Artists and patrons of the arts gathered at the SoCo Taphouse in downtown San Angelo on Saturday afternoon for a print swap event set up local creator by Dani Headrick.
Artists who had prints to trade were encouraged to bring them along so other people colud find some cool art and meet some interesting people.
Byron Rogers sips his pint of bitter while looking over his prints, laid out on the table in the way back of the SoCo Taphouse.
A dedicated photographer for almost 50 years now, he remembers when Kodachrome came out and changed that way the world was captured, and also when it cost $5000 for a whopping 2-megapixel digital model, without a lens.
These prints are “mega-postcards”, the largest size you can send with one stamp. He’s getting ready to swap three with another artist at the same table, Dani Headrick, for a few of her collages and drawings.
Headrick organized the print swap, a perfect way for local artists to meet and greet and come home with some new pieces. In-person swaps like these might be more essential than ever as artists seek to distinguish themselves, especially online, where AI artwork had begun to take hold.
Rogers was 16 when he started taking it seriously. He started off at 13 with a fascination for the stars.
“I was trying to take photos of the stars with a Kodak Brownie, which is stupid! But then I made my own contact printer, and developed a really nice print that blew my parents socks off. After that they gave me a 35mm SLR.”
There was only one school for photography in east Texas at that time, at Sam Houston State in Huntsville. That’s where he took shots like this view of some roadside green grocers in east Texas, with a medium-format Rollie SL66.
In Search Of The Real Thing
Xavier Claymore says he wouldn’t make anything that he wouldn’t put up himself. His paintings will go up at Plateau Brewing Co., on Chadbourne. A few with fluorescent paint that will pop under black lights. He works with acrylic, digital, and watercolor.
As an Asian American, a Filipino, he draws inspiration from traditional Asian mythology. Japanese lore like the Oni, a mythological demon. Or the girl with the Noe mask. Another depicts a Pacific islander with three eyes, which for Claymore says: “Open your minds…see what’s right in front of you, the culture is being erased right in front of you.”
Though he does use digital tools, these days he’s not so sure about AI encroaching into the world of art. Saying that it’s lost him business as a graphic designer.
“I’ve been around business owners who say, ‘I’m just going to do it with AI, it’s free.’ But is it free?
“There are consequences with AI…humans are creative…this is what we’re supposed to do in our free time.”
Aboriginal Influences and Byzantine Motifs
John Redwine makes his prints with pen and ink. Immediately the detail stands out in his work, the intricate lines weaving in and around each other. Some are inspired by nature, as seen in the winding branches crawling up into the stark white sky.
Others by art found in Australian caves, and the characters some depict which are known as Wandjina. The difference in Redwine’s depictions is that he’s ready to tell you about the history behind them.
These are inspired by “Aboriginal dreamtime” says Redwine, “the Wandjina characters, are a part of that style. In context, they are the progenitors of the five fingered people, they make it rain and interestingly a lot of the background for them is so similar to our Native southwest cultures. Some of the depictions are almost exact.”
These prints by Plumas Mortales are no bigger than your hand but started off as larger pieces on canvas, they vary in subject matter.
A few mirror the Byzantine style iconography, with golden halos around the heads of the figure. One is called “Sainthood.”
“I’ve been inspired by that recently,” they said. “These are a part of a larger series, I would have made more but it can be hard to predict which ones people want.”
The originals are decorated in gold leaf, which is still common on icons today. Gold leaf shows up in the other works as well, like in “Pressure Cracks”, where they are used to depict a lightning bolt like effect across the body.
