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Yoonmi Nam

Yoonmi Nam, Untitled, Lithograph/Monotype, 2010.

Yoonmi Nam is a Korean-born artist who currently resides and teaches in Lawrence, KS. She makes beautiful prints that pull from both Eastern and Western traditions. Here are two examples and you can visit her website to see more of her prints and drawings.

Yoonmi Nam, Lithograph, 11”x14″, 2009.


lithography, wiz wit

Editorial note: wiz wit.

Who knew the City of Brotherly Love had such a long and storied history with lithography? Philadelphia on Stone is a survey of the first fifty years of commercial printing in Philadelphia, the birthplace of American Lithography. I have to admit, this show wasn’t high on my long SGC to-do list but I was walking by The Library Company of Philadelphia and decided that I’d be a jerk not to check it out. And I’m glad I did. Curator Erika Piola made great decisions about which prints to include- she illustrates the story of commercial printing with images that are fun and interesting. And some of the supplemental didactic info was really funny to contemporary eyes. This is a subject that could come off as really dry and dull but this presentation has personality.

Continue reading lithography, wiz wit

Kevin Haas

Kevin Haas is a print artist based in the Pacific Northwest whose work draws on the urban landscape: highways, parking lots, strip malls, and general sprawl. The way we navigate physical space is the subject of Haas’ pictorial space. Here are a few sample images to whet your appetite; you can see more on his website.

Kevin Haas, I-5: Tacoma, 6-run lithograph on mulberry paper, 18″ x 28″, 2010, from the ‘Dream Day Drawing’ portfolio organized by Susan Belau and on view at SGC next week.

I-90: Exit 291A, Lithograph on mulberry paper, 15″ x 18″, 2009.

I-90: Exit 109, Lithograph on mulberry paper, 15″ x 20″, 2008.

For the true Enthusiast

Beauvais Lyons has collected a Flickr set of litho graining sinks. It is extraordinarily odd and deeply satisfying, even for the non-lithographer. Please enjoy this pirate-themed iteration from Macalaster College:

macalester-college

I’m sure Professor Lyons would appreciate any fresh examples you sent his way.

Printing the Apocalypse

Tokyo is dead. At least it is in the lithographs of Hisaharu Motada. The apocalypse has come and gone and the viewer is left to observe the remains. Skeletons of buildings lay in ruin and monuments have crumpled, overgrown with brush and not a person in sight.

What drives fascination with the end of the world? Is it because it seems so potentially close… earthquakes in China, cyclones in Myanmar, hurricanes in the US? Or the manmade threat of WMDs? It’s not a new interest; Durer’s Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is arguably the most famous print from history. Motada’s work continues this melancholic tradition.

Milton Bradley: Lithographer

Milton Bradley, father of the North American board game, was a printmaker. Briefly mentioned in an article in Print (the design mag), this bit of trivia peaked my curiosity so I investigated further. Apparently, it’s true. Not only was he a printmaker, he “enjoyed a successful career in lithography.” Of course, Bradley was living in very different times; it probably wasn’t so uncommon to have a successful career in lithography.

From history.com

Born in Vienna, Maine, in 1836, Bradley chose a career in printing and lithography in his late teens and set about learning the trade. In 1860, he set up Massachusetts’ first color lithography shop in Springfield. One of his lithographs, a likeness of Abraham Lincoln, sold especially well, until Lincoln grew a beard and rendered Bradley’s beardless image out-of-date.

According to Hasbro, the parent company of Milton Bradley…

One of the first lithographic works turned out by Milton Bradley was a portrait of Abraham Lincoln without his beard. Lincoln had just been nominated for the Presidency of the United States. The sale of this picture was extremely encouraging to the young printer until it was found that Lincoln had grown a beard. The sale of Bradley’s beardless lithograph dropped off drastically.

In seeking ways to keep his business afloat, Mr. Bradley began producing a game he had previously invented called, “The Checkered Game of Life.” His game was so successful, he sold as many as he could produce.

Moral of story: printmaking and the entrepreneurial spirit go hand in hand.

Alternate moral of story: one man’s beard is another man’s burden.