Red Trillium Press

Alamendrones

All over the city of Havana peso taxis drive prescribed routes, lumbering relics from Detroit providing transportation to those who can afford the 10 pesos. Almendrones are the backbone of transportation, held together with pride, ingenuity and desperation. Stuck in the past, working in the present, hoping for a chance at prosperity. These vehicles are amazing; filled with Bondo, repainted a hundred times, wired together with miss-matched parts, shaking on every turn they are symbolic of the confusing relationship between Cuba and the United States.

Alamendrones is a collaborative project with ten Cuban printmakers I have gotten to know while working in six different print shops in Havana. Each artist's work reflects their reality of living in Cuba where recycling of materials is a necessity of life and a creative art form. They offer here a reflection of their lived experience with American Cars from the nineteen thirties, through the fifties.

Woodcut, Lithography, Silkscreen, Intaglio printed at the Taller Nelson Domingo, Taller Experimenta De Graphic, and private tallers, Havana Cuba.
2006-7        Edition of 25 with 2 binders copies, 8.5 x 13 inches, 21.5 x 33 cm        

Division Politico

In the spring of 2006 I returned to Havana for six weeks, to find a continued battle of media between the US Interest Section and the Cuban Government. The US Interest Section had installed window sized LED signs across the 5th or 6th floor of the building in an effort to inform the Cuban peoples of current events as they traveled along the Malecon. The Malecon is a 6 km road bordering the city of Havana and the sea, a place for Cubans to gather, enjoy the sea breeze, the living room of the city. The Cuban govermnet quickly raised 50 flagpoles each with a black flag and a single white star, effectively blocking the signage. What one views is a group of majestic black flags blowing in the breeze with a flickering red light behind them; the colors of the Communist party- the revolution. Division Politico is an 8 page accordion book made from a 1980's Cuban geography textbook with images of the flags silk-screened across the pages of the book.

Silkscreen on found Cuban geography text printed at the Taller Nelson Domingo, Havana, Cuba.
Printer:    Hanoi Perez
2006        Edition of 6    12.5 x 70 inches, 31.75 x 177.8cm      $600

?Esta Rojo?

Shortly after my arrival in the Spring 2006 the Cuban baseball team returned to Havana from the World baseball championship games in California after coming in second place to Japan. In celebration there was citywide parade and evening of speeches recorded by Granma and other newspapers. During this visit I met the former Black Panther and hijacker William Brent. I can't condone how he arrived in Cuba but the path he took gave him a Bachelors degree from the University of Havana, a career in teaching English to high school students and an expertise in Cuban slavery.


?Esta Rojo? is a collaged printing of found historical images and current images from newspapers in the spring of 2006 onto 1980's Cuban geography text.

Printed at the Taller Nelson Domingo, Havana, Cuba
Historical lithographic images from original stones printed by Juan Leal
Silkscreen images printed by Hanoi Perez
2006        Edition of 6    12.5 x 10 inches, 31.75 x 25.4cm      $800




El Mar

El Mar is a whirlwind scroll of a Cuban geography book and the April 2006 Cuban newspaper Granma. Early in the month Granma reports on the Cuban national baseball team’s return from the World Games and later in April Granma celebrates of the battle of Playa Giron an ill fated  invasion attempt by the US known here in the States as the Bay of Pigs. Printed on the newspaper are wood cut images of fish found in the waters off Cuba. Contemporary images of ball players, street scenes and the Black Panther William Brandt along with historical postcards are silk screened over pages of Cuban geography.

Silkscreen images printed by Carlos del Gado at the Taller Porto Garra, Havana, Cuba.
Woodcuts printed by Art Larson at Horton Tank Graphics, Hadley, MA
2006    Edition of 6    10 inches x 27 inches        $1200

HECHO A MANO EN CUBA    Bound as two palm leaf books that ponder the complexity of Cuba. Each book is created with 14 paper cigars and bound with 2 cords.  Hecho a Mano en Cuba contains printed and collaged maps of Cuba and found paper ephemera. Each cigar has its own historical ring, bearing the images of 19th century European monarchs, U.S.A. corporations, or rings made from AAA road maps with printing from the original tobacco lithography stones.  The books are housed in a box reminiscent of a cigar box and covered with hand made paper, relief printed with tobacco leaves. On the lid of the box a recessed map of Cuba and inside is a lithograph collage of Cuban tobacco images on a U.S. AAA roadmap.

Woodcut with lithography from original stones printed at Taller Experimenta De Grafica, Havana, Cuba
Printers     Yordanis Garcia DeLeado, Guillermo Vantour Garcia
Hand made paper: Taller de Papel, Havana, Cuba. The paper is made from recycled paper, printed with a collage of tobacco leaves and a woodcut matrix for the cigar shape of the book pages.
Each open book 7” x 21”    Box 7.5” x 3.5” x 1.25”
This edition of 4 was completely fabricated in Cuba in 2003-04    SOLD

!VIVA CUBA LIBRE!        !Viva Cuba Libre! is a three page pop-up book recognizing the revolution in Cuba. This book speaks to the events during my 10-month visit in Cuba.  The blue text is from the newspapers protesting Bush’s measures against Cuba in May 2004. The map of Cuba is supported by the Monument to the Revolution {as grand a monument as the Washington Monument}. The second panel with the cigars rising above the antique map attests to the tobacco farmers in the 1700’s who were the first to protest for workers rights. The cigars are also a source of black market income and I was often queried 10-20 times a day- Cohiba? Cohiba? The last panel is a collage of newspapers and maps with Cuban flag rising from the beauty of the island.
Silkscreen on Mexican bark paper
Printer     Planchet—Taller Seda, East Havana, Cuba
2004     Edition of 7      7 x 36”                        $800

CUBAN FLIES    Lithographs of Cuban tobacco art printed from original stones at Taller Experimenta De Grafica, Havana, Cuba. The first book of the edition was bound in Cuban goat vellum and assembled at the Taller Experimenta De Grafica using a Swiss Army knife. Books two and three were bound in the artist’s studio using White Tail Deer vellum prepared by the artist.
Printers:    Yordanis Garcia DeLeado, Daniel Alberto Rodrigues Garcia
2003    Edition of 3        SOLD   

CLEAN AIR is a section of an automobile air filter found on the streets of Havana. Collaged on the accordion fold pages are historical Cuban cigar rings, 1950’s Texaco road map of Cuba along with other found material overprinted with Cuban tobacco art.
The lithographs were printed from original stones at Taller Experimenta De Grafica, Havana, Cuba in the fall of 2003.
Printer    Yordanis Garcia DeLeado
2003    Unique    4 X 28”    Sold

MILLION PERSON MARCH        In response to the Bush administrations increased limitations towards Cuba, Castro organized a million person march on May 14 2004. Housed in a Cohiba cigar box are 100 flags collected off the street after the march. Each flag is silk screened with text from Cuban newspapers discussing the US/ Cuban policy and over 50 of the flags contain a personal message to the American people from Cuban people.
Printer    Planchet-- Taller Seda, Habana Estes, Cuba
2004    Unique    10 X 8 X 2”    Sold

CUBA is a Victorian photo album collaged with lithographed Cuban tobacco images over and early 1960’s US roadmap of Washington, DC and Hyannis Port MA.  This little album is broken on the spine and is to be repaired when relations normalize between Cuba and the United States. The lithographs were printed from original stones at Taller Experimenta De Grafica, Havana, Cuba.
Printer    Yordanis Garcia DeLeado
2003    Unique    3.75 x 5”   Sold

TOBACCO is an accordion book densely over printed lithographic images of Cuban tobacco art.  It was printed from original stones at Taller Experimenta De Grafica, Havana, Cuba during a three-week visit in January 2003 and bound in the artist’s studio.
Printers    Yordanis Garcia DeLeado, Daniel Alberto Rodrigues Garcia
Edition of 3    10" x 67"      $350       
 

El Viaje The Voyage


sometimes
to distract myself,
i stared at the emptiness,
listened to the silence.

and always this message,
this same warning

slip your moorings
change your course,
you are the signal and the antenna,
eye and object,
iron and magnet.


Prints by Ibrahim Miranda and poems by Orlando Herandez with English translation by Noel Smith

Printed in 2003 at the Taller Graphica Contemporania of Nelson Domingues, Havana, Cuba   
Edition of 50            $1000