The Beehive Collective's visit last Fall

Not too long after coming back from visiting the Beehive Collective in Maine, the bees came to Grand Rapids and did a three day event including a presentation of their latest graphic "The true cost of Coal", a workshop for artists and activists and an activity for kids on the last day. This was the second time I had the honor to host the bees since their last visit in March, that's right two times in one year!
On a personal note, the Beehive Collective has been an inspiration for me since the first time I saw them back in 2001. Back then I was a little lost, and was not too convinced that being an artist was the best choice in my life, needless to say; after looking at their beautiful graphics charged with powerful messages and how they have stayed true to their ideals; I was inspired. Now 10 years after, I am still inspired, loving what I do and no longer questioning my decision to become an artist.

Machias "Little bad falls"

I left Bethel, at 4PM on Friday, it was one of those hard to leave places, but the good news is that I may come back for either a show or an artist in residence.
I started driving again and according to google maps I should have been in Machias in 2 1/2 hours, instead I got there at 11:30 PM. I guess that was without considering all the stops and my 40mph driving speed through those narrow curvy roads.
 After being five days on the road I made it to Machias!
I arrived to the Beehive collective's house at midnight, there must have been like 40 people in and around the house, I was offered a place to sleep but I found the fire in the back yard, and although I was tired I couldn't resist music around the fire.

Next day we all had brunch at the Grange,  and then everybody just went everywhere, it was Sunday and Sundays are free. I set up my tent and talked with some of the bees. I was asked to help with the creation of a backstage decoration, and that's what I'm working on today. I'll post some pictures later.

five days on the road: gorges, rainbows, bears, mountains, curvy roads, people, fate?

Double rainbow!

At my campsite at Parc de la gorge de Coaticook

Yeah! where do I even start. Maybe by saying that I'm so happy to be alive after sitting all alone in my tent while some wild definitely big toothed creatures fought 2ft away over my hemp milk. Never in my whole life did my heart beat as hard as last night, I guess that is a way of saying that I have never been so scared in my life.

The Art Gallery of Ontario AGO

OK, so I couldn't find a place to stay in Toronto,  but I had found a couch surfer who accepted my request, and I was curious to try it at least once. So I did.  On a side note, the speed limit in Canada is 100km/h, that is 60 miles /hr or 35 on side roads, and I liked the slow phase, but I was always late. So I got later than expected to Toronto, nevertheless my couch surf host waited and even went out with me for dinner. We had a really good conversation about food and travel.

 The next day I walked the streets of Toronto until the heavy rain kept me inside of a little italian coffee shop with a flat screen TV in the rest room and wall covered with a picture of a soccer game (that explains the tv). My host mentioned that he worked at a gallery in town that happened to be the AGO, no shit! He gave me his last pass to let me in for free! During my visit, I remembered about this really cool printmaker whose work I have admired for so long and had moved to some city in Canada.  I sent him a FB message to figure out if he lived in Toronto or somewhere near. He texted back and invited me over.

We exchanged prints, t-shirts, ideas, experiences, frustrations, etc, and he fed me some delicious food!  Plus it was amazing to be able to see all his prints in real life. His name is Alec Dempster check him out. Him and his wife play son jarocho their band is called Cafe con Pan.
The next day I had to figure out my route and the place where I was staying in Montreal, so I went to a coffee shop that in fact was a Portuguese Bakery, to use their wi-fi. And yes it was delicious and yes it took me for ever to figure things out.


Driving to Montreal should take 6 hours but with construction, detours, and french traffic signs it took me 10 hours. I got to the hostel at10 pm. The next day a drove and walked around Montreal, had some sushi to go, sat at a park ate it and listened to a jazz band, went to a coffee shop found out my route to Machias or somewhere in the middle and got on the road again.

Near the border with Vermont I stopped at a info center and they sent me to the Coaticook campground. I got there, found my site (where the big toothed creatures live) and set up my tent, fire and dinner. Earlier that day I decided to follow "La route des vins" which was longer than expected, but I experienced driving in the country side which was absolutely beautiful, and found an Organic winery.  That is in part why I was so tired that night and forgot to put away the milk.

Day 5: Fate

woke up fine after several visits by several creatures to my site, had breakfast, carved a plate for a commission,  did my laundry, printed the plate there, forgot my all my pants in the dryer, and took off.

Machias was only 6 hours away! but it was already 2pm. I decided there was a chance I had to stay somewhere in the middle. On the map I found this little town called Bethel.
I drove 4 hours through what seemed to be the most beautiful road to drive. By the way they held me at the border for like 1/2 hour to check my documents, take my picture, my finger prints and inspect my car. That ruined my elation.

Yeah Bethel!  I decided I was too tired to keep driving and didn't have any desire to camp. The cheap motel was full, the expensive was too expensive. I drove around and found two inns at the end of Main street. I called both; one was $89 the other $99, but the guy who answered the phone at the $99 had such a friendly voice that I followed my gut and decided to stay there. And this was a one of the best experiences of my trip so far.

I walked in, and there was Woody behind a bar talking to an other guy and Rachel the inn keeper.  I sat at the bar, he offered food but had eaten already so I had a beer instead.
Woody turned out to be an artist, so he was curious about my art, and when I mentioned I had some prints with me he asked my if I could bring them over. Two hours later there was a party around my prints, the neighbors came over, Woody's wife, Rachel's friend and the other guests. I talked about my art, my interest in seed saving, the environment, etc. I was told I couldn't have chosen a better place to stay in town. I sold some prints and was offered to stay an other day. Rachel offered to take me to the water holes and go paddling the next day. I haven't decided if I'm staying, but I'm open to whatever the day decides to surprise me with.

The "going away" event

Back in March The Beehive Collective visited my hometown and besides giving  the presentation at GVSU, teaching a workshop at my studio and coming with me to the local brewery, they also planted in my brain the idea of coming to Machias and visit their community. I've been wanting to do so ever since I met them for the first time back in 2001.

The idea of driving/flying/riding the train all the way to Maine seemed daunting to me, but I decided I wanted to do it.

Now, the problem was that I didn't have enough money to cover all the travel expenses plus my expenses at home while I was gone. I struggled for I while and then decided that maybe if I had a studio sale I could probably be able to go, otherwise I was going to have to wait until next year.

A week before the date I was planing on leaving I started sending invitations to my "Going away sale", knowing that one week is too short notice, I really didn't expect much of it. Nevertheless I worked really hard that week to have enough prints to sale, and to entice people to come to the event I offered a trade; if they brought me a mix for the road they would get 25% off anything in my studio.

On the day of the event I woke up super early and super tired, went to the Farmer's market and cooked a lot of food. By noon I was ready (it helps to have nice housemates) and open for the sale.

Needles to say, I got a lot of support from my community and a lot of music too!

Now I'm on the road, and was able to pay for all the expenses that this trip has generated. I've been having the greatest time driving and listening to all kinds of music, thinking of the time and thought this or that person put into the mix that's keeping me awake, and  being grateful for having such a good hearted, supportive community.

I'm leaving Toronto today, Montreal is my next stop and I still don't know where I'm staying.

Festival Poster

Back in July I received an email to discuss an opportunity to create the poster for the Festival of the Arts, and even though they hadn't asked me to do it yet, I was so happy just to even be considered for the job.

unveiling event at the GRAM

Then in August I met with the Festival chairs, Joanne Bailey-Boorsma and Alex Castro and they officially asked me to create the Festival of the Arts 2011 poster.  Then, the pressure was official too, plus I couldn't tell anybody until the unveiling in February, that's 6 months of keeping my mouth shut!

I said: the print will look a lot better, trust me...

  Grand Rapids Press:
Grand Rapids Festival 2011 poster unveiled
2011 Festival of the Arts poster well received by Grand Rapids community

WZZM 13:
Festival-unveils-2011-poster

Dead End Print Exhibition 2010 - OIL

DEAD END MINI PRINT EXHIBITION

 

This event took place the last weekend of October, we received 50+ prints that were critical, satirical, sad, insightful, etc about the theme of OIL.

my plate halfway carved

CMU exhibition notes

I went back to CMU last week to talk about my prints and to pick up my artwork, and I have to admit that was more excited to pick up the notes that were exchanged for "seed packets" than my own artwork.

It has been my intention to create installations with the only purpose to inspire and get inspired. I can't speak much about the first part, but I'm always inspired by people's stories, notes, drawings.

"Graphic Protest" at Central Michigan University

This exhibition runs from January 11th to February 12th at Central Michigan University's art gallery

Renegade Craft Fair

Next weekend I'm coming to Chicago to the Renegade Craft Fair! I'm exited to be part of it and have the chance to meet all those creative people and to get to see all of the goods that have to sell. I always get back home inspired and motivated and ready to start on new projects.
For now until then, I'm cranking the press every day, I'm almost ready!

If you are in Chicago on that weekend, please come and visit me.
Red Hydrant Press is at booth #13 on Division St. between Winchester and Damen.

Dead End Prints Call for Submissions

This is officially the third year we celebrate El Dia de los Muertos with an exhibition of small prints. And just as in previous years we are once more asking for submissions:

Theme: OIL
Print dimensions: Image must fit within a MAXIMUM paper size of 5.5x7.5 inches.
Eligible media: Hand pulled prints only: woodcut, collagraph, monotype, intaglio, lithography, etching, silkscreen, etc. No ink jet, laser, photocopy or any mechanical or photographic reproductions please.

For more information, please download the submission form at google docs, or go to my website

Feel free to contact me with any questions or comments: alynnguerra@me.com

Old Birthday Notes

Back in April I celebrated my birthday by having a party and asking people to write notes in exchange for a print. What was different this year was that the note had to be about my favorite color, which wasn't that difficult to guess; and the author of my favorite story would get one of my prints framed.
I got stories sent by email, or posted on my face book and real hand written ones. I read and I enjoyed all of them. But two in particular got my attention, one was a poem and the other a very creative sci-fi story. The poem was written by a 12 year old girl, and the sci-fi story by her mother; so I decided to give the artwork to both of them, they are the two blue cards in the center of the picture.
I gad a great time which keeps coming back every time I open a drawer and find that stack of colorful cards in it. I'm very grateful to all my friends who gave me those wonderful stories on my birthday.

Open Studio Hours

Now it is official: I'm opening my studio to the public on Mondays and Fridays from Noon to 6 PM.
I kept telling people about this, but posting it on my website is going to make it look more credible.

All of my prints and printed stuff are available for purchase, the other good news is that I can now take credit card payments.

For more information please follow the link to my website.

Their Daily Bread

It was probably more than 2 years ago when Margie, Mandy and I had this idea of using a house for a site specific art installation regarding women and home. We couldn't do it last year, but we did it this year at last.

I was frustrated to know that the chosen house was "historical" meaning we could basically do nothing on the walls, no sticking, nailing, hanging, painting, etc. So, what was I supposed to do, lay things on the furniture, or on the floor? Well, that's exactly what I ended up doing after weeks of not knowing if I was able to figure something out.

I decided to talk about something that concerned women in Grand Rapids around the time when the house was built. What a nice surprise to find out around that that the women suffrage movement was about to be successful.

I had to find some bed sheet donations, which was not a problem compared to what followed next.

I decided to do reproductions of articles from the local newspapers from 1911 to 1920; I obviously had no idea what I was getting myself into. Most articles regarding suffrage, women, important women, etc. were very small and hard to find in the newspaper microfilms, but not surprising there were lots of sexist ads aimed at women, I guess that was very common. So I spent long long days at the local history department looking for those hidden articles. And, although they were small, and not very frequent, I gathered a big pile of them!

I printed all of those articles on the bedsheets and covered the furniture with them.

Here is my artist statement:

For the exhibit, we are using this historic home to focus on facets of history that took place when it was young, specifically from 1912 through 1920, the years during which the women’s suffrage movement succeeded in granting women the right to vote. The house belonged to the grandfather of Dorothy Leonard. Leonard was active in the fight for women’s suffrage; she joined the League of Women Voters in 1920.

My installation represents this history through the medium of dust, dust as a remainder and reminder of things past. The dust used is a combination of flour, as a tribute to the women servants who spent their hours hard at work in this home’s kitchen baking bread, and ashes, as a reminder of those in the movement now dead.

For the first part of my installation, I researched newspapers of the era and printed reproductions of relevant stories on bed-sheets. The sheets cover various pieces of furniture in the home as a way of drawing attention to the accumulation of history throughout the years. The history that settled around these pieces of furniture is the unseen history that settles like dust around us today.

The other part of my installation uses stencils of news stories that made big news around the dates that were relevant for women’s suffrage. Instead of paint, I used flour, again to represent the dust that history leaves behind, the dust of movements that never settles, but waits to be stirred up again by women seeking justice.


The exhibit took place at the Leonard at Logan B&B in Grand Rapids Michigan from March 26-28. The artists involved were Mandy Burrow, Margie Erlandson, Anna Campbell, and myself.
There are more pictures and information on my website.

New year and other projects.

I had the best time organizing the Dead End exhibit, we received 54 prints from 28 artists from 8 states, I met a lot of really nice printmakers and print buyers as well.
At the end I was unable to create a website but I put together a webpage with all the prints from the exhibit.

Two weeks after that we had yet an other event; the Tanglefoot 19 open studio Holiday sale, where all the artist studios in the three and four stories Tanglefoot building open their doors to the public.



In the middle of the Holiday exitement and had to print about 200 paper bombs for the UICA's exhibit "(S)Edition Prints as Activism". This exhibit features the work of 54 artists and will be up until March 5th.





And since it's so hard for me to say no even when I'm swamped, I ended up participating in a fundrising project for a local organization that provides meals to homeless people in the city. I painted/printed a bowl which will be auctioned during the event. I really wished I had known a little bit more about printing on a bisque bowl. Now, I'm just hoping it turns out good enough to be auctioned for at least a decent price.

The design is based on one of the Tree of Life and Death designs I did for the Dead End exhibit, only this one doesn't have any skulls in it, I thought it wouldn't be appropiate to have death references on a food container. Instead I used one statement form the book "Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed", wich says: Food is a human right.

Since I don't post as often as I should, I always try to say as much as I can with as little words as possible as to not overwhelm who ever stumbles into my blog, so if there are things that don't make much sense, there is always a website to visit for reference: www.redhydrantpress.com

Prints are finally showing up!

I been putting a lot of energy organizing and getting ready for the "Dead End Prints" exhibit, not knowing if I was going to get any prints to show. 

I opened the studio on Monday to receive submissions and not a single person showed up, then I got a lonely print on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday I got a bunch on the mail. On Thursday I was anxious to check my mail, and there they were an other pile of multicolored envelopes containing beautiful Day of the Dead prints. 

Today is Friday and there are two more days until the dead line. I can't wait to go to the studio and check my mail. But I'm on the other hand trying to make a dead line for an other printmaking  show which is today.

Dead End Prints - two more weeks

There are just two more weeks between today and the deadline. I have heard from many people about their interest in participating, attending, writing about it, etc. And now I'm just going to be waiting anxiously to see what happens. So far, two local magazines have written stories about this event, but the most amazing thing is the emails I'm getting from all over the country and beyond requesting more information. 

The idea to organize a mini print exhibition came from our visit to several printmaking shops in Chicago about 3 months ago, I got inspired and decided to organize an exhibit with just handpulled prints for my favorite celebration of the year: El Dia de los Muertos. 

I think that an exiting theme and size would be the catalyst for really great mini prints.

If you are a printmaker and would like to participate, please visit my website and download a submission form.   The only requirement is the size; 9 square inches.

Dead End Prints

"My window" print exchange

I signed up for a print exchange with the theme: "My window", that was back in April and then it seemed like I had all the time in the world to finish on time in August. This has been one more reminder that I have no sense of time, even in July I thought August was far away. One day I read an email reminding us of the deadline; I checked my calendar and then I realized that I had just 1 week to finish not just the carving, but the whole edition.

I started working on the drawing, and then I carried the plate with me to any place where aflat surface was available. I finished on time, but...

Carving day and night ...

I'm ashamed to confess that I sent my prints 3 days late (I didn't consider the drying time!)

That's the real window.

My new etching press

Last month I found a posting on Baren Forum from a man who needed to sell his etching press as soon as possible.
I thought about it for an hour or so; it was crazy that for the past 3 nights I had been waking up in the middle of the night thinking that I needed to start saving money to buy a bigger press; and on the third day I stumbled into this! So I called the number and inquire the price, location, etc.
There was no way I could come up with the money in 5 days. That was Thursday, on Sunday we had a house meeting and I just mentioned the whole situation to my housemates; the next day I had the money and was making the call to give Joel an offer (I have the best housemates).

Wednesday: Carlos and I took the train to Chicago, I've never heard of railroad construction season before, we got there two hours late. We had lunch and visited the Mexican museum of art where we were going to meet Carlos' cousin who was taking us to Downers Grove where the press was.

We finally made it to Downers Grove at 5PM, I met Joel and the press, and realized that it was going to be really hard to move that press, let alone transport it to GR. The truck we were planing on using could only carry half of the weight, that changed half of the plans.
We took off the motor hoping that it would reduce the weight, and reserved a big U-haul truck, that's all we could do that day.

Thursday: we picked up the U-haul and headed to the tool rental place in DG, they suggested a motor lift and a chain would do it.
Well it only helped to move the press 6 ft out of the garage with the help of a jack and many dangerous slips of the chain. There was no way in the world we were going to lift a 1400 lb press 4 ft from the ground and then push it into the truck. We considered all the options: take it all apart, hiring 8 strong men, take off the legs, etc. By then the idea of having a press in my studio in Grand Rapids Michigan suddenly seemed more and more unattainable.
An other day went by, and the press was still sitting 6 feet from the garage, and 4 from the truck. It was late, we covered the press and decided to come back the next day, but first we went to the local brewery! Joel and I had a really nice conversation, got to know each other and we both realize that the press was coming from a good home and going to a new good home as well. I was happy to met another nice printmaker (I haven't met a not nice printmaker yet).

Friday (that was the deadline to get the press out of the premises) We came back to the rental place and got a forklift! The press was in the truck in less than 10 min. We cleaned up, say good bye and came back to Grand Rapids. It took us about 5 hours to drive back, we were afraid that a sudden stop would make the press fly into the air and crush us or somebody else to death. So back in GR, we made a stop at the house and showed the press to everyone, (technically it was their press too) And decided to unload the truck the next day.




Saturday: We are lucky to have a studio where there is all the equipment and helpful people you'd ever need to unload a press, bring it up to a 3rd floor and set it up on your favorite spot.



I forgot to mention that the press was all covered in grease, which took me about 3 hours to get rid of, but that was nothing compared to what we just had been through, so I did it happily and didn't even seem that hard to me.

Now, I have an etching press, and I already pulled my first print!

It's strange, 10 years ago when I came to Grand Rapids I was looking for a printmaking shop where I could use a press. It takes a lot of time and effort to find one!

The latest endeavours.

After my last post back in April, I had a birthday party with a surprise band, video and present. Lots of dancing and such a memorable event.

Then my real birthday came, and we celebrated at Founders brewery, where a poster contest for a local organization was taking place too. I had submitted an image, since it was going to be at the same time and place as my b-day celebration/give-away.



As if all I had received already wasn't enough, my print was selected as the winner piece that night.





This is the final poster with my image.