Buy An Art Piece And Preserve A Living Piece Of L.A. History

Up until the 1980's a multitude of artists like Charles White, Otis College of Art and Design students, and June Wayne would flock to the Los Angeles paper store McManus & Morgan. Today the store is 101 years old, and some of these artists still buy their paper here, but the younger generations of Angeleno artists are largely un-aware of this steel rooted institution of artisanship and dedication. Even fewer have ever heard of Gary Wolin the lone paper expert and unsung L.A. art historian behind the counter, nor do they know of his struggle to keep his once hollowed doors open. My readers have seen the short documentary Ink & Paper that tells the story of Gary and the neighboring letterpress shop, but a surge of new artists have come to L.A. and are still moving in to take advantage of the ever-expanding art and entertainment industries here. Well I am a young artist in Los Angeles, and I care about history. I care about quality local businesses too so I am going to put my money and art into the very place that cared enough to stick around all these years and offer what no corporate store could: knowledge, expertise, and unparalleled assortments of unique paper. God bless it, I think other young artists will care too once they hear about it!

... So LET THE ART SALE FUNDRAISER FOR MCMANUS & MORGAN BEGIN!

Buy one of my prints at McManus & Morgan and I will split the profits with the store. (the money I take in from the sale will most likely go towards buying paper from Gary anyway) We are asking $900 per print which is comparable to the price that Self Help Graphics and Arts is selling the same print for.

Now - Aug 31 2014, $900 for a limited edition 26" x 20" screen print by artist John Tallacksen and Self Help Graphics & Art, Four prints only #'s 41, 39, 37, 35 out of an edition of 50 all signed and numbered with a Self Help chop in lower left corner.

My work is about honoring the people and places in the communities of Pico Union and MacArthur Park in central Los Angeles. The scene in Serenata En El Callejón 12th and Alvarado was a real life moment not far from McManus and Morgan where my girlfriend and I saw a man serenading a woman in an alley with a small Mariachi band. It's moments like these, and places like McManus & Morgan, that expose the heart of our community. Please watch the short documentary in the comments section of this post and you'll see a small fraction of why I treasure Gary Wolin and his paper store so much. This limited edition that we are selling has enjoyed some amazing exposure. Having been created in collaboration with Master Printer Jose Alpuche in Self Help Graphics & Art's Professional Printmaking Studio, and then archived in institutions like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Mexican Fine Art Center Museum in Chicago, I wanted to use this edition's provenance to encourage my friend Gary and help off-set some of his overhead costs even if for a short time. I consider McManus & Morgan to be one of the most important arts institutions in Los Angeles. Watch the film below and consider purchasing an expression of the community that Gary and I share.
Self Help Graphics & Art values prints from this edition at $900 each. We are selling four prints from the same edition at the same price being careful not to under-cut such a prestigious organization. To purchase, leave a comment below, call me at (213)290-6777, or visit Gary at McManus & Morgan 2506 W 7th St. Los Angeles, CA 90057 9AM to 5PM Mon - Fri and 10AM to 2PM Sat.
We hope you join us in this unique celebration of community and the arts.

ACEO and 9"x12" Original Print Auctions

My ebay.com Auctions

Both auctions have a starting bid of .99 cents. The first House Sparrow: Neighbors is an Art Card Editions And Original (ACEO) 2.5" x 3.5" of a House Sparrow family that lives next door in the crevice between a pipe and the wall of an apartment building. This is a black and white linocut print with hand painted watercolor embellishments signed, titled, and numbered. Number 10 out of 19.

The second original print auction is number 2 from a limited "off-shoot edition" of only 4 prints. La Lavandaria On Pico is a linocut print on 9"x12" tan paper depicting my observation on a typical Saturday visit to the lavandaria (laundromat) in my L.A. neighborhood of Pico Union. The larger black and white edition (not offered in this auction) had 31 total prints offered to my monthly subscribers. Be among the first to receive a print from my monthly editions by subscribing: JohnTallacksen.com/Shop (online order form). Prints are shipped or available for local Los Angeles, CA pick-up on the 10th of every month.

My ebay.com Auctions

Two Major Announcements

First-

For the last week I have been working on a screen print serigraph edition as an artist in residence with Master Printer Joe Apuche at the historic Self Help Graphics in East Los Angeles (Boyle Heights). This has been a tremendous honor to print in such a hallowed place with the great Joe Apuche. Some of my favorite artists ie Gronk, John Valadez, El Mac, Sonia Romero, Fabian Debora and others have held the same residency here. Like the artists who have gone before me, the result will be a color serigraph edition that will be collected by institutions like the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the National Museum of Mexican Art among other museums archives and collections. If you follow my facebook art page John Tallacksen Studio you can follow the progress and view pictures taken while working in the studio. More details to come.

Second-

John Tallacksen Editions are open to subscribers! You can receive one of my original prints every month either by mail or by local will-call pick up. Prints from the serigraph edition mentioned above will be sent to subscribers one of these months in the near future. The first 10 subscribers will pay only $50/print even if they renew their subscription later. Once the 10th customer has been paid for their account, the monthly cost will go up for the the 11th and so on. This is your chance to own multiple original works, some of which will be collected in museums around the U.S., for the same amount of money you would spend on one painting in the average selling gallery. Go to JohnTallacksen.com/shop to order now. There are 3 month, 6 month, and 12 month options available. 

Original Print Auction Fund-Raiser For Art Division

Original Print Auction Site

  Following the success of the Twitter Art Exhibit (which is still going strong) I am auctioning a postcard size original linoleum block print to benefit the same cause as the exhibit- Art Division.
  The auction starts at $15 plus $4 flat shipping rate and will end Saturday morning January 26th.

Matthew 1:23 Postcard Size Print Sold At Auction

Matthew 1:23 linocut print

Congratulations to Blainnoe for winning my latest auction on ebay. I hope you enjoy the new print in your collection!
The Oystercatcher piece in my last post still has just under 4 days left in the auction as of this writing. Check back often if you are a savvy original art collector.

Two Latest Prints Just Posted

7th and Carondelet 

Corner Of Pico And Union

  Prints from both editions were just now posted in my online shop. Only one print of 7th And Carondelet will be sold in my shop; the rest of the edition of 15 are for sale on consignment at McManus & Morgan in Los Angeles. (see address below)

McManus & Morgan Fine Artist Paper

2506 W. 7th St (corner of 7th and Carondelet)

Los Angeles, CA 90057

Making A New Linocut Edition: Corner Of Pico and Union

Right now I am about to sign and number my second linocut edition Corner Of Pico And Union, and I couldn't be more happy with it. Master Printmaker Noel Hernandez at Self Help Graphics in L.A. is collaborating with me on the printing process. Of course I drew and carved the linocut on my own.
I can't recommend printing at Self Help Graphics enough. They have a long legendary track record in developing Latino artists in the L.A. area. 

Study for the final print

Above is a study I did on location in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Pico Union for the print. I later auctioned this small sketch off in my online auctions.

Noel applying the ink to the block I carved.

inked and on the press

The edition is now complete and drying on the rack

Shot of a final Artist Proof of this edition by Leo Jimenez

New Linocut Edition Completed

7th And Carondelet by: John Tallacksen

linocut print in black ink on 8" x 10" white Lettra paper purchased at McManus & Morgan

  In this new edition of linocuts I produced an image of the corner of 7th St and Carondelet in Los Angeles. My two favorite shops reside on this corner Aardvark Letterpress and McManus & Morgan. This is a very limited edition of only 15 prints each signed, titled, and numbered. A good number of these prints are currently for sale at McManus & Morgan. For those of you outside of the L.A. area I may hold one or two prints and sell them online. Stay tuned for more news.

June Wayne: The Beginning Of Tamarind Press

June Wayne the architect and much more of Tamarind Lithography Workshop talking about the early days, W. McNeil Lowry's contributions to the arts in the U.S., and what we need to do in the future.


A few questions...

-Where does one find June Wayne's plan for Tamarind?

-Has the think tank she suggests at the end of the video been created? Where or why not?

-Do I have the guts to take on some of these issues myself?

-Is there space and workers for this effort in L.A.?

My First Official Synesthetic Art Piece

  A few years ago I discovered that I have a condition called Grapheme Synesthesia. It's pretty hard to describe what it is but I'll give it a shot... when I'm reading, working out some mathematics, or thinking of words or numbers in my head my mind's eye takes over and I see lots of colors. Simply put, each letter or number has a specific color assigned to it in my psyche and when they are put together to form words or numbers I see a blur or gradient of colors. Some letters or numbers are more dominant than others and tend to take over the colors of the word or number.

  Those of you who are already familiar with Synesthesia won't be surprised that another artist has this condition. Many, not all, artist types have some form of Synesthesia. I recently read that one of my favorite artists Vincent Van Gogh had it which makes a lot of sense in view of his obsession with color. 

  In this post I am introducing a completely new method for my creative process that relies heavily on my condition especially in the selection of colors for the piece. As you will see, I have used the format of ACEOs for this experiment, and this particular experiment is up for a 10 day auction now.

A representation of what I see when I think of the term "Hip-Hop"

  Above is a quick rendering of more or less what I see in my mind when I: hear, read, or think of the term "Hip-Hop". Each letter or character has it's assigned color. The blurred line above my handwriting is sort of what I see when I think of the word quickly- for instance when someone uses this term in a sentence and my mind must keep up with every word as the person is saying it. This particular term has a very dark cloud around it in my mind's eye, but I wrote it on a white background for the sake of clarity. The idea was to create a tribute to Hip-Hop since it is a movement I resonate with deeply. This quick "jot" was created in photoshop to serve as my color palette for the piece pictured below.

The final experiment in ACEO format

  This image is a scan of the final piece utilizing the colors chosen by my synesthesia. Yes, this is a 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" ACEO. I am using this miniature experiment to fashion a work method for what will hopefully become a life-long project in printmaking. This is a new style for me inspired by Dave Kinsey's work among others. I need a new style that will compliment my new-found love of printmaking, and I'm hoping this is it- or an early version of it. Please check back on this blog often to see how this style evolves, and to be informed of my first print runs in the coming months. I have my eye on a few workshops here in Los Angeles so stay tuned art lovers!