Part One: In which I tell you about most of it.

Last weekend, I was a part of a three-day silkscreen workshop conducted by Bongoût (Berlin) and DAGC Gallery (which is located along Pasong Tamo Extension. I posted about their formal opening over here). I was going to be all profound and was planning on waxing poetic about how much of a privilege it was to have been part of the workshop, but I will spare you, whoever you are, and let these pictures speak for themselves.

A couple of things:

One, I did have a lot of fun.

Two, I learned a lot.

Three, sometimes being thrown into something big and meaningful with a bunch of people you don’t know is the best kind of adventure there is. Aside from my brother, I didn’t really know anyone else who was part of the group. I laughed like a lunatic, though. It’s great when you can joke around and work with the same people.

To breeze through the process, here’s what happened:

1.) We drew stuff. We had a bunch of books we could trace from. Sarie calls it cheating.

2. We exposed these drawings to BLINDING LIGHTS so as to make impressions on the silkscreen. The screens have been coated with photo-sensitive emulsion.

(P.S. This is one of our teachers, Christian. He’s been doing this since he was in school.)

3. We print them on with silkscreen ink! We made approximately 30 editions of each sheet.

4. We hang everything to dry.

5. We cut/trim, bind, and sign everything!
(We ended up just having 29 copies… because apparently, we cannot count.)

Anna! The other half of Bongoût.

A list of some of the things I took away from this experience:

• I never want to hold another 9-to-5 again. If I could do these things and just make stuff for the rest of my life, without having to live in a box, I would be very happy.

Which is to say, I really had so much fun. I imagined myself waking up every morning and just thinking about what I could draw or make or put together, and it was just such an attractive option for me. Of course, the dread of Living In a Box loomed over me, but I think I’d rather be happy this way, than sort-of happy with a bank account I don’t even get to use. If that makes sense.

More photos under the cut! Under which, we draw a lot, drink some beer, and act silly. Also, you may notice, I may or may not be really attracted to tattoos. Not people with tattoos, just tattoos, in general. I just love how they look, but that is all I have to say about it. They have a knack of disappointing you, though.

And, since this is pretty image heavy already (and maybe also to prolong the suspense—although, not really, really), I’ll be posting photos of the finished books in another entry, aka part two.

Some more photos from the workshop: