Re-Released Books - "Genius (Love)" and "non sense"

I was inspired by a couple of readers who responded to my "Bloom" giveaway post (and speaking of which, I'll announce the winners in my next blog post). They mentioned how much they liked my zines. Encouraged by this and as part of my ongoing effort to simplify my life, I've re-released new versions of a zine and a chapbook that were out of circulation for a long time. 

The zine "Genius (Love)" has been out of circulation for 4 years because I never found the time to screenprint the covers! I decided to re-do the cover so I can just photocopy it instead. 

While it's not quite as fancy as before, it's better to have a zine in the world than not at all, in my opinion. 

I also re-did the cover and hand-binding for my poetry chapbook "non sense." The original version took an incredibly long time to make each one, and after awhile I just never felt like doing it. So I linocut-printed the cover instead of making an individual cyanotype for each one, and I simplified the binding. 

The binding is a modified version of the "Two-Sewn-As-One" binding that I found in "Creating Handmade Books" by Alisa Golden, a book that I highly recommend to beginners looking to get into bookmaking.

Both books are available for purchase in my Etsy shop: www.sprouthead.etsy.com

Adventures in New York

In March, I visited my hometown of Rochester, NY and traveled to nearby Buffalo to table at the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair. Here are some pics from the Book Fair:

Me and my friend Rina Drescher  who helped me at my table. She has sold her own poetry chapbooks and art at past fairs but was taking a little break this time.

 

Some cool stuff by Jamie Schilling of Little Beast Press. I bought the screenprinted notebook on the left. Her handmade books were really lovely. I also bought and traded with some other vendors. "The Year of the Bear" by Chad Grohman was a beautifully illustrated fable-like story. Got some nice comics from One Percent Press and a neat mini-comic called "Simple Stuff" by Emily Churco. 

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In Rochester, I visited my sister Olivia's studio (for the first time!)

 Olivia holding an unfinished "sketch" of a figure that she will eventually cast in plaster.

Olivia is an artist who works primarily in figurative sculpture. Her boyfriend Dario Tazzioli is visiting from Italy to have a sculpture show in Rochester in June, and Olivia will be part of a group show at Nazareth College! I'll be sure to post about it when I visit again this summer. For now, see more of Olivia's art here.

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In April I headed up to New York City to take in the museums and table at the Brooklyn Zine Fest.

The breathtaking Hall of Diversity at the Natural History Museum.

The Brooklyn Zine Fest was great - packed with people and full of some great talent. Here is a picture of my friend Katie Haegele of The La-La Theory at the Brooklyn Zine Fest. As an artist and zinester, I think it's amazing that I can meet so many great people through their art. I had ordered some of Katie's zines from Etsy some years ago, and then we met in person when she tabled at the Richmond Zine Fest. I also met Matt and Kseniya, the co-creators of the fest and the zine "I Love Bad Movies," at the Richmond Zine Fest a couple of years ago.

At the Brooklyn Fest, I met many cool people and zine-makers. I picked up a lot of great comics, many by awesome female artists I'd never heard of before. I hope to do a post about comics sometime.

Now some pictures of lovely plants from the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Such a peaceful place. I enjoyed sitting on the Cherry Esplanade while watching mothers and children play. I also love the conservatory.

And a shot of the Keith Haring exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. I had been inspired by Keith Haring when I was in high school and college in particular. His bold, symbolic language spoke strongly to me. I read his "Diaries" during that time, but had forgotten until now how prodigious his output and exploration was, especially for someone of his age. While he was still in school at SVA, he would fill his notebooks with art "research," studying the visual and psychological impact of lines and shapes. Also, in contrast to certain street art I find to be annoying and gratuitous, he posted pictures in the subway that had their own symbolic language. His images, while simple, seemed to communicate in a more mysterious way - sometimes joyful, sometimes political, but always full of life and energy.

Summer Art Classes 2012 in Richmond

I'll be teaching these workshops at the following locations in Richmond, VA. Please register AT LEAST ONE WEEK EARLIER THAN CLASS SESSION in order to guarantee your enrollment in the class.

ADULT CLASSES:

At The Visual Arts Center of Richmond
1812 W. Main St
(804) 353-0094

Paper Bead Jewelry Workshop

 

2 days

Saturday, June 23 12 – 4 pm
Sunday, June 24 1 – 3:30 pm

Bookbinding Intensive

5 days
June 25 - 29th
6:30 - 9 pm daily

Gelatin Printmaking Postcard Workshop

1 Day
Saturday, August 4
1 – 4 pm

Printmaking for Painters: Monotype Intensive

5 days
August 20 – 24
6:30 – 9:00 PM, daily

At The VMFA Studio School

2911-15 Grove Avenue (across from VMFA) at the corner of Sheppard Street

804-367-0816  

Handmade Books

1 day
Sat, 10 am – 4 pm
June 9  

Paper Bead Jewelry

 1 Day
Sat, 10 am – 4 pm
July 7

YOUTH CLASSES

Summer ArtVenture - Youth Art Camp at The Visual Arts Center of Richmond

Click here to view the entire schedule online.

Paper Toys

Ages 6 - 8  

Week 2: June 18 - 22, 12:45 - 3:45 pm

Week 6: July 16 - 20, 12:45 - 3:45 pm 

Week 9: August 6 - 10, 12:45 - 3:45 pm

Fun with Printmaking 

Ages 6 - 8

Week 12: August 27 - 31, 12:45 - 3:45 pm 

Ages 8 - 10 

Week 3: June 25 - 29, 9 am - 12 pm

Week 8: July 30 - Aug 3, 12:45 - 3:45 pm

Handmade Zines

Ages 9 - 12 years 

Week 11: August 20 - 24, 12:45 - 3:45 pm

Zines PikaPackage Giveaway!

hey everyone!

head on over to Pikaland, a blog featuring up-and-coming artists and illustrators, and read the post on the Zines PikaPackage Giveaway. Every so often, Pikaland organizes a group of artists to contribute art and crafts based on a particular theme. These goodies are bundled into packages that people can purchase in the shop, and a couple of the packages are included in a free giveaway to anyone who leaves a comment. you could win your own!

for the zines pack, i contributed a variety of zines and each comes with 1 zine, a notecard+envelope, and a little screenprinted art card. I have looked at the other contributors and it is a really exciting collection of talented artists. luckily, being a contributor I get one free package for myself :) i can't wait for mine to arrive in the mail!

Zine Philosophy for Broken Pencil Magazine!

click on the image to get a larger view

i've been published! i just received my copy of Broken Pencil: The Magazine of Zine Culture and the Independent Arts in my mail yesterday. it has a happy pink cover with a robot on it.

Broken Pencil is a magazine based in Toronto, Canada. I met the editor, Lindsay Gibb, at the Buffalo Small Press Book Fair in march, and i gave her a couple of my zines to review. In June she asked if i would like to write something for the "Zine Philosophy" section of the magazine - where zinesters write about why they make zines, their inspiration, and zine philosophy. i decided to make mine like how i would make a page in a zine - handwritten and illustrated. this was fun, and it is so exciting to have an illustration in print and circulating around Canada and the U.S. Doing this illo also re-inspired me to get back into zine-making. it's been a year since i made a zine! life just catches up with you, you know how it goes.