I am back home safely from my absolutely fabulous trip to Buenos Aires! I wrote the following to those who directly supported me with airfare, lodging, studio fees and art materials and wanted to document on my website.
I embraced the printmaking experience that is Proyecto Ace‘s expertise, and created a new series of prints for the first time since high school (yes I was an undergraduate art major but focused on drawing and painting!) and was reminded of the very extensive printmaking process.
Here are some highlights!
Culture:
Everything was late, but that’s the chill culture! Many restaurants don’t open for dinner until 8pm! They have a tradition for everyone in the studio to eat together at lunch and even have a cook on hand. The laid back nature was really fun to enjoy. Everyone was super friendly. Not everyone spoke English in the city so I had to stumble through a lot, which was fun! I felt very safe everywhere I went, even in the big crowds. Where I stayed and worked, though, it was pretty quiet aside from dogs (people LOVE their dogs there!) and traffic. Food was EXTREMELY cheap. I only bought 1 meal a day and a good fine dining experience with a few copas de vino, for maybe $7-9.
Site highlights:
- Museum of Latin American Art in Buenos Aires (or “MALBA” as they call it) – the first artwork I see? A self portrait of Marta Minujin with Andy Warhol (below)! I travel thousands of miles to see a neighbor artist I see all the time – ha! However, after researching Minujin, I decide to make her part of my new series, as a very successful and influential Argentinan artist who happens to be a woman. I also instantly connected with the work of Argentinian feminist artist Liliana Maresca which I also incorporated in my work (right).
City tour: I saw all the highlights around Palermo, San Telmo, Collegiate and Belgrano (where I stayed) including the “Woman’s Bridge” (self portrait with, left) which supposedly was designed to look like a woman dancing the Tango (!?). The markets in San Telmo and Palermo including art, antiques and crafts lined miles of streets, as did unique boutiques, galleries, restaurants/cafes and tons of fabulous street art.
- Museo Moderno, https://museomoderno.org/en/, Centro Cultural
Kichner https://www.cck.gob.ar/ and Museo de Bellas Artes – https://www.bellasartes.gob.ar/en/ both had fabulous contemporary exhibits, though I couldn’t understand most of it because nothing is really in English. I took tons of photos to study later. At the Centro there was a fabulous exhibit of feminist comic artist Mateina that I super enjoyed even with the language barrier (right).
In the studio!
Day 1: Presented to the studio coordinators and other artist residents about my work. The studio coordinators encouraged me to make an itinerary for the week to visit sites, which I did. I had my new printmaking tools but had no idea what to do. The director encouraged me to think big, in a series of a square, say 9 small works together to form one, instead of the 1-off drawings/paintings I typically do. I went to MALBA that first day (successfully taking the public bus!) and knew I’d make a tribute to Marta Minujin and Liliana Maresca.
Day 2: Sketched out ideas and got feedback from the team. I would enlarge one of my figures, create carvings inspired by Marta Minujic’s large colorful abstract work, and incorporate text from Maresca’s works. I’d linocut the abstract sections, and photo-synthetic transfer the large figure with a metal carving produced by their team.
Day 3: I created the 4 carvings, and sketched out the large figurative work
with a projection.
with a projection.Day 4: I completed the final figurative piece to be transferred into a plate, designed where I wanted the abstract parts to be in the final piece, and mixed the printmaking paint to create my Minujin inspired bright colors.
Day 5: After a round of “fails” using the printmaking machine, we decided it would be best if I had printed the smaller pieces. This is a long process of cleaning in between each print and re painting the linocuts, and hand rolling onto the paper.
Day 6: Mixing up the color for the figure print, then making the four large prints on the machine using the metal transfer piece. Cleaning up was a whole ordeal each day!
Day 7: Laying them all out, having the team review, select one for donation, packing up and review of experience. We were all happy with the results! I also got in several of my Feminist Tribute drawings.
In the studio I got to work with the fabulous residency team including a master printmaker, as well as artists from London, Argentina and Toronto. Overall it was one of the best experiences of my life, and I thank you again for your support!
This is only the beginning!
Feel free to reach out for more pictures, questions or to say hi! sallery_art@zohomail.com.
PS: See Wanda’s experience with Proyecto Ace, in 2011 here.
sallyjanebrown.com
IG @sallery_art
FB @salleryart
TW @sallery_art
YouTube @Sallery_Art
My books on Amazon