Things tagged 'studio'
Last week worked out
Artlog/I Am Still Alive ran on fumes for the past several weeks, but at this point it looks like we made it through fine – better than fine. All four big Artlog events last week were awesome.
- We met lots of new folks and showed great work here in the studio over the course of two sweltering days during the Atlantic Ave Artwalk.
- We spread the gospel of Artlog a bit during the Affordable Art Fair where we were the media sponsor and where we presented a booth full of work by Artlog users
- Konrad’s Chelsea Art Museum performance on Thursday was a big success – we provided some organizational & marketing support
- Friday’s Artlog Collect LES art walk was huge. 1,200 folks came out to see work at 24 Lower East Side Galleries and the New Museum. People at the participating venues were jazzed across the board and attendees could be spotted exploring the LES pretty much all evening event maps in hand. Big thanks to the participating galleries, the New Museum, our sponsors – Radeberger Pilsner, Christiania Vodka, A Casa Fox, Moscot, the Sixth Ward, Doyle & Doyle, Gallery Bar & LES BID – and to press that got us out there and covered the event – TimeOut, Daily Candy, Associated Press, Mashable.
Now that Nish and I have a little breathing room, we are plotting our next moves – shifting focus back to the site itself and angling in to re-focus and refine the tools over there.
Konrad plays & people chat
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Konrad played a set on the Rhodes in the studio here yesterday as part of the Artwalk. Kyle sat in on the guitar. At some point, I started recording from my laptop—forgive the quality, since it is from the laptop, the mic picks up basically everything in the room, reducing the track to lots of ambient noise. Have a listen anyhow.
Also, Konrad has a concert at the Chelsea Art Museum on Thursday.
Stop by the studio tomorrow &/or Sunday
I am opening the studio here for the next two days as part of this year’s Atlantic Avenue Artwalk. Artlog had an open-call and several artists from the site will be exhibited here this weekend.
I’m doing a letterpress demo here at 3pm tomorrow and attendees will keep the prints we run off. Sunday at 3pm, Konrad Kaczmarek will be playing a concert here in the space as well.
So feel free to stop on in and tell me I sent you.
NB. Don’t forget to visit Axelle Fine Arts next door for amazing silkscreen and Cannonball Press down the road.
Nish working out of the studio
Manish has been working on Artlog stuff out of the studio for a while now.
Telling stories around the campfire
I just set up a chat room through campfire for I Am Still Alive and Artlog.
I’ll probably just leave the room open in my browser while I work here in the studio. So drop in & rap with me here:
Less out of sorts
I bought boxes and boxes of wood type from a printer that was going out of business (after decades in business) in South Slope this past fall. The boxes just sat stacked in a corner here until I spent several hours late last night sorting it all.
The type remains massively dusty, but it’s been cool to find that there are at least four full fonts, a complete run of calendar date blocks, some tint blocks, and quite a few interesting randoms.
Vandercook SP15 #21593
With Dan Morris’ invaluable help, I moved a new press (the last for a while I imagine) into the studio yesterday. It’s a Vandercook SP15. It’s serial number, #21593, puts it near the beginning of the production run for SP15s (starting at 21500 in 1961).
It came from the Arm where Dan nursed it into shape and put it to good use in workshops and printing editions.
Chandler & Price #B57804
14 months back, I acquired a Chandler & Price Newstyle 8×12 letterpress machine for the studio. With the Dan Morris’ help, I have fixed it up and brought it back to printing form.
Not exactly hulking, but the press weighs about 1,250 lbs and its serial number (B57804) dates it to 1923.
More about dating the presses here (PDF by Press 817).
Renovation is (almost) over (for now)
So after nearly two months of renovations are partially complete.
That is to say that everything that I can do up to this point has been done [demo, clearing (3,500+ lbs of stuff—metal, wood, carpets, drywall), more demo, cleaning, building new walls, repairing sheetrock, & painting the floors, ceilings, walls]. It’s been quite a process.
I am still waiting for the permits from the city to cut some big windows in the wall behind my desk, but for now I am moved back in and enjoying all the space, the skylight and the porthole window.
Here are some photos taken during the move-in.
Ben & Fletcher drop by
Ben and Fletcher dropped by the studio this afternnon to check in on progress with renovations.
And while they were at it, Fletch ran a little poster off on the Vandercook and Ben made some business cards on the C&P.
Vandercook #16907
This versatile little Vandercook 14 proof press is the second press I moved here into the studio. It’s a little dirty, but it’s in good shape and is a work horse. The serial number, 16907, places it as having been manufactured in 1954.
It’s not self-inking and it has been largely boxed out by the SP15 I am moving in next week, but for the footprint (2’7” x 3’9”) it has a huge print bed (17 5/8” x 25 1/2”) and can print on sheets of paper up to 17 3/8” x 25”—which is awesome if you want monoprints or if you have the time to play around with registration and inking.
The press weighs about 750 lbs, but one person can shove it around fairly easily.
