We were invited to participate in the 2019 Lawrence Arts Center Print Week. We proposed a project called, “A Banner Day”, which involved us hosting to printing and sewing workshops in Cape Girardeau, MO open to anyone to come print letterpress text, relief images, and create screenprinting film for their own ideas on “protest”. We assisted attendees with planning and executing their words and images on repurposed fabrics and, in a following workshop, with stitching together printed fabrics into protest flags/banners. These were then displayed at the Lawrence Arts Center during Print Week 2019.
Some images of the exhibition may be found below! We had a wide range of participants from our local community including students and community members, from under 10 years old to over 60 years old!
Exhibition Photos
Some Completed Works
A selection of old and new works sent to the exhibition (and old works altered with new words)
Two student works sent to the exhibition
Four student works sent to the exhibition (the bottom two were created by a grandmother on the left and her granddaughter on the right)
One of Blake’s banners for the exhibition
Hannah sewed this banner combining text printed from all of the participants in the workshops to create a sort of “pop up” banner utilizing computer and phone symbols, as well
One of Blake’s banners for the exhibition with appliqué and screenprinting
Banner created by our youngest workshop participant and sewed together by her grandmother–complete with plastic straw appliqué
One of Blake’s banners for the exhibition with reverse appliqué and woodcut and screenprints on fabric
Student work
Another community member came in and collaborated with text and imagery created by two earlier workshop participants to create this banner
Another community member came in and collaborated with text and imagery created by an earlier workshop participant to create this banner
One of Hannah’s banners for the exhibition created from an old demo sewn together of woodcut and screenprint on fabric with additional sewing and text created for this banner
Queerly better than you
A couple of older banners by Hannah
Screenprint and appliqué on fabric by Hannah with text by one of her friends
Student banner hung on stick
Student banner hung on dowel rod
One of Blake’s banners
Collaborative banner by a group of 6 or so students
Consent banner in progress
Pop up banner in progress
Community Printing and Sewing Workshops
Letterpress Demo
Inking Station
Letterpress Demo with wood type
Little helper
Printing fabric on the letterpress
Printing fabric on the letterpress
Printing fabric on the letterpress
Printing fabric on the letterpress
Printing fabric on the letterpress
Community Members/Students at the Printing workshop
Community member’s first wood type print
Community member’s first wood type print
Hannah Screenprinting student films and her and Blake’s films on fabric to prepare for the second workshop
Drawing fluid and screen filler
Drawing fluid washed out, screen filler remains
Ready to print!
Hot pink fabric ink
flooded screen
first prints
reprinting text from Cape Girardeau’s first Pride Fest last year
Printing community members’ films created in the first workshop
Printing community members’ films created in the first workshop
Printing community members’ films created in the first workshop
Printing community members’ films created in the first workshop
Printing community members’ films created in the first workshop
Second workshop: community members sewing up their designs into banners
Catapult Press student Wendell Stapleton printing some new ideas for a banner
Catapult Press students Ryan Nevill and Wendell Stapleton printing and helping out with the workshops
community members hard at work learning how to sew to create new banners
community members hard at work learning how to sew to create new banners
community members hard at work learning how to sew to create new banners
A proud student!
Blake and Hannah’s dueling sewing machine setup at home to complete some additional collaborative and individually-designed banners
Pulling from our rich fabric collections, made of donated items and repurposed items
Color play
Cutting and ironing quilting squares for backgrounds
Cutting and ironing quilting squares for backgrounds
Sewing fabric appliqué replicas of common computer and phone symbols
Pinning and stitching
Pulling out some older screenprints on fabric to collage into these new works
Creating text from screenprinted roads on fabric using appliqué
figuring out placement combining new letterpress printed fabric from the workshop and an older woodcut print on fabric
Watching Kara Walker’s ART 21 video while working
figuring out placement
Nearly completed banner–this one sold!
Nearly completed banner with a phrase that popped into my head over summer 2019. Maybe already existed out there, but I thought it deserved highlighting either way!
Our son, Levee, looking on as we work and asking lots of questions
One of Blake’s banners in progress, combining older screenprints and woodcuts on fabric to create a background for a new banner
September 23-28, 2019
Lawrence Arts Center
Print Week 2019