Very Hot and Way Cool!

Sizzling!

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The air temperature wasn't the only thing sizzling in Houston this summer.   Heating up Houston's art scene is Burning Bones Press, a brand new full service print studio located at 1518 Yale Street in the Heights.  Artists and printmakers Carlos Hernandez and Patrick Masterson partnered up, leased the space and opened for business this summer. Their inaugural party June 11 was planned to coincide with PrintHouston 2011. If you missed the party like I did, watch their video of that event. Not quite the same as being there but....

Patrick Masterson and Carlos Hernandez

 Working along with Pat and Carlos are studio managers  artists Cathie Kayser and Nancy Luton. 

Cathie Kayser 

Patrick, Carlos, Cathie and Nancy are all members of PrintMatters, (see more about that further down) and Cathie is currently serving as president of that organization. 

Full service printing studio means just that. Lithography, intaglio, relief printing, screen printing, solar etching and all the ins and out that each printing process brings. Besides doing their own work here, these artists offer printmaking classes, and collaborate with other artists helping them develop their own ideas into a realized edition, as well as doing projects for museums, businesses and other organizations. The goal, according to master printer Patrick Masterson, is to create an open and inviting environment conducive of collaboration with other artists, as well as taking on jobs from institutions, publishers and dealers.

Nancy Luton

A bit of biography.....
Carlos Hernandez has fame for his limited edition screen prints of gig posters of rock n' roll legends such as B.B King, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, to name a few, as well as his Day of the Dead Rock Stars Series. Carlos also has selected works featured in the 2011 Communication Arts Typography annual and the 2011 Communications Arts Illustration annual.  Carlos said he started out setting up a studio in his garage so he must be loving this new studio!

Patrick Masterson wears several caps, artist/teacher, artist/printmaker, and business owner. He teaches printmaking at both University of Houston and Glassel School of Art. He served as master printer at both Mad Cap Press in Houston and Flatbed Press in Austin. In Austin he collaborated with artists James Surls, Luis Jimenez,  Trenton Doyle Hancock to name a few. You can find his work (Masterson's) in the collections of the Whitney Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Photo courtesy of Jenny Antill. Patrick and Carlos are bounded on right and left by some of their work; next to Patrick is  a James Surls piece and next to Carlos, several prints from his Day of Dead Rock Stars series.

One of their goals is to bring more attention to traditional printing processes and techniques. I questioned all three, (Carlos, Patrick and Cathie) if digital technology has impacted their work and business in a positive or negative way and the overall response was positive.
Some of the new technology has really impacted what they can do in the studio in a positive way, saving time and steps.

All of them through their teaching gigs found many students with heavy digital backgrounds have a real longing for the 'hands-on' experience that traditional printmaking methods provide.

Cathie reminded me how photography at one time put the fear into artists and printmakers alike, that photography would render both obsolete. That didn't happen.

 New Addition to the family

With  half dozen various presses in the studio at opening, their long awaited 4 x 8 foot Takach motorized press arrived this week enabling them  now to print large format images. Below are the four of them posing with the inaugural print compliments of Nancy. 

Carlos, Nancy, Patrick and Cathie with the inaugural  pull using the new press.

Several projects are in the works  keeping them busy.  Patrick is working on a project with Francesca Fuchs for the Houston Museum of Fine Art's Core Program, for one.  Besides several teaching gigs at the studio, Carlos is adding new images to his Day of the Dead Rock Star Series, as well as collaborating one-on-one with artists wanting to learn more about the silk screen process.

Print Houston
If that weren’t enough to create sparks with Houston artists who have been chomping at the bit for sizable Houston-based  print studio, PrintMatters, a Houston art organization,  after declaring June as PrintHouston 2011 month. 

It was a month long celebration of  traditional and nontraditional printmaking, held printing workshops, sponsored  the Rockin’ Rollin’ Steam Roller event, invited curators to propose print-related exhibitions and galleries and museums to participate with print-related exhibitions.  June’s exhibitions spilled into to July, then into to August. Seems PrintHouston 2011 is really Print Houston Summer!  See my Nov 2010  post about PrintMatters at WHAM here.

Very Hot and Way Cool!

PrintHouston  will happen again in 2012 so all you print makers keep your radar turned on for exhibition calls and announcements.  


Founding members, Cahtie Kayser, Andis Applewhite, Ann Johnson, Vivian Hordes and Ruth Shouval, organized with the following goals in mind: to promote traditional and non-traditional printmaking, encourage print collecting, and further the professional growth of our members.