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Line Dried: Hand-Pulled Print Show

OPENING FIRST THURSDAY: Thursday August 7, 2008 - 6pm-8pm
OPEN DAILY: Wednesday thru Saturday 11am-5pm
CLOSING: Saturday August 30, 2008
WHERE: Garde Rail Gallery - 110 Third Avenue South - Tel.206.621.1055

After an injury forced him into an extended period of recuperation, Seattle woodcarver Tim Fowler began carving blocks and printing onto pages from old books. Cars, trucks, and bugs are the subjects of these simple, yet intricate prints, that show another side of Tim.

Garde Rail ran into loads of print work in the fall of 2007 on a little trip down south, where artists from all over the southeast were showing their wares. These prints varied wildly stylistically between artists and we decided on a strong group from a couple of print makers from Tennessee that use the original old fashioned equipment and rare and antique typeface to print these raw posters that are truly a little slice of Americana. Attracted to the folk art esthetic and the overall vintage feel of these prints we just couldn't resist exhibiting these and bringing a little taste of the south to our own northwest.

READY? SKETCH, CARVE, PRESS!

The process is laborious and extremely time consuming. An original design is conceived and sketched, taking into account how many colors will be incorporated into the artwork. The carving then begins in either linoleum or wood. Each color requires its' own individual block. The carving is done backwards to create the final poster image and the painstaking process of placing the tiny lead type letters for the print usually requires tweezers and a lot of patience. Once the pattern is proofed, the whole thing is disassembled before the printing process begins. The drying time for each layer of ink is up to eight hours, which depending on how many colors there are on the poster, really adds up.

"When you're printing you gotta' print and when you're drying you just gotta' wait!"

Line Dried