parachutes.. at night!

since my last attempt looked like a blue plastic bag stuck in a tree I reinforced the parachute shape by painting acrylic medium and glue on the inside of the fabric and letting them dry on balloons. I also decided to hang the parachutes from a thin thread instead of trying to throw them into trees in case they returned to their state of looking like plastic bags. I think the end result turned out a lot better than the first run. I put two in Bay View, one on KK and one on Howell by the Sky high skate shop. One by the 15 Bus stop on Brady St by the Walgreens, one by the Cream City Collective across from the Riverwest Co-op, and one on Van Buren near the intersection of Juneau. I have more that I can reinforce and continue to put up around the city.

Vedale and Janson

So, this project was a lot of fun to put together once the print was done and Vedale had the stencil made. We had some issues with the primed surface (I'll explain this in a moment), and found ourselves without hanging materials. Both Vedale and I came to the plate with very different mediums and compositional ideas. We had a general focus of a left side focal point and a right side focal point, but more specifically, my woodcut was very wide and took up a lot of space, and Vedale's stencil was super narrow and tall. So coming to the plate with these things was really tough, but I think it's better to need to problem solve anyways. Ultimately we got to working and the process of collage became really super intuitive and a lot of fun. Because of the scale of my print, both Vedale and I needed to make some adjustments. I needed to tear mine down a bit on the side, and Vedale needed to be a little less specific with placement on his stencil. These issues are very small, and it wasn't a problem to work together. Communication was super easy and a lot of fun.

Lastly, as we were putting the work up, we were having some issues with getting the paper to stick to the primed surface. A few days after the work went up, I heard from a couple people that one of the sides came down, but I couldn't have really anticipated how much. I'm really intrigued by the process of decay. This piece came down very precisely, like it was literally cut down the middle, but if you notice it's just on the pattern's breakline. When we put work up outdoors, something that's interesting to consider is the application and then almost more important than the content of the work, how does it interact in the space on it's own? The process of printmaking is a tedious one, and putting work up anonymously is like giving the work away. By the simple act of working without a signature, you're setting up a narrative for the viewer. Like "who would take so much time on this, and not leave an artist statement?". Or "this wasn't here yesterday".  As the work sits on it's own, it encases it's own lifetime, it will decay, and it will interact with the environment. Maybe part of your print will tear off because of the wind, maybe someone will diss it, maybe inks will run or the paper will yellow. These are things that don't happen in gallery setting. They are traits that describe time and discussion between work and environment. So honestly, I think it's something to embrace and investigate. Maybe work with handmade paper, and control that decay? Maybe control the stickiness of the wheatpaste, is it necessary for the work to have a long lifetime on the street?

-Janson

Janson, Cara, Patrick Mural: in progress

Janson wheat pasting away!