Art Can Be Horrible, but Beautiful An Interview with La Mano Press Printmaker, Artemio Rodriguez     By Katie Atherton In a converted auto shop near Chinatown in Los Angeles, a train whistles, dogs bark, and Artemio Rodriguez is busy preparing for his book release party, "Yes, that's fine. Put the table over there please," Rodriguez says. Live musical performances, flame-throwing, a DJ, and dancing will take place in the parking lot of his small press publishing company, La Mano Press. Rodriguez and his La Mano Press partner, graphic designer Sylvia Capistran, are expecting five hundred guests. It will be a celebration of life that was started on the premise of death. "The book release party is for a book titled Puro Muerto filled with artwork by twenty participating artists inspired by the Mexican tradition of celebrating Day of the Dead on November 2nd and 3rd of every year. Traditional Day of the Dead altars will be on display and were created in different parts of Mexico including Oaxaca, Michoacan and Puebla," Rodriguez says. "The creation of art about Day of the Dead is to do a critique that is both poetic and ironic." Rodriguez's work at La Mano Press is built on a legacy of printing as a craft, the use of ancient traditions in artistic expression, and the evolving celebrations of Day of the Dead. With some hard work and artistic integrity, Rodriguez is becoming a part of the poetic and ironic history of small press printing that has come full circle in the last one hundred years. Printing As a Craft A man comes out squinting into the bright sunlight to stand in front of a sign reading "J.G. Posada." Jose Guadalupe Posada was born in the state of Aguascalientes, situated in the center of Mexico, in 1852. He was buried in a common grave in 1913. He was taught to read and draw by his brother, a country school teacher, and in his youth learned the art of lithography. In 1888 a cataclysmic flood prompts a move to Mexico City where he finds work as an illustrator and commercial artist. Jose Guadalupe Posada was a leader of the small press printing tradition in Mexico in the last century. He brought small press printing to the people of Mexico with his art and publishing talents, and now Rodriguez is doing his part to bring it back to the people under very different circumstances that have been shaped by time and technology. It has only been within the last fifty years that computerized typography and digital output systems have changed the craft of printing. In 1440 Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (nice short name) invented a movable type print press in Germany near the Rhine River. This new printing technology made it possible to print information faster and the printed word spread rapidly through Europe. This explosion of information generated the force of intellectual thinking that led the world into the Renaissance. Now, publishing is as easy as a few clicks on the Internet. The spread of knowledge and art is inescapably fast. Online publishing is becoming mainstream through Web logs (blogs), copy machines, printers in every home office, and as a result, the printer as a craftsman is slowly becoming something of the past. In the 1960's, the beat generation authors rejected by mainstream publishing houses used letterpress printing as a way to establish a new poetic realm and reach a wider audience. Taking the same communication route as the previous generation, the private presses are now being established to print fine work for pleasure and the love of the art instead of commerce. It is this "underground" spirit mixing art and printing that is continuing through printers like Rodriguez today. Rodriguez has been in the states for eleven years now. Through a neighbor in Mexico, Juan Pasco, he learned the art of making books, typography and printing on letterpresses, editing, and he says, "of course, art appreciation." Juan Pasco was a neighbor he would visit as a teenager, "it was just talking and not formal. He was another friend. I don't know if it is different here, but in Mexico the teens are very curious." "People don't know too much about printing. They think there is a machine somewhere and think that we have to have electronic things to produce images. If you review the history of printing to see what technologies have been used, you will see how technology affects art. Photography is a prime example. It has changed everything, no?" A Modern Stamp on an Ancient Tradition "It is important to work hands-on. I want to bring new life to old traditions to keep them alive in the present, for the future. Who knows, in fifty years there might be 200 or 500 people who know about hand printing. In the future some academic will say he's doing art because of 'this guy' and will feel a connection to what we're doing now." Rodriguez believes contemporary art is boring and that it is important to search for and take advantage of new means of expression. He believes there is much more to art than conceptual art. Since the 1960's the contemporary art world has been showing "installations of Van Gogh." He wants art to speak to the viewer, "You shouldn't have to read a long discourse about the art to know what it is. It should be for the people," Rodriguez says. For Puro Muerto, Rodriguez chose to order the printing of the books online through a printer in China. Recently many artists have chosen commercial book printers in other countries while maintaining that the hands-on craft of printing is something to be valued and not a commercial endeavor. "We are trying to make printmaking something that goes everywhere. Printmaking has become somewhat elitist. Only a few people know about it and collect it. We are trying to play in both fields. For the media, books are very important. They are permanent, cheap, and everywhere. We create limited editions, but we always keep in mind the commercial edition potential of the publication. We also want to reach a wide public audience. You could say we are a laboratory of communication and art. Everything is experimentation in finding out what works and what doesn't." Rodriguez says that it is important to explore other areas of the graphic arts field as well. Animation and comic arts interest him and his art translates easily into both. Art as a Profession Rodriguez and his La Mano Press partner, Sylvia Capistran, are considering moving La Mano Press operations to Mexico due to the high price of keeping up a studio in Los Angeles. The irony of art as a profession that Rodriguez finds frustrating is the established artist saying to him, "don't worry about making it," but to survive as an up-and-coming artist, Rodriguez argues that the artist does have to worry about making money. In the perfect world the artist does not need to worry about the commercial part of creating art. La Mano Press puts together workshops for children to teach the craft of hand printing. "The art created can be made as a measure of what you're doing," Rodriguez says. "I personally tell kids, or communicate with other artists, 'don't think that because you are young and beautiful that people are going to buy your art. If you are smart and thinking about how to make a living doing it, you will be o.k." He is frustrated by the message from established artists that seems hypocritical in a time when the pressures of making a living are bearing down on an urban artist. "Jose Guadalupe Posada was one of the best illustrators in the world. He was a genius who created over 20,000 works of art, but was not recognized and died poor. There are the old guys who say 'I never think about the money,' but I come from a different position. I want to do little pretty things. Art is beautiful all the time. This doesn't mean it is nice and cute. It can be horrible but beautiful." Dia de los Muertos Sylvia Capistran sits at a laptop at the Puro Muerto book signing in Sacramento. Her long black hair is parted in the center carelessly and she does not wear make-up on her wide-set eyes. Rodriguez is humble in front of the audience and asks her if there is anything she would like to add before the video presentation. She doesn't have anything else and projects a short movie of the move-in to the current La Mano Press space. The music is old ragtime and the movie is sped up. Walls are being painted and a dog is walking through the space. This is not a flashy sales pitch for the book, but as Rodriguez explains the work done by LaMano Press and the meaning behind the creation of the book Puro Muerto, turns out to be an invitation to explore their world and their book. The artists included in the book Puro Muerto accept death as a natural occurrence. "The Day of the Dead is a celebration to remember those who have died and the importance of life. The celebrations for Day of the Dead are traditional but evolving. The Aztecs created images about death and the Mexican revolutionaries used Day of the Dead to express social ideas. Jose Guadalupe Posada used Day of the Dead images, but he was not a nationalist." The images created by the artists in Puro Muerto depict passed out skeletons at the bar, two skeletons making love, skeletons puking, and skeletons jumping the border behind a man asleep on a chair with a dollar sign on his stomach. All the ugly aspects of life, and all of the lovely daily events of life are represented acting out scenes of life in another place. It is a different world and ironically, an ordinary world. The introduction to Puro Muerto explains why artists would be attracted to Day of the Dead artwork, "Artists are inspired by life, and life is nothing without the certainty of death to give it limits and meaning." Rodriguez uses an etching press, a Vandercook Proof Press for typeset pages, a Vandercook Letterpress for printing books, a Letterpress with an electronic motor usually used for printing cards, and a tortilla press for pressing tortillas—for creating linoleum prints. Meaning sometimes comes from not imposing limits on the creation of art. By understanding the tools available to him and the rich history and cultures surrounding him, Rodriguez is finding inspiration and will be what he describes as "an instigator of sensibilities, imagination, and further creativity." Contact Information: La Mano Press Web site: www.lamanopress.com La Mano Press 1749 N. Main St. Los Angeles, CA 90031 To order book: www.puromuerto.com