C Drew - Street Artist Adventures

Carlos Cortez and Lee Groban Dominate Patches Selected for Printing

John, Samantha and Pete stretch screens for to be coated with photo emulsion.

Pete and John came to help. Pete told of Googling “Chicago Peddlers License” and seeing our website pop up first, well above the City of Chicago’s information on that topic. I told them how I managed that by applying solid keyword techniques in my html coding.

Likalee prints a Carlos Cortez image in blues and greens.

Angie returned to the Screen Print Workshop for Artists excited about the contacts she made at the Mexican Fine Arts Center where the art of Carlos Cortez is housed.

Likalee's prints in blues and greens of "H-Bomb" by Carlos Cortez.

Likalee arrived soon after bubbling about meeting with friends of our spiritual grandfather of the Free Speech Artists’ Movement - Carlos Cortez.  She had passed out patches to Carlos’s friends and spread the word to his network about what we are doing.

Angie prints "500 Years of Resistance" by Carlos Cortez.

We dived right into printing.  I showed how to clean the printing areas of their screen by scrubbing the bottoms of their screens with a damp cloth to moisten and suck the ink from the image areas.

Carlos Cortez patch print - "500 Years of Resistance"

I stressed planning the printing area to keep ink accidents to a minimum. Print fast and continuouly to prevent the ink drying in the screen I repeated 0ver and over.

Nami prints a Lee Groban patch - "Rowboat as Realemon"

We exposed and developed screens for Diane Green and Mo Cahill. We will print those next week.

Lee Groban's patch art are selections from his 1974 series of black and white acid-toons.

Have you developed your patch-art yet? E-mail it as a 300 dpi graphic file to me at umcac@art-teez.org and help change Chicago to make it more friendly to artists. Help us earn our full speech rights so we can build open-air art scenes all around Chicago. The Screen Print Workshop for Artists will meet again next Sunday, 3-6pm, at 1630 W. Wilson Avenue.  Artists, you are welcome.

Screen Print Workshop for Artists Report

Pete and Jon came in and went right to work preparing screens for the workshop. We are getting ready to make screens of artwork submitted by artists fighting for our free speech rights in Chicago.  I announced that from now on everyone that comes to our workshop who is open to it will be photographed and placed on this blog so they can come and snag the photo for their blog or myspace page to publicize what we are doing.

Pete staples screen-print fabric to a frame that Jon made.

Jon sizes wood before using a drill to screw frames together.

Jon made the frames that pete stretched the fabric on. Later we will coat the screens with photo emulsion in preparation for exposure, development and finally printing.

Nami prints a patch from the work of Carlos Cortez

Nami is print a patch design by our senior most artist to contribute his art to our cause of artist speech rights. Carlos has passed away and we continue to honor his legacy by committing to printing a new patch of his art every month until we win our free speech rights in Chicago.

Christine tapes her screen before printing.

Christine came last week and suddenly her art was on a screen and traveling around the City to be printed in classrooms as a demonstration. This week she got to print her own patches.  Our workshop is changing. Printing is becoming emphasised much more than before because we need thousands of prints and as many skilled printer as we can train.

Christine prints her design as april watches in Uptown at the American Indian Center.

We are preparing to give away patch-art in public events wherever it is illegal to sell the art without a license or permit to dramatize our right to sell in the parks and on the streets of our city  and our nation.

At the end of our workshop we discuss how we can apply our art to Free Speech Artists’ Movement goals. Christine and Nami spoke about a festival this summer in the Logan Square area that they knew about for an patch-art give-away. Nami suggested we involve youth at the school she taught at. I said this sounds like an opportunity to try out our screen-print kits we are making. She said she would ask for patch-art to make a screen to go with the kit for her to teach a program at her school that would contribute to our movement.

The Free Speech Artists' Movement uses the woodcut artwork of
Chicago Chicano artist Carlos Cortez translated into screen
print to promote its free speech agenda in Chicago. There is
little better fitting tribute to the life of Carlos Cortez than
to use his art to help lead the artists of Chicago to street art
freedom. Carlos Cortez began his art career cutting linoleum block
art for the IWW (Wobbly) newsletter. His art has traveled around
the world. His life's work is at home at the Mexican Fine Arts
Center in Chicago. He was a member of our Board of Directors
until his passing. Go Carlos!

easy as printing on a table at home – change can be printed anywhere

He passed away in 2005 but his outspoken spirit lives on in us. We invite
the artists of Chicago to rally around his art by adding their images to
our patch-art actions to change Chicago. Our goal is to make Chicago
friendly toward artists by having fun tearing down the barriers that
prevent us from selling our art on the streets and in the parks of our city.

First Carlos Cortez patch in support of the Free Speech Artists' Movement

We invite all artists, near or far, to contribute a graphic work of
art for us to make a screen to print patches like these. We will add
our web page link and the artist's website or contact info to the
patch-art and print as many patches as our volunteers will print.
We will pass out the patches of all the artists contributing free to
the public in Chicago wherever artists are not legally allowed to
sell their art freely in the streets and parks of Chicago. In
exciting art-actions we will educate the public to the City's
violation of our free-speech rights and build our movement by
collecting their support.

Free Speech by Joe Nelson

Our goal is to create a culture of street art while attacking the laws
that deny us our First Amendment rights in Chicago. Our Goal is to create
open-air art scenes where art activity flourishes unfettered by permits,
licenses, juries or fees. We will continue to build the amount of patch-art
contributed to this movement until we gain our rights. Every October we will
exhibit all the patch-art of the movement and celebrate our march to
street-art freedom. Promote yourself through our movement. Contribute a
graphic work of art. Promote freedom and your work. Add your art, info
or website and our web-page link to a screen for printing. Let us print
and give-away patches with your art. Will you promote free-speech and
your art in Chicago?

iamsaintaugustine.com by Jon Wendling

Every month we will publish the latest patch designs contributed to
the Movement in this newsletter. Thanks to you artists, Chicago will
change because you “art to change.” Artists – don't be late! This must
grow big enough to change Chicago. Can you imagine how big that is?
Make it happen now. Be part of our growing WOW!