The Atlantic Avenue Print Club inside the Atlantic Avenue Frame Shop and is managed by print master Mike King. You might not know his name but chances are if you’ve seen his work. Walking into the A.A.P.C. you pass an entire wall covered in what I think is about 1/1000th of all of Mike’s work, mostly concert posters for some musicians that you’ve maybe (definitely) heard of. I joined Mike at the A.A.P.C. to make a single screen print series.
I really wanted to make make my screen print completely analogue (no computers were used in the making of this artwork!) which made many aspects of the process a lot more time intensive. For every color you see in a screen print, this is another layer of printing, each time you have to realign, or re-register the paper and the screen so you are printing in the correct place. Lesson learned - digital registration marks are a lot easier than drawing them by hand! But it can be done.
Here is my initial “sketch”. Each shape was cut out by hand.
I developed the composition more and then taped each shape to a different sheet of clear mylar.
Printing screens were covered in a special emulsion and the artwork taped to each mylar sheet was was transferred onto the screen - creating negative space where ink can be pushed through the screen onto the paper. Places where the emulsion remains (green) will not allow any ink to transfer.
Print layer one complete! 5 layers to go…
In the end each paper was printed on six times to allow for a complete composition of 6 colors.
Printmaking takes a surprisingly long time! The process is very physical and takes a fair amount of upper body strength. I completed this project last fall - I think it would have been difficult or impossible for me to do now with my big belly, but I am looking forward to trying it again in the future!
For now I have a very exclusive limited edition run of 25 prints AND, they are for sale! $200 framed or $75 unframed (plus shipping if you are not in New York!) If you are interested just shoot me an email.
It is already adorning the wall of future Baby Cynamon’s room and, in my opinion, looks adorable.