This hands-on workshop is intended as a fun “crash course” in building a DIY block printing press, which we will use to print cartonera books in a fun and interactive community artmaking experience at the SW Print Fiesta Printers’ Market. On Day 1 (Friday), we will together build a DIY printing press using salvaged items. We will share with you how we make presses in our own artistic practice, where we modify things like rocking horses, tires, tortilla presses, and rocking chairs as block printing presses, with our focus always on making the printing process fun and interactive. On Day 2 (Saturday), we’ll prepare to take our newly-minted press out into the community to make cartonera books with people at the Printers’ Market! Build
Cartonera is a community bookmaking and publishing practice from Latin America, focused on creating books from cardboard and where we see the book not just as an object, but as an object that establishes social relationships and has the potential to change social relationships. With this in mind, that’s why we as Cartonera Santanera created our particular version of cartonera that uses block printing to give people fun, accessible experiences with artmaking and literature. We hope you’ll join us!
Instructor Bio:
Isidro Pérez García is a cross-border multidisciplinary artist working with immigrant diasporic communities from México. Adriana Sánchez Alexander is a SoCal-based writer and artist whose work focuses on community art and narrative transformation. In 2012, alongside other writers and artists, they started Cartonera Santanera as a way to tell different kinds of stories about and for their community.