Brief Foray Into My Print Collection

I have a fledgeling print collection. Not photo prints, but art prints, and by art prints I mean prints printed by hand, not by computerized printer. I particularly like Letter Press Prints (such as Beaver above and the 2 prints at the bottom) for their texture, followed closely by Screen Prints (the Fat Birdie to the right, by Tiny Sparks Design in San Francisco CA) for color saturation and velvety surface. I've never done letterpress printing myself, but essentially imagine metal (or other material) blocks with a raised flat surface featuring the design, onto which ink is rolled and paper is pressed. Screen printing features paper on a flat surface, onto which a fabric screen stencil (stretched across a frame) is placed over and ink squeegee-ed through the screen. Both can only do one color at a time, so these multi-color prints require multiple passes.

One of my favorite prints is the Banjo Beaver by YeeHaw in Knoxville TN, perhaps because my husband bears some resemblance to him. He (my husband) claims that banjo players have a limited posture/stance due to the shape of the instrument, and that is why he looks like the Banjo Beaver. I don't know. I think all he is missing is the tail and hat. The photo is a screen shot from a video - more on the video of Fog City Banjo's premiere gig in a later post.

Another local print company, Dutch Door Press design some lovely Letterpress work. Below is a limited edition - only 100 print printed (note the 74/100 at the bottom left), of Year of the Rabbit, and California of their 50 State Birds and Flowers series. Prints like these aren't cheap - much work-person-ship goes into each one. So I'm quite selective, and will frame them for home decor. It's more refreshing that putting up my own art, and far more unique than buying mass made prints or posters like those one can purchase at art museum gift stores. I do also like supporting local artists and use of traditional media. All these artists are on Etsy.com.