Who is Printtroll?
Posted: January 10, 2011 Filed under: Parasite, Sporozoan, The trolls story 2 Comments »
Printtroll came into being about 20 years ago in the print studios of Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. I had been printing the a la poupee prints of the Robin plate all night. At about 7:30 AM a fellow print major Shelleen came into the shop to start prepping for that days class. I had been up for almost 2 days straight and was working on caffeine and nicotine alone. Shelleen was every bit the printer I was not. She was organized clean and precise when it came to making and printing her work. I was like the Tasmanian Devil. I took over whole rooms and printed for hours on end with no real empathy for anyone else. I was dirty, surly and spoke to almost no one. Honestly not much has changed in the past 20 years. Shelleen asked me how the printing was going and I must have just grunted at her or something because she just replied: “RobRoy you are the troll of the print studios!” and she left me there.
I didn’t start using the name Printtroll until about ten years later while talking about the incident with a mutual friend. It makes sense as a persona and I find it fits me to this day. I believe all my work grows out of the Intaglio print, which is a physically demanding process to make and print. I dig at my plates like an animal but have also matured as an artist to become more precise and searing with my emotion.
The Sporozoan Cavities Suite is the ultimate example of who I am as an artist to date. It is also the culmination of the creation of my persona as the Printtroll. Once the suite is finished I will move on to the work that it has allowed me formulate while processing and printing the suite.
Where it all started.
Posted: January 7, 2011 Filed under: Parasite, Sporozoan, The trolls story Leave a comment »
Robin was the model who helped me create the foundation of The Sporozoan Cavities Suite. In 1991 I was in a sophomore at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and my drawing class very regularly had Robin as a model. He had a great body to draw from, long and dancer like and he always found interesting poses. Unfortunately he was incredibly annoying. He talked a lot and pestered the instructor with silly questions. One day I became so frustrated with him that I tore him limb from limb in my drawing. I was left with a lot of body parts.
I took the drawings home and discovered his chest cavity in my drawings to be very interesting. I reworked it again and again. Eventually I made this print (this image is the second version) from the drawings after attaching some hips and a part of a leg. I still have this plate and have revised it several times. Looking back I know this is where The Sporozoan Cavities was born.
I find it exciting that the rage and frustration of 20 years ago has matured into metaphor for everything that my work currently embodies. It is the blood and guts of humanity that The Sporozoan Cavities is about all the stuff that we love and hate.
Kickstarter.
Posted: December 31, 2010 Filed under: Resources, Sporozoan Leave a comment »
Getting my Kickstarter project written and up was good for me. Now I have to get it funded. Funding through Kickstarter is different than most grants. The money doesn’t come from a trust and it is not chosen by a small group of people. With a Kickstarter grant the money comes from many people all donating what they can, whether it is $5 or $500 the amount doesn’t matter. What matters is that a large number of people come together to back a project they believe in. In my mind the more backers the better.
Although it would be great to have the amount I am looking for to be achieved in one fell swoop I like the idea a large number of people taking part in making something happen. 100 backers would be awesome and that would mean my average backer amount would only need to be $40. 150 backers and my average would only need to be $26.60.
With Kickstarters reward system backers not only have the pleasure of helping someone accomplish something they also can have a piece of the project being created. For instance every $25 backer of my project gets a Tiny Sporozoan Swarm. Of course rewards are not given out unless I attain my goal because unless I attain my goal I receive nothing from Kickstarter.
It is a great place to become a part of large and small projects and to help someone who is trying to accomplish a goal that might be virtually unattainable without that help. Find out what kind of philanthropist you are check it out today.
Funding The Sporozoan Cavities Suite.
Posted: December 18, 2010 Filed under: Resources Leave a comment »
Finding time to make art is easy – well in a way – you push everything else aside and go do it: you stay up late you get up early you skip a night out with friends. If you want to make the work you will find a way. For me what is harder than finding the time is finding the finances to get everything made. Time is essentially free. Paper, ink, canvas, resin, paint charcoal and space are not. They all require money and money is far more scarce for me than time. Even with a five year old I can still get myself into the studio or out to a site to make art or install a new Swarm. Money on the other hand is a different story. Money pays the rent buys the food and all the other bills. There is rarely money left over for paper, paint or ink and certainly not in large quantities.
This is one of the reasons why artists apply for grants. Large projects require large amounts of money up front. For instance my Sporozoan Cavities Suite of prints requires about 1000 sheets of paper, which I could buy 25 sheets at time and pay almost $4 a sheet for over the next 2 to 3 years or I could buy them in one purchase for $3 a sheet and just start printing. I make the time to do the work.
Grants allow us a certain amount of freedom because we can devote more time to making art and less to making money to purchase materials needed to make the art. I created a Kickstarter project with the desire to finish my Sporozoan Cavities Suite of prints before a show I have coming up in September of 2011. Rather than relying on a tiny group of people who don’t know me or my work to decide if my project is worthy of funding Kickstarter allows people I know and who know my work to fund my project through donations both large and small.
Sporozoan Swarm at Mithun.
Posted: December 17, 2010 Filed under: Sporozoan, Swarm Leave a comment »
The Sporozoan Swarm has found a temporary home at the offices of Mithun in Seattle. The offices are a beautiful mix of old a new. Set inside a renovated pier building on the Seattle waterfront that provided The Swarm a perfect place to grow. This install is going to evolve over the course of its time there. I will be returning to the Mithun offices once a week to modify and add to the project.
The picture above is a detail from the main lobby install. More images can be seen here.
Sporozoan Shrine.
Posted: May 29, 2010 Filed under: Galleries, Sporozoan, Swarm Leave a comment »
The Sporozoan Shrine will be on display at Lafamilia Gallery at 117 Prefontaine Pl S Seattle beginning June 3rd – opening reception June 3rd 6-9. The Shrine is a menagerie of work stemming from and revolving around The Sporozoan Cavities suite of Intaglio prints.
Distillates.
Posted: March 25, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »
i drown in petroleum distillates.
hands cracked to the point of blood.
the room with the low ceilings and concrete floors leaves me empty.
yet every day every hour i am there.
i feel, i think, i hear sounds i know inside and out
they ring over and over again.
the oil and dust cloud my eyes
i am whole, driven, independent and mad
my stomach burns with the black liquid
weeping without tears
it burns and yet no where do i feel so at home
Latest Sweetie Install
Posted: January 29, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized 1 Comment »
Sweetie has been really good to me. They have let me install work in their windows twice. I have really enjoyed doing it and I think it really fits in with the store philosophy on clothing. The work is visible 24 hours a day and you don’t have to go into the store if you don’t want to. Although, ladies, they do have some great stuff in there for your next evening out.
Look around everyone art is everywhere you just have take a moment to let yourself see it.
A Swarm to build on.
Posted: January 28, 2010 Filed under: ETsy, Mini Prints, Parasite, Sporozoan 2 Comments »
The Sporozoan Swarm is a modular work of art, made up of torn and cut Intaglio and Lithographic prints combined with drawing, with a projected 500,000 components. These components break down from The Swarm into many small clusters and migrate around the world. The Swarms component structure allows it to ebb and flow through spaces in a fluid way, wrapping around doorways and shifting through corners: it suggests the fluid dynamics of life. Small Clusters of The Swarm are installed in places that are not typically seen as “art viewing spaces,” allowing the greatest number of viewers the space to commune with the piece, free of sterile pretense, or limited access. This way of viewing makes the work become more a part of the viewer’s multifaceted memory, rather than a one-dimensional ornament.
A great deal of site specific or time limited work relies on photography to allow viewers to witness and “own” the art. With The Sporozoan Swarm, the owner of the work or “The Keeper” of a Cluster becomes part of the larger whole of the interconnected world-wide installation. And while viewers are able to see photographs of my installations all over the world, providing a macro perspective, they are also able to install a piece of the whole on their wall using their own aesthetic, their own voice.
These Keepers become aesthetic partners when they decide how Clusters or individual pieces of The Swarm should be displayed. The Keepers physically touch, interact with, and hang the same pieces that I have printed, torn and drawn, contributing to the evolution of the whole. By handling the work they make it a less precious, more tangible, common grounded thing. The element of many small pieces available to people all over the world connects The Keepers to me and to the large-scale public installations of The Swarm I create. The Sporozoan Swarm acts as a binder of all of its Clusters and Keepers by connecting them through its on-line locating map and its serendipitous collective experience.
Art can change our world. Just let it be a part of your life.
The Swarm for Aqua Art.
Posted: November 29, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »
I put together four Swarm clusters for Aqua Art in Miami. These are good sized groupings with very specific layouts. Each one is documented, wrapped and ready to be hung by its new Keeper. Right now I have them listed on the map as residing in Miami but will move them as they are picked up by their new Keepers.