Threads in the field

Writing here again to talk more about what ive been working on. Ive spent some time without posting to social media, making what I have been interested in, pushing myself to explore a more textile based practice. I have posted some of my new pieces here on my website, take a look! In the meantime here are some thoughts about my work and the recent pieces Ive made.

Ive been working as a textile printer for almost 7 years now. Textiles are so interesting for me as they relate to the very earliest forms of human expression, and are a part of every humans existence. Printing on them and sewing them together is an act of storytelling, a way to place my self in this moment. I work on textiles mostly because they allow me to create images in relation to each other, and in relation to an object. The fabric moves, its alive, it changes with the wind. These objects have become far more fascinating to me than prints on paper, which can be more stark, are inherently static. Fabric also has given me the opportunity to reuse and combine, bringing textures and color combinations together. Scraps from one work into another, in a way that paper works find clumsy.

Still in progress, the focus in this piece is the textiles, the wind, the air that moves through the rigid city. Sheets on a clothesline are incredibly beautiful to me, mostly for their effortless motion, and the gentle play of light and shadow. Ive finished this piece since I took this picture, but Im still really happy with how the print itself came out. Ive been sketching a lot of compositions like this one and Im excited to see the print turn out so well. Ill do an edition on paper sometime

“Windfall in the Weeds” , Block and screen print on fabric with spray paint, 72" X 49.5”, 2024

Windfall in the Weeds, a rare horizontal composition. Trying to focus more on the print itself, and working more intentionally with the piecing of different fabrics. The checkerboard was a blast to make, printed from a small linocut. I made the extra effort to print everything on the same fabric, and used the same colors as much as I could. Ive printed that main image a couple of times, I drew it after I caught a gilmpse out of a back window in San Francisco’s chinatown.

“Untilled Dreams, Clover Fields” Block and screen print on fabric with spray paint and embroidery, 47.5" x 43.5", 2024

Working from an old woodblock print on fabric, I stained it and worked with some newer imagery. I made the woodblock about softness, and the escape that blankets and textiles provide as a tactile means to rest. The newer imagery expanded that idea a bit, keeping the tenderness in flowers and the shadows of two people together. It’s really a piece about being tender and soft, despite the world asking us to be hard.

Winter in the Rye Field

This winter I started making pieces on fabric. Embroidering prints on fabric, it adds a dimension to the piece that just cant be done with paper. The print has a body, it moves, it has textures. This really deepened the sense of the object. Hanging on my walls, the pieces move and change far more than a framed piece of paper ever could. A gentle breeze gives a soft wave, and rush past to get out of the house almost adds new folds.

Sketchbook and thread

My next project is probably going to be larger in scale, I am really looking forward to pushing that aspect of my work with fabric. Probably a street scene in flat perspective, with embroidery throughout the printing, overlapping and adding abundance to the scene.

Moving forward into spring, driving with the windows open and cruising slowly. Oxalis flowers are blooming, little mounds of clover beneath their yellow flowers.

See ya in the field.

Tapestry with buildings and embroidery

Moving forward into spring, the rain has let up a bit. The air is smelling sweet like spring in California only can. I am hoping to make some larger and more intricate tapestries. I really want to play more with embroidery over the printed image, making both mediums have a direct conversation. I am also planning to print on some drop cloths that I found, and to work with the paint and stains that are on them.

This work is slow, and it is difficult to allow that to hold my space. Yet it is a welcome mindset switch to make an object that explicitly takes time. Recently I gave a tapestry to my friend Trent for his birthday, and among the sweetness he and I felt about it, he emphasized the time that I had to spend to make it. I embroidered a lot of text for his piece, which was really a wonderful thing to try. It was very slow to write with thread, but so worth it as the text really was alive, almost reading itself off the fabric.

Seasons Shift

This Autumn I have kept playing in the studio. Making small screens, printing those on unique and found pieces of paper has given a weight to my work that grounds it. I am leaning into the errors, spilled ink, and the wonkiness of the printing process.

I am really excited to be pushing my work by printing on fabric. I work as a fabric printer, but until now kept my professional life separate from my art practice. I am making tapestries incorporating screen print and embroidery. The sweetness that the embroidery shows is just wonderful.

I am also excited to announce a few holiday shows to sell my work. I will have prints at Max’s Garage Press in Berkeley in December, and I will be tabling at the Books & Beers pop up at Ale Industries on November 27th, where I will have some of my new tapestry pieces.

<< Here are some small tapestries that I printed, waiting to be embroidered. I love the play between found paper and the fabric, how each brings something new to the piece.

Heres a few more photos from the studio too.

Summer Studio

summer studio

This is my studio set up this summer. A small, quiet place to print, draw, and write.

I have been experimenting with some UV proof markers, creating a new screen print with them soon. I’ve also been thinking more about the idea of art and objects, inspired by this quote from artist Charles Gaines “In order to be interested in making art, you have to be interested in making objects. Weather they are material or conceptual, you have to become interested in objects that are understood as images, something to contemplate or think about”.

This idea has been critical for me, because much of my practice has been spent making images, with the smallest body possible while still existing physically. I was never drawn to sculpture because the objects seemed a pain to deal with, something taking up space, rather than a unique piece of this world, to be considered and thought over.

With this frame work in mind, I am attempting to push the “object” side of my work, away from strictly imagery and towards objects with images. Much of this will still be prints on paper, but I am curious in putting more reverence into the object itself. I often find myself struggling to get prints all the way finished, sometimes not signing work or framing it until years after I make it. This comes from the fact that the imagery is done, so without regard to the object I am finished with my work. Putting emphasis on each piece being an object changes that perspective.

I want to make objects which are unique, honest, and full of the grounded landscapes that I am drawn to time and time again.

The Garden Within

I am pleased to release The Garden Within, a set of eight woodblock and screen prints. This body of work expresses an innate and spiritual connection to the world around me, one which I move through and experience as a garden in my mind. It is an active relationship, a conversation between myself, the landscape, and those who have created and tended to it. The spaces I find the most dialogue are ones in which the hand of the people is clearly evident, characterized by hand built structures, repainted too many times, and the natural architecture that is inherent in these places.

These spaces are loved by their gardeners, and thus express that love back out. A traditional garden requires lots of attention and love, the same is true even in these more urban spaces, both of which sing when they are tended by their human inhabitants. The life of the plants, overgrowing the human structures, brings mother earth into the conversation reminding us of the natural garden that we can still remember.

These gardens have space to breathe, and they are places of respite. This respite is what allows us to connect to our deeper humanity, recognizing that we are a part of the world, not outside it. To be a gardener is to tend. To garden is to make space and to encourage growth, giving to the landscape and our communities what they in turn give us. This is the core of the relationship between humans and our world, a relationship that is so necessary in times of over consumption and materiality. 

This body of work aims to express the landscape that tends to us as we tend to it. The places are not exact places, but rather created ones which express the hand of people in the landscape. It is work that aims to remind us of the ways in which we are part of the landscape and its community, and encourage us to appreciate the beauty in what might seem to be very normal or overlooked places. 

Zine Fest

Just found out that I will be at the SF ZIne Fest, September 2nd, to sell my prints and books! I know its a long way off, but im excited about it. Be there or be square. 

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P.s. this is my job, color testing for fabric prints.

Risograph Zine

My latest piece, a small single page risograph zine. I have a shit old film camera, just a point and shoot, but it works. I’ve been slowly shooting rolls of film on it, taking months to shoot a single roll. These are all photos from around the SF Bay Area.  

My girlfriend,  Cecilia (she makes awesome art too, check her out- ceciliamignon.com) helped me print these. She’s a pro at riso printing, as well as an all around badass. 

Anyways, new stuff. Making drawings for the new book tonight. 

Small Works for a Book

Screen prints and woodcuts. Hoping to make a book of full page prints like these. The last print here was featured in a print exchange by Dead Matter Press. Considering the balance of full landscapes with simple, flat figures and objects. More on that to come. 

Shaky Hands Press Blog

Hello Internet,

Recently I have been very exhausted by the current trends in social media, and the digital age in a whole. Platforms like instagram are seemingly pointless, with algorithms determining what we see, rather than finding our own way through the digital sphere. I am somewhat of a luddite myself, so I decided to put out more of my process stuff here, and keep my social media accounts as more of a small portfolio. So I am moving away from that social media and back to the kind of blogs and artist websites that inspired me to draw my days away as a kid. 

I want this blog to be a place to share my thoughts, process, life, failures and successes. Its for everything that fits in between the final pieces, what interests and inspires me. 

 I would love to hear from you if you have a question or a comment, or if you just want to chat about art. 

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