Last year we received a lot of prints from Mexico in the mail, including prints from MAPECO print studio in Uruapan, Michoacán. However it can take months for prints to arrive in the mail. Wouldn't it be nice to exchange and show prints a little more quickly?
So I asked Xavier Moreno of Guadalajara to send a print image to me in email. Then I engraved it into linoleum with the laser cutter at Quelab in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The result came out really nicely:
I laser engraved two linocut plates,
a positive and a negative
The negative version came out best, with the laser cutter engraving the lines into linoleum, which then came out as white in the print:
The negative version came out best
Laser cutter at work
(the positive version,
cutting outside the lines)
Video of the lasering of the linocut
at Quelab
Inking the positive version
(note how the brayer dips into the larger voids,
adding unwanted ink smudges)
Laser engraving the negative version
Printing the laser engraved linocuts
with a Tortilla Press at Quelab
Xavier Moreno and Alejandra Mares of Tres Gatos Press taught us how to print with a Tortilla Press when we visited them in Guadalajara in 2019:
We printed the positive version first, but the line work did not come out as strong as it might:
The line work did not come out so strong
on the first laser engraved positive version
The negative version on the laser cutter
where we engraved the lines into the linoleum
This negative version came out great!
The positive and negative linocut plates
Later that week we printed Xavier Moreno's linocut during the live printmaking event in Santa Fe on April 29th, at Hecho A Mano gallery at the top of Canyon Road:
Now we can easily solicit images from anywhere on the globe, laser engrave and print them practically immediately. A pop-up BUCKET EXHIBITION could happen within a week. The prints probably won't be as nice as hand carved prints, but they could well introduce people at a pop-up exhibition to great Mexican and other printmakers far far away.
- This was originally posted on the Krrrl Drawings blog.
- Tim Pauszek Relief Printmaking Workshop (April 7th)
- Enrique Flores and PRINT SANTA FE (April 7th)
- Nexo Entre Raices -- exhibition at the National Hispanic Cultural Center (April 21st - September 10th)
- MONOTHON -- Print Santa Fe 2023 (April 22nd - May 26th)
- Guadalajara Laser Engraved Relief Prints
- PRINT SANTA FE
- PRINT SANTA FE -- Art Fair (April 28th - 30th)
- Tortilla Press Printing during the MiniPrint opening (April 29th)
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