Litho, Mate and Smiles!

Today was the official start of Part Two:  Lithography in Argentina.  The morning came a little quicker than I wanted it to, but I knew multiple hot cups of Mate were waiting for me at the end of my 35 minute bus ride to Villa del Parque (the neighboorhood of AB UNO).  The bus was empty and I sat in the back savoring the last of the left over strawberry peach cobbler from the weekend asado.  I knew it was going to be a good day.    

The plan was for me to assist Lorena as she printed four lithographs for her new artist book.  

Above Lorena is preparing her rockin leather roller by scraping the old ink off with my mom's old frosting spatula (Thanks Mom!) before rolling up with fresh black ink.  There's nothing like printing stone lithography with a leather roller.  

Throughout the day Lorena printed through nearly 40 sheets of paper while I assisted.  Some will argue that the job of the assistant is just as important as the printer's.  Above:  While keeping the stone wet with a sponge, the assistant has one free hand to drink Mate while he works.  (Note:  Mate is a herbal tea which is very common in Argentina and other parts of South America.  It is typically consumed from a gourd or metal covered wooden vessel using a metal straw to drink water that has filtered through the dry herb called Yerba Mate.  The Mate provides many with a strong earthy taste and also a brilliant lift.)  

Today was a perfect printing day with a couple breaks for rounds of Mate.  We rolled through the editions in about 8 or 9 hours, and then had more Mate to celebrate.  

Lorena's prints drying out and looking amazing.  

After printing Lorena, Matias and I discussed plans for the next few days in the studio.  Since last week they have been reading the Tamarind Institute's new book on lithography.  There are many processes in the book that Lorena and Matias aren't familiar with and want to experiment in.  I'm happy to join them in that adventure.  The idea is to make their collaborative studio strong in aspects of stone lithography that no other shop in the country offers.  This will hopefully help draw more artists to work with AB UNO.  Tomorrow we will start with some tusche wash tests followed by some Lo-Shu washes, acylic reversals, acid tinting, and who knows what else.  Yee-haw!   

As if my day couldn't get any better, while I was walking home I passed a dude with a glorious dread mullet.  I'm actually still smiling from the sighting.   

Back in Time 

So before my first printmaking day of 09, I had one heck of a weekend. 

 It started out with going to a restaurant featuring Brazilian cuisine with my good friend Barney's brother (Seb) and  Barney's gal (Maru) on Thursday.  That day Seb got back to BsAs after a two week stint in Patagonia with his bro (Barnaby is still there with his parents and will be back this wednesday) then left the next morning for England.    

The next day my roommate Adam and I took a train to Tigre after a late start in the afternoon.  We wondered the town for a few hours and after missing the last boat tour around the delta we decided to get a steak sandwich and an ice cold brewski.  Temperatures exceeded 105 degrees that day before cooling down to the 70's for the later part of the weekend.  

It wouldn't be a weekend in Argentina without an Asado every day!  We kept the grill going for most of the weekend and produced some of the tastiest steaks, chicken and burgers that our rooftop terrace has ever seen.  We also grilled some vegetables.

  
During the week the tiny soft spoken smiley produce woman (she also has a gold grill (grill is slang for teeth)) tossed a complimentary peach into my bag (I buy from her almost everyday and she'll throw in a little something extra to show me she appreciates my business).  So the next day I had that peach and it was awesome.  That night I picked up 12 more with a fat sack of strawberries and whipped up a strawberry peach cobbler as my addition to the asado.  I wish I didn't polish the rest off on the bus this morning.  

I hope the image makes you laugh.  Have a great day!