In 2018, I spent several months at the residencies La Ceiba Grafica and Rancho 2×2, in Veracruz, Mexico.
Here’s some things I saw and made, and some wonderful people I met…
Books by Berenice Torres…
Una Gallina de Fuego y otros miembros de El Rinoceronte Enamorado…
I have the remarkable opportunity to spend 4 months this winter at the residencies La Ceiba Grafica and Rancho 2 y 2. These are two incredible spaces for creative experimentation and cross-cultural collaboration in Veracruz, Mexico.
Please help support a continuing exchange of ideas about papermaking, performance, printmaking, food, farming, sculpture, community, language, architecture, ethnobotany, the inventing of machines and the making of stuff.
To see cut-out woodblock prints of trout installed in an abandoned pool, collagraphs of spores, corn fungus, monotypes on cloth, toads printed on handmade paper with bits of locally grown kozo and coffee, please see this post from last year’s residency at La Ceiba.
In February and March, I was a resident at La Ceiba Gráfica in Coatepec, Veracruz, Mexico. In addition to printing monotypes on paper and cloth in their printmaking shop, I ended up experimenting with papermaking, installation, and several editions of pizzas in their pizza oven. Making edible art out of local ingredients with the incredibly creative folks in the La Ceiba community was fantastic.
To all of you who participated in last year’s fundraiser to support these projects, I can’t thank you enough! To all of you at La Ceiba, see you again soon!
Many folks ask where I find my materials to make collages.
Here are some scraps, sources and experiences from my last trip to India.
While an Artist-In-residence at Chhaap Foundation for Printmaking Trust in Baroda, Gujarat, I used a batter of coffee grounds and tea leaves, bindi powder, turmeric, and Celluclay (a dried paper pulp) to experiment with paper sculpture. The texture was made with a fork.
Some of this paper I’ve paired with old portraits:
These were found at the exquisite ‘Friday Market’ on the outskirts of Baroda.
This is a sprawling maze of live goats, tin charms, chai carts, torn saris, wooden game pieces, broken toys and, most lovely for me, old photographs.
Scavenging for mid-century photographic ephemera outside of The States is quite challenging, our Kodachrome generation being unparalleled, so this particular market was really a gem. (On a side note however, it seems India’s snapshot culture of today is certainly catching up).
The upcycling at Friday Market also deserves some attention. Here are some wonderful hand-stitched oil-can cozies:
I experimented with using some of the found objects as stamps, such as these keys:
Moving South, in Fort Cochi, Kerala, I picked out some paper goods at Junk Junction (Kumbarramukku, if memory serves).. Looking through newspapers, game cards, old books and ledgers, this passerby wanted to document a dusty picture of a famous 70’s movie star:
The language there, Malayalam, has a beautiful alphabet, and I was quite inspired by it.
I was in India for a number of teaching projects, as well as dumpster diving, and the scraps came in handy for those, too. In this bookmaking workshop at Chhaap, students rummaged through a rag bag donated by a local fashion designer, Rupali. They used the pieces to customize their book covers.
It was an honor to have Jyoti Bhatt, one of India’s most renowned artists and photographer of Indian ephemeral art, among my students.
In a nearby school run by the organization Koshish Milap, I brought in scraps of handmade paper and fabric in all colors and shapes. It was a great ice-breaker for them to teach me the colors in Gujarati (new to me), and having a full-spectrum palette easily accessible helped them to jump right in and start collaging (new to them).
The kids were overjoyed and seemingly not intimidated at the process of building their own beautiful compositions out of scraps.
Thanks again, India, for all the inspiration and generosity. See you next time.
November in Leon, Nicaragua:
I’ve just returned from six weeks in Varanasi, India.
I have some answers and I have some questions:
It was my great privilege to be able to work with some of the city’s most outstanding young artists. Continue reading
Some collaborations, collages & scenes from a 2 month residency at Sacatar Foundation, on the Bay of All Saints, in Itaparica, Bahia, Brazil.
Yaddo Group Photo, 1942
I was in residence last fall at artpoint-gumno in the village of Sloeshtica, Macedonia. I had wonderful neighbors who taught me how to herd sheep, keep bees, make plum liquor, speak Macedonian, and get around town. Nostravia, Sloeshtica!
