1.2.25

Cut, Copy, Collage

PREFACE: Lately I started asking people what they consider art and design. The creatives I spoke to had very strong opinions..

"Art is more conceptual than design."
"Design is more functional than art."
"Designers suck at art."

Creativity is often polarized as either conceptual or functional. But I feel like creative output uses both interchangeably. Everything has an end use; everything means more than what it is. My latest tangent on the topic resulted in this hypothetical model defining art and design as elements of the same process.

The DTAI model defines art and design as two elements of one process. Collectively the two operate as tangible and intangible functions shaping one's creative intent.

Art and design have expansive definitions that boil down to motive. Both can produce identical outputs, but the creator’s motivation determines if an outcome is a work of art or of design. A work of art is produced by internal motivation. Self-reflection, self-expression, self-improvement, etc., are physically immeasurable internal motives that can also be described as intangible functions of art. A product of design is driven by external motivation. Improving interactive systems, architecture, transportation, etc., are physically measurable motives that can be described as tangible functions of design.

An abstracted bowl created to symbolize a person’s perspective on life could be considered art. It is the byproduct of a nontangible motive to conceptualize the human experience. The same bowl mass produced as eclectic houseware could be considered design. It is the result of a tangible motive to fulfill a function appealing to a large audience, in a form that is unique to competing products.

Mans must be spinning in his grave.

Regardless of the output, the subjective definition of art and design is determined by how the creator’s motive is interpreted.

Art without design provokes no action;
Design without art provokes no thought.

If art is strictly nontangible, it cannot occupy physical space. Art in its purest form is an idea. To conceive an idea through a material medium is to design it for that medium. An idea designed for sketch, an idea designed for sculpture, an idea designed for sound. Even speaking an idea into existence designs it for communication. These tangible outcomes are influenced by design, making them non-exclusive to art’s definition. If design is strictly tangible, it cannot occupy immaterial space. In its purest form, design is action. Defining an action creates a mental image that is uniquely subjective to an individual’s perception. This image is an intangible form of artistic self-expression. Therefore, any conceivable action is nonexclusive to design's definition. While in theory art and design can exist as isolated concepts, in practice neither can exist without the other.

To better conceptualize the creative process, the DTAI model uses tangible and intangible motives to coordinate output. Tangible motives are denoted as variables of design D(t), and intangible motives are denoted as variables of art A(i). Creative output is plotted based on its relation to the D-axis and A-axis. For example:

Bowl A holds volume:

Bowl B reconceptualizes it's appearance:

Bowl C does both:

Bowl A:
a = holds volume (tangible)
coordinates = a, 0

Bowl B:
b = reconceptualizes appearance (intangible)
coordinates = 0, b

Bowl C:
a = holds volume
b = reconceptualizes appearance
coordinates = a, b

In practice, the quantification (or value) of each variable is determined by the creator’s objective. But regardless of one’s emphasis on tangible or intangible motives, the DTAI model visualizes the relationship between art and design as adjustable attributes as opposed to monolithic boundaries.

5.24.24

'Cowboy Bebop' Risograph by Boya Sun

Over the last few years I’ve developed a strong relationship with risograph printing. I was first introduced to the process by Boya Sun at the 2018 DesignerCon in Anaheim, CA. Boya’s use of vibrant pinks, stippled gradients, and variation in registration convinced me I was looking at a screen print poster, but somehow each print was only $35. I asked how a 5+ color screen print could be so affordable and Boya generously put me onto riso.

PCA Social Enterprise Center

When I returned home, I was disappointed to find the closest resource for riso printing was in El Paso. But three years later, Risolana opened its doors at the PCA Social Enterprise Center in Albuquerque's south valley. The space serves as a public resource for community members to access risograph.

Carlos Demonstrates How To Check Layer Registrations.

After collaborating on a few print editions with co-founders Karl Orozco and Michael Lopez, I was invited to help process artwork for participants at Risolana's monthly Thirty Under Thirty workshop. The workshop provides a low barrier-to-entry opportunity for participants to see their art translated into riso. Participants pre-submit their art files and during the course of the workshop collaborate with staff as we walk them through the process.

Carlos Showing Printer Settings

Sustainable art practice, dialogue, and education are priorities I acquired as a production screen printer at 111 Media Collective. When approaching the Risolana staff I instantly felt like we were pursuing the same values. The organization of services, equitable education opportunities, and curated collaborations are fundamental to Risolana's creative community engagement. If you are interested in getting involved, I highly recommend checking out the Thirty Under Thirty workshop held on the 30th of each month. Click here to learn more.

Thirty Under Thirty Participant Joshua Romero

4.25.24

'Obsessive Computer Hoodie' by Joe Malia

Instructional infographics are like someone who’s always spewing random facts they read on the internet to compensate for a lack of life experience.

The Which Wich? Comprehensive Menu

Take the Which Wich? menu for example. When you walk into a sandwich joint for the first time, what do you want? You want a sandwich experience curated by a professional. A professional that says “Hey! We’ve made every sandwich you can imagine, but here's our favorites." Give me creative limitations based on taste-makers expertise. I don’t want every option, just the endorsed options. Instead, Which Wich? slaps you with this hodge-podge grocery list of ingredients and fill-in-the-bubble options all set to 3 pt. typeface. So you’re basically in somebody’s house and they step out the kitchen like:

“You like sandwiches?”

And you’re like, “Yea, wanna make me one?”

And they're like, “I read this article about 500 ways to make a sub with just 12 ingredients.”

And you’re like, “Ok. Which one we making?”

And they’re like, “I don’t know.”

The problem with infographics is they signal a process is too complicated to be intuitive. But if the process is too complicated, shouldn’t it be simplified instead of dumping the responsibility onto the consumer? I'm not endorsing Subway but at least someone is there walking you through it… sometimes they’re coherent… still beats a pamphlet.

'Closer' Blender Animation

I started satirically using infographics in my personal projects to vent. Graphs, numeric values, pie charts, all give an implied sense of order. Like oh wow this disjointed emotional mood board makes sense now cuz it’s numbered. Peppering in a few diagram elements parodies the expectation that art should have meaning. The demand for thesis doesn't benefit the artist, it benefits viewers who need everything defined.

Garment Restoration Project

I like the label lines and magnification boxes in particular. They signal a PointA-to-PointB eye movement that’s trained into our psyche. When I started making GRP cut-and-sews I wanted to find a stitch that provides the same functionality on garments.

Straight Stitch on Jersey

I started with the obvious straight stitch. It’s straight. It looks like a line. However, the straight stitch doesn’t flex with tension. When I sewed the straight stitch into jersey (a knit fabric with is made to flex), the straight stitch would snap in random places when the shirt stretched.

Zig-zag Stitch on Jersey

I tried using a zig-zag stitch which flexes with the fabric, but the end result looked more like a scribble than it did a label line.

Cover Stitch on Jersey

I told Laila about it and she put me onto her cover stitch machine. The cover stitch machine sews loops that are only visible on the top half of the garment creating the illusion of a straight stitch but with the flexibility of a zig-zag. So now I can make diagrams on fabric.

Thanks Laila:]

4.12.24

"Swing" w/ Laila Weeks + Swwwisha

My brother would drag my mom and me to skate shops trying to convince her to chip in on a pair of skate shoes. I’d walk the aisles comparing skateboard graphics or watching videos. I could never tell if the music was playing on the video, or if the video was muted and a CD was playing in the background. Right as I was convinced that the two were in sync, one would go off beat, or off cut. I couldn’t look away until I knew for sure.

The first few months my chick and I were dating neither of us had a car. We lived pretty far apart so we basically only saw each other on campus until she got picked up by her mom or my bus came. Eventually her dad gave her this dusty ‘04 silver Mustang. She became one of the cool kids who parked in the unpaved lot behind our school. I’d wait for her in the morning, carving out little doodles in the dirt with my foot. Her car didn’t mean anything to me while we were together. It was a tool we could depend on but nothing special. It wasn’t until after we broke up that I became fixated. Her car was a bookmark to cold winter mornings waiting for the warmest person in my life at the time. I still see those ugly ‘04s and wonder if she’s behind the wheel.

"Dilla Time" by Dan Charnas

Swing is something I learned to identify from J Dilla beats during my brief stint making music. I was introduced to music through DAWs and drum machines, so the swing of acoustic sound was a novelty. To break from the default quantization, one has to go out of their way to make a digitally mixed track sound human. Dilla is known for pushing this to the extreme, manipulating each 4-bar loop to sound slightly off kilter from the rest. A drum loop that repeats perfectly is easy to forget, but the same beat slightly altered on every loop creates infinite anticipation.

Why are we obsessed with creating patterns?
Why do we lose interest once a pattern is established?
What returns our interest once the pattern breaks?

Maybe the mind’s limited capacity forces us to create patterns so we can focus on other things. I expect to breathe, not because I know there is enough air, but because I need to shift my focus toward other necessities in life. Establishing the pattern leads to expecting a definitive outcome. Receiving that outcome leads to trusting the pattern. Trusting the pattern leads to forgetting the pattern exists. A shift in outcomes leads to revisiting the pattern. You only notice the ground when you’re tripping on it.

3.25.24

"Untitled" by Delilah Montoya

This month I am participating in the group show Printed Matter hosted by Sanitary Tortilla Factory in Downtown Albuquerque. The show is curated by Diego Garcia, an STF resident artist. Diego flexed his rolodex organizing a wide range of printmakers featuring established artists such as Henry Morales alongside emerging artists such as myself and Jesse Littlebird.

Henry Morales Signs Relief Print

The show’s emphasis on archived work from Albuquerque creates a timeline of printmaking evolution and culture. Delilah Montoya’s featured prints date back to the 1970s and document the transition of halftoning from a manual into a digital process. Diego and Delano Garcia feature an archive of gig posters timelining punk and hip–hop influence in Albuquerque.

Karl of Bucket Exhibitions

Opening night was further fueled by Bucket Exhibitions who broke out the tortilla press for free relief printing. They hosted various hand-carved, laser-cut, and AI-influenced blocks for participants to mix and match. Karl, Ellie, and their crew of illustrators always bring a magnetism to any event they attend. Even the novice enthusiast is pulled into the printmaking process witnessing the simplicity and accessibility of relief printing.

Ellie of Bucket Exhibitions

The history, diversity, and accessibility has made this show one of the most interactive art events I've attended. The closing reception will take place Friday, March 29th from 5-8pm. Thanks Diego and Sheri for providing the space and curating a story greater than our individual narratives.

3.8.24

Gabe of Ace Barbershop

Margin of Error issue 4 is out for production. In retrospect this issue feels like a rehashing of the past. Like I'm revisiting the last 10 years of projects asking why did I do this? Back then a lot of projects I rushed to completion weren't given the chance to fully develop. Taking an illustration and redefining it in 3D space, or collaging graphics into new works on garments are a few ways I’ve shaken out a little more meaning from stuff I was just doing for fun. Hopefully I can find a common thread that guides me toward what I need to create next. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this issue! Be sure to subscribe if you'd like to receive a free issue mailed to your home address.

3.1.24

111 Media Collective

During the 2020 quarantine, my friends at 111 were looking for a way to fill the huge retail window to protect shop equipment while also giving pedestrians something interesting to look at. I proposed creating a design that repeats on all four sides that we would screen print at 12x12” on cheap newsprint paper. The squares would print as many times as needed to fill the 25x11’ window.

I first experimented with a yucca repeating block and then moved onto a chrysanthemum design. The chrysanthemum was a little more defined when viewed at a long distance, and the perpendicular Cuban links unified the separate blocks.

It took a lot of initial work to screen print and cut the couple hundred newspaper sheets but it was way cheaper than buying the same amount of material in fabric. We taped the sheets in the window and boom! Bento box.

The Petals designs have fostered a few applications but I felt my job wasn't finished until I convinced someone to give me an actual wall to wallpaper. This year Lapis Room gallery hit me up to finally do so. You can see the wallpaper install reveal Thursday, March 21st from 5-8pm or visit them during business hours. I will (most likely) have prints available too.

2.13.24

Print Austin is a manual printmakers convention held annually since 2010. It's a three day market that hosts over 50 vendors showcasing a wide variety of printmaking styles. I found out about the event last year through their satellite event Print Santa Fe. I missed the Santa Fe application deadline so I figured why not roll my dice in Texas. Here's what I learned from the trip...

(1) Know your place. Print Austin caters to fine art collectors. A lot of the vendors I checked out were selling relief, litho, intaglio, mono, stereo, arpeggio… all the process-heavy print methods. The quantity and scale of work vendors provided was impressive too. Some artists brought an entire catalogue with dozens of different editions, while others showcased massive prints with 12 or more colors each carefully etched and layered with pin-point registration. I brought t-shirts and 6 print editions haha. Being used to the craft/holiday markets in Albuquerque, I realized I had never seen a major league print market before. Walking the aisles made me question my place amongst print martyrs who spend hundreds of hours perfecting a single edition.

(2) Know your role. One thing I noticed while gawking at print wizardry was a lack of unique subject matter. Printmaking is kind of self-sabotaging sometimes because we’ll spend copious amounts of time meticulously perfecting a multi-color, hand etched image of like, a cat. And the concept is like, “this is my mom’s cat, she died holding him in her arms.” Nothing wrong with that, but when you get a whole market full of sentimental animal prints everything starts to blend together. My initial game plan was to highlight my poster prints, but after walking the aisles I decided to pivot and showcase the GRP pieces. No one else on the floor had garments for sale and when the few waves of young people came through, I had them locked in.

MK+KD

(3) Manage expectations. The general chatter between the vendors indicated this was a slow year. And I don’t know if this is related but Print Austin will not be returning to Santa Fe. I sensed a decline. I had a few good waves over the weekend but I left feeling like print is dead lol. Sometimes it beez that way. But I’ve learned to manage my expectations by budgeting expenses. We dropped a little over $1k on the trip and made $1,500–which after taxes, artist payouts, and vendor fees, basically equates to not going to Austin and donating $1,500 to local efforts–something I might consider before leaving the state again.

Canvas ATX Mobile Studios

On the plus side we got super hyped on Canvas, an artist compound providing live-in studios for working artists. We also stumbled upon a few shops partnering with artists to create immersive art installations.

Spokesman Coffee Mural by Briks

2.1.24

Fourteenfifteen Gallery

January is a habitually slow month for artists. Thankfully we have Fun-A-Day to keep the grey cells occupied. Fun-A-Day is an annual group show organized by Fourteenfifteen Gallery challenging artists to 31 days of creation during the month of January. Some people work iteratively, dedicating each day to starting and finishing a piece. Some artists choose to build upon one thing over the 31 days. Some artists wait til January 20th to start just to feel the heat. Guess which artist I am. All works are exhibited side-by-side in February to celebrate a month of creativity. The real show stopper is the 31 exotic snack options.

Thanks to Keara for staying up with me multiple nights sewing quilt squares. Her expertise as a custom wedding dress seamstress kept my presentation on point. Thanks to Laila for offering me free range of her materials and creative guidance through the process. And thanks to Fourteenfifteen for securing my sanity through the month of January.

1.29.24

Gabe of Ace Barbershop

Ace is easy to miss if you're not looking for it. An inconspicuous barbershop on 4th street with a steady stream of regulars. Despite its humble exterior, owner Gabriel Jaureguiberry has provided free wall space to a monthly rotation of artists for over 20 years. Many legends such as Sam Flores, Raul Urias, and Mr. Funk have occupied his barbershop to feature work or join the ranks of his permanent collection. I dropped into Ace for a friend-of-a-friend's opening in 2014, and since then I've always wanted to engage with the laid-back atmosphere. Having the opportunity to show at Ace for my first time in 2023 brought everything full-circle.

Laila Sewing Custom Garment

This year I returned for FORAGE. Much like last year’s ATARAXIA show, I had some new GRP pieces made with Laila Cola Weeks and we also broke out the sewing machine and fabric scraps for people to partake in the process. Laila killed it churning out custom remixes on the spot.

The show reaffirmed my mission to connect with young folks like myself 10 years ago. Kids who feel like the art scene is too pretentious and who need a space to make genuine connections.