opening reception sat oct 19 | 5-8 pm

Wallpapers & More

From the Artist:

At the end of the day, the main goal of printing and installing a job is to improve the feel of a space. I like to envision a completed job as an embellished piece of clothing that everybody gets to wear and feel good in. One that will wear well and break in over time.

My approach to wall covering is a result of pairing age old wood carving techniques with the efficiency of the industrial self inking printing press to produce textural wood block printed walls that stand out from today’s digital based printed wallpapers. My printing style partnered with a forgiving application method creates a medium that attempts to embrace the subtle dissonances that mirror the rhythms and nuances of everyday life. Like the tuned notes of a piano that are never in perfect tune, yet are what gives the notes their vibrating character and beauty. 

I originally screen printed wallpapers and realized I could not keep up with both the client’s demand at times as well as the physical demand and monotony of pulling screens. Wanting to continue this wall covering venture and take it a step further, I realized that I could make prints more efficiently by carving wood blocks and using a letterpress. The Chandler and Price clamshell letterpress that I use was not originally intended to print large wood blocks of color and therefore would print more painterly. By regulating the amount of ink and mixing colors on the fly, I found I could get the feel I was looking for. 

In today’s throw away society, these old presses and other well engineered tools such as the weaving loom are unfortunately being discarded and forgotten as they are deemed impractical compared to sophisticated software based printing and outsourced looming practices. Both printing presses and looms were strong proponents to propel society to where it is today. Being able to repurpose, reinvent and to continue to use them in such a way adds yet another dimension to a product rather than one being created from the ladder. Again, like a piece of clothing, however it was made will reflect how it looks and feels.

A lot of my work is printed on recycled papers and second hand inks I find and will continually look for more sustainable ways to move forward. 

All the loomed bags are made from non recyclable landfill bound plastics and retired fishing rope from Cape Cod and are then loomed on a Union Loom. 

The printing press, the Union loom along with the house I live in are all coincidentally from the 1930’s and are tucked away in the Laurel Mountains.

Special thanks to Tissue Farm and the visitors of this show, to my clients that keep me afloat and all the people out there that make life inspiring.