Printmakers Unite!

Hi everyone! I finally figured out how to join the blog, and just in time too, for I have some printmaking info to share with the group!
When I came to my first Makers Meeting, I brought along a few envelopes with prints in them that I had received from participating in an exchange online. Printmakers Unite! is a group through myspace where group members can talk about their art, organize and participate in print exchanges, and just share information about what's going on in the print world.
Today I discovered two new exchanges posted in the group:

'Inky Sound' Print Exchange

• Sign ups end on Sunday, February 24th for this exchange.
• The mailing deadline is Wednesday, March 26th.

The details:

• Format: Any printmaking method or combination of methods.
• Theme: ‘inky sound’ – you must represent a song or a piece of music in print form. Don’t forget to let us know your inspiration!
• Paper: Your choice.
• Paper Size: 4”x 4” minimum / 8” x 10” maximum.
• Image size: Your choice.
• Edition Size: The number of prints you will need to send will be determined by the number of sign ups. If 20 people sign up, you need an edition of 20... If only five sign up, then we need only five prints. If the number of participants gets too large, I will break the exchange into smaller editions of around 10-20 prints. I'll give you the final number once sign ups have ended.
• MAILING DEADLINE is Wednesday, March 26th. Your package must be postmarked by this date. Keep an eye on the calendar – time can fly by faster than you think!

‘Impossible Visions’ Print Exchange

• Sign ups end on Sunday, March 16th for this exchange.
• The mailing deadline is Wednesday, April 30th.

The details:

• Format: Any printmaking method or combination of methods.
• Theme: ‘impossible visions’ – (to be interpreted by you as you wish)
• Paper: Your choice.
• Paper Size: 4”x 4” minimum / 8” x 10” maximum
• Image size: Your choice.
• Edition Size: The number of prints you will need to send will be determined by the number of sign ups. If 20 people sign up, you need an edition of 20... If only five sign up, then we need only five prints. If the number of participants gets too large, I will break the exchange into smaller editions of around 10-20 prints. I'll give you the final number once sign ups have ended.
  
• MAILING DEADLINE is Wednesday, April 30th. Your package must be postmarked by this date. Please keep track of the time – days, even weeks, can fly by fast!

I will be bringing more info about these exchanges to the meeting tomorrow, and I'll try and remember to bring some other exchange prints I haven't shown you guys yet.
Until then, I hope you all have a great Friday!

“Gung Hay Fat Choi”

February 10th, 2008 (Sunday) Lunar New Year Parade
1:00 p.m. Parade Step Off On Wentworth from 24th St. to Cermak Rd. Chinatown New Year Parade celebrating the Lunar New Year, “Year of the Rat, 4706” will include marching bands, floats, lion teams, a100’ Mystical Dragon, and Miss Friendship Ambassador. Please join us to welcome the New Year as we convey “Gung Hay Fat Choi” to all in attendance. (Photo from Chinese New Year, 2007)

Try making a print, painting, collage, for the "Year of the Rat" and bring it to the next meeting if you would like!

Opportunities for Our Members:

• GALLERIES/NONPROFIT SPACES REVIEWING PORTFOLIOS

Deadline: FEBRUARY 29
*ARBORETUM
STEINHAUER TRUST GALLERY

Open to artist producing wall-hung art to exhibit in University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum’s Steinhauer Trust Gallery. Send proposals, 5 slides or electronic images, SASE: pat Brown, UW-Madison Arboretum, 1207 Seminole Highway, Madison, WI 53711, 608-265-3355, http://www.UWArboretum.org/about/gallery/#artistsmailto:pabrown1@wisc.edu

Deadline: MARCH 1
ILLINOIS CENTRAL COLLEGE
The Galleries on the campus in East Peoria, IL, accepting applications for 2008-2009 exhibition season. Send current resume, 20 slides, short bio, statement and SASE to Jennifer Costa, Gallery Curator, Illinois Central College, One College Drive, East Peoria, IL 61635. slides preferred, but will accept CDs with good quality images of work. E-mail submissions NOT accepted. Questions: 309-694-5529, jcosta@icc.edu

Deadline: MARCH 1
FRED P. GILES GALLERY
Accepting proposals for individual shows for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 exhibition schedules. Exhibition space consists of upper and lower galleries with a spacious landing between. Stipends for transportation costs and honoraria for gallery talks will be awarded on a funds-available basis. All media, including ceramics, drawing, graphic design, metals, mixed media, painting photography, printmaking and sculpture will be considered. Insurance. Send 10-20 slides or digital entries, slide list, resume, statement, SASE to Esther E. Randall, Director, Fred P. Giles Gallery, Department of Art and Design, 309 Campbell Building, Eastern Kentucky University, 521 Lancaster Ave., Richmond, KY 40475-3102.

SUBMISSION OF EXHIBITION PROPOSALES
KISHWAUKEE COLLEGE ART GALLERY
Kishwaukee College Art Gallery invites artists (one person or groups) and other interested parties to submit proposals for exhibition. Potential exhibitors are asked to provide the following materials for consideration: a written proposal discussing the type and number of works to be shown. 15-20 slides of the work, an artist’s statement outlining the focus of the work, a vitae, and a SASE. The exhibitor has the option of being available for the installation and removal of the work. In the absence of the exhibitor, the gallery director will supervise both the installation and removal of the work. Proposal materials are reviewed by the Gallery Committee as they become available for Fall and Spring exhibition schedules.
Non-art proposals should include a statement outlining the intent of the display and the type, size, quality of the materials to be shown.
Send Proposal Materials To:
Michelle Erickson-Goettl, Gallery DirectorKishwaukee College Art Gallery21193 Malta RoadMalta, IL 60150-9699Phone: (815) 825-2086 Ext. 561E-mail: Michelle Erickson-Goettl

• PRINT EXCHANGE

Deadline: APRIL 15
OREGON INKSPOT 2008 PRINT EXCHANGE
2^nd Annual Open to artists worldwide. No entry fee in lieu of donation of two prints from the exchange to Oregon university. Exchange requirements: edition of 15 identical 5x7 prints, original prints made for this exchange. Insert interleaf or glassine sheets between each print, cut to 5x7. Each print must be signed and numbered and accompanied by artist’s name, title and media. All prints submitted will be put in a web gallery and shown in an exhibition at the Nightingale Gallery, Eastern Oregon University’s main gallery space, in December 2009. A portfolio of 13 randomly selected prints will be mailed to each participant in the summer of 2008. Send prints and SASE (6”x9” or larger) to: Oregon Ink spot Exchange, Attn: Kathelene Galloway, Loso Hall 154, One University Blvd., Easter Oregon University, La Grande, OR 97850, http://www.eou.edu/inkspot

• EVENTS WITH ENTRY FEES

Deadline: MARCH 31
2008 JURIED COMPETITION

First Street Gallery, June 26-July19, 2008. Open to US residents 18+. All media except photography or film $30/up to 3 entries; $5/ea. add'l-no limit. Juror: Gregory Amenoff, Char of Visual Art; School of Arts, Columbia University. Prospectus: SASE to First Street Gallery, 526 W. 26th Street, New York, NY 10001 or http://www.firststreetgallery.net/ NO EMAIL ENTRIES.

Deadline: JANUARY 30
Woman Made Gallery: Clay and Fiber

CALL FOR ARTWORK: Clay and Fiber Exhibition Dates: April 4 – May 15, 2008Woman Made Gallery seeks entries by women and men for "Clay and Fiber," an exhibition that examines the creative potential of these two mediums. Artists may submit work in clay, fiber, or work that combines the two mediums. To provide a diverse presentation, the juror will consider art created with traditional, functional or conceptual approaches. Artist Statement plus Entry Fee: $24.Online Entries Submit jpgs of three of your works on our website.Mailed Entries Mail slides or cd with images of three of your works, completed entry form and a $24 entry fee to Woman Made Gallery, 685 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60622Juror: Dorothy HughesDorothy Hughes is an accomplished clay, fiber and mixed media artist. After receiving her training from the Cranbrook Academy of Art and the University of Illinois at Champaign, Hughes taught Fiber at various institutions including the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Evanston Art Center and Wolverhampton College of Art and Design in England. Hughes maintains a studio in Chicago and teaches Clay classes at ArtScapeChicago for Harold Washington College.Final Entry Deadline: January 30, 2008Notifications: February 20, 2008

Beginning Jewelry Making

Class offered through Kishwaukee College:

Beginning Jewelry Making:

Express your inner self by designing and creating your own jewelry! In this hands-on class you will create two unique pieces - a pendant and a ring. Along the way, you will learn the tools of the trade including sawing, soldering, cutting, and filing. Cost includes $20 for supplies. This class meets at Miedema Fine Jewelers, 113B West Main Street, Genoa

Ref#9469

Saturdays, 4/12 - 4/19/2008, 10am - 12pm

2 Sessions, $67 David Miedema

Several of The Makers members are taking this class, come join us!

Click here for a Registration form or call the college at 815.825.2086, ext. 204 between the hours of 7:30am - 4:00pm.

Revisiting Modern Japanese Prints:

"Selected Works from the Richard F. Grott Family Collection"

Show: Rotunda, NIU Art Gallery

This show showed the contrasts between the Eukiyo-e, woodblock prints of the Edo period and that of modern day.The different modern movements were sosaku-hanga, or "creative print," and the shin-hanga, or "new print." Shin-hanga was an effort to renew the Eukiyo-e print styles and conventions while the sosaku-hanga rejected these conventions in favor of self-expression and creativity of the individual artist.

Print (top):
Yoshida Hiroshi (1876-1950)
Title: Yamanaka Ko (Yamanaka Lake)
1978 reproduction of a print originally made in 1929, Edition: 62/300
Image: 16.75"x22.25"
Carver: Endσ Kσkyoku
Printers: Tochigi Yoshirσ, Ito Tσmoro
Richard F. Grott Family Collection

Print (bottom):
Clifton Karhu
Snow at Katsura (or Katsura Detached Palace)
1970, Woodcut, Edition: 38/50
Image: 15.5"x25.125"
Richard F. Grott Family Collection

Ayomi Yoshida - YEDOENSIS

This was the installation piece by Ayomi Yoshida that we visited as a group on Saturday. If you have a chance to visit, the experience is worth your time: Rotunda Gallery, NIU Altgeld Hall, January 15 - March 7, 2008.

Artists Statement:

"In April of 2007 as I watched the cherry blossoms falling, I wondered if the cherry trees would ever bloom again."

"Cherry trees seem to burst into blossom all at once, and after a day or two, drop their petals just as quickly. In Japan they have long been emblematic of life's evanescence. Traditionally, many festivals and seasonal celebrations are planned to coincide with the cherry trees' full flowering. But as the earth's temperature rises, the trees that used to flower in April are no flowering in march. Festivals conducted every year since the early Edo period (1603-1868) now occur long after the blossoms have been swept away. I once believed that the coming of spring and the cherry blossoms would always happen, but lately I am less certain. Will there come a time when the trees fail to bloom? Of course, if such a thing were to actually happen, everyone would be concerned and saddened. But by then, would it be too late?

While I watched the cherry blossoms fall last year, I though about my installation for NIU. The timing of the exhibition, from January to March, would coincide with the coming of sakura, cherry blossoms. During the 1990s, I had produced work about the disappearance of nature in populous cities throughout the world. These images were single sheet wood block prints. For NIU, however, I decided I wanted to merge my concept of "nature" and my artistic approach to "installation.

"Because the climate is so harsh in winter, cherry trees don't grow in many northern states in the U.S. However , if the earth continues to warm, there may be a time when cherry trees bloom in Minnesota and North Dakota. However, that happy though is tempered by the possibility that Japan would be a desert, or submerged beneath the rising seas.

"'Yedonesis' is the scientific name for Somei-yoshino, a type of tree cultivated from wild cherry trees during the Edo period.Somei-yoshino typically lives for sixty years and bears no seeds or fruit. When it is young, the blossoms are vibrant pink and full of life; as the tree ages, the blossoms become paler, as though presaging the end of life. In paintings that remain from the Edo period, the blossoms are pink, but in recent years whether because of weather conditions or weakening DNA, only white blossoms appear - even on young trees.

"Working with a team of volunteers for three weeks, I adhered nearly 100,000 woodblock printed sakura blossoms to two-dimensional branches on the walls of the Rotunda Gallery in the NIU Art museum. The point of my installation, however, was not simply to meet the challenge of producing and adhering so many printed blossoms. A single living cherry tree sends for millions of blossoms each spring. The installation demonstrated that no matter how many people worked over a long period of time, we couldn't come close to equaling nature. I hope that every one who was involved withe the installation, and everyone who visits the exhibition, will understand the grandness of life, its power and energy, but at the same time will sense the precious brevity of blossoming sakura.

"The growth of plants is governed by the rules of nature. In order to express this natural order, I used square prints adhered in a grid pattern. By opening the exhibition while the installation was still in progress, I could emulate a cherry tree coming into full bloom. It also allowed me to demonstrate how small, single acts, when piled one on top of another eventually amount to something larger. In Japan, when there is a great need or hope, it is customary for many people, almost impulsively, to combine their efforts to achieve a desired outcome. in this way, they realize their heart-felt wishes in the same way, I hope the concept and message of my installation - a work that involved so many individuals - will ready the hearts of even more people.

"Around the time that this exhibition ends, the "YEDOENSIS" cherry trees in Japan will begin to bloom. As always, their delicate beauty will be short-lived. It is my hope that each spring it will always be so."

~Ayomi Yoshida

January 15, 2008

The Enormous Tiny Art Show at Nahcotta

Some Maker's members enjoy small, intricate works of art. If that is you then check out the http://www.artroundtown.org/newupcoming.html"> Enormous Tiny Art Show at Nahcotta. Each piece of art needs to be 10-inches x 10-inches or less. Take note! Write it on your calendar and ENTER next year's competition!