This week we are going to be focusing on silkscreens. All of us here at Poster Mountain collect some sort of art and given the nature of our work, we all have posters and prints. For those of you who don't know, John's particular passion is silkscreens. A few months ago John, along with a group of like minded silkscreen collectors, commissioned one of the most sought after artists, Laurent Durieux, to design a print based off of an older illustration that John liked. (For more information on Durieux, here is a link to his website: www.laurentdurieux.com)
Durieux's work is beautiful and reimagines the futuristic style of the 50s into grand and modern designs. The clean lines, bold colors and detailed prints have history and weight to them that give a sense that there is an entire world beyond what is contained by the borders of the page. He is a well known artist in Belgium, where he lives, but has only recently come to the attention of American collectors. I could go on and on about this award winning artist, but I would probably run out of space before I was done, so you should seriously just go look at his website for yourself if you're not familiar with him.
Here is the original illustration that the print is based off of.
While Laurent was reimagining and reworking the drawing for the print, John and company were looking for a printer. Silkscreen collectors, along with most other enthusiasts, have a thriving online community. It was through the online community that Lastleaf Printing came to John's attention and more importantly owner/operator Mathias Valdez's daughter Sophia. Sophia is 4 years old and has leukemia. It is treatable but it means years of medical procedures for her and lots of expensive medical bills for her parents. For more information about Sophia you can go to http://smileskillthegerms.wordpress.com/ John and the commission group (I'm trying to come up with a group term that doesn't make it sound like everyone is part of the gang from Happy Days...) decided to use Lastleaf Printing to print the poster. It is to date the most complicated and exacting job that Lastleaf has done, with 9 colors total. And they did a wonderful job!
So that you can get an idea of the stages a silkscreen goes through, I have a few of the test prints that Lastleaf sent with the two regular editions. These are all one of a kind misprints with small errors that happened at some point in the printing process.
And for good measure I'm throwing in a test print of the variant.
And the finished prints are beautiful. There were two editions, a regular with 200 prints and a variant with 30 prints. They came with a certificate of authenticity signed by Laurent Durieux with the edition number.
On May 18th we had a launch party and quite a few local collectors, and even some out-of-towners, came in for the occasion! We packaged up the prints that were being shipped out and then everyone ate and socialized. It was a lot of fun and John had BBQ from Lockhart, Texas shipped in!
There are more photos of this on our Facebook page if you want to go take a look through them all!
When we launched the poster, on May 18th, there was also a raffle for a print of Durieux's Metropolis poster, won by one of the attendees.
Laurent also just announced that he is raffling off a remarqued, embossed and signed AP variant and the original concept drawing for the print. ***Updated May, 31st*** Laurent is also including a giclee print of Leviathan, it is one of only 2 in existence and measures 36 x 19 inches. 100% of the proceeds are going to Sophia and her family. The tickets are being sold through John until the raffle on June 15th. Contact us directly for more information about raffle tickets or head to this site: http://www.nerdlocker.com/nerd-art/cancer-sucks-sophia
I'm also slipping in a shout out to my friend Mike as part of a belated birthday gift to him! Happy Birthday, Mike! Thanks for reading the blog and for all of the great discussions about art!
If you have any questions please contact us via email at postermount@aol.com or by phone at 818.882.1214. Also check out our websites: http://www.postermountain.com and http://www.lapapergroup.com/. Please feel free to leave comments or questions on the blog!
Durieux's work is beautiful and reimagines the futuristic style of the 50s into grand and modern designs. The clean lines, bold colors and detailed prints have history and weight to them that give a sense that there is an entire world beyond what is contained by the borders of the page. He is a well known artist in Belgium, where he lives, but has only recently come to the attention of American collectors. I could go on and on about this award winning artist, but I would probably run out of space before I was done, so you should seriously just go look at his website for yourself if you're not familiar with him.
Here is the original illustration that the print is based off of.
So that you can get an idea of the stages a silkscreen goes through, I have a few of the test prints that Lastleaf sent with the two regular editions. These are all one of a kind misprints with small errors that happened at some point in the printing process.
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And for good measure I'm throwing in a test print of the variant.
And the finished prints are beautiful. There were two editions, a regular with 200 prints and a variant with 30 prints. They came with a certificate of authenticity signed by Laurent Durieux with the edition number.
On May 18th we had a launch party and quite a few local collectors, and even some out-of-towners, came in for the occasion! We packaged up the prints that were being shipped out and then everyone ate and socialized. It was a lot of fun and John had BBQ from Lockhart, Texas shipped in!
There are more photos of this on our Facebook page if you want to go take a look through them all!
When we launched the poster, on May 18th, there was also a raffle for a print of Durieux's Metropolis poster, won by one of the attendees.
Laurent also just announced that he is raffling off a remarqued, embossed and signed AP variant and the original concept drawing for the print. ***Updated May, 31st*** Laurent is also including a giclee print of Leviathan, it is one of only 2 in existence and measures 36 x 19 inches. 100% of the proceeds are going to Sophia and her family. The tickets are being sold through John until the raffle on June 15th. Contact us directly for more information about raffle tickets or head to this site: http://www.nerdlocker.com/nerd-art/cancer-sucks-sophia
I'm also slipping in a shout out to my friend Mike as part of a belated birthday gift to him! Happy Birthday, Mike! Thanks for reading the blog and for all of the great discussions about art!
If you have any questions please contact us via email at postermount@aol.com or by phone at 818.882.1214. Also check out our websites: http://www.postermountain.com and http://www.lapapergroup.com/. Please feel free to leave comments or questions on the blog!
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