Artists’ Statement

Erin Sweeney and Bobby Rosenstock

We are artists and craft is very important to us.  We like to use our hands and take our time.  We create work using obsolete technologies and impractical labor. We like to point out the little things that make our lives better.  We try not to take ourselves too seriously, and enjoy goofing around, cocktails and oversized cardigans.  We like to collaborate and experiment, and we get ridiculously overexcited when something cool happens.  We high-five a lot.

Overall, letterpress printing hasn’t really changed that much since the time of Johannes Gutenberg in the 15th century.  Lead and wood type are hand set in reverse on the press bed.  This is a time-consuming process in which dental tools are used to arrange the smallest type.  We use blocks of type that can be as old as 200 years, giving the prints a vintage feel that is authentic.  To create imagery, we carve it into pieces of birch plywood using gauges and chisels.  Each color is carved into its own block.  The particular presses that we use are a Vandercook SP20 that can print up to 19” x 27” and a Showcard proof press that prints about 11” x 14”.  They are manually cranked and hand-inked.  Additionally, we screen-print using an exposure unit in a closet to burn screens and then hand-pull many yards of fabric to then be cut up and re-assembled.  There’s nothing like oil-based ink on a piece of paper or fabric.  The substrate also has a tactile quality, or embossment, created from the type pressing into whatever we’re printing on.

We celebrate our love of obsolete technology by belonging to an Impractical Labor Union, and track our progress by saving bits of our daily work.  We enjoy a challenge, being told we can’t do something, making things work with what we’ve got.  We also love to talk about how we make this stuff, so please ask us questions and see if you like the smell of ink as much as we do.

Curator’s Statement

I met Bobby Rosenstock at ArtSplash and loved his work.  I showed some images to Kevin, and we invited him to exhibit at the gallery.  A few days later, he called and wondered if he might invite his friend and creative partner, Erin Sweeney, to show alongside him.  We dug her work as well, and so the process of building this body of work began.

In the end, HOME: Ruminations on Place(ment) emerged.  A series of prints, books, sculptures and quilted pieces that were extremely timely for all of us: four artistic types trying to figure out how to do what we do in a small town after living in large urban centers.  Erin had recently headed back to her hometown, Peterborough, NH, as a new wife and the new owner of Lovely in the Home Press.  Bobby started Just a Jar Design Press in quaint Marietta, OH just a few months before marrying.  And, of course, Kevin and I have been figuring out Anderson Creative right here in our childhood stomping ground.

So we’ve been thrilled to host these two artists (and new friends) as they reflect on questions that are pertinent to us all:  What makes a place “home?”  “How does one grapple with the difficulties of moving and transition?”  “Why do new places both comfort and disorient?”  And “How is community formed?”

There are no easy answers – just ruminations.  And we hope you’ll share some of yours as well.

HOME :: Ruminations on Place(ment)

February 4-26, 2011

Erin Sweeney’s website

www.erinsweeney.net

Bobby Rosenstock’s website

www.justajar.com