MAPC Conference 2012

Last weekend my good friend Rachel Heberling and I attended the Mid America Print Council 2012 Conference in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  There are quite a few really good write-ups on Printeresting but of course who would I be if I didn't opine?

Thursday, November 1

Of course as a working woman I was unable to leave Cincinnati until noon on Thursday. After a long drive which took us over into the next time zone and thoroughly confused us, Rachel and I passed over the Mississippi river just as the sun was setting. Every sunset in Missouri was like this and it was the most beautiful part of the trip. We could see it from our hotel room every night over the leaf-filled, half-drained pool and the many fast food billboards that surrounded us.

Luckily, due to the time change, we were able to get to Southeast Missouri State University just in time to register, get our goodie bags and tags, and beat it over to the bowling alley for a pre-conference bonding night. Everything is cheap in Missouri including mozzarella sticks so I partook of such, and we bowled with a lovely lady named Liz that we met there. This was the best introductory activity that I think I have ever participated in - there is nothing like a bunch of artists trying to do sports to break the ice.

Friday, November 2

I am only one woman. Unfortunately I could not attend every demo or talk. There was a lot on the schedule and almost everything caught my interest. However, I did get to a lot of things.

First on Friday was the Keynote Speaker, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith. Smith is a Native American artist and has been working as an artist since before I was even born. Her speech, titled "Little Shops of Color," was about the printers of ethnic heritage opening shops in the United States 20-40 years ago. These artists in general are under-represented in the traditional canonical printmaking literature, and Smith's speech acted as not only a call to document these artists before all trace of them disappears, but as a motivation to all printmakers that they, too, can have an influence. Artists that she mentionted included Robert Blackburn (Printmaking Workshop, NYC), Ernesto De Soto (Collector's Press Lithography Workshop, San Francisco CA), Lou Stovall (Workshop, Inc., Washington DC), Allan Edmunds (Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia PA), Ron Adams (Hand Graphics, Santa Fe NM), Maurice Sanchez (Dierriere L'etoile, NYC), Joe Segura (Segura Publishing, Tempe AZ), Curlee Raven Holton (Experimental Printmaking Institute, Easton PA), among others.

After that I rushed to the Demo, "Flock It! (Fuzzy Money)" in which artist Alison Filley demonstrated how to use flocking, embossing powder, and glitter with screenprinting. Filley made flocked paper money which viewers could take and trade in later for a larger flocked presidential portrait by Filley. It was an interesting demo and gave me some ideas for my classes at Tiger Lily. 

After that was the Panel, "The Beauty of Collaborative Studios: The Internship at Women's Studio Workshop." I have looked in WSW in the past as a possible place to continue my education, and this panel gave me an opportunity to get a view from a group of previous interns about their experience there. 

Then, lunch, where we ate along the beautiful Mississippi river (see above).

After lunch I briefly popped into two demos, "Stencil Springboard: Uniquely You" by Jennifer Ghormley and "Mokulito: Lithography on Wood" by Eszter Augustine-Sziksz and Justyna Mazur. The former dealt with using froster Dura-lar as an alternative to emulsion for creating reusable screen printing stencils, which the latter dealt with an experimental process that is pretty self-explanatory. I am not so well-versed with lithography so the process went a bit over my head (also when I came in they had moved on the printing) but the results were really interesting:

Then it was time for the Open Portfolio Sessions

Signing up to show your portfolio for 45 minutes was free, so I figured, why not? Many people at this conference were either in grad school, or professors, or working artists, so as a freshly minted BFA I felt a little intimidated. However, it ended up being one of the most affirming things that I did. I got a lot of compliments, some questions about my process, and some literature from different grad schools. I also did some trades with some wonderful folks including the incredible Ash Marlene Hane, whose work I greatly admire.

There were many exhibits that night, but Rachel and I made it to the MAPC 2012 Members Juried Exhibition and to an exchange portfolio featuring thirty-five former assistants and aides from Frogman's Print Workshop. It was an exhausting day.

Saturday, November 3

The day started off a little weird on Saturday. First I dropped by the Demo "Make/Do: Opensource Printmaking Hardware" by Michael Smoot. The demo was based around Smoot's construction of his own working printing press from materials found at a local hardware store and common hand tools for ~$300. He handed out a technical drawing of how the press was built but unfortunately his press had been damaged in transit to the conference and he had some trouble making it work well. I still thought that the talk was very interesting and hope to try out his instruction when I have a wood shop at hand.

After that, some things had ended early or been cancelled, so we had some time on our hands. I checked out the Vendor's Fair, where Gamblin and Graphic Chemical were representing. Gamblin was giving out all sorts of free stuff, including a tiny can of Portland Black Etching Ink and cute buttons. They also had a raffle for a jumpsuit (which I didn't win unfortunately). I bought a few new tools from Graphic Chemical. We then checked out the Publisher's Fair which was an insane traffic jam.

I then attended the Panel entitled "Craft and Collaboration: Printmaking Outside Academia" which was probably the most informative of all panels that weekend. It featured Mirka Hokkanen of Pica Doodle Press, who is a highly diversified self-employed printmaker, the former president of the Atlanta Printmakers Studio, and the former Studio Manager of Highpoint Center for Printmaking. All three panelists represented a different tack on printmaking outside of the school setting, but we were most interested in the representative of APS. I have looked into the Emerging Artist Residency (and you should too) at APS and APS also serves as a great model for how a nonprofit can go from idea to execution.

After that was "Surveying the Possibilities: from Co-Ops to Private Presses" which was mostly an extremely literal interpretation of the title: surveys of various presses around the country (but mostly Chicago?). However Colin Roe Ledbetter of Copper Palate Press made the panel completely worthwhile with his story of an underdog press through the first year of life.

Finally was "Printerdisciplinary Practices: A Panel Discussion" which brought together six people to talk about how they incorporate different artistic disciplines into their printmaking practice. It mostly focused on printmaking as it can be translated into performance art, community interaction, video, and installation. Most of the panelists were recent MFA recipients but two of the panelists were the brains behind Field Trip Publishing, for whom art has become life.

And so it all concluded with a lovely catered dinner in downtown Cape Girardeau (or "the Cape" as the locals call it). We finished a bit early, and there was a dance party later on, so we went roving in search of a bar called "MudSuckers" which turned out just to be a mural, and not, perhaps, a real place. However, we did stumble onto a good bar called LoDo with strange taxidermied roosters and strange faux-Matisse art on the walls:

Still, Nascar was playing on the TV.

When we got to the dance party many a printmaker was getting down to the odd 90's cover grooves that one can only find at this sort of party. We all agreed that we felt like we were in college again and it was late in the evening when we all dispersed (although still at an adult, responsible hour).

All in all, MAPC was a wonderful experience and for the relatively inexpensive price, I felt like I got a steal for all of the information that I came away with. It was relatively small (about 300 attendees) and as a result it felt very comfortable and social. I would highly recommend it for any printmaker and I hope that I can make it to their next one.