I've finished printing a butt load of christmas cards and some other cards and I'm realizing that I need to stamp at least my press name and contact on the back of them. I am going to break down and buy a cast rubber stamp for this rather than carve one of my own because that minutia is just rediculous. I've found a site that will accomodate a custom image and I've been agonizing as to what to do. I've decided that the Distinct Mink icon is just going to have to wait.
Not many people know what the deal is with Pistoles Press and in fact most nonprinters don't understand the title "Press" anyhow. My publishing press is called Pistoles Press in memory of my beloved ferret Pistol. When he was a bad boy, his name was Pistoles Frijoles.....yeah, gun beans. Well, pistoles is not even spanish for gun but for an antiquated system of coinage in Spain...but that's the beside the point. Whenever there was an upturned plant or ripped open bag of produce with little needle tooth bruises all over the apples, it wasn't Pistol's fault. It was the infamous Pistoles Frijoles! The thing that cracks me up the most is that he percieved that if he stayed stone still in the middle of the crime scene right after the act, he was invisible. As soon as I would yell "PISTOLES FRIJOLES!!!!!!" he'd spin rubber to get under the couch or bed. He was a real inspiration, however, as he would go after animals ten sometimes twenty times his size (he scared the shit out of my roommate for a while there) and would always be ready to play and get into something. Even though he was a runt, he was a true ferret's ferret and was always up for attack! His tenacity was a real inspiration and that's why I went back to an earlier image that had been floating around in my head. I had drawn a weasel with ink guns in a gun holster belt but it didn't have the dynamic energy I wanted. Anyone who's taken the time to painstakenly carve a nice block or set a page of type, then have to load it into the press and do all the make ready, counting the numerous proofs to make sure the registration and pressure is right and that the ink is the right color/consistancy, knows that feeling of finally cranking out the prints. That's the type of thrill I wanted to have in my logo. After wrangling everthing into place, the bucking bronco can't throw you once you're running that edition out! I decided to anthropomorphize the legs of the press into cow hooves and I think the tracks for the rollers mimic bull horns. Who else thinks the hat looks like a toilet seat? Any suggestions? Can you tell the weasel is happy?
2 comments:
your prints are nice. the squid one has beautiful detail. i'm a printmaker too, only i'm limited to silkscreen and relief because presses are so dang hard to find once school is done with. ya know? did you buy those presses? how do you like the etsy thing?
Oh goodness, you're in Oregon. That's press country! I think you'll best find out how I got the presses by watching The Secret. At least that's how it seems to me. The Pilot press I won on Ebay and retrieved it myself at Niagara Falls. The Vandercook I picked up in West Virginia after seeing it listed on the Briar Press Museum website. The North Eastern portion of the US seems to be bursting with letterpress equipment, but California seems to be the place to be if you want to land a Vandercook. I didn't think I'd ever come into a press after school, which is why I taught myself Japanese Woodblock Printing. Oregon is the premier place in the US to pick that up. I love Etsy! I would be at the point I'm at now without it!
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