Christopher+Columbus: ‘Grammatica Cromatica’ at La Meridiana Tempo

I’ve lately been tapping back into my Adobe skills designing posters for Christopher+Columbus, local art shows my photographer friend Kate Trafeli and I have been doing. Mind boggling how fast things are on my Mac compared to my manual press. The satisfaction is comparably good I must say though.

For this show, I’m introducing more stationery products. Art prints are fun, and I think I’ll continue to do ‘one-offs’, but I have a heart of a designer and function is just super sexy to me.

(formula) Guzzi + Burrata mozzarella = Happiness

I am coming up on a year of my adventure in letterpress which meant finding a press, materials, a guru and tons of hours (giving up my summer holiday) to learn how to PRINT (not talking the digital kind either). I think inspiration came twofold when my home printer just wouldn’t (couldn’t) render my designs to their full capacity, and when I couldn’t (but tried) to get a short offset run of my thesis from a local printer. In the end a kind service bureau printed it up on a laser printer with a cloth cover.

In Italy, the best design is pushed to its full and sensory extremes. Let’s take for example the designs of Moto Guzzi and Ducati motorbikes or, (needless to mention) a Ferrari at once in the rear view mirror on the costal highway zoom by or the vintage Fiat 500 creeping up along side you from the opposite direction at 50 kph is a delight. And of course food...cut into a mozzarella burrata is just as good as biting into it. It is design thought through at every point of intersection. The best experiences I think are ones that cultivate happiness and strive to engage all life affirming senses.

So, fast forward one year and I’m having my first photopolymer experience: a wedding invitation which is essentially a two color image of bride and groom embracing, id est registration heaven. This design only revealed its full capacity after all the components had been put together i.e. setting up my form, mixing up paint, pressing into that lovely Magnani paper and set to dry. The design experience made whole...

metal plates: bride&groom and sage wreath

photos of finished product. paper is ivory in fact.

Christopher+Columbus: Sensory Treats

Christopher+Columbus “Grammatica Cromatica” featuring letterpress & art photography.

All Photography by Kate Trafeli

Print in all its varying forms, I think, will be designated as sort of an esoteric art form one day, and so, one will have to find a mentor or teacher to learn its power of expression. This power of expression being the dynamism and impact ones mark on a piece of paper can extend. Could it actually make us closer after all? Does it close the gap in a way the internet can’t do? As objects and technologies become relics (or things forgotten) over time, human contact shouldn’t.

7th October I participated in a collaborative art project/event with the very talented artist and friend Kate Christopher Trafeli. And print did, what print does: extend itself physically. The aim was a sensory event for the community, friends and family and included amazing tastings by chef Marc Lanteri of Baluardo and music by memebers of the local group The Clips.

members Mark Trafeli on guitar & Jack Hard on contrabass from "The Clips”

Feed Your Soul///art cards

Count down for a mini launch party/art show a friend and I are having. It’s been great fun working with Kate and I think it’s going to be smashing. Last week I worked on a series of art cards: Think-Eat-Love. Here’s a sneak peak.

What words bring to mind...

Smashing Pumpkins were a great reference point as an awnry teen and still as a more gentle adult. Some of their lyrics have a soundness on such a basic level. I'm striving for this simplicity and honesty with words and their meanings on my latest print projects. 

I think Picasso's words ring most true when he said it took him a life time to draw like a child. 

Soundess: noun

1. a state or condition free from damage or decay.

2. the quality of being prudent and sensible.

3. the muscle tone of healthy tissue.

(wordnik.com) 

Summer Ramblings///Pt.2

Well, it’s now at the end of summer, and between my first summer rambling post and this one, I’ve been busy busy busy planning away on a collaborative letterpress and photographic project with photographer/artist Kate Trafeli (more to come)!

And...I’m working on my first wedding invites! Wow, this is going to be a feat. Having stated in earlier posts that materials are harder and more expensive to come by in Europe, unless you devise your own. I’ve been all over Europe for material, but without leaving the comfort of home (the wonders of Internet).

Balloon letterpress prints in varying colors. Don’t have a top quality camera (next years budget),

so the colors are a bit off. Still, I’m happy to have done an image that represents my town!

Viva homegrown!