0. The font used is Americana. “Right There” has seven chapters, and when closed creates a block approximately 10 inches wide, 12.5 inches tall, and 10 inches deep. A custom denim bag is included for transportation. Each chapter contains one woodcut print, one C-print, one digital scan, and one essay by the artist. The book is an edition of five. The photographs were taken at a residency at Glen Arbor Art Association/ Sleeping Bear Dunes in summer 2004. The toy images, woodcut prints, and book itself were produced in 2006. The essays are semi-accurate memories of the artist’s childhood growing up in Michigan during the 1960’s.
Can’t See It From My House artist’s book/ title page 9” x 12” x .5” 2008
Can’t See It From My House was created from woodcut prints, photographs, and other ephemera gathered between 2005-2007 in Miami and Coconut Grove, Florida. It is a story of one neighborhood being replaced by another, although it is far from being a completed story. The story will continue to be told by the City of Miami for years to come.
The cover is blind embossed Murillo, with Foldovers and Tackets. Paste papers front and back are real estate listings, laminated in Mulberry paper, as are the end sheets. The book block consist of seven folded sheets, twelve by eighteen inches, of Hannemuhle German Etching paper. It is sewn together with a kettle stitch and bound to the cover with a Complex Multi Quire binding.
The images are inkjet photographs, mixed media drawing, and five woodcut prints (reduced and recreated with polymer plates as relief prints with the Vandercook 4 proof letterpress at the Jaffe Center for Book Arts at Florida Atlantic University, in Boca Raton, Florida). Can’t See It From My House is an edition of twenty with five artist’s proofs.
