European Tour 2013 (Part 1)

Travel has always been a burning passion of mine. Before I knew I was a printer or a designer, I knew that I was a traveller. Being transplants in Minnesota from the East Coast, I used to love taking the family road trip back to Pennsylvannia. It was cool when I got to sit in the front seat with my dad and he would teach me all this cool stuff, like stuff about the truckers, stuff he just knew. Stuff about taking the less populated roads, visiting the places that few knew about, seeing the sights that many overlooked, the real important stuff, the stuff that made me the traveller I am today.

I just returned from a trip that changed me in many ways.

I found my people, I find them in the darnedest places. They are never where I think they should be, they are usually the last place I look. Sometimes they are in Gordo, AL (Kennedy Prints!), or Nevada City, CA (Full Circle Press), if I keep my head out of my ass I can even find some right here in St. freakin Joseph, MN. This time they were in distant lands, places I have never been but always wanted to go.

I am not even sure why this time I decided to follow through with applying for a grant but I really wanted this to happen so I applied through the Central Minnesota Arts Board, I think I got in it hours before the deadline, with the help of my intern, Katherine, since at the time I was visiting a friend in Florida. A month went by and I prepared myself for the reality that it very well may not come through. So the night when I got a call from Heather Allen, of CMAB, I was expecting a "nice try kiddo, but maybe next time", so when she said you got it, I about shit my pants. I received the Established Artist Award, which was a pretty awesome chunk of money that I could use towards my artistic endeavor. When I got the check the first thing I did was Skyped my friend Gota in Sweden and told her I was coming, picked the dates,  and booked the ticket! As soon as I was entering the numbers from my credit card I knew there was no turning back and I better make this fucking epic.

Sweden

My first stop was Tallasen, Sweden, to a small printshop called Tryckkammaren ran by a woman named Gota. I met Gota a year ago when I curated a kick-ass broadside exchange called "End of Times". She was invited in by another printer, who also has inspired and impacted my life in many ways (APKj). We got to know each other through the very social media that sometimes makes me want to bash my head against a wall, yes, Facebook. We became friends via the interwebs and I knew there was something about this woman, there was something that already connected us, you know those poeple, they are instantly family. Gota is a extraordinary printer and began telling me that I simply had to get myself to her printshop to co-teach a workshop with her. "Sure" I said, "I'll get right on that" I said, thinking the whole time, when in the hell am I going to have the kind of money to get over there??

Cue the grant money. 

Right out of the gate it was hugs and warmth, love and wine, generosity and excitement. We were like toddlers at Toys R Us, we could not stop talking about our presses, what we loved about what the other had been working on and what the hell were we going to do in this workshop? As we were talking and the gals that signed up for the class began to show up we saw how totally stoked they were too and it was time to lay some ink! We decided to narrow our field a bit and have an "assignment" so people had something to focus on and an end product to share. I came up with the theme for our exchange, Gratitude, since words can hardly come close to explaining how grateful I am for these experiences.

Everyday began with a nice pot of coffee and soft boiled eggs, then we made our way to the printshop and just started, whatever it was, and everyone was so focused. I learned how to make polymer plates (which I will be doing at my own printshop now!) and I taught them how to make pressure prints!

            

We worked in the printshop from morning, stopped for lunch, which was always amazing, then worked until it was time to go to bed. These folks were serious, it was awesome. I was carving like mad, did a new small animal print for my series, made a goofy self portrait, a broadside for the portfolio, three really cool books and finally a huge Thank You poster for my amazing hosts.

Besides the whirlwind of printing and learning and teaching, one of my favorite things was heading to the sauna. Holy shitballs. I am tellin ya USA, this simply is the key to longevity. We would walk to the community sauna, heat that mofo to about 1,000,000 degrees and get naked then when we were just about to lose consciousness we would run and jump into a freezing cold spring fed lake. You heard me, I got naked. With strange Swedes. I knew you wouldn't believe me so I asked my pal Gota to take a few naked pictures! Yeah, I know, I am a titch nuts but i'm jis sayin, when in Rome, er Sweden, ya gots to DO. 

 

I made some serious friends on this trip, I got out of my comfort zone, I went on the path less travelled and I am a better person for it. I was inspired by people that, even though they are on the other side of the earth, are not so different from me. I found my people, I sorta thought they might be hiding in Sweden. 

New York Freakin' City

I just returned from an epic journey.
(Sort of long but totally entertaining)

I re-fell in love with humanity in a place known for its rude and asshole-ish people. I will tell you what, not a one single bad apple fell across my path. Well, maybe a few, but I was so filled up with
sapp-tastically stuuupid love that I hardly noticed.

NEW YORK FUCKIN' CITY. 

I went to the National Stationery Show for the second time.
(P.S. I misspelled the word Stationery on my mailer. Freakin classic.)

 This year was different than last in a few major ways. The first was that I decided after a hilarious conversation with my pal Amos Paul Kennedy Jr, that I was NOT going to try to keep up with the proverbial "Johnson's" this year. It is out of my league ($$ wise) and totally NOT my style. I decided that I gave exactly zero shits if anyone blogged about the beauty of my booth design and how a family of seven could comfortably live there. I am not into tissue paper flowers, I get nauseated if I am surrounded my pastel for too long and I am a dirty, inky, down to earth printer.
Don't look at my floor (jackass) look at MY CARDS!

This first picture illustrates my booth in its packaged form. Two checked bags equalling 87.5 pounds. Ah-freakin-mazing. 

Setting up took us literally under 2 hours, like way under 2 hours. It looked legit and it was about showcasing the cards, which it did wonderfully.  You may recall from my last blog, the brilliance of Brother Marty, well this time his wife (my sis-in-law) Jill, was a large part of this brilliance. They took an idea I had and turned it into collapsable metal card hangers for which I would use magnets to hang the cards! I don't need no stickin walls! They were perfect! 

The next thing I wanted to make perfectly god damned clear was that I am a freakin letterpress printer. People have it in their heads that the definition of letterpress is smashing the shit out of a polymer plate so that the indent can be seen from 15 feet away. I ain't gunna lie, it looks cool, but just because my shit did not look like every other printer there people would ask me, "oh, this is lovely, do you ever think about letterpress printing it?" I would have to count to 10 to stop myself from lunging at them and attempting to shake some sense into them. 

 I asked a great and talented friend from Steve Diamond Elements, who is a wonderful photograher, to take some badass pictures of the shop, my presses, and my handset type, that may help folks understand.

 Then I had the help of another local business rock star, Kevin, from  44 Sign Company. He took the super sexy pictures of old schooldom and printed them out nice and huge on canvas!

Oh yeah, the other cool ass thing I decided to do was to bring a linoleum block and actually, gasp!, carve it there right before the peoples eyes!!! How insane am I? It worked like a charm. People were curious and I am going to print them and send them out as Thank Yous!

I hung out with so many GD wonderful people: Bench Pressed, Pepper Press, Rick Griffith, Kelp Designs, HappyCactus Press, Letter C Design, Fisk & Fern, Bald Guy Designs and I reconnected with my wicked awesome pals from Salty Dog, Blackbird Press, Pistacio Press, Old Tom Foolery, Studio On Fire, Power & Light Press, Pixies & Porcupines, Wild Ink Press, Igloo Letterpress. I learned a lot from these people as I will continue to do. 

One of the best things was seeing store buyers that ordered last year, strong clients relationships and wonderful feedback are key. They came back, which means my cards are good sellers!

Katherine takin an order, she became quite the professional there. Really gained some confidence interacting with buyers! It was great to see!

This young chap thought we were very "special" and he had many words of encouragement for us. He was not even at the NSS, he was at a different show. How could he resist chattin' up us trouble makers? I do believe he was maybe in for coppin' a feel, but what the hell. This picture is precious. 

Tattly had a booth of their kickass fake tattoos. I of course could not pass up the opportunity to sport this little number, since I am the master of putzing and my friends call my sense of time "Bruno Time", which I get and I am working on it dammit. 

My BFF Paul came with this year, he has been doing shows since he was like 14. He was an absolute asset, and somehow made the entire show seamless. Also brought the best sandwiches from the greatest Italians on 8th Avenue, I believe I was so enthralled with my sandwich I may have said something along the lines of... "this sandwich is so good I would not stop eating it if there was dog shit on it". 

 Who knows why I say such things, I did however discover that in NYC, I (normally a social anomaly) had an overwhelmingly warm sense of home. A "free to be me" sorta thing. Like I did not have to be more or less ME, people really liked me being just being natural me. You have to know me to know what that means but it was truly wonderful, and being back in Minnesota "Nice" (bullshit by the by), I miss that. 

 

In conclusion, the show was slow but really good. I learned a lot and made many more great connections and friends. I had an incredible time with Katherine and Paul and would not have changed a single thing, with the exception I should have invented and worn cottonball shoes (my feet are covered in blisters from all the walking) and I wish Katherine would have caught me slappin that dudes ass on the subway on her phone. Other than that, it is bittersweet being home (mostly bitter) cause the weather sucks so badly I cannot even stand it. I missed my presses and Callie my pooch, and family yatta yatta,  and have a TON of tremendous material to get down on paper STAT.  

Thanks again NYC, see you soon.

Cookie by Barb Hildebrand at Cookies By Design

Makin shit is cool.

So I would like to share something that I am pretty sure I invented.

If you are a printer and you have typecases, yer gunna wanna read all about this great thing that I brought to life, well, okay my brother Marty brought it to life but I was there.

So, I have aquired a new wonderful and beautiful case of type. I love getting new type, and I especially love new donated type, that is truely a great and wonderous thing. The Bruno Press shop no longer has room for much of anything. Luckily I have the otherside of the garage, however,  parking a car on this side is a valid request. That means that things can be added on that side but there must still be, at the end of the day, room for a parked car. The other hurdle is that, this is a garage, and cars with snow come into it and the floor sometimes gets wet. In addition to all that, sometimes things need to be moved around or someone needs to get into the attic.

With all of these things on the proverbial table, I had myself a situation to ponder.  When I have those, I often call upon my brother Marty. My (genius) brother designs machines in high tech cad drafting programs that cut granite. On his off time he builds, from scratch, things like 14' trailers that have hydraulic lifts and wood splitters that can be maneuvered by a skid loader.  So, I told him I wanted something that could get my type cases off the floor and make them easier to move round, anyone that has ever had to move a type case knows, this is a bitch of a task.

So it began. We took measurments and brother Marty was off to buy metal. I had to get wheels, paint and bolts.

I will say that learning to weld was very freakin badass, I could not get used to the fact that with that

welder hat on I could not see jack shit so I would always start midair but then I got it and it was awesome. 

  

Primer-ed and painted, now we were ready for the SWIVELLING wheels!!! I am so smart!

Finally, lets put that baby on the floor and hope like hell it fits. 

LIKE A FREAKIN GLOVE YO!

So here sits my wonderful invention. My brother is the master of the tool, and once we got all the drawers in  and we moved it around, I realized that I should share this, people are going to WANT THESE. We will make them.

Looogit this thing of beauty! 

Please contact me if you would like to place an order. We got this down and can kick them out!!!

Happy Printing!