Donations

Dear friends,

as I describe in my earlier post in more detail, I want to teach a one-week woodblock printmaking workshop with a group of indigenous artists in the Paraguayan Chaco near Loma Plata, the town where I grew up. The goal for this workshop is to teach the artists a new art-making technique that lends itself well to their imagery and to enable them to market their work more widely by making multiples, i.e., fine art prints. We have already booked the cultural center in Neu-Halbstadt/Neuland where the workshop will take place. I am asking you to support this project financially to allow me to purchase the necessary tools and supplies for this workshop. I want to buy good quality carving tools, honing strops so the artists will learn how to keep the tools sharp for a long time, and brayers in the USA to take along (there are none available locally). Paper, ink, wood for carving and other supplies (sandpaper, cleaning materials, etc.) I want to purchase locally so the artists will be able to acquire the necessary supplies and continue with printmaking after I leave. I hope to raise 1500$. The carving tools alone will cost approximately 500$ total. They are 50$-60$ per set and I am hoping to buy 4-5 sets of medium sized carving tools and 4-5 sets of micro-carving tools for more detailed work that the artists will share among each other. All donated money will go directly towards the purchase of supplies and the rental of the venue. Each donor will receive a hand-printed thank you card from me. The first ten donors of 100$ or more will also receive an original drawing by one of the workshop participants (see previous blog post for examples). I would prefer to receive donations by April 15th, 2013 for easier planning. Any small amount will help. Payments can be safely made online through paypal by clicking the Donate button.

In only 5 days we've reached the target! Thank you so much to all who donated for my cause. If you still wish to contribute to this project, any additional funds will be used for other expenses, such as exhibition purposes of the work by the artists and for transportation. Thank you again. 
(Those of you who are still sending checks, please still do so). 

Plans for Printmaking Workshop in Paraguay

I'm starting a new blog to document a trip to Paraguay in May where I will teach a woodblock printing workshop to a group of approximately ten indigenous artists in the Chaco. There is a group of Nivaclé and Guaraní artists that have been encouraged to make art for many years now by an old family friend and anthropologist, Verena Regehr. Through her I've come to know the beautiful drawings these artists make with simple black ballpoint pens on printer paper. The drawings are very graphic and it occurred to me that they would translate wonderfully into prints. When I mentioned this, the interest in a workshop was great (they tried to get another printmaker several years ago to teach them but it never worked out). The artists are excited to learn a new technique to make art and printmaking lends itself wonderfully for an easy and wider distribution of the work. So I decided that I will teach a workshop out there and I'm in the process of planning it all. I opted for a woodcut workshop, since wood is readily available out there and woodblocks can be printed by hand seeing that we don't have a press in the Chaco. 

It will be a bit complicated organizing it all from North America, but with local contacts out there I'm sure things will work out in the end. I'm planning on buying carving tools and brayers here in the USA. Apparently, tools and brayers aren't available in Paraguay at all and are usually ordered from Argentina or adapted from old toner rollers. I'll also bring some ink in case there are complications in getting it easily out there...few businesses have current if any websites out there, so researching availability of supplies is tricky. I know someone who knows where the store that carries letterpress ink is located, but they don't know the name or address. That's Paraguay for you!  I want to buy ink, paper, and wood locally, so the artists will have access to supplies after I leave. They will keep the carving tools and brayers and share them among each other.

Here are two of the Nivaclé drawings to give you an idea of the imagery the artists work with. Click here to see more.

Eurides Gómez