Recap: SCGI Printmaking Conference

We’re super grateful to Taro Takizawa for covering the SGC International conference for us. Taro has a BFA in Printmaking from Central Michigan University, and his prints are fantastic. He made the trek down to St. Louis for this conference, which is the largest annual gathering for printmakers and is held in a different city each year. Taro showed his work at Open Portfolio and was featured on Printeresting.

One of the keynote speakers at SCGI was Swoon. While she was in town, she worked with the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts to install a mural (watch video)…as well as a few other “unofficial” pieces. Behind the cut, Taro breaks down his SCGI experience in great detail, including his take on hearing Swoon speak, pictures from Open Portfolio, meeting Tugboat Printshop and visiting Firecracker Press.

DEAR ARTISTS: If you see your prints pictured in Taro’s Open Portfolio recap, please comment and credit yourself!

Read Taro Takizawa’s SCGI 2011 Recap…

“Bonfire” by Tugboat Printshop

Tugboat Printshop has a new woodcut print. It’s called Bonfire, and it’s making me long for summer, where I can run around a pile of burning palettes like a little heathen.

Bonfire is available for pre-order on Tugboat Printshop’s website. There is an edition of 100 and each print is $150. Behind the cut, you’ll find images of each of the five painstakingly carved blocks that made up this image. In case you missed it, check out our interview with Paul and Valerie that we did a few months back.

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Interview with Tugboat Printshop

Husband and wife team Valerie Lueth and Paul Roden run Tugboat Printshop out of their Pittsburgh home. Despite being in the middle of the crazy holiday craft show season, they kindly took some time to share their process with us. They used their latest print, entitled “Dreamboat”, to explain each step.

"Dreamboat", 13 x 18" Woodcut Print on Pale Pink Arturo Paper

“Dreamboat” is the last print (#22) in THE DEEP BLUE SEA Woodcut Series, and it’s available as of right now in their online shop. Behind the cut, you’ll see how they worked together on this print and others they’ve made, including the very impressive “America The Beautiful”.

A completed carved wood block.

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