2008 in the rear view mirror

Only a few days into the New Year and 2008 is fading quickly into the background. Here's a quick look in the rear view mirror at some of last year’s highlights; projects, travels and work in the studio.

January:
Jane Hammond "Spells and Incantations" printing and gold leafing completed.
Headed to Hawaii for a vacation.
February:
San Francisco:
-Saw the beautiful new De Young Museum and the HC Westermann exhibition at Stanford.
-To the opening of the "Enrique Chagoya: Borderlandia" survey exhibition at the Berkeley Museum which included many prints that we published.
-Renee Bott of Paulson Press had a wonderful dinner for us at her home in Berkeley with Pam Paulson and lots of friends.
Returned to the studio to work with my assistant Roseanne to refine the cutting and assembly of the Hammond "mummy".

March:

Tom Burckhardt arrives to begin work on a group of new prints. Photo of him working outside in the snow, drawing blank canvases borrowed from Barbara's studio.

Begin Burckhardt editions.

Assembly of Hammond mummy continues.

April:

Betty Woodman arrives.

Cut blocks and proof woodblock “Picking Plum Blossoms", her first print to incorporate figurative images.

Participated in Art Chicago, our 22^nd year of doing an art fair in Chicago!

May:

Print Woodman edition.

To Spokane for opening of John Buck: Iconography exhibition at Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture. Exhibition includes many of the 40 plus editions we have published and will travel through 2011. Next stop, Fort Wayne Museum.

Roberto Juarez arrives to begin our first project together.

Assembly of Hammond mummy continues.

June:

Proof and print Juarez

Assembly of Hammond mummy continues.

July:

Complete Juarez editions.

Print portion of John Buck “The Night Prism” edition.

Bernard Cohen arrives to begin 10 lithographs for Flowers Editions London.

August:

Proof Cohen lithographs.

Enrique Chagoya arrives, proof new lithograph "La Portentosa Vida de la Muerte II" and new codex “Histoire Naturelle des Espécies…”

September:

Begin editioning of Cohen lithographs.

October:

Continue Cohen edition printing.

To New York for Print Fair.

November:

IFPDA Print Fair
Election

Present talk with Enrique Chagoya at Palm Springs Museum of Art.

December:

Ink Miami

Complete Cohen editions.

2009:

After a holiday break we started the New Year:

Proofed new John Buck woodcut.

Printed Susanne Kühn lithograph for the MCA Denver.

Preparing work for our exhibition "The Legend of Bud Shark and his Indelible Ink" at the MCA Denver which opens Feb 3^rd.

Reflections: Ink Miami

Things have been going well here in Miami. We hung our exhibition on Tuesday and Wednesday and the fair opened on Thursday morning with a breakfast in the courtyard. All the INK Miami participants have done a great job setting up their suites and brought their best work to the fair.

We’ve had good attendance, some sales and many compliments on this location. Generally, all the fairs have seen slower sales and less traffic The past few years the press has focused on what art sold for record prices in the first few minutes of Art Basel Miami Beach. This year the headlines have been about how attendance is down and sales are slow. But Miami is still a vital and vibrant scene with 25 fairs and thousands of people who come to look at art.

INK closes on Sunday at 3:00. We’ll have some time on Monday to relax and walk on the beach before heading home to snow.

Heading to Miami

We're off to Miami on Monday to get set up for INK Miami at the Suites of Dorchester. This will be our third year doing INK. We really enjoy the unique and relaxed setting of this fair. There will be thirteen exhibitors surrounding a courtyard with a reflecting pool. INK focuses on contemporary works on paper and we exhibit with our colleagues from the IFPDA.

If you are in Miami come and see us. We'll have new and recent prints by John Buck, Tom Burckhardt, Enrique Chagoya, Roberto Juarez, Robert Kushner and Betty Woodman.

I know it will be beautiful in Miami....but I don't think they'll be able to top this sunset. This photo taken from the studio about a week ago. We always get amazing sunsets around this time of year.

Busy week

After returning from Palm Springs I charged into a busy week of printing in the studio trying to get projects finished before Thanksgiving and INK Miami. Started the week with the final three plates/colors (of 12) to complete the Chagoya book "Historie Naturelle.....". Now the edition is on it's way to the artist for signing.

Next up was the editioning of the last of six small Bernard Cohen lithographs that we are printing for Flowers Graphics, London. My collaborations with Bernard go back to 1968 at the University of New Mexico. Bernard was a visiting artist and I was returning from a summer at Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles and was asked to work with Bernard on some lithographs. We had an immediate rapport. My many collaborations with Bernard have been among the most interesting and rewarding.

I don't often do "contract" projects, but, I always welcome an opportunity to work with Bernard. He came in August/September and we completed ten images....four large and six small. We've been working on the project for several months and it's satisfying to have the group of small ones completed.

Today we had a visit from Cydney Payton, Karl Kister, and Petra Sertic from the MCA Denver to look at prints and finalize plans for the Shark's exhibition there. The show will open February 3rd and be on view until June 28th, 2009. It will feature 85 prints by 10 artists with whom I have had long term and significant collaborations. Artists included will be John Buck, Enrique Chagoya, Bernard Cohen, Red Grooms, Don Ed Hardy, Jane Hammond, Robert Kushner, Hung Liu, Hollis Sigler and Betty Woodman. Watch for more news about the exhibition and programs.

Bud & Enrique: Palm Springs

Enrique Chagoya and I gave our talk last night at the Palm Springs Museum. It went well and we had a very good turn out. We talked about our collaborations which began in 1997 with "Hand of Power". We've done more than a dozen prints together.....many of them books or "codices". The newest one "Histoire Naturelle des Espécies: Illegal Alien's Manuscript" (shown above) is on the press in the studio. I'll be printing the last three of the twelve plates this week.

It was nice to be able to see Enrique's survey exhibition at the Palm Springs Museum. I've been able to see the show at all of the three venues (Des Moines Art Center, Berkeley At Museum, Palm Springs Museum). It's surprising how the look of exhibition varies at each venue. Some pieces stand out at one venue and not another. The relationships between the work change depending on the installations. The work resonates in different ways each time I've seen it. Even the prints that I've printed and am so familiar with take on new meaning in different contexts.

Palm Springs

Just arrived in Palm Springs in advance of the talk I'll be giving with Enrique Chagoya tomorrow. The talk will be at the Palm Springs Art Museum in connection with the Chagoya exhibition here. We'll be talking about our print collaborations since 1997. You can view many of our projects together by clicking here.

It's warm here and I'm sitting by the pool...creating this blog and working on my presentation for Friday.