A MAN OF MANY HATS 2012

Where to begin, if you haven't heard Rush Creek has moved and now is located in the heart of Santa Fe just off St. Francis and Agua Fria at 413 Salazar Place. I am always around, I live here too. Wonderful house, very comfortable digs, everything fits including the big Epsons and my film production office.

Saturday February 11th at 3pm there's an open house party
at the Creek and everyone is invited!  Please rsvp at steve@rushcreekeditions.com

This winter the Creek has been busy printing large for a bunch of folks here and in California (fun and challenging to make em big) including; Caren Alpert, Robert Stivers, Lynn Lown, High Desert, Vic Lee, Renie Haiduk, Carola Clift, Christopher Benson, Susan Ressler and of course Jamey Stillings (below).

In addition I completed projects for Meridel Rubinstein, Joanne Teasdale, Juliet Wood, Neil Schauf, Ron Whitmore at Artisans, Beals Abbate, Patricia Curtis,
Howard Stein, Genevieve Russell, Terry Heffernan, Philip Metcalf, Jane Bernard, Lisa Folino. Thank you one and all.

I am also teaching workshops on printing for photographers and serious amateurs as well as a special project for curators and archivists, a comprehensive program to further their understanding of the digital medium. A complete offering of workshops
and schedules will be forthcoming.

Wait, there's more...

This year I am also an adjunct instructor at IAIA College (Institute of American Indian Arts), teaching Senior Portfolio for the Studio Arts department and learning the Native American aesthetic. I will also lecture in February at The Santa Fe University of Art and Design) on the business of photography for Maryanne Redding the new Chair of Photography there. Sharing knowledge is becoming more important with every passing day and it's fun be back in that environment.

My opus, 291 finished principal photography last November on the short, "Looking for Mr. Stieglitz" which is now in edit. I am so excited I can hardly wait. Hope to screen the film in Santa Fe and San Francisco Bay Area in May of this year and then off to film festivals and with luck Hollywoodland.
http://www.291themovie.com

Just re-capping it all makes me want to just find a warm beach in the Mediterranean and read more magical realism and mystery......for now it's back to work....and breakfast for Mr. Boots!

Steve

PS  For those of you who don't know Mr. Boots, well come to the party and take a meeting.

Last Night At The Creek

Well it's been two years since we moved to the Lena Street Lofts
(off Second Street) and it's been a good run durning the most difficult
economic times I have experienced.

If you are wondering why I have changed so much, (it's not me) it's just
that Buster Keaton illustrates my point...times are tuff. So two months
ago I put into motion a plan that might help create some prosperity for
me and the Creek. Consolidation, but not like the big guys do. Instead
I am going to once again live and work in one space, 413 Salazar Place
right here in the 87501 (Santa Fe). It was not an easy decision for me.
I originally move to the "Land of Enchantment" to, well be enchanted.
So I have lived in the countryside for the last five years and now for the
first time I am going to get out of my truck and walk to the co-op, farmers
market and even a little cafe around the corner. On paper it all makes too
much sense and will save me enough to get HBO and even go to Italy.

The new space is very roomy and comfortable.....a party for all my friends!

Where are the prints?

After a summer of heavy duty forest fires, the worst air quality in memory and a sputtering economy here in the southwest,  I'm ready for a vacation, aren't you? Which brings me to the point of this blog posting. Thanks to smart phones, ie; blackberry, iphone, android and a host of others, photography has taken yet again another turn since digital. As a friend just told me..."we are all photographers now!" Of course he is right and our new medium of presentation is online; Facebook, Flickr, Websites, email and even this blog. Billions of pics everyday produced as content, from the personal to the promotional, from the silly to the life transforming. As for the quality, well that's actually getting better and better too. Our world in photographs, 2011.

Only fifteen years ago 95 percent of all photos were printed in one way or another, including proof sheets, reference prints, fine art prints, books, posters, magazines, newspapers, snap shots - the whole circus. Now, just fifteen years later....not so, now maybe 5% on a really "good" day. So not only is there less work printed, but the stand alone digital camera is also becoming something only used by the serious minded photog or videographer, (that might be a good thing actually).

                                                                                                                     Iphone 4

Technology is our friend and our enemy, so we have to adapt, so what does that mean for us. Well, I have already given up on making lots of small prints for clients and now concentrate on the really big ones for exhibition and sales up to 64" wide by any length, "don't try this a home kids." Also, I am now doing workshops, teaching digital printing  and even an up coming workshop for curators and gallerists so they can understand what they are now having to look at, archive and present.

These changes are challenging for everyone. When I started printing of 40 years ago there were challenges then, including learning color and the dance with Kodak.  Now it's Epson, Canon, HP, Roland, producing printers and ink and a dozen paper companies. Still a great print is a thing of beauty and I make them everyday and say often, right out loud, "I like that."

THE WOMEN

I have recently come to realize that over the last five years most of my clients have been women. Bright, articulate, creative, imaginative, political, passionate, talented, deep, worldly, beautiful, precise, romantic, experimental, carefree, loving, nurturing, earthly, stylish and every other possible description you can imagine an artist and her work can be attributed too.

For me, as a printer and as a man I have found the experience to be wonderful, fulfilling and thought provoking. In my professional and personal life I have strived for and not always attainted, an understanding of how the opposite sex sees the world. It is somewhat different than men, but in the final analysis, it is all artists and their creations that bring us joy, challenge and amaze us, which makes the world a more interesting place to live in. I would like to honor and thank those women I have had the privilege to print for:

Alexandra Eldridge  Caren Alpert  Carola Clift  Chris Enos  Danae Falliers

Dianne Duenzl  Elizabeth Burns  Evalyn Bemis  Francesca Yorke

Genevieve Russell  Jane Bernard  Jane Rosemont  Jaune Evans  Jo Andres

Joanne Teasdale  Joy Silha  Juliet Wood  Kathleen McCloud

Kathryn Kleinman  Kim Kurian  Kimi Green  Laiyee Lee Smith  Lindi Teresi

Lisa de Croix  Lisa Van Styrgeren  Lois Gilbert  Lynne Pomeranz  Margo Cutler

Marie Wilkinson  Marion Padilla  Mary Hobbs

Maryanne Redding  Maurice Fitz  Melissa Ashleith Brownell  Meridel Rubinstein

Naomi Weissman  Nicole Katano  Patricia Turner  Sharlene White  Sharon Stewart

Shirley Fiske  Susan Bell  Susan Dunlap  Susan Ressler  Susan Slotter

Susan Thelwell  Susan Stella  Toni Greaves  Tushita  Wendy Jordan
Valerie Romano.

Creative Bliss in Santa Fe and the World

Was evident last Friday night starting at Photoeye Gallery with Jamie Stillings' show "The Bridge at Hoover Dam." We have been working on this body of work for nearly two years, opening originally at Photoeye as a small exhibit with Nick Brandt's amazing Africa work, then a large museum show in Las Vegas, then in Tucson at the Etherton Gallery, sharing the stage with Michael Berman and Martin Stupich. Later this year the Phoenix Fine Art Museum, then to the Boston's Klein Gallery for the first east coast exhibition and a book in the works. Wow, I am exhausted just thinking about what Jamie has accomplished and I am honored to be a part of it.

If that wasn't enough, I made my way through the crowds just off the plaza to see our very own Kate Ware, curator of photography at the New Mexico Fine Art Museum put on "Earth Now" an incredible exploration into the photographers relationship with the environment. This is one of the best group shows ever and a must see.

For the last five years I have made Santa Fe my home and it's been a wonderful and challenging experience. I have lived in four houses and the Creek is on its third location. Through it all I have seen a great deal of work come through the doors and to my delight so much of it is world class art. Beyond the expected, so many artists are pushing themselves to create, experiment and tap into a world consciousness. 

In this context, I just wanted to mention that the celebrated, Chinese Artist and Activist, Ai Weiwei is still being held on trumped up charges by the Chinese "Government." This man has never been afraid to speak out in voice and through his work. Remember, if we don't use our voices, we will lose them. 

Workshop is On!

Saturday May 7th and Sunday May 8th Rush Creek Editions will hold it's first Digital Printmaking Workshop here in our Santa Fe Studio. "The Print and How to Get There" is for serious amateurs and professional photographers as well as fine artists who wish to gain sophistication and mastery with their printing. You will learn how to achieve the highest quality images on a number of different materials. You will make a 40" print as part of the workshop. One or two spaces are still available. Please contact Steve Zeifman for additional information and registration: print@rushcreekeditions.com    
505-982-8293 

In and Out of Balance

With all things, the state of the world, at home here in the "United States" and even our Santa Fe, there is a need for balance. I know this as a printer, it's all about finding that sweet spot that every print has. The way color will pop naturally when neutral is found and then you push for the right hue and chrominance (saturation). The shadow and highlight detail is all about balance and compromise. Choosing the paper or material to print on, the texture and the base tonality. So much depends on balance, on experience, on knowledge and on chance. Then there is the artist and what they contribute. I have often said that Rush Creek is the Switzerland of printing, for my contribution must live in balance with what the artist wants. I try to achieve with every print, in a process of collaboration and joint knowledge, the right balance. I wanted to write about our world being so apparently out of balance, but in the end I decided to write about printing. Something I know.

Joanne Teasdale's Paintings and Photography can be seen on the Box Set Gallery and her website.