Oregon Art Beat; #213; Lonnie Alexander

Repeat our last round of 2013, and we'll start with two slices of green. Do that was. Come with those two rollers. Bad choice of words, we'll use this one. Now, if these guys could come on in, Ralph's going to start putting in on his, where he's, has his, he's going to start putting it on her, rather evenly. And then you can roll it out. I think that's more than enough.

Pulling the ink, if you just keep pulling the exact same place, it's just going to move the ink in the same place every time. There you go. Start taking it from that set of point over here, because it's really thick up there. Take much, does it? Mm -hmm, still a little bit. Put a little bit right here, then you can tarlotton it off. And then I'll get you some newsprint, and then we'll clean it off. Now that he's dispersed the ink on this plate evenly, he's going to take his tarlotton and then start moving it on here. It's going to start pulling up ink, and that's what he's going to do. This is usually the hardest

part, because it's easy to take off a lot of ink, or sometimes you leave for the parts that's supposed to be clean. It's, it's maybe still smudged and stuff there, and there's still residue ink there. So this is the hardest process that Ralph is going to start right now. Okay. Which he's pretty aware of. Can you remember the last couple of times? I'll get your paper prep, too. Just start moving it on. And that's pretty thin ink, Ralph, so we don't, I don't think we have to rub really hard. Onto the light table. Okay. You want your,

okay. Can we get a little bit of fur without messing up this? Yes, we can. All right. Enjoy. That's a pretty color. Okay. So

what are you doing now, Vanessa? They're going to have something to move in the ink. So come on down here, just, my inventory, the flower, I don't want this ink on it. So when I run it through, I'm just going to get the background color. Okay. And then after that, I'm going to add some more ink. And then clear off. It's just I don't want. I'm doing the same thing over and over until I get the textures and what I want. Right now, I don't want this ink in my house, so the light table helps me see the lines, even in the dark areas. It's kind of hard to see, but. I can see them. And this is the longest part is cleaning in the plexi. Because as you can see, there's a little, you know, inks here and smudges. And so it's always good to keep cleaning. So that would be a place for you to be cleaning.

Yeah. Just. Just. We have three different native research classes from Shadow. Vanessa and Ralph have been participating in our native youth arts class. They're also volunteers with our community activities that we do. And because we also do outreach to the local community. And we also have traveled to other areas outside the Pendleton area. It's a community of county fair to Washington State University site in Richland, Washington. Yuck of my three days in top and ish. So we have a variety of community outreach that we do with children things. And we try to get younger and young adults to help volunteer with those areas. And Vanessa and Ralph have been

very helpful in those areas. And they also participate in it. You can see they're both emerging young talented artists. One of the concepts that James Lavador, our president and founder of Kurshado, he's also a tribal member of the Walla Walla tribe here in the confederated tribes on the Matilda and the Reservation. We originally just wanted to do economic development, but there is such a large need for our youth programs. And so those developed native youth arts class, community outreach, homestead youth lodge, which is a residential facility. The tribal probationary officer has started a pathfinders program in the high schools, where we take art supplies there and do art with the students involved with pathfinders. Can you roll some purple up for me? I just noticed a... Can

you call it? Yeah, I can do that. It's like, uh -oh, I'm going out of my lens. It's like coloring state in the lens. Looks good. Purple. Can I do it this way? I'm going to let you do it, because I don't want to ruin it. Looks good. Yep, there we go. Ignore me. Okay, just for practicing. Most women do.

How long have you been coming to crochet? I've been here since the first time I came was maybe in last year. So I'm just learning and working the inks and so. Learning the printmaking process. Mm -hmm. What if you liked the best about coming here? The kitchen. I can always have food there and eat whenever I want to. It's really easy to use. There's a microwave, so I know how to cook. So you're learning a life skill other than art. Yes, survival. No, I have to say it's the printmaking. Because I never knew this even existed

until my sister -cladet showed me the price machine and I was like, wow, I can do that. Because I was really bad at painting. And this is just like painting just takes a long time. Have you taken part in any of the traditional arts demonstrations that they have here sometimes? Yes, last year I took in the basket weaving. Who is the instructor on Lavendor? Joey? Yes, Joey Lavendor. I got to learn how to make a basket and didn't finish it. But at least I know the process. What was that experience like? My hands hurt. And I really enjoyed it because I always want to know how to make the flat baskets and the round baskets. And so I got to learn how to make a round one.

To give you an appreciation for the elders? Oh, yeah. It does. Yeah. I will. What kind of flower is it? It's a pansy. A big pan. Yes, big pansy. Super size pansy. Okay, thank you. Is that okay? Yeah. So what was the life when you first came to crochet a basket?

Yeah, absolutely. When I first came to crochet a basket, it was quite an experience. I didn't know anything about printmaking. I just had the skills, administrative skills, to do programming. And I said, why don't I know anything about art? And they said, well, most about printmaking. I didn't even know how to use these inks. And it was kind of like, what is it? I didn't know. And everything I've learned has all been through crochet a basket. So in my previous boss, Ingrid Crampton, she was a wonderful mentor, and taught me how to frame things to consider. Robbie Lavador, she's been, she used to do my job part time, so she was on site quite a bit. You've had a lot of people that helped teach me, because what I know, I am now teaching to three different classes, and plus to other Native Americans that come up to crochet a basket, when we have our open studio nights, and who don't know anything about printmaking. So I teach in the basics that we have a master printmaker who comes, and she teaches me even more. So it's really a wonderful treat to learn

this stuff, because I had a misconception. I hear printmaking. I thought it was like commercial printmaking that we were going to be doing, things along the lines, as making thousands and thousands of prints. And that's not what we do. It's fine art printmaking. And most of our stuff here could be a limited edition of works. This particular plate that Ralph is working on is, has that capacity to do the limited edition. He could do, he could probably make 200 prints from this plate. But you know, you probably get 20 bucks for each print. And so if he makes a limited edition of like just five or four, then he could get a lot more. And so that's just some of the marketing too, that we have artists considered while they're here, even young people were looking at, starting to have them doing some of their own entrepreneurs, the artwork and ideas, and up at the interpretive center to must -elect. So things for them

to consider when they're here, we start them out on water -based inks, then we graduate them up to oil -based inks, as they learn to use the roller properly with a water -based. Because I'm not really going to have them try doing things with the oil -based inks when it's pretty messy. And that's too when you can see if they're more interested in just kind of drawing and wanting to learn some things, or if they really want to try the advanced stuff. And... How much are you interested in trying to get them prepared for a career in art, and how much are you just trying to give them an appreciation for? Well, it's one of the things where some of the students you can tell that they're not interested in making art a career, but artists something that everyone needs, and it helps you expand your horizons, and you're just everything in how you view the world. And if not anything, we'd like them to have an appreciation. A lot of the things we do here aren't just based off learning art. It's kind of some social building skills. We don't all have a buddy knife.

We have to share. We have to cooperate and wait for inks. So it's kind of a socialization plus some self -esteem building as they see their own problem -solving. It's like, well, what color do you think would add? And let's mix it and see what happens. So we do a lot of problem -solving, kind of a lot of self -esteem boosting for the younger people. And then there are a few. I believe Vanessa and Ralph will go on and do something in the arts. If not, two -dimensional, they'll be doing acting or something to that effect, because they're both like being around the camera. It seems like you guys specialize a bit in the printmaking. Why did Pro Shadow decide to specialize in printmaking? Well, we specialize in printmaking because not everybody, there's so many techniques in printmaking that pretty much anybody can learn these. And not everybody can paint, not everybody can draw. And printmaking kind of makes up for those areas. Because you can do all kinds of things.

This particular plate that was created by Ralph was actually just made by different images from magazines that he collaged and made his Xerox copy. And then we did a whole process with that Xerox copy on a transparency. So there was absolutely no drawing, no painting, nothing. He just thought of the concept and the layout himself. And that's a lot more versatile. It's also pretty immediate to and cost. So that was why the photography lab, the printmaking studio, the computer lab, all three of those interchangeable to help enhance building arts around, especially around printmaking. So that's why we decided to printmaking. A lot of people think we do painting because we're founded by an artist that does painting, but we don't do any here yet. But I think that's in the plan in the future. We're looking to expand

in our services. We don't want to get too spread out, but we are looking to do things along the lines of, they're printmaking, the photography, a jewelry lab, and ceramics lab, plus enhancing our gallery to intake to its shows. We are looking to hire on a professional master printer who will work with other artists that are probably established in creating limited editions while they're here. Oh, okay. So you might become a print studio for established artists. Yes, it's in our strategic planning in the next five years. We're going to do some major changing. We're going to start doing a more professional development back here. Right now we've been kind of focusing on emerging artists, but we're also wanting to include the development, the professional aspects so that our emerging artists can have more of that exchange together. Well, just today we've seen an older artist Lonnie using

your facilities to do her work. And we've got kids in here using your facilities. How do you divide your time between those? Well, we have open studio usually and schedule times. And so with our community programs that we have and the regular workshops and now we're starting our Millennium Project, those are usually on weekends, open studios, Thursday nights, and then we usually try to do Wednesdays and Thursdays and there are kids days where we go out into the community on Tuesdays. Thursdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, actually too. We have those days for classes that come here on site. So we have schedule blocks. So my time's starting to be developed, devote it towards more teaching, actually. You're teaching more. Okay. When we first started out here, we didn't have any youth programs at all. Now we have three, and I teach four classes. Two with homestead. One with Pathfinders and one with our native youth arts. Each one of them run from two hours to an hour and a half. It's out of time. Okay,

we can print routes if you want. Ralph, shall we go for it? Okay. What is that we need at some point outside? Okay. Okay. Do we need to get lights over there, do you think? Yep. I want to get... Ralph, let's lay this on that table. This way. Wow. Lay it right there on that table. Thank you. And get grab a rolling pin. Because you have to blot your paper. Open up the cabinet. On the hurry bottom. And go ahead and put that there.

We're going to use this paper here that has the fuzzy edge. Go ahead and take it out. And we're going to squidge it on there. Let's take that plexiophant in the way that little one. Oh, it's on the way. Okay, thank you. And we'll blot it pretty good. It's been a while since we've done this. Yep. This isn't a big effort. Actually, Ralph, let's put it in the middle of these blotters.

There. That's good. It's been a blotty paper after you blot it pretty good. We're going to move it onto his plate and then run his plate to the big press. That's the moment of truth. Ready? Yeah. Give me a cup of more if anyone heard it. Yeah, we will. I don't have my paper on. Cut it. Did you want to help? Sure. Let me take these off. I'm going to pocket it for you.

Go ahead and pull it down a little. Okay. Looks good. Okay. Okay. Okay. And Ralph. Yeah, I set the pressure. Let me check it one more time because I thought Vanessa was going to go before you. You're ready to go, Ralph. What? Yes. Yes. god.

Yeah. It's kind of a dreadful part. Yeah. It's not as focused as I wanted it, but that's something I can work on. Did you do it? It's a little cloudy. What does that mean? Well, if it's cloudy like that, it means we took too much ink off.

Even though it still turned out kind of rich right here. It turned out nice right here. But when it's cloudy like that, it just means we rub too much. And that's common. It's easy to do that. It's very easy. But I think you had a better result than the other ones when we were using the other ink. The process is better. It's more forgiving. Some of the inks are less forgiving than others and other processes too. Well, now that we were looking at the plate, we can... This looks better than what we had before though, don't you think? She's just a little cloudy right here and here. But we had a lot better result overall. Because remember before, they were just really faded out. Where should we look later? Like right here. It's cloudy there. Cloudy here. But before, when we were doing it, we were just really wiping the whole plate off and it was really light. So it's still very nice right here. It's

beautiful. Good color. Next time I think you had another good result. I think so. The first time when Ralph did this, he had like three prints he made. Now it turned out perfect the first time. The beginning was a lot, I think. But now we... This is like our fourth print we've done. And because he's got another request, he sold his first print. And he has... I didn't want another print like this, the same seepia kind of color effect. And we've been trying to reproduce that. And it's not quite coming out. But I think a couple more times it will. Do you think? Yeah. Let's go ahead and tear this paper off and get cracked up for Vanessa. Did you adjust that back up to four? Just two notches up after? No, I don't know how to... Small square. Large square. Vertical. Do you want a small square or a large square? I don't know. I think this is one of the quotes I think is the square.

We deal with circular things. Oh, okay. No squares in the... You Matilla. No. No. Nothing. A lot of geometric designs, but not squares in Noah. Well, it's a weak shape, so. Before you begin, read the directions. This is going to the Aaron product. This is what it's supposed to look like. What do you think? Have directions? Yeah. It's the same stuff. I think so. Oh, this is Spanish. I can understand that. Finish with that one. I just messed it up. Stick that little edge in one of these lines. Okay,

I can do it. You're surely one of your people's staff knows how to do this. But they said they want it framed when it gets up there. Oh, okay. And the five is when they're hanging everything up. Thanks for having me. I'm going to let you play around with that. And I'm going to finish this for you, okay? All right. What do you have to do? Okay. I don't know if you can talk while he's working on this. Oh, yeah, sure. On these things. I really can. Well, tell me about this work that's laying on the table. This is a painting. Yeah, it's watercolor. What were you inspiration here? Well, I took it from a photograph. Actually, it was in a magazine and I liked it a lot. And I just mainly, the colors really got me. But the photograph actually was a bit darker, you know?

It was more, I just brightened it up, I guess. I liked it that way. I'm really glad it's going to be in the art show. Or I hope it's going to be in the art show. So. What get you interested in art? Um, I think my dad, he was always an artist. So it was always in the family. So my sisters do art as well. Oh my god, you're not in this. I'm about to take you. Okay.