Installation shots from my exhibition at Loganberry books. More image of individual pieces will follow but they need some editing before they are posted.

The PR for the event is below:

CLEVELAND — Zygote Press presents Raised Voices: artists’ books for troubled times, an exhibition about dialogues, opening May 1, from 6 – 9 pm.  Raised Voices features the work of artists who tell stories and share their observations about living in times of challenge and change.  Some of the pieces are quiet and private, others are overtly political.  By creating these books, all the artists are starting conversations about personal, national, and global relationships.

Co-curated by local visual artists, Wendy Partridge and Susan Vincent, this exhibition features regional and national talent. Books will be on display by Northeast Ohio artists and from the collections of Bill Busta, owner of the William Busta Gallery, and Eric May, professor emeritus of the Kent State University School of Visual Communication and Design. Come and enjoy an evening of lively discussions about and with these books during the opening reception or spend a quiet afternoon reading alone; the exhibition will be on display from May 1st – June 6^th.

About the Curators

Susan Vincent is a visual artist currently working in printmaking and book arts. She received her BFA from Kent State University in printmaking and works full-time at SPACES, an alternative contemporary art gallery in Cleveland. At SPACES Vincent manages the experimental project space, SPACELab and works as the Membership and Administrative Manager. In September 2008 Vincent spent five weeks in Germany on an international residency exchange program hosted by the Grafikwerkstadt Dresden and funded by Zygote Press, the Ohio Arts Council, and the City of Dresden.

Wendy Partridge is a painter and printmaker.  She studied art at San Francisco State University and the California College of Arts and Crafts.  During that time she apprenticed with Peter Koch at his letterpress studio in Berkeley, California and at the Press in Tuscany Alley, San Francisco.  She has a graduate degree in art conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and works as a paintings conservator at the Intermuseum Conservation Association in Cleveland, Ohio.  She occasionally teaches workshops on the fundamentals of letterpress printing at Zygote Press.

Zygote Press is a non-profit, artist-run fine art print cooperative in Cleveland dedicated to creating active communications among artist-printmakers and increasing public awareness in contemporary printmaking. Zygote is supported by its resident artists, generous members and individual donors, the Ohio Arts Council, The George Gund Foundation, and special project grants from Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Zygote Press is located on the first floor at 1410 E. 30^th Street (between Superior & St. Clair)

NEW Gallery Hours: Wednesday 11 – 3 Saturday 12 – 4 and by appointment

Now, 3 months after returning, I am beginning to feel a certain amount of balance again. Which means I will be finishing my Europe blog: posting the remainder of the pictures from Krakow, Ostrava, Novy Bor and Prague, relaying some stories and posting the rest of my sketch book and project images.

The next step will be getting my website up and running. Thanks for the patience.

The hostel I am staying in is in a fantastic location: it is right next to the main square and there are cute cafes all over. It is also the hostel of choice for very young travelers. This means I was woken up 3 times last night by drunken stumblers and once by a drunken puker, dousing his belongings in extra fermented beer. These nighttime events make morning a very welcome occasion for me.

The weather has been wonderful and I really enjoy Cracow. There are more modern buildings here than in Prague and more people living in the center of the city. It really feels like I am visiting a place people call home and not just a huge tourist attraction. Don’t get me wrong, there are still many, many tourists, but it is nothing like the throngs found in Prague.

I have been going to performances in the evening of the Unsound Festival and it has been fantastic. Last night I saw “male instrumenty”, a group of 6 men that made music with everything they could find. They each had a table and on it sat what looked like a child’s dream: bells and whistles and wind up toys and play guitars, etc. They also had 3 specialty machines that they had created themselves: one was a stationary bike that turned a tumbler that then created sounds, a step machine that forced air through tubes and glass tubes that were lifted in and out of vessels filled with water while they were being struck with a wooden mallet. It was truly amazing.

I will post a couple pictures I took of the stage after they were finished once I am back in Dresden. I had to buy another memory card for my camera since I cannot unload my images. I’ve been making videos too. They are really REALLY bad, but its been fun.

Today is my last day in Krakow. I will do some more touristy exploring (going to the Jewish quarters and maybe shopping a little) and also hit the last 2 galleries I need to see. Tomorrow morning I catch a train at 7 am (UGH) and arrive in Dresden around 5 pm. I can’t wait to see the Raskolnikof again!

Photos will soon commense.

Jiri Surufka has been my host and we have done much exploring. Yesterday we went to the mining museum (it was closed, but we walked around in the gallery) and drove to Poland before heading to the pub (where Daniella–Jiri’s girlfriend–had new art hanging) and hanging out all night. Hanging out in a foreign country is a funny mesh of sitting quietly and listening to all the conversations you cannot understand and being the center of attention.

The pub we spent time in is modeled after Tolkien’s Hobbit. The decorations are simple–fake vines and maps of Middle Earth–and the patrons are mostly musicians. Last night there was a performance of “Hair”, the musical and after the show all the singers showed up. At the very end of the night someone put the soundtrack of the musical in the stereo and everyone was singing along to the Czech version of “Let the Sunshine In”, and other such classics.

Today, Jiri, Daniella and I drive to Cracow. We will stop in Auschwitz on the way and then we will part ways. I will spend 3 days in Cracow and then I will go back to Dresden.

This weekend has been crazy and full of meeting people. I will be sad to leave Ostrava.

I arrived in Prague on Friday and have been exploring the city since. It is an amazingly romantic city and it really makes me wish I had someone to share this time with. I have been meeting with some artists and talking to people in the hostel, but its not the same without a travel buddy.

So far I have managed to avoid any huge catastrophes (like getting hit by one of the speeding crazies of Prague) and have not run into anything scary. Tomorrow i will explore the galleries of Prague and Thursday I get to visit Pavel Kopriva in Bohemia and see some Czech glass. Very cool.

I went to the Opera last night and enjoyed it (maybe not as much as I would have enjoyed a ballet) even though there was an entire class of 14 year olds sitting in the balcony in front of me. I do not know who thought it would be a great idea to take 30 teenage boys to the Opera, but obviously were never a Opera viewer sitting behind 30 teenage boys at the Opera. It was hard to ignore their giggles and hands in the lights, but I managed.

Friday I leave for Krakow (I have to change trains 3 times–TERRIFIED) and then back to Dresden. Whew. Wish me luck!

We almost missed our bus back to Dresden (not kidding– we ran up to the bus right as the driver was sitting down in his seat to take off), suffered through 7 degree C weather and rain– but we got to see a large portion of the city and go to about 5 flea markets (okay, maybe it was 3). I’m glad we went but am also glad that my residency is in Dresden. Berlin is so huge and getting around took much longer. In Dresden you can walk everywhere within an hour or take a bus and be there in 10 minutes. There is so much freedom in this.

Eliana and my exhibition closed on Sunday and we will be picking up our work tomorrow evening (I sold a piece!!!). So after working hard in the Grafikwerkstadt, Eliana and I will de-install our show and then go have cake at this fantastic shop nearby (I’ll walk off all those calories, right?)

Both of us are trying to cram as much as possible into this last week of shop time. I have 4 plates I am trying to finish and proof before we leave, as well as editioning a title page for the portfolio of prints I will create. Tomorrow Udo and I will print my title page and I will hopefullly aquatint and etch the last two plates. Martin Chidiac is coming to the shop tomorrow to talk to us about a possible exhibition in November and Peter is going to take us up to the top of the building for a (hopefully) nice view of the city and a coffee. I will be tired tomorrow night!

I will let you know how the day goes!