Bartalos

Our team at the Imprint of the San Francisco Center for the Book is proud to announce the upcoming launch of Gail Wight’s Restless Dust, our 2009 artist-in-residence publication.
The edition consists of 50 signed and numbered multi-media installations housed in wooden boxes. The project’s illuminating birds, hand-bound letterpress-printed artist’s books, and screen-printed box lids make this among our most ambitious and unique offerings to date.

Gail Wight‘s text invites Charles Darwin’s ghost to sail to San Francisco and wander with her through the greater Bay Area terrain. The focus of the journey is three part: to celebrate Northern California’s unique species; to look at the ways in which Darwin’s legacy has impacted contemporary Bay Area culture; and to acknowledge the fragile and endangered state of many of our local flora and fauna caused by environmental degradation.

Wight’s specialty is experimental media art focusing on issues of cognitive science and the history of scientific theory and technology. She is currently Associate Professor at Stanford University‘s Department of Art and Art History, and Director of Graduate Studies in Studio Art and Experimental Media Arts.

Restless Dust‘s launch party is free, open to the public, and takes place on Friday December 4th from 7 to 9 P.M. at the San Francisco Center for the Book. Artist and author Gail Wight, who hand-set the text in metal type and carved linoleum blocks for printing, will give a brief talk about the project and copies of the book will be available for the final time at its pre-publication discount. It may also be ordered online along with the Center’s other fine Imprint products.

Big thanks to our crew of Rhiannon Alpers, Katherine Case, Colleen Stockmann and our fabulous team of volunteers who enable production of the Imprint’s editions.

The SFCB is at 300 DeHaro Street (entrance on 16th Street) in San Francisco.

415-565-0545 | www.sfcb.org | imprint@sfcb.org

Nahá printmaking workshop '09. Photo by Janet Schwartz.

Several years ago a group of artist friends and I had the amazing experience of conducting childrens’ art workshops in the Lacandón Jungle of Mexico. We were hosted by the indigenous Mayan communities of Nahá and Lacanja in the state of Chiapas near its border with Guatemala. New York artist Kelynn Alder conceived the project and led the drawing and painting workshops, Josh Gosfield offered collage, Nola Lopez led mask-making and polaroid photography, and I held the printmaking sessions. The kids drew on their environment, culture and dreams to create a unique collection of artworks which we later exhibited at the Children’s Museum of the Arts in New York City.

Lacanja printmaking workshop '09. Photos by Janet Schwartz (left) and M. Bartalos.

This past month I took the opportunity to revisit both communities and reintroduce the program to a new generation of youngsters. I was joined by photographer Janet Schwartz and Na Bolom projects coordinator Adriana Chamery García. We offered printmaking and digital photography workshops which, as before, were greeted with great enthusiasm and creativity.

Lacanja printmaking workshop '09. Photo by M. Bartalos.

We’re now planning the next round of Lacandón art workshops for the spring of 2010. We have five artists lined up and have been invited by the village of Metzabok in addition to Nahá and Lacanja. Our project is named LCAW which stands for Lacandón Children’s Art Workshops, though Lacandon Community Art Workshops works as well since all age groups are welcome to participate.

Lacanja printmaking workshop '09. Photos by Janet Schwartz (left) and M. Bartalos.

Our program’s three main objectives are to preserve the oral history of the Lacandón people through visual art; to provide participants with the opportunity to express themselves creatively in a workshop situation that they otherwise don’t have access to; and to create a greater international consciousness about the Lacandón jungle, its people and culture. We have a project website in the works and plan to publish artwork through limited-edition prints and artists’ books. Proceeds and donations will fund successive Lacandon Art Workshops and benefit the communities through Na Bolom, the non-profit organization dedicated to the protection of the Lacandón Maya and the preservation of the Chiapas rain forest.

Lacanja digital photography workshop '09. Photo by M. Bartalos.

We’re really grateful to our friends at Na Bolom whose generous guidance and logistical support make this project possible. We also thank Club Balam and the Lower Eastside Girls Club of New York for sharing their equipment for the digital photo workshop.

More news and an artist roster to follow as the spring program takes shape. Stay tuned!