Concept

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BUCKET EXHIBITIONS

8 x 8 inches is Enough

The original write-up

PRINTS HAVE TO BE SEEN! By the easiest means possible...

Hit-and-run print pop-up exhibition

at the Cartel coffee house in downtown Tucson

TEN good framed 8 x 8 inch prints is an engaging pop-up exhibition! And ten framed prints are EASY to carry around in a bucket:

Twelve framed 8x8 inch prints

fit in this bucket cooler

Print pop-up show

during the 3 hour drawing group in Albuquerque

(December 16, 2021)

The basic idea is to have short pop-up print shows in small venues, that are cheap and easy to put on. We can show at print studios, or carry the print bucket to a micro-brewery for an exhibition one night, or even have small shows in people's homes. I might board the Rail Runner train in Albuquerque with my print bucket, and find a hit-and-run venue in Santa Fe to show prints for a couple of hours.

CHEAP FRAMES

This idea hinges on cheap frames. 8 x 8 inch frames only cost $2 at Walmart, and can also be ordered from Amazon.

8 x 8 inch frames

cost $2 at Walmart

MARGINS

Note that the framed prints look better with a margin. For instance, Henry Morales cut a 7 x 7 inch linoleum square for printing on 8 x 8 inch paper. 6 x 6 inch linoleum squares also give a nice margin to the 8 x 8 inch paper prints.

Henry Morales of Albuquerque, made this print

with a 7 x 7 inch linoleum plate

printed on 8 x 8 inch paper

Pop-up print exhibition

during the drawing group on January 10, 2021

at the Sculpture Resource Center in Tucson

An artist can say a lot inside an 8 x 8 inch print, with a variety content and techniques. We laser cut one of Rex Barron's scratchboard pieces at Quelab, and printed it on a Tortilla Press:

Rex Barron's scratchboard piece

was laser cut on linoleum

and printed on a Tortilla Press

This idea is really the follow-up to the Ambos Lados International Print Exchange. It should be a lot easier to find venues for 10 prints, vs venues for the 158 Ambos Lados prints:

One small BUCKET with 12 framed prints --

on top of TEN BOXES of 158 framed prints

from the Ambos Lados Print Exchange

However we have had great shows of the Ambos Lados prints in -- Dallas, Santa Fe, Silver City, Taos, El Paso/Socorro, and a formal presentation at the IAGO in Oaxaca in 2019.

Pop-up print show

at Julianna Kirwin's studio in Albuquerque

(with Shelly Shucker on the left)

The best thing that could happen would be if printmakers were to take this idea, or pieces of it, and have Exchange Exhibitions amongst themselves.

The press is just the womb -- as the print only comes to life when revealed to the public.

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RECIPROCAL PRINT EXHBITIONS

Smaller prints are also easier to exhibit over LARGER DISTANCES, so that we could have reciprocal print exhibitions say in Oaxaca and Santa Fe of 8 x 8 inch prints. This is an excellent way to exchange different styles and content, which is really the whole point of these BUCKET EXHIBITIONS.


If half of the prints were from out-of-town artists that would make for a better pop-up exhibition. For instance if Horned Toad Prints of El Paso generated 5 prints, and Rezizte Panaderia of Juarez generated 5 prints, they could have two pop-up print exhibitions on both sides of the border, of the same 10 prints.

Horned Toad Prints

in El Paso

Rezizte Panaderia

art bakery in downtown Juarez, Mexico

Horned Toad Prints can also mail prints to Albuquerque and we can have ABQ/ELP BUCKET prints pop-up exhibitions in New Mexico. Then we can send prints to El Paso and have a pop-up show of the same 10 BUCKET prints.

We also need to have reciprocal prints shows between Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Or California and New York...

The mail is a powerful tool We sent fourteen 8 x 8 inch prints from Albuquerque to Guadalajara in the regular mail, and that only cost $10 (someone said the key is to get a tracking number). Of course, it took forever to arrive:

$10 USD to send fourteen prints

to Guadalajara

We can have reciprocal pop-up print exhibitions in both countries. And there are lots of excellent Mexican printmakers.

We showed Mexican printmakers

at the El Paso Museum of Art

during Chalk the Block of 2017

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PRINT RUMBLINGS so far

NEW MEXICO

The BUCKET EXHIBITIONS idea started when Manuel Guerra drove up from El Paso to print during the August Art Walk in downtown Albuquerque on August 6, 2021:

Making 8 x 8 inch prints

on the streets of Albuquerque

He used a TORTILLA PRESS to make 8 x 8 inch prints:

Later he made prints with the TORTILLA PRESS in Santa Fe, in front of Hecho A Mano gallery at the top of Canyon Road -- on August 7th and August 27th.

Raul Monarrez and Manuel Guerra of Horned Toad Prints

working the TORTILLA PRESS in Santa Fe

They printed with Akua Carbon Black intaglio ink on Rives BFK lightweight white paper.

Tres Gatos Press sent two linoleum plates up from Guadalajara to print on the streets of New Mexico, on the Tortilla Press which they innovated:

Alejandra Mares

of 3 Gatos Press

Xavier Moreno

of Tres Gatos Press

Soon we had seven nice 8 x 8 inch prints, enough for a small nice pop-up print exhibition:

Prints from Santa Fe and Guadalajara artists

Making Prints

We already inspired a few artists to make 8 x 8 inch prints.

Cutting at Little Bear Coffee in Nob Hill in Albuquerque,

on "expanded PVC foam" from Port Plastics

Takach Press is a huge printmaking resource located in Albuquerque. They cut down Speedball unmounted linoleum in to 6 x 6 inch squares. I've been passing out linoleum squares ever since:

David Takach and worker

cutting down linoleum in to 6 x 6 inch squares

Marcus Robiason cut a PVC plastic plate at Cartel coffee house in downtown Tucson on January 6, 2022:

Marcus Robiason cutting a plate

at Cartel coffee house in downtown Tucson

Then we printed his plate on a Tortilla Press at the Sculpture Resource Center in Tucson:

Printing with a Tortilla Press

at the Sculpture Resource Center

Final 8 x 8 inch print by Marcus Robiason

While in Tucson we also encouraged David Contreras of Raices Taller 222 to make a print:

David Contreras with a huge PVC linoleum roll for relief cutting,

at Raices Taller 222 in Tucson

We sent knives, 8 x 8 inch paper, plates and frames to Jorge Perez (Yorch) in Juarez, and he got busy right away making prints:

Takach materials arrive in Juarez

at Yorch's Rezizte Panaderia

The Sky is the Limit

Prints often swell in to bigger things. Jorge Perez (Yorch) made these prints for our Postre Print exhibition in 2017 in El Paso, and now he painted that image on the banks of the Rio Grande:

Jorge Perez's print in 2017

at our Postre Print exhibition

Jorge Perez painted that print image

on the banks of the Rio Grande

The mural is of a campesino and a maquiladora factory worker about the International bridge between El Paso and Juarez. Jorge pointed out that most of the factory workers are women.

The previous print projects we've been involved in:

• Ambos Lados International Print Exchange
• Desert Triangle Print Carpeta
• YayBig Print Exchange
• YayBig Southwest

The first write-up