More Relief Printing on Shirts

My lovely 1971 vintage Brand etching press gets another workout!
This is the background color of my latest shirt design, printed on fabric from a piece of carved linoleum.
The final key image in black ink will be screenprinted next.
This image appears above. It is an architecturally-based image collaged of photos a friend took of an abandoned pier at Asbury Park, N.J., back in August 2010.

More T-shirt printing collaboration with Chestnut Hill Yoga

Here are the first 2 designs (done by Mark Petravic of Chestnut Hill Yoga) I printed for promotion of Bobbi Tighe's yoga studio!
I really like the “Breathe” design!
A good visual reminder to take a moment, and do just that!!

New Yoga and Meditation Shirts

Here is a pale blue V-neck shirt with my latest Yoga design.
On the front is the Om Heart-center, for focusing on the Heart chakra, and a sunflower for focusing on the Solar Plexus chakra. The Om Mani Padme Hum mantra circles around the perimeter of the heart image. On the back of the shirt is a Pigeon with Namaste’ logo in honor of the Pigeon pose.
(Pigeon is one of my fave poses that really de-stresses me!)
I find it helps to be able to have a visual prompt and an idea of body awareness on which to direct one’s mental energy while meditating or doing yoga. I can also see, during our yoga class interactions, that it can aid as a teaching tool as well.
One of my yoga teachers, Dawn Reid, and I collaborated on the Om heart image, and the garment image design as a whole recently finally came together.
I am doing a few different styles of garments for this design.
This shirt design is currently being hosted at Chestnut Hill Yoga,
thanks to Bobbi.

“Robo-Squirrel, Chestnut Hill Yoga, and You”

Gratitude goes to one of my great Yoga Teachers, Bobbi Tighe of Chestnut Hill Yoga,
Philadelphia, PA., for hosting a little gathering, starting this week, of my super Robo-Squirrel T-shirts at her excellent yoga space!
www.chestnuthillyoga.com

We are endeavoring to use the Squirrel as a reminder to embrace our high energy,
yet quiet our minds. Wear the Robo-Squirrel T-shirt and join the movement!
Thanks to all my fellow Chestnut Hill Yogis!

My New Etsy T-shirt Shop ! and a new sales venue -The Print Center in Philadelphia

I recently opened an Etsy Shop for your online
shopping pleasure featuring, what else, my
excellent T-shirts, here is the link:

http://lsdrewgraphics.etsy.com

More designs will be added, so please check back often--
this is a bit of a work-in-progress. Like another
Etsy seller said about doing the shop set-up---it is kind of like a big
video game---there are lots of small pieces and details to
attend to... But Fun! Here’s to generating lots of sales!

Also, The Print Center Gallery Store at
1614 Latimer Street, Philadelphia, PA. 19103
215-735-6090
is the latest bricks-and-mortar outlet for my T-shirts, among many
other cool artists’ prints. Stop by and show some love for Printmaking in
Philly!
for more info on the Print Center, go to:
www.printcenter.org

{Alas, unfortunately we had to say goodbye in May to my former venue,
the All By Hand Store in Philly's Liberty Place...
Big thumbs-up, though, to Juli and Abby for making a cool artist gallery store
happen, and we are all looking forward to their next venture!}

T-shirt Dyeing! and other fabric-oriented stuff to play with

I have taken the plunge, so to speak, in experimenting with dyeing T-Shirts
myself. Had a whole big old pile of white and lighter colored shirts that just
wasn’t happening.... so I got a few colors to play with. I don’t plan to do this all the time
for my shirts, it is rather time-consuming (which is why it had to wait til summer). It
has been a lot of fun. Dharma Trading Co. makes the best Fabric Dyes! The dye and shirts can be seen soaking in my lovely bathtub, as well as the final result of the first color--a deep warm honey-
mustard tan shade! This shirt (with the blue bike logo) is one of my students’ class collaborative T-shirts from a past semester. I dyed a bunch of those class shirts too --I would like to sell them and see how it goes.
Also here are some antique copper batik/ ink stamps I just got from Dharma --again, to play with new design possibilities.
Exciting!

“Brayer History”

The latest design---
inspired by old brayers/brayer
“skeletons”. The world of printmaking is
littered with old dysfunctional brayers, or what's left of them;
and a great many that obviously didn't pass the
“Art-School-Test”. If only they could talk.....
I love the graceful calligraphic aspect of the brayer handle shapes at the top of the image ---that brayer handle (long missing its rubber roller) came with my Brand etching press last year, along with a few other roller cores awaiting refurbishing. Since it always seemed a bit fancy for a brayer (more decoration of a utilitarian item when it doesn't need to be, one of my favorite themes), it also reminds me of that article in Yankee magazine entitled “What's-It,” featuring a strange gadget or flea market find, and readers would write in with their guesses as to what the implement's function was. (an SGC visitor to my table mistakenly guessed
“cheese slicer” ----well, it is a bit large for that, don't you think? And why, then, would it be hanging out with lines of text, other brayers, and positive-negative shapes, such as one often gets in relief printing? Hmmmmm..... the mystery continues!...)

This is an all-around print, utilizing discharge printing as well as fabric inks, rather a tour-de-force for getting it onto the shirt!
I think the future incarnation of this T-shirt image will
be to incorporate my previous geared Kelton study
(really the Hunter-Penrose press image) on the front chest area of the
shirt----to make it even more printmaking-related and less artist's-reception-cheese-oriented.
Sometimes it takes time to work the bugs outta the prototypes...

Everyone Loves “Robo-Squirrel”!!

Yes, they are flying off the shelves, folks!
Due, in part, to my recent success in the publishers fair at the Philly incarnation of the Southern
Graphics Council conference in late March! Thanks to my customers, old and new!

Marigold "Guerrilla" Conspiracy!

Now that it is pseudo-summer in Philly, it's on!
Marigold Conspiracy T-shirt Launch Party on
Saturday 4/24/10!

Designed by my colleague and former student,
Mira Adornetto and printed by moi.
With able assistance from Mira, Dawn Reid and friends.

Newest Series: Tools / The Art School Test (old) Drill

Here is my homage to my old drill that I used for many years at my school (it was probably older
than me!). It finally bit the dust last fall, and I bought a new kick-butt cordless one that I also
like; but somehow that new one feels just too new and weird--- and the old one
still feels like home... So I decided to memorialize the old drill on a shirt.
I love the post-war aircraft look it has.
“The Art School Test” refers to my term for anything --equipment, mostly ---(but maybe also people too)--- who can stand up to many years of being in an art school and still hold up.
This old drill, out of very few things, definitely passed the test!!
More T-shirts with tools on them coming up soon!