Natura(L)Ink

One of Ivan Correa’s images from the current show at Zygote...

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 19:43:41 -0400

One of Ivan Correa’s images from the current show at Zygote press. Ivan is an artist from Chile. He’s in Cleveland with the Creative Fusion program started by the Cleveland Foundation and is being hosted by my print Co-Op Zygote Press. I feel lucky that Zygote press has chosen me to work with Ivan. Here you can see one of the images we worked on together.
Ivan typically makes etchings, dry points, and lithographs. My strong suits are screen printing, digital printing, and letterpress so I was excited that Ivan approached me about producing a series of screen prints. The drawings he made for the show were small very very detailed works. As soon as I saw his drawings I wanted to see them larger - much Larger. This photo shows one of Ivan’s drawings that we enlarged from roughly 4”x6” to 19” x 30”. Most of his works in the show are screen prints, and these are the first screen prints of his artwork that he’s ever made.
As soon as we pulled the first print of this larger size we knew we hit the mark. Ivan commented, “When you enlarge a drawing you expose its flaws. I’m very pleased that my drawings still look really great even at this massive size.”
I’m pleased that Ivan plans to incorporate more screen printing into his print shop in Chile. We still have over a month to continue this series of prints together. Stay tuned for more photos and new prints!

Photo

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:25:22 -0400

Photo

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:24:21 -0400

I’ll be in Toledo again for this years election effort....

Fri, 19 Oct 2012 17:23:21 -0400

I’ll be in Toledo again for this years election effort. I’m working with the Ohio Organizing Collaborative. We’ve already registered nearly 41,000 voters in the all important state of Ohio. I just set up our office at SEIU Local 1. I love their collection of posters.

For those of you that don’t know yet, I’m organizing...

Thu, 24 May 2012 08:11:03 -0400

For those of you that don’t know yet, I’m organizing an artist expedition to Wyoming this summer. 8 artists will be spending 2 weeks there camping and hiking in some of America’s last great wilderness. Please stop by our Kickstarter page and consider backing this awesome project!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/331530956/frack-this-the-wyoming-artist-expedition

Rock Creek Wyoming Benefit Print. Check out this amazing place...

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 22:10:00 -0400

Rock Creek Wyoming Benefit Print. Check out this amazing place we’ll be visiting this summer!

“Deep” - Fine Art Print Release My latest limited...

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 23:09:17 -0400

“Deep” - Fine Art Print Release

My latest limited edition fine-art print for sale is titled simply “Deep”. This print of the Grand Canyon measures 26”x40”. I’m offering a sweet deal on this one: The print custom framed with your choice of natural, whitewash or black finish for $250! (Framed size is roughly 31”X46”)

I recommend letting me frame this print since the cost of framing a print of this size can be very high and my frames are of very high quality. I use hand picked wormy maple that I mill from it’s rough state and conservation quality materials including 100% cotton rag museum board for mounting. In other words, you can pick up one of my large sized works ready to hang for $250 out the door! If you’ve been waiting to buy one of my larger artworks this might be your chance!

I’m taking orders now so let me know if you’re interested. I’m happy to give quotes for shipping. I’ve attached a more in-depth description of the piece below.

Also, the rumors are true. I’m organizing an Artist Expedition this summer to Wyoming - 8 artists, two weeks in the deep desert, one awesome show! It’s going to be really amazing so watch for the launch announcement and the gallery openings this fall.

Thanks again for all of your past support, and I hope this note finds you doing well.

Sincerely,

JD Lehrer

www.naturalink.tumblr.com

Deep

26”x40” 2 color serigraph
Limited Edition of 53
Printed on Legion 100% cotton rag paper.
Framing Options Available

About This Print

My first trip to the Grand Canyon was back during my college days at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. Two close friends flew into town from Ohio, and we then did a circle that included the south rim and some tributaries. The Grand Canyon should really be called “Grand Canyons” because each tributary carves its own chasm and then dumps into the Colorado River.

The River is visible, but it takes time to follow the Canyon walls down to the thin ribbon that forms “U” shaped bends. The real shock for me came when we were driving east around the Canyon and stopped near the side of the road. There was nobody there. It was dead silent. Just the burned out hulk of an old abandoned vehicle near the straight many hundreds of feet drop down. We all eased slowly to the edge. The sudden gusts of wind making us shy away from the cliff and causing stomach flutters. It was a fraction the size of the overlook at the South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park.

That was the moment I began to understand the Grand Canyon’s massiveness. It would take months or maybe years to really explore and understand that place. I almost named this print “The Place Everyone Should Visit at Least Once” but instead chose the easier to write title “Deep”. I went back and hand painted the river with silver shimmer ink. I like that you might not notice the river the first time you see this print.

As many of you know, I’m crazy about borders on my artwork. The border on this print was inspired by one of my all-time favorite books, The Way to Rainy Mountain by N. Scott Momaday. His father did some line drawings for the book and this border is inspired by one of those drawings.

I hope you get the chance to experience the Canyon in solitude. My advice is to pack a lunch and spend the day just sitting in a quiet spot at the edge of the Canyon or hiking a less traveled route. If you have the time, the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is less crowded and cooler in the summer. I recommend it.

The Toledo museum of art rocks! Seriously. It’s beyond...

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 23:26:24 -0500

The Toledo museum of art rocks! Seriously. It’s beyond awesome.

SB 5 goes down. Victory party in Toledo.

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:30:26 -0500

SB 5 goes down. Victory party in Toledo.

I’m watching Sharon jones and the dap kings right now at...

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:18:25 -0400

I’m watching Sharon jones and the dap kings right now at the beachland ballroom and celebrating my birthday. Best live show I’ve ever seen!

Hoffa at the rally. Vote no on issue 2.

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:43:48 -0400

Hoffa at the rally. Vote no on issue 2.

1000 person rally at teamsters local in Toledo.

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 18:39:42 -0400

1000 person rally at teamsters local in Toledo.

More shots of Canyonlands National Park/cliff hiking.

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:26:04 -0400

More shots of Canyonlands National Park/cliff hiking.

Everett Ruess Days and Horseshoe Canyon/Canyonlands National Park

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 15:23:00 -0400

It’s been an amazing trip out west. Crazy, frenetic, odd, challenging, exhausting, refreshing. I don’t even know where to start. Escalante is a small town about five hours from everything in south central Utah. The town only has a few hundred people year round but hosts the Everett Ruess Art Days Festival once a year. Artists participate in a landscape painting competition and at the end of the week there’s two days of lectures and artists setting up booths to sell their work. It’s an art scene that’s in its early stages of developing and has that exciting sense of creation and discovery.

I made important contacts with other artists and art dealers that are all committed to the beauty and remoteness of the wilderness out west. The festival ended Friday at 5 p.m., the booths were all taken down, and many of us got together to celebrate and say goodbye. One of the centers of activity was Escalante Outfitters. The owners are committed to the festival and let some of us starving artists stay for free during the festival. It’s also a great restaurant, coffee shop, outdoor equipment shop, book store, and generally just awesome place.

The outfitters is the kind of place that should be the center of your adventures in and around Grand Staircase National Monument. They have both cabins and tent spaces available. I’ve never seen luxury campsites like this. They built tent pads that are dead level, have nice men and women’s restrooms, a laundry facility, a picnic pavilion with wifi, and of course the cafe inside. If you’re going to stay somewhere in town this is the place.

I’m not sure why, but there were significantly more Germans and French than Americans staying in town. A huge number of people were riding motorcycles set up to ride the dirt roads. It was pretty amazing to see. There were probably around 100 artists selling their work and participating in the Plein Air painting competition. It’s a great place for a vacation and everyone would really love it there.

After tearing down my booth and packing up my gear I decided to make one more stop on the way back home at my favorite National Park, Canyonlands. For nearly twenty years I’ve wanted to see the Great Gallery in the western unit of the park. The Gallery is a collection of some of the best pictographs and petroglyphs in the Barrier Canyon Style rock art. I can’t stress enough the remoteness of this place. If you’ve seen the movie 127 Hours about the climber who cut off his own hand to escape being trapped by a boulder then you get the picture. The trailhead for the Great Gallery can also be used to reach Blue John where 127 hours takes place.

The gallery has some massive anthropomorphic figures created nearly 8000 years ago. There’s nothing like these pictographs anywhere else in America. It’s worth the trip. Because this area is so difficult to get to it’s a self selecting process and some really interesting people were camping at the trailhead. An Australian Geologist, a professional photographer, a retired vagabond from the Grand Junction, Colorado area, a doctor from Salt Lake, myself, and another couple in a camper. Thanks to all of them for interesting conversation and their sense of adventure. All of us were traveling alone which can be very challenging, and visiting a remote place like this is no small challenge. We all stayed up to watch the amazing star show since there was no moon out at the time. Imagine being able to see thousands of stars with the naked eye. Just incredible.

Don’t miss the chance to see this place if you’re in the area. It’s amazing. Exhausted and tired, I decided to head north through Vernal Utah, site of a previous car break down many years ago, rather than cut through Denver. I 70 is a dangerous road to drive at night due to animal crossings. The route through Vernal wasn’t much better and took a little longer so I wouldn’t recommend it unless you’re going to see Dinosaur National Monument or something else up that way. I made it into Laramie late last night and should be back in Ohio in two days. It’s been an amazing trip. I only wish I had a few more weeks and my wife along to meet everyone and see the sights. Thanks for all the friends and family that put me up at their places.

Remember, you only live once so don’t let anything get in the way of adventure. There’s always a way to make it happen if you’re willing.

Escalante Canyons Art Festival and Plein Air Painting...

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:20:30 -0400

Escalante Canyons Art Festival and Plein Air Painting Competition Photos.

Heading out west. Strange clouds at a rest area, photos of my...

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:28:26 -0400

Heading out west. Strange clouds at a rest area, photos of my car loaded with lumber for my booth, and some of the crazy rocks etc out here. I’ve also come up with a new name for our Honda civic, the SDF-1. If you know that reference you probably are unmarried and living in your parents basement. I’ll have more photos of my artwork and my booth tomorrow. I’ve got a new print at the show of the Grand Canyon. Photos on the way!

Just finished the first day here in southern utah at the Everett...

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 22:18:26 -0400

Just finished the first day here in southern utah at the Everett Ruess days art festival. Everyone should visit the monument. It’s truly amazing!

Tune Off, Turn Off, and Drop Off

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 03:27:00 -0400

The beat generation of the sixties got a lot of things right, namely getting out on the road. I modified Leary’s famous tag line for our times. It’s time to tune off the 24 hour “news” cycle (after you call congress and tell them to raise the debt ceiling/compromise already), turn off your electronic devices (at least for awhile), and drop off the grid for a few days, weeks, or months (whatever you can manage).

We all have special skills, but I think my particular talent lies in recreation. In fact I’ve recently been named Master Recreator and Connoisseur of Life by the Association of Master Vagabonders (my dog Lu is the current president of the AMV). Each summer for three years running now the car gets packed to the gills, the camping gear gets dusted off, and I head for deep wilderness and new cities across Canada, America, and Mexico(hopefully I’ll be adding countries and continents in the coming years).

I’m committed to writing about my travels, but also taking time to reflect on my life, our times, and what’s happening in the world. A short disclaimer: if you’re looking for vacation spots that have stickers to put on your car so everyone knows where you were last summer this series of posts will probably not be what you’re looking for. Some of my favorite places in America are the farthest away from other people you can be in the lower 48 states. I particularly love the juxtaposition of big cities with remote wilderness. They are extremes in every sense of the word.

The Rocky Mountains from New Mexico to Montana along with the Great Plains have been my obsession since the first summer I spent working at Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, NM. Philmont’s mountains are the first I fell in love with. Storms rumble down from the Sangre DeChristo mountains then drift east across the plains during the evenings. We would stand against the barbed wire fence in the dark watching lightning flash in the heart of the clouds. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was looking at the first Prairie landscape that would eventually become an obsession. My friends definitely thought I was crazy when I convinced them to hike not to the mountains but east over to the mesa across the hot treeless New Mexico prairie. Finding fat Tarantulas scurrying to their holes was a revelation. The prairies of America were wild places that require reevaluation of what many consider wilderness.

That experience at Philmont left a deep impression, and I eventually transferred to the University of New Mexico and met my wife there. She grew up in Laramie, Wyoming, and we’ve made the pilgrimage west across the great plains for the last 14 years we’ve been together. The I-80 corridor from Ohio to Utah rewards and challenges us every year. Most people simply fly to Denver, but I think most people going west will drive Interstate 80 at some point in their lives. Taking time to explore the towns and natural wonders and to relive American History along that route should not be missed.

Traveling is a learned skill, and over the years I’ve developed a few general guidelines that help deepen my experiences on the road.

1. People are great. If a stranger asked you what your favorite restaurant is would you tell them? Your favorite park near your home? Asking people who live somewhere what’s worth seeing and doing is always the right choice. You’ll find the social contract intact no matter where you are in the world.

2 Avoid doing something you could do at home. Someone told me this tip years ago, and it’s proven great advice. You can go to the movies anytime. You can surf the internet on your couch. The exceptions to this rule, sleeping and showering.

3. Avoid chain restaurants. With the advent of the smartphone and web sites like Yelp or Urbanspoon and a billion others you now have the ability to find great local restaurants on a moment’s notice. Finding good local food is 40% of the trip.

4. When talking with a National Park Ranger, Forest Service employee, or Beureu of Land Management worker about your planned visit to public lands, I always ask one simple question, “What’s your favorite place in the park/forest/grassland/desert?” Then shut up and let them answer. Most people work at these places because they love the outdoors. They know special places rarely visited by tourists. Personally I just don’t care much if I see iconic landmarks. I prefer intimate special places, and these people know where they are.

5. Look at the map where you’re heading. Are there any blank spaces with nothing on them? No major roads? No major towns? That’s where you should be going. The fewer tourists, the nicer, more inviting, and more excited people are to see you. Of course, I want to see it all, the good, the bad, the ugly. So maybe you can’t go wrong no matter what.

6. Avoid the first gas station right off the highway exit. There are a great many reasons for this.

You need to be hungry for the world, hungry to understand how the world works, hungry to not build your world view on books, TV, or other people’s experiences alone. I think that’s at the heart of why I travel. What frustrates me about the intense political debates raging across the country are the massive number of people on every side that have no real experience in the subjects they’re discussing. At no point in time has anyone during my travels asked about my personal views on politics. People generally seem excited to talk about what’s great about where they live. In other words they’re telling you the best experiences they’ve had and how you can have them too. I think that sums up the best of the American Spirit.

So the first stop, aside from big cities like Chicago, on your trip West should be one of what I like to call “Teaching” Prairie Preserves. There are a few along the main interstates heading west that are good places to start including Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Illinois, the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Iowa, The National Tallgrass Prairie in Oklahoma, and Blue Mounds State Park in Minnesota. These are great places for kids and adults alike. Tune in to my next post for all the nerdy details on prairies.

Latest Fine Art Print based on America's Public Lands

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:44:00 -0500

I’ve just released my latest fine art print, “The Sun Dial – Escalante Canyon, UT,” which is part of a series inspired by America’s wild public lands. This 21 color screen print measures 26” by 50.” The edition is limited to 30. Prints are $350 each. Custom framing is available for an additional $300.

The inspiration for this print came from my visit to Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument back in Oct. of 2009. I spent three days in one spot sketching the cliffs and climbing over 50 feet up a rock face to see some amazing petroglyphs and rock art. This print captures the feeling of being in the narrow slot canyons of southern Utah where you crane your neck up to see blue sky, and red cliff tops seem to burn in the heat haze. After the sun goes down, the cliffs continue to radiate heat – perfect for stargazing. Climbing the cliff face I startled huge wild turkeys from their hiding places as they warmed in the morning sun, creating a commotion and breaking the desert’s silence. They landed in the cottonwoods nearby disappearing among the golden leaves perfectly camouflaged.

The sandstone rock faces have been baked for thousands of years in the sun and develop a deep red patina. The Ancient Pueblo Peoples used rocks to carve/pound lines and shapes revealing the lighter honey yellow colored stone underneath. Many of the rock faces are stained with dramatic streaks from periodic rain storms. Shadows from trees nearby moved across the rock face like watch hands. Those trees were the oldest and largest cottonwood trees I’ve ever seen.

I’ve recently purchased some very special rough cut lumber for the picture frames. The wood is a wormy maple with beautiful grey and dark red streaks with small insect holes. I think it’s a particularly amazing match for the print, and I assure you that no framing shop will have any wood like this. The print will be “floating” inside the frame. Paper hinges are glued at the top on the back of the print and then attached to the backing allowing the paper to hang down. Spacers are placed between the U.V. resistant museum quality plexiglass and the print. I am able to ship framed prints anywhere. I’m not sure what the shipping/handling cost will be, but expect around $100 in addition to the framing cost. I’ll be shipping one next week so I’ll have a better sense of the costs after that.

My hope is that my artwork inspires people to get out and see this special place. The areas that inspired this print could be reached in a day hike for anyone visiting Grand Staircase National Monument. Head east out of Escalante, UT and park at the trailhead where Route 12 crosses the Escalante river. Follow the river south. It will be one of the most amazing trips of your life. If you’re going to visit, feel free to contact me. I’d be happy to make suggestions about places worth seeing.

Thanks to everyone for their support of my work, and watch for more in this ongoing series based on America’s Public Lands! The best way to contact me is through email: jdlehrer@yahoo.com

JD Lehrer

Custom Frames made of wormy maple for my latest print.

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 12:32:00 -0500

Custom Frames made of wormy maple for my latest print.