Pecos Bill

These are some scratchboard images for my Pecos Bill zine.

Where is my mind?

I'm not really sure what to make of today.

I waited around for something to happen that ended up not happening. I need to chill out and relax, let things come as they may. This obsessing over what may or may not happen is not only unattractive, but jinxes any chances with this stagnate passing of time. it's only been four days. I've taken things with the flow so far and it's worked for me. I need to quit meddling and back off.

I had to get a new phone since mine freaked out on me. I also tried to return the bike tires Uriah and I bought the other day for the correct size, but it turns out the place is closed on Mondays. What I did do, is work on my display for the symposium. I made a couple of signs to be silkscreened and snuck into the resturant supply store. There, I bought some menu holders for my signs.

Tomorrow I plan to get back into the swing of things, - dig myself out of whatever games my mind has been playing and keep plodding along. After work, I'm going to grab the tires I need, return the supplies I got at Home Depot - wrong sizes for the book idea, and go thrifting with Halliday for a 1920's costume, oh and go for a bike ride- I need that.

Pecos Bill

* Pecos Bill zine cover - still needs to be scored on platen press.

* Milagro tag - possibly sell for a dollar?

Printing Pecos

Yesterday I spent the entire day working on my zine cover and the tag for milagros.

I didn't get started til after a few episodes of Buffy (finished season four) and ended late into the night. I printed the rest of my brown layer, blue layer, and final gold layer. Finished, it is a five color print that I must say, am very proud of. I have some great ideas for my next one, Paul Bunyon, but it will be a bit before I finish that one. Now for making my content...

Free Range

Thursday

Most of the day was spent carving out a pointing finger linocut. I learned a thing or two about transferring images and am excited to use the idea when I return to PNCA. The mood of the office was super relaxed.

Carla from school stopped by to see me and talk to Brady about the possibility of interning for a month until she heads back to PNCA. I'm not really sure how that will work as a new girl is starting up on Monday and I can't figure how Hammerpress will handle many more interns. Free work though, I'm sure Brady can't find too many reasons to turn that down.

At the end of the day, I had an excellent talk with Brady about how I am doing. Since it is midsummer, I wanted to know if I was fitting in alright and doing my work well. Not only did he say that I was, but he told me it took a year for Bobby to be allowed to use the platen press I've been using the last week or so. In otherwords, I totally fit in and have been learning quick enough that Brady feels confident in my skills.

We also chatted a bit about art print ideas. I asked him if I could print my zine cover at Hammerpress. Brady said yes and that I could start it Friday if I wanted to since he and Lindsay were leaving town for his parents. Eek!

Thursday night was laid back as well, and I hung out while Uriah's band practiced for their First Friday gig. Their sound is excellent and sets a good tone, but the singer kind of mucks it up with her whiny voice. Later, Jared and I watched the Colbert Report and talked for a bit before it was time to go to sleep.

Friday

Work was completely fun. The whole feeling was like we were already on holiday. Since Brady was leaving town, Hammerpress was not going to be open for First Friday and thus the usual First Friday jitters were absent. We could relax and enjoy our day.

When I arrived, Brady had cleared one of the presses for me to work on and I dove in. Jen took the day off and Bobby printed some notecards and then dabbled with an insert for awhile.

For my zine cover, I decided to start with Pecos Bill and print about as many as my tolerance and attention span would let me. I cut down 300-ish pieces of chipboard to start with. I'd been itching to try the upside down woodtype effect and so I found some pieces that Brady had tossed aside and assembled a background. I was able to print the white layer and a few orange before I was done for the day. I also assembled my title and a tag for some milagros I am going to sell at the Zine Symposium.

Joe stopped by before we closed and checked out my progress before heading out to First Friday festivities. I feel incredibly at home printing and have had about a million ideas burst through my head. I hope I have enough time to get them all down.

Around five-thirty I went home to change. I wore my 1950's reproduction dress that I'd found at the DAV with Halliday - sleeveless with yellow and green foliage. I added my wide black belt and heels and must say I looked smashing. I got many compliments.

I met Halliday at Hammerpress and we wandered around looking for Uriah's band, which we didn't find until their last two songs. There had to be at least ten other bands playing outside and every time I heard one, I would have sworn it was them, but it wasn't. On our search we ran into Ron, the guy who commissioned the EX Post Facto poster. He was hanging them up everywhere he could and even had printed some smaller versions for handouts. The poster looked pretty fabulous, even though it was just black and white.

Halliday's dad found us at Uriah's band and we went out from there. We looked at art until the galleries kicked us out. Personally, the display was much more interesting this month around. Maybe I was too quick to judge Kansas City's art scene. While there was still alot of craft, we did see some excellent paintings.

Halliday was interested in hitting up some Karaoke at the Brick, and that's where we spent the rest of the night. I didn't sing anything, but I did dance my pants off.

Oh and the exterminator came while I was at work. Hopefully this means less fleas....

Fashion and lightning

Most of Saturday morning was spent working on my zine entries. I finished them and emailed the pages to Madeline, the zine producer. After seeing one of the local zines in a bike shop, I decided I could do whatever I want and that would be sufficient. There wasn't any particular rhyme or reason to the content. My end product was a pair of simple collaged illustrations depicting faux saints, Saint Simeon - the patron saint of broken hearts, and Saint Katherine - the patron saint of contempt. I'm not sure how they'll be presented, but really, the point was to contribute, I'm not too picky how they turn out.

I did take a break around 11 at which point Uriah came home and rounded me up to go bike shopping. He'd found a bike yard sale with some affordable finds. As we arrived, my perfect bike was being rode away with a baby in the basket, a Schwinn 3 speed with basket and fenders. Alas. I looked around and found another Schwinn, brick red, with a basket and fenders, but no gears. If I'd been in Portland, I'd probably have gone home with it, but if I'm this far away and am going to buy a bike to take home, I want a ride with gears that would make it possible for me to get myself up a hill.

Out of the twenty or so bikes, there were only two (including the red one) that fit me. It turns out that most bikes are too tall for my short stature. Neither had gears, so I went home empty handed. Uriah scored with two bikes for 20 and 5 dollars respectively. We hit up the bike shop to get him some new tires and then came home.

About five I headed to Sunfresh to get ingredients for lemon squares and promptly got lost. Not too badly, but it was a good thing I gave myself some time to get there. The lemon squares were rushed since time was crunched to be at the fashion show. When I left I thought I'd botched the squares up. In the end, looking back I just didn't cook them for long enough. I also forgot the top poofs up before settling down to be delicious and smooth.

The fashion show was set up in the middle of 18th street, with a long runway running from one end to the other with a sheet of L.E.D. light covered fabric shielding the "backstage" from view. Obviously the road was closed off and people crowded in to stand as close as they could. Crowd run off went into the surrounding buildings and hung out windows or stood on the roof.

The theme of the evening was Summer in Space and each designer was to interpret the theme how they deemed. I missed the first two collections, which were only five pieces each, but I got there in time to see Halliday's creation walk down the runway on a green alien model. After bullying my way to where she and some friends were perched, I watched the rest of the show in somewhat comfort balancing on a director's chair.

The collections that I can remember off hand were
* Super Nova - a bright group of 60's-ish style dresses

* Oblivion - also dresses but immaculately made, unified with a corset top theme (also had the best models, many of the models didn't have a clue how to walk down a runway)

* I can't remember the name of the designer but her outfits morphed into other outfits

* Peggy Noland - an 18th street institution whose designs were something out of Playhouse Disney

* Birdies - the 18th street lingire store who used plastic bubble helmets (what I would have done), but not to their best advantage

Joe showed up near the end and helped Halliday take her things to her car. Since she was headed home, I decided to hit up the potluck at Bobby's even though I was running a bit late. When I arrived the potluck was winding down, but folks were still there. I brought some beer as a token and replacement to the botched lemon squares.

The reason for the potluck was Bobby's roommate Dave's birthday. Dave used to work at Hammerpress, but after many months of only working Saturdays he decided to call it quits for a bit. I also met a fellow Illustrator named John. John graduated about a year ago from KCAI and has been making a living as a full time Illustrator ever since. He says his work load goes up and down like a rollercoaster, but is enough to get his bills paid. The keys to working as an illustrator, as John has found, is promoting one's self in every avenue possible and finding a work method that produces work quickly but good enough a person can live with it.

I only stayed for about two hours since by the time midnight rolled around I was one of the last people left. I drove home and intended to go to bed, but an insane lighting storm brought me outside. Joe said it was heat lighting and it probably went on for about half an hour before any rain came.

I know I am in the midwest, but it feels very east to me, the lightning was certainly a midwestern experience.

*and now for a historical side note.

I was snooping around on the internet and found some history on the West Bottoms:

"The West Bottoms was originally referred to as the “French Bottoms”. It was the site of trade between French trappers and Kansas Indians. The area was established by the trappers as an area of commerce. The West Bottoms became the receiving point for goods offloaded from steamships traveling upstream on the Missouri river due in part of the western immigration and trade with Mexico over the Santa Fe Trail. The importance of the area increased with the advent of the railroad. The stockyards (established in 1871) then chose to develop there because of the livestock that came in from the Southwest over the rails. A whole city grew around the stockyards.

The Union Depot was built on Union Street where hotels, bars and restaurants flourished. Over 90 percent of the value in Kansas City lay in the West Bottoms. A devastating flood in 1903 ended the investment in housing, schools and churches. However, the agricultural, meat packing, freight and industrial investments continued to grow. By then the rule of thumb was clearly established namely the economic vitality of the city was determined by the economic progress of the West Bottoms.

The stockyards flourished through the 1940s and at its peak only the Union Stock Yards in Chicago were bigger. During World War II Darby Steel Corporation built most of the Landing Craft Tanks (LCTs) that were used in various amphibious invasions. The plant built one craft a day and floated them more than 1,000 miles down the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans, Louisiana prompting their “Prairie Ships” nickname. Darby’s plant at the mouth of the Kansas River could hold eight 135i LCTs and 16 LCMs (Landing Craft Mechanized) in various stages of development.

With economic hard times the West Bottoms took a drastic hit. The first economic blow came with the ending of World War II. There were over 20 thousand jobs lost when the extensive military construction in the city suddenly ceased. The second economic blow came in 1951 with a major flood. Packing companies and supportive industries moved out of the area and many closed their doors forever. The combination of these two events was cataclysmic.

There were 50,000 jobs lost in the span of 5-6 years and the city was half the size it is now. With the job loss people stopped shopping downtown. With the economic downsizing the city slipped and was unable to save itself and collapsed. Because the city’s tax base crumbled it could no longer maintain its streets, bridges or engage in meaningful investments.

In 1974 Kansas City and the American Royal tried to reclaim the stockyards by building Kemper Arena. The stockyards biggest heritage is the annual 6-week American Royal agricultural show held each October and November at Kemper Arena. Kemper Arena was also the site of the 1976 Republican National Convention where Gerald Ford was nominated for President. Along with the building of Kemper Arena there have been many buildings constructed and several multi-million dollar companies have set up shop in the West Bottoms area. This redevelopment has begun to attract upscale and artistic tenants to redevelop buildings and helping reestablish the West Bottoms area." - from westbottoms.com

Settling into a routine

Yesterday was spent doing more packaging. All twelve rep boxes are finished and eight out of twelve orders are ready to go. Today will be finishing the packaging and then getting ready for First Friday.

I spoke with Brady and I'll get to finish at least two projects while I'm here. One is going to be a banner for the Perceivers and another is going to be a personal flier, either for the Perceivers or the Pistol, maybe if I have time, both. I was looking through some of his extra large type, and I intend to use it for the banner. As for my flier, I'll be able to use Brady's lead type, which I am told not everyone gets to do. *eeeek!*

Since I did very little yesterday worth describing, (except for using the giant paper chopper, that was cool) I will instead enlighten my readers with a few misc facts that I've forgotten to slip in.
- Brady is missing a finger, well part of it, his middle right. Since he is very particular about anyone other than him using the platen presses, I thought maybe he lost it in a horrible printing accident. Nope, not the case. He wasn't looking and when hooking up his lady's snowcone trailer to his (car?) he took off the tip. The cost was disproportionate to the worth it's use, so he didn't reattach it.
- Everyday a man called Timothy stops by to ask Brady for work. He is not homeless, but almost so. He live at the Catholic Mission, which requires tenants work to pay a small rent fee. Once a week Brady has Timothy clean up the street outside and pays him for the job. Brady said Timothy has been following him around since '95.

After work I found Sunfresh, the local grocery store, and bought fixin's for dinner. About eight I cooked up a stirfry for my roommates and treated them to a nice homemade meal. In the evening I watched the Colbert Report and worked on my entry for the local zine.

This weekend promises to be busy. I'll be printing my poster, going to the 18th street fashion show, and possibly the local Dr. Sketchy's - which happens to be right down the street.

***!* Folks should be looking to their mail boxes for goodies! *!***

* Also for those who don't know, The Perceivers is the art collective I started back in Portland with some friends.

Catching up - Part 3

Finally, I have time to write about the good stuff.

Hammerpress
is the dream I thought it would be.

Hammerpress consists of five people. Brady Vest is the founder/boss and does most of the printing. He and Matt are the only full time employees. Matt works on a lot of the computer designs with Jen, who is increasing her hours to help the work load. Wendy is a older lady who does all the shop keeping and organization that is needed for their store. Finally Bobby is another printer who comes in a works on Fridays and Saturdays. I haven't met him since he was off this Friday.

The shop is going through a change. The bread and butter of Hammerpress is wedding invitations. A custom designed, handset wedding invite costs around 3500 dollars. The pricing is new as well. From what people have been saying, not many people understand what it is that Brady does, well people looking for wedding invitations that is. Brady said what he does is more like painting than printing. When people ask for one of his creations they are asking for a piece of fine art and apparently that doesn't sit well with most. Along with the new higher price, there is a waver customers sign off on saying they are okay with signing off on a drawing, since by the time Brady has a proof it is too late for major changes.

The newer option is a computer designed invite which is then printed using a metal plate ordered from Michigan. Most of the design elements used in the computer designs are from existing type that has been scanned in, thus still retaining an element of the hand-done. Though, this too takes time. Jen estimated a custom invite take four to five days to finish. Since invites is not all Hammerpress does, they are attempting to streamline the process by creating twelve layouts customers can choose from, then customize with their names and wedding colors. Those will be out in June.

Hammerpress does a great deal of design work for businesses too. Anything from posters and menus to cd covers and business cards. Some is handset, some is computer made, it all depends on the price bracket. Brady does almost all of the handset design work and almost no design work on the computer.

Posters are to Hammerpress somewhat as stocks are to a persons paycheck. They don't make much at the time of printing but payoff over a longer period. Brady mentioned that there are four or so to be done in the time span that I'll be here and that I'll get to work on those when they come up.

Stationary is the last part of Hammerpress and a large part of their business. I'll get into more of that as I describe what I do around the shop.

Wednesday, May 27th
Upon arrival I was taken on a tour of the shop. The front room is a store where prints, cards, and some things that Brady thinks to be interesting reside. Brady is a self proclaimed pack rat and so the decor is a little garage sale chic. Although anyone who knows my taste should know that is not a bad thing. The office is to the left of the door and that is where all design work takes place.

The back half of the shop is where all the printing happens. Hammerpress has nine presses, three of which are Ruths (Vandercook Universal I). It also has a jaw dropping amount of type. Brady has accumulated so much type he has to store some of it in his backroom because he doesn't have room in the studio. I think I might have drooled when I was looking through their drawers. For those of you who looked at Abra's type catalogue, you know that page where all the circus and western fonts were? Yeah, that's Brady's type cabinet. He even has a few alphabets of wooden fonts that must be a good five or six inches in length. There are just about as many crazy ornaments and vintage image blocks as there is type. Brady gets his type from a variety of locations, auctions, eBay, Craigslist, and some of it is new from the foundry in San Francisco. His type is his pride and joy and rightfully so.

Brady returned from a large stationary trade show in New York a day or two before I arrived. Through shows like that and representatives is how he sells his product to other stores. Once, through the New York show, Urban Outfitters hired him for a job of printing 25,000 alphabet cards.

Anyway, Wednesday was spend folding cards and preparing orders that came out of the show. Wendy helped me and showed me the ins and outs of packaging. She also offered up some ideas about where I should go around town.

***!* for anyone who wants Hammerpress ephemera, you should contact me. Make-readies and old merchandise are all at my disposal. There is a whole backroom full of stuff that Brady intends on just throwing out if anyone isn't interested in it. Old wedding invites are up for grabs too. I know that sounds funny, but they are some of the coolest stuff there. *!***

That night I intended to make dinner for my roommates, but I fell asleep and the gas went out until June 1st. So no cooking for me.

Thursday, May 28th
This day I spent printing. I printed 300 plus wedding invitations for a friend of Brady and about the same for some cd packaging. I've already learned a few things:
- most of Hammerpress' work is on cardstock. It's cheap and takes printing well. Some design work is on different types of paper, but a fair amount is on simple cheap cardstock.
- designing at an angle on the press bed is not as hard as it looks, just time consuming. One also needs a wooden corner to build off of, but I think something like that could easily be made for PNCA.
- every press has a character of it's own, no matter where you go.

In the evening Joe and I went over to Halliday and her roommate Danielle's where Halliday made a delicious stirfry for us. We had some wine and sat around enjoying the evening until Joe and I left for a succession of houses where I met a bunch of people.

The night capped off at this house where we "porched it". Somehow it felt like a flashback to a 1920's speakeasy- if I could flashback to the 1920's. That feeling probably had to do with the girls who lived there. They were flappers a bit in look and much in spirit.

I learned about the zine culture of Kansas City, which is very little. I was invited to submit to two coming out this month and I think I will. I need to work on mine, I'm not sure what the topic will be on. Oh - in all of this I went to a place called the Arts INKubator Press and will be taking part in their co-op for the summer. That's where I'll be screen printing.

Friday, May 29th
More rep packaging today. A great deal of rep packaging actually. Jen was helping me put things together and said that this is a once a year occurrence that means big business. Eventually Hammerpress intends to do all of their sales to stores through representatives.

About mid morning bus loads of people came through Crossroads from a convention happening at the Art Institute Kansas City (AIKC), so I didn't get much done but sales were great. I stayed late and hung out talking for a bit. Jen and I are going to go thrift storing on Monday, which will be great since for once in my life I didn't pack enough.

The Led Zeppelin themed party consisted of a bunch of people with one thespian hostess dressed up in a velvet jump suit and some music videos playing in the background. Around ten we went to Davey's Bar to see some bands. The show was rocking, at least the first two bands that played, by the time the third was on, it was one am and I was getting tired, so the last two didn't strike my fancy in the same way.

After, we grabbed some Mexican food and then I was dropped off to go to sleep.

now here I am. There is a cat name Flora demanding my attention and shedding great piles of hair, all over my bed, in revenge for not getting it. I need to go get ready. Later I am having a grand tour from Halliday and I think I'm going to go stare at some trains.

My first week was fantastic. Hammerpress is inspiring, laid back, and welcoming. The Pistol is a ready made social network that I am welcome and included in. My weeks here are already getting booked with a potluck, fashion show, first Friday, and a trip to St. Louis on the horizon. Good things are happening.


p.s. one of my oldest friends (dating back to elementary school) lives and hour and a half away. Going to go see him sometime too.