Trial and Error (heavy on the error)

If today were a movie, the entire plot would be stuck in the first five minutes and the last hour and a half would be a slow moving tragedy with a heart-lifting ending.
But has the path of true printmaking ever run smooth?
The morning was awesome. About twenty people came to learn to screen print behind the prosthetic legs clinic where we set up. We made Haitian flags in red and blue which were super popular. One guy thought it was so cool he took off his shirt and printed the flag right on it. Smiles and eager learners were welcome sights after months of planning.

The prints were far from perfect, but that is what makes them so interesting. What's cool about the printing process is that the slight imperfections of each print make them unique and personal to each individual.

After everyone got excited about the process, we had them draw on transparencies with sharpie to make into screens. The drawings were beautiful. One woman, Rosalyn, drew a handicapped person who lost his legs which should look really good. Another drew a "Fanm Kreyol" (Creole Woman) who we like to call our Haitian Marilyn Monroe. The results of this are below! A little boy drew a collage of cars that look like carrots, helicopters, and figures that are either girls with long hair or boys with their arms near their head... either way, it was cute.

However, we learned today that despite our naive hopes of a flawless project, there are bound to be glitches. Several problems came up when we tried to transfer the drawings to make screens such as the emulsion not working, not being able to rinse it out well, and the screens getting clogged. Finally, towards the end of the day we got a couple images burned on screens and we're psyched to see how they'll turn out tomorrow. More to come!