Wednesday, December 31, 2025

SUMMARY 2025


BUCKET EXHIBITIONS
SUMMARY 2025

2025 was a busy year for Printmaking!


We had a very active printmaking year in 2025 with lots of PRINTMAKING EXHBITIONS and EVENTS.  The Highlights were Exhibiting at the University of Juarez in Mexico, and pushing EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints at the Southwest Print Fiesta in Silver City, New Mexico:



MONTHS

CLICK on the Image or Text below to read to a more substantial blog post:

JANUARY

We participated in the OPEN HOUSE event in Albuquerque
at the Nob Hill location of REMARQUE PRINT WORKSHOP


LITTLE BIRDS Exquisite Tessellation Prints
As we had a lot of bird linocuts,
we made a few EXQUISITE TESSELLATION bird prints



FEBRUARY

TESSELLATING in TUCSON --
at THE DRAWING STUDIO
They printed large EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints
at THE DRAWING STUDIO in Tucson



MARCH

TINY TOWN
EXQUISITE TESSELLATION printing at Tiny Town
in Tucson



APRIL

Printmaking SOCIAL HOUR
REMARQUE PRINT WORKSHOP in Albuquerque
had one of their Screen Print Social Hours on April 25th



MAY

SUMMARY -- PRINTERS PLANET TAOS 2025
We printed and passed out big tessellation linocuts
at the PRINTERS PLANET event in Taos



JUNE

Styrofoam Printmaking at the Juan Tabo Library --
 with HENRY MORALES
We made Styrofoam prints at the Juan Tabo Library in Albuquerque
during the opening of Henry Morales' print exhibition


CUBAN PRINTMAKERS
We met a few important Cuban printmakers
exhibiting at ARTES DE CUBA gallery in Santa Fe


We had our first substantial QUICK TESSELLATION workshop at Quelab
during the ATMOMIC 66 weekend


MADA SUMMER CELEBRATION -- Printmaking in Santa Fe
We printed in Santa Fe during the MADA Summer Celebration
with the PRINTERS PLANET
on the grounds of the Santa Fe Art Institute

REMARQUE Moving their PRESSES
TAKACH PRESS moved the big presses for REMARQUE PRINT WORKSHOP
from their Nob Hill location to their new location in the old Tortuga Gallery


MORE TUCSON
THE DRAWING STUDIO in Tucson
printed large EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints


TUCSON visits ALBUQUERQUE
JOE MARSHALL and family from TUCSON
 made prints at Quelab when they were visiting Albuquerque



JULY 

FAT CROW PRESS -- Color Tessellation SUMMARY
Julie Sola made EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints
at her FAT CROW PRESS studio in Las Vegas, New Mexico



AUGUST

UNM Museum Print Collection
Angel Jiang gave us a tour of the print collection
at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque


Remarque Re-Opening
REMARQUE PRINT WORKSHOP had a big Re-Opening
at their new location in Albuquerque, the old Tortuga Gallery


SUMMARY -- THE PRINTERS PLANET Santa Fe 2025
We pulled fresh prints for free in Santa Fe
at THE PRINTERS PLANET market


SUMMARY -- TUNEL GRAFICO in Juarez
We showed 163 EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints
from Albuquerque, El Paso and Tucson
as part of the TUNEL GRAFICO exhibition in Juarez, Mexico



SEPTEMBER

SUMMARY --- MUERTOS y MARIGOLDS Printmaking 2025
Henry Morales gave a relief printmaking workshop
as one of the MUERTOS Y MARIGOLDS Procession events


PRINTMAKING WORKSHOP in Juarez
They gave a few printmaking workshops in the TUNEL GRAFICO exhibition
in the University of Juarez gallery, in Mexico



OCTOBER 

SUMMARY -- SOUTHWEST PRINT FIESTA 2025
We pushed the EXQUISITE TESSELLATIONS
with an exhibition, two workshops, and steamroller printing
at the SOUTHWEST PRINT FIESTA 2025



NOVEMBER

REMARQUE OPEN HOUSE -- Big Tessellations and Detonography
We printed the big and the small EXQUISITE TESSELLATION linocuts
together in color during the Open House
at REMARQUE PRINT WORKSHOP in Albuquerque


More Big EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Printing at CNM
We printed more big EXQUISITE TESSELLATION linocuts
at the westside CNM community college in Albuquerque




DECEMBER

December was the time to write SUMMARY POSTS about 2025 Printmaking:

I also learned about this great PRINT FRIEND video about Printmaking in Oaxaca:
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EXQUISITE TESSELLATION SUMMARY -- 2025

DAVID SMITH discovered the single Aperiodic Monotile that we are using to make the artistic collaborative EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints.  We are just one of the many ART PROJECTS that David Smith blogged about based on his tessellation shapes:

TESSELLATIONS:

We pushed the EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Print Project all year, culminating in Silver City where we made big collaboration Steamroller Prints, ran two tessellation workshops, and had an exhibition at the SOUTHWEST PRINT FIESTA in October 2025:


** MAJOR EXHIBITIONS **

SOUTHWEST PRINT FIESTA
Silver City, New Mexico




Our EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Exhibition
at the Southwest Print Fiesta 2025


Quick Tessellation -- SWPF 2025 -- PART 1
We gave a quick EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Workshop
by gouging stiff foam with ball point pens


COLLABORATION TESSELLATIONS
 at the Whiskey Creek Zocalo 
We also gave an EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Workshop with linocuts
in the Zocalo bar at the After-Party


EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Steamroller Prints


TESSELLATION STEAMROLLER PRINTS 
We made BIG EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints
with a Steamroller

***

TUNEL GRAFICO
JUAREZ, MEXICO

We also showed 163 EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints in the TUNEL GRAFICO exhibition at the University of Juarez in Mexico from August 22, extended to November 15, 2025:


INDEX of BLOG POSTS


GALLERY -- TUNEL GRAFICO
The Gallery for the TUNEL GRAFICO exhibition 
at the University of Juarez in Mexico


ALBUQUERQUE Tessellations -- TUNEL GRAFICO
69 individual EXQUISITE TESSELLATION just from Albuquerque
hanging in the gallery


OPENING -- Part 1 -- TUNEL GRAFICO
We had a great crowd for opening night
on August 22, 2025


Quick Prints -- TUNEL GRAFICO
During the opening visitors could design their own prints
by gouging into the stiff form with ball point pens



We cut out both SMALL and BIG tessellation tiles, by laser cutting Linoleum, and CNCing Expanded PVC Foam:


** TESSELLATION TILES **

SMALL LINOCUTS

 2024 SUMMARY
The linocuts are all 7 inches at the widest --
(the linocut would fit in a 7x7 inch square)


 "HAT" FILES
 for LASER CUTTING

 
SINGLE Tiles

MULTIPLE Tiles

Vector files for a 12 x 18 inch linoleum plate (though I think these files have to be resized so that the tiles are 7 inches at the widest):



LITTLE Tessellation prints and COLLABORATIONS -- Remarque OPEN HOUSE
The small linocuts make great individual prints
which we can store in a scrap book


LITTLE Tessellation prints and COLLABORATIONS -- Remarque OPEN HOUSE
Letterpress Masterpiece


FAT CROW PRESS -- Color Tessellation SUMMARY
The small EXQUISITE TESSELLATION linocuts
also piece together to make great big prints too



BIG LINOCUTS
for the STEAMROLLER

TESSELLATION STEAMROLLER PRINTS --
Moving the big prints in Silver City
that we just made with a Steamroller


Revving Up for STEAMROLLER TESSELLATION Printing
The big Steamroller Linocuts
are 20 inches at the widest
(the linocut would fit in a 20x20 inch square)

20_inch_hats.LBRN2 (18.22 KB)


Revving Up for STEAMROLLER TESSELLATION Printing
The Big STEAMROLLER Linocuts
were a mirror image of the small tessellation linocut tiles


Steamroller EXQUISITE TESSELLATIONS
We bought three big sheets of 36x36 inch linoleum
for about $125 from Dick Blick, for the big tessellation linocuts


EXQUISITE STEAMROLLER TESSELLATION Prints
We cut the first batch of Big STEAMROLLER Linocuts
on Ethan's laser cutter


Southwest Print Fiesta -- Preparation
Adam also laser cut a big EXQUISITE TESSELLATION linocut
on the laser cutter at UNM


REMARQUE OPEN HOUSE -- 
Big Tessellations and Detonography
Later we made big EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints
at Remarque Print Workshop in Albuquerque


More Big EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Printing at CNM
Later we also made big EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Prints
at CNM community college on the west side of Albuquerque



STIFF FOAM
TESSELLATION TILES

We also cut small stiff foam EXQUISITE TESSELLATION tiles -- from Expanded PVC Foam -- for quick tessellation workshops.  Visitors can gouge into the stiff foam with ball point pens, quickly and easily, and we can quickly print those with a Tortilla Press or Portable Press.

HOWEVER we CANNOT laser cut the stiff foam, as it has PVC in it, and laser cutting will produce poisonous CHLORINE GAS.  So we have to cut out the stiff foam tessellation tiles on the CNC:

Expanded PVC Foam -- Tessellation Tiles
Stiff Foam "Hat" tessellation tile
cut on the CNC at Quelab

VECTOR FILE to upload to the CNC:
VCARVE FILE -- the CNC file with the layout for 24 x10 sheet (1/8 inch thick), to cut out six Ein Stein "hat" tessellation shapes, with a 60 Degree V Slotting cutter bit:

CNC cutting TESSELLATION TILES
People can create designs quickly
by gouging the stiff foam with ball point pens or styli


June 11, 2025
Adric at Quelab gouging a design
into a stiff foam tile with a ball point pen


ALTERNATIVE Tessellations
The Tortilla Press did a great job
printing 6 inch (at the widest) stiff foam tessellation tiles


TUCSON visits ALBUQUERQUE
Joe Marshall inks the stiff foam tile
for his daughter to print on the Tortilla Press


The Expanded PVC Foam tessellation tiles have to be cut on a CNC, as cutting on the laser cutter produces poisonous CHLORINE GAS:

CNC cutting TESSELLATION TILES
Cutting the Expanded PVC Foam tiles
with the CNC machine at Quelab Makerspace in Albuquerque



ALTERNATIVE TESSELLATION SHAPES


There is a whole family of aperiodic tessellation monotiles that can be derived by altering the "hat" shape that DAVID SMITH discovered. This YouTube  -- Aperiodic monotile animation -- shows how the "hat" shape easily morphs into other different shapes that tessellate as well:

So we experimented with other tessellation shapes after creating them with a program online:


VCarve file: 

ALTERNATIVE Tessellations
The angular stiff foam tiles
also tessellate nicely


At first we tried using a "Drag Knife" on the CNC to cut out tessellation tiles from Expanded PVC Foam.  However this did not work well, at least on our first try.  I am sure there is a way to do this better, but it was a lot easier using the drill bits:

Expanded PVC Foam -- Tessellation Tiles
The "Drag Knife" left jagged edges
on our first try



OTHER
** INNOVATIONS **

We ordered a "hat" shape die on Ebay from the Ukraine hoping to punch out tessellation tiles from both linoleum and Expanded PVC Foam.  The die is too thick to run through the FISKARS FUSE Die-Cutting SYSTEM, and we have yet to try using it with a Leather Cutting Press:

We ordered a metal "hat" shaped die from the Ukraine


Expanded PVC Foam -- Tessellation Tiles
The "hat" die was too thick 
to fit in the FISKARS FUSE die cutting system


The EXQUISITE TESSELLATION linocuts print nicely on the sleeve of a t-shirt...where your rank would go on your Navy uniform:

PRINT CRUNCH
UNM Professor Karsten Creightney printed my tessellation linocut
on the sleeve of a t-shirt


Printmaking -- Bits and Pieces
Chris Bardey made a big EXQUISITE TESSELLATION Print
from his single "hat" tessellation linocut


Bandana Tessellation
I hand printed a bandana with the tessellation tiles --
I think I needed to have a cushion under the linocuts to make a better print


October 1, 2025
David Brower made a drawing first,
and put that over the stiff foam "hat" tile,
and then pressed through the paper into the tile to make a design


We had the idea of making ceramic tiles from the "hat" tessellation linocuts. So Aaron and I experimented at Quelab with making a mold from my linocut. The idea would then be to make slip castings from the mold or something.  We also considered punching out "hat" shapes from leather hard dried clay, and letting the artists scribe into the clay directly, before cooking in the kiln -- which might be the best approach:

Making MOLDS from TESSELLATION LINOCUTS
Making a mold from my tessellation linocut


There is still so much to experiment with in 2026.

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SUMMARY 2025

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