RECENT NEWS: ART, FOOD AND NATURE
Katie Bruce (right image taken by Katie)
This week was filled with work but also play. Residents Katie and Jane continued their pieces from last week. Katie brought in a new colour to her embroidery pieces which really highlight the embossed areas found in our old wood floors. Jane started a new print inspired by the many cat pictures she has up in her studio and also finished her prints from last week with glitter and sequins.
Jane Wiseheart
Kyle and I ran a private silkscreen workshop which went really well and we are happy to have two new open studio members at Spark Box because of it! We also met with Kristy from Pathways to Independence in Trenton and are going to be hosting a workshop with a group their later this month.
Cooking at From the Farm
This week also brought a lot of cooking and great food. My mother, sister, grandmother and I went to a cooking workshop at From the Farm where we learned the art of cooking Italian food. We made a four course meal during the four hour. We started with an artichoke dip, followed by handmade ravioli, the main course brought pesto wrapped pork with roasted fennel and arugula salad and finally an upside down apply cake. Amazing!
A Weekend Away
In addition to the cooking, printing and workshops of this week Kyle and I spent a lot of time outside. We went away for two days this past weekend to a friends cottage on the Kawartha Lakes. It was a great little break and a nice weekend with friends we don’t see very often. We also starting working in the garden which is hard work but extremely rewarding.
Our Garden
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PRINT SHOP HOW-TO: RE-STRETCH YOUR SILKSCREEN FRAME
Not too long ago Chrissy and I purchased a hand silk screen stretcher online. I think we were both in agreement that shipping ripped screens to Toronto to have another company re-stretch and ship them back to us was becoming a hassle and too expensive. We purchased our stretcher from a company call ASC365. I’ve recently gone through the process of re-stretching 20 silkscreen frames and wanted to take a moment to share my experience. Even before we begin I’d like to mention that this tool is fantastic and I recommend it.
How to re-stretch mesh onto an aluminum frame:
1. First, take the broken screen and cut a ‘plus’ sign into the mesh. I found that this gave me a good starting point to ripping the mesh off. When I tried using a X cut from corner to corner, it left a lot of remaining screen debris towards the corners. Rip the mesh along one edge towards the corner, then rip the other edge towards the same corner, now rip the corner section off. Repeat this for all the edges.
2. You may see that there are bits of mesh still remaining glued down near the corner, try to remove what you can by picking at it and hopefully you can pull it off. I found that using a utility knife helped in removing the last bits. Don’t worry too much if there is some remaining, when we grind the frame it’ll come off.
3. If you can, go outside and set-up a work table. You will be grinding aluminum and thus creating dust, so doing this process inside the studio was a big ‘no go’. You will need several tools. A metal grinder with a grinding disk, palm sander with 80-120 grid sand paper, particle respirator (not a dust mask, a real respirator, protect your lungs), gloves, clamps, and safety goggles.
4. I clamped the screen down to the table, and begun lightly grinding the frame. The idea is to remove all the glue off the frame and at the same time give the frame tooth to accept a new layer of glue. When you’re grinding the frame you’ll want to be careful not to spend too much time in one spot otherwise you may grind a pit into the frame, and that’s not good.
5. Afterward I used the palm sander to quickly run around the whole frame, this cleaned up some (not all) ink stains, hardened emulsions, or weird glue deposits from tape. When finished rub the frame clean with a rag.
6. Set-up a large station inside, I had to push to a couple desks together. I recommend that you avoid using the floor as a work surface, the mesh is oddly charged with static electricity and will pick up all the dirt off the floor. The stretcher we bought came disassembled in 8 pieces and was really easy to build following the manufacturers instruction.
7. Once the system is set-up and the frame in place, coat the frame with a layer of glue. We purchased the glue from the same company that sold us the stretcher, it is clearly an extremely strong contact cement. I recommend that you open a window and wear a vapor rated respirator mask.
8. It takes 8-10 minutes for the glue to become ‘dry to the touch’. At this point lock into the stretcher your desired new mesh. Crank all the clamps down onto the mesh and begin stretching each side a little bit at a time. You can buy a tension meter which will tell you exactly what tension of the screen is or I compared the tension to another commercially stretched screen we had in the studio.
9. When you’re happy with the tension cut a piece of cardboard slightly smaller than the interior of the frame and place it on the screen. Now apply a second layer of glue to the frame. The cardboard prevents any stringy bits of glue from falling onto the middle of the screen. Like I mentioned earlier the screen has a lot of static electricity and so it tends to attract the stingy glue. Once done let the frame sit for 25 minutes.
10. When you loosen all the clamps and remove your newly stretched frame cut off the excess screen mesh. Finally, use metal foil tape (purchased from a hardware store in the duct working aisle ) to cover the glued side of the screen. That’s it, finished.
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THIS WEEK AT SPARK BOX
Carl Wiens’ silkscreen pieces are near completion with just one last layer. Can’t wait to see them all finished! Looking forward to seeing some more people working in the Open Studio including Nicole Armour. If you haven’t seen Nicole’s handmade books you really should take a look, they are beautiful! She also has a very insightful blog about books, movies, music and friendship called The We of Me.
We are excited to start another month and invite new people into our home and studio. On Wednesday we picked up our newest resident coming to us from Israel and staying for two weeks. Nava Astrachan will be working on three etchings during her stay. (image below taken from HERE).
On Thursday Kyle and I got to see all of our work up at the John M. Parrott Art Gallery and share the moment with our friends and family. The evening was a success and we were so happy to see friendly faces out for an evening in Belleville to support us and our work.
The end of this week finds the end of Sarah Burwash’s residency with us. It has been great having Sarah at the studio. I love her work and will be sad to see her go. I mean just look at this map she made of the area … awesome!
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PAST RESIDENT: TESSA ANDROUTSOPOULOS
This time last year we had printmaker Tessa Androutsopoulos staying with us. Tessa traveled to us from Finland. She studied printmaking at Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, Scotland and in her application she sent images of her degree show entitled “World Destroyer”. This exhibition explored imaginary of cityscapes through wall painting and traditional printmaking. This was one of the most vibrant applications we had received and I was very excited to see what she would create while at Spark Box.
The work she completed while at the studio lived up to our expectations. Tessa was with us for two months and during that time she made a screen print series inspired by the circus, as well as a number of large and small linoblock prints. She had made so much during her stay and had met so many people we thought it would be fun to host an exhibition of her work. The exhibition was great and the party was so much fun. Tessa’s work filled the front room of the old studio and people young and old enjoyed her humorous images and lighthearted display.
RESIDENCY AWARD
Beginning your career as an emerging artist can be tough, which is why Spark Box Studio is offering FREE RESIDENCIES to fine art students and emerging artists. This residency opportunity is a unique way for young and emerging artists to cultivate new ideas, access a rich library of arts resources, learn about career-building opportunities, and develop an understanding of the art world from a business perspective.
Six emerging artists will receive a one-week (7 days) residency at our Open Studio in Prince Edward County. The selected applicants will be given a private studio space and given access to the Spark Box Studio equipment and resources, as well, winners will be provided with living accommodations for their weeklong stay. They will also have access to career guidance from owners Chrissy Poitras and Kyle Topping, along with, local community members.
The winter residency award runs from January 9, 2012 to March 31, 2011. Please be advised that the award is for 7 consecutive days.
Applying for the Residency Award gives artists the opportunity to practice an essential business skill in the art world: the application process.
APPLY NOW (DEADLINE NOVEMBER 1, 2011) CLICK HERE>>
MAKING ART IN THE NEW DIGS
Six days after we moved into the new location we hosted our first resident, Krystal Read, hailing all the way from Dallas, Texas. I must say we were pretty nervous about having a resident only five days after we moved but lucky for us she was great and everything came together just fine. Krystal worked with etching and silkscreen while at the studio. She produced four progressive etchings with silkscreen components and several great sketches (like the one you see above). Krystal’s work is filled with layers of imagery from her past, found images and pop culture.
In her own words “many remnants of history, like old photos, are discarded or quietly tucked away without much reference. It is the rediscovery of these historical remnants that fascinates me. After stumbling upon a collection of old photographs at an antique store, I was drawn by the mystery of the photos. These ghost-like images that are discarded and almost lost to history implore elaboration and interpretation. Through various mediums (drawing, etching, performance, photo-animation) I explore how history can evolve into fantasy or decompose into remnants.
By etching a memory onto a metal plate, I explore the attempt to hold on to history. The medium allows me to explore the many facets of a memory by creating various states in which I scrape away parts of the image and fabricate other details. The plate retains each consecutive mark and, as a result, becomes a recording of historic events. Photo-animation also allows me to record the life of a memory by photographing the slow erasure of an image or the added drawing of a self-imagined context. This deliberate elaboration and removal of details generates questions about the elusive story of the image while exploring themes of memory, time and truth.”
THE LITTLEST PRINT EXCHANGE
Sometimes, when you don’t have time to create a whole body of work, it is fun to participate in a collaborative project. That is why this past summer I applied to be part of the Littlest Print Exchange. The Littlest Print Exchange is an annual juried trade of tiny art prints. Fifty artists are each invited to submit an edition of 50 prints and in turn receive a complete portfolio of 50 prints from all 50 contributing artists.
To my luck I was picked to be one of the 50 printmakers involved. So in early October I got to work making my 50 3″ x 3″ etchings to send off to Illinois. Why did Christopher Clark start the Littlest Print Exchange? He says that ”in truth, the Littlest Print Exchange is a chance to defy the notion that bigger is better, to prove that good things really do come in small packages, and to build connections between artists working around the globe.”
Being the owner of a print studio I encourage any opportunity to see the work of other printmakers and to connect with them. Because of this I was really excited and happy when I say the little package sitting in our mail box from Chris. I am also happy to announce that all of you can see these great prints as well. We will have the Mini Print Show up at Spark Box Studio until the end of the month.
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ONLINE FIND: JEN COLLINS
I just found a very lovely illustrator/printmaker the other night Jen Collins. I found out from her online bio that she is from Scotland and like most artists she has a day job and works on her art in the evenings and on weekends …
Collins works mostly with Gocco prints. For those who are unfamiliar with Gocco prints they are done with a self-contained color printing system. It is similar to silkscreen printing and was invented by Noboru Hayama in 1977. Gocco was very popular in Japan in the 80s and is now used by many printmakers that cannot afford traditional silkscreen equipment (which can be very expensive). They are also very small so you can easily use them to print in your home.
I love Collins’ drawing style, it reminds me a lot of Andy Warhol’s early works of cakes and shoes! I also love how fun and playful her illustrations are. If you want to see more of her work you should check out her Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/hellojenuine.
CREATIVE KIDS CAMP
Soon after Spark Box opened its doors we began receiving inquiries about hosting a children’s art camp during the summer. However, the thought of a bunch of paint-covered kids running around our small studio space was enough to keep us up at night. When we expressed our dilemma, our supportive community stepped forward to provide us with a camp location! Mia Lane, and her daughter Becky Lane, offered to host the camp on an amazing wooded property by Fish Lake. During the week of August 16 – 20, 8 kids from all over the world came to print, paint, draw and sculpt in the woods.
Not only did we have a great location, we also got great help. Becky Lane, a local designer, helped Chrissy Poitras plan, organize and run the camp. While the kids had fun creating their art, they were also taught and inspired by the art history each of their projects was drawn from. The campers learnt about the impressionists while painting en plein air, the earth art movement in the 1960s by creating sculptures out of natural materials, and the history of street art when making their own graphic text pieces, to name a few.
By the end of the camp the kids had created an impressive array of remarkable art works, installed their own exhibition in the woods, titled and priced their work, and made personalized invitation for their family and friends. They had a great turn out and some even sold some work!
DUDES FROM CALGARY
Last week two young guys from Calgary dropped into the studio in the afternoon. We gave them the tour and gave them our little Spark Box speech. We soon found out that both boys were in high school and interested in the arts. We chatted for awhile and then they headed out for the day. Oddly, a few hours later they came back up to the studio to get some more information about our workshops. We happened to be in the middle of teaching silkscreen and the process seemed to interest them. We gave them information about silkscreen and our workshops and they went off to find out if was something they could include in their vacation budget 
The next week they were back with their dad and ready to set up a date to come in for a two day workshop. In the end each of them left with four prints and a t-shirt!
SILKSCREEN BIRTHDAY PARTY
Friends of ours from Montreal and Kingston came down to the studio for a day to have a silkscreen birthday party. They spent the day learning about silkscreen, drawing their images, and printing small editions. It was a great day of exciting printing, and the prints turned out fantastic. Birthday parties aren’t just at Chuck-E-Cheese anymore, at Spark Box Studio your birthday party could be focused around making art.
ALBERT COLLEGE TEACHERS SILKSCREEN
Several teachers from Albert College, located in Belleville, arranged for a workshop and a visit to Spark Box Studio in order to learn about silkscreen techniques and specifically how to print onto t-shirts. Three teachers came down and spend the afternoon printing t-shirts for a fundraiser the students were organizing. It was fantastic to have them come down and do some printing, we could not believe how much fun these teachers had screen printing t-shirts.
CHESTERFIELDS T-SHIRTS
Recently we completed an order of silkscreened t-shirt order for Chesterfields Cafe. Awhile back, Graham, owner of chesterfields, came into the studio and commissioned us to do small run of Chesterfield Cafe logos printed on t-shirts. The designs were made by local artist Nella Cassen. One night we burned a few screens with her images and started printing white colored logos onto nearly a hundred shirts. We worked into the wee hours of the night finishing with great results! Nell’s super cute illustrations looked great on the t-shirts. If you’re interested in such a service please contact us by email or by phone. We’d be happy to discuss the possibilities of silkscreening items for you.
WINTER SILKSCREEN WORKSHOP
Our first silkscreen workshop took place in November and we were surprised at the amount of interested this class generated. Both adults and youth attended the several hour class and learnt about the process of turning almost any image into a lovely three colour print. By the end of the class many of the participants became natural production houses and were turning out large edition print runs. Everyone walked away with at least one multicolored print. Check out additional pictures from this workshop on our flickr site: Spark Box Studio Flickr Site. This workshop was such a great success that we will be running another one early in the new year.
CENTENNIAL SCHOOL PRESENTATION
We have been working on making connections with the local high schools for some time now. We were finally given the opportunity to speak at Centennial Secondary School in Belleville. Thanks to Bill Tomlinson we were invited to give a presentation his intermediate and senior art classes. The goal of the presentation was for us to explain Spark Box Studio, give the students an idea of who we are, what we do, how we got to where we are, and why we are interested in working with youth in the area. Being graduates of an art program are quite aware of how scary it can be to consider entering a field where you may become the ‘starving artist’. Being an artist is difficult road to travel, but it is a possible line of work. As part of our presentation we outline how we are trying to help young artists get started by providing many resources such as: out online guides, the Art School Guide, and the Emerging Artist Guide, a volunteer/mentoring program, portfolio consultations, residency awards and a community space to work in and interact with seasoned artists. This talk at Centennial was the first in it’s series. Thank you Bill for helping to arrange this presentation we both had a blast talking to your students.
OPEN STUDIO: CARL WIENS
This week Spark Box Studio is proud to present the newest participant in the open studio program, Carl Wiens. An illustrator based in the county, Carl is a fine example of an artist making a living. We strongly recommend that you check out his website at www.carlwiens.com. We especially love the robot work he has done, here’s a quick link to that section retroroborama. Carl is excited to start working on a silkscreen series in the studio. Within his first day he was well on his way towards a finished print. In the afternoon he managed to shoot two screens and print two colors for his edition of 10 prints. We’re really happy to have Carl working in the studio.
OPEN STUDIO PROGRAM
Recently Spark Box has had many people coming through the studio for workshops or continue their visual art practice. Several Open Studio participants are focusing on silkscreen with good results. Lis Gare had not done silkscreening for many years and was eager to re-learn the medium. She quickly realized how much silkscreening has changed over the years. Silkscreen used to be oil based and was very toxic. In fact it was at one point the most toxic art medium available. As many of your know at Spark Box Studio we use a water based silkscreen system. This method is far less toxic than the traditional oil based system.
Also working in the studio a local artist, Mia Lane. Mia has been taking the high realism technique often seen in her paintings and translating them into the etchings with superb results. Local printmaker and owner of Blizzmax Gallery Peter Mennacher has also started coming in to use the studio to print his etchings. Peter’s studio, located in a barn is unheated, as the temperature gets colder inks become stiff and unusable but lucky for him Spark Box Studio is heated and open through the winter!
STEVE NEWBERRY
Spark Box Studio had its first resident artist, Steve Newberry. Steve currently lives in Hamilton and came to focus on his next set of ideas and concepts. Steve primarily works in sculpture, installation and new media, but more recently he has become interested in printmaking. It was fantastic getting to know Steve over the course of his one week stay. In addition to focusing on his independant work, we taught Steve how to silkscreen. Steve had brought some old post cards of Belleville that he wanted to transfer into prints. We gave steve a complete crash course in silkscreen and talked about the posibilities for mixed medium work. In the end he decided to silkscreen onto plywood and will later integrate other elements such as woodcut, found objects, screws, paint and many other interesting processes.
Two of the images we printed are posted. It should be mentioned that when printing onto plywood one should consider that the surface is not 100% uniform. The wood has both divits and grain which will alter the final printed image, for better or worse.
Check out his website at–www.Steve Newberry.com.
FIRST SILKSCREEN CLASS
Today was an exciting day for Spark Box Studio. A young girl, Gabby, and a boy, Edgar, were the first youth to come into the studio and learn about printmaking. In a four hour session Gabby and Edgar learnt, from scratch, how to take an image and transfer it into the silkscreen medium. The class began with print appreciation where we discussed techniques and the basics of the process. Shortly into the class Nella Casson, a good friend and fellow artist came to help teach. Nella is the wonderful woman who loaned Spark Box Studio an exposure unit, some screens, squeegees, and miscellaneous other silk screen items.
We started the class with an image of a sunset Gabby had taken on her camera. With photoshop Gabby and Edgar learnt how separate the image into stencil shapes. In the dimly lit darkroom we taught them about using the exposure unit and explained how it hardens the exposed emulsion on the screen leaving their image to be printed. Afterward, we showed them how to mix up inks, how to register and finally, how to pull their print. Both Gabby and Edgar took part in every step of the process and in the end had successfully created a piece of art from conception to completion.
After we had all walked through the whole process together, Gabby and Edgar went on to make their own silkscreened images. Both finished the session with original, limited edition, hand pulled prints.
HARVESTIN’
Spark Box Studio was invited to be a participant in the farmer’s market square at the Harvestin’ event on September 24th. Harvestin’ the County is an event that encourages the public to support the local agricultural community. A great event and to find out more details about the event visit http://www.harvestin.ca.
When we first arrived to set up we both felt a bit out of place in the farmer’s square. Quickly we discovered that other community supported projects had their own tables and that set us at ease. We set up our table, established a silk screen station and screen printed Spark Box Studio logos. Many people were intrigued and inquired about what we were doing and happily we discussed the processes and talked about the programs Spark Box Studio offers.
