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
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