Interview with printmakers Lawrence and Zach Gilmour

Next month I’m curating a group show of printmakers in the Maurice Del Mue Galleries at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center entitled Pressing Matters: Printmakers Group Show. This will be the second annual Pressing Matters.

One of the highlights of last year's show was a special exhibition of three generations of printmakers: Leon, Lawrence and Zach Gilmour.

I interviewed Lawrence and Zach at the time of the exhibit. Portions of the article below originally appeared in the newspaper Stone Soup.



Leon Gilmour

Leon Gilmour, born in Lativa in 1907, came to the United States in 1916 and did various jobs including working as a ranch hand, construction worker and gold miner while continuing his art studies. He studied at the School of Practical Art and the Otis Art Institute.



Wood engraving by Leon Gilmour



Leon Gilmour’s remarkable wood engravings are in the Achenbach collection of the Palace of the Legion of Honor and the Smithsonian Institution and numerous private collections. In 2009, his work was featured in the California in Relief  print exhibit at the Hearst Art Gallery, St. Mary’s College. Leon Gilmour died in 1996.

Larwrence Gilmour

Leon’s son, Lawrence Gilmour, is a Marin county artist who has had numerous local exhibits including work at the Falkirk Cultural Center and the College of Marin. His first forays in printmaking began in the early 1970’s.

Zach Gilmour

Zach Gilmour, a Forest Knolls resident, has taught printmaking at the Marin School of the Arts. He has exhibited at the Kala Art Institute, Artisans Gallery and the College of Marin.

Etching by Lawrence Gilmour

Lawrence Gilmour

Did you watch –or assist--your father making prints?

Lawrence: Yes, I saw my father working on his blocks from the early 1940's on until the end of his life.

In the early years I did not see him print as he did not have his own press. Later, in the 1970's and 80's even into the 90's, he printed on an old proof press in his garage down in Burlingame CA. 

I never assisted my father until very late in his life, when his back began to prevent him from cranking his stubborn old press.

You’ve made etchings and monotypes. When did you begin making prints?

Lawrence: I started making prints during the 1970's. There was a renewed interest in printmaking at that time and I was given an opportunity to learn etching. 

Leon Gilmour worked with the WPA in the style associated with social realism. How would you describe your work?

Lawrence: Leon was also inspired by his love for the High Sierras. He approached nature with an analytic as well as poetic sensibility.

As far as my work goes, I have not been as overtly political in my work as my father was, but there are undercurrents of political and philosophical issues in much of my imagery. I am experimental in much of my work and have not worked to establish a strong personal style; although themes and attitudes repeat throughout my work. 

Monotype by Zach Gilmour

Zach Gilmour

You were a baker and graduate of the California Culinary Academy before you turned to art.  What caused this change in direction in your life?

Zach: Well, in truth I have always made art and never stopped. However, when I was working as a baker and commuting from Mill Valley to Sonoma each day, I found myself drawn to the ever-changing landscape I would drive past. It made me want to make art to find a way to capture it. Not long after that I happened to visit the San Francisco Art Institute, and it felt like a good place to be. So I decided I needed to go back to school to study printmaking more seriously.

Both you and your father have made a form of print know as a monotype.  Can you describe a monotype—and how it might differ from a monoprint?

Zach: Monotypes are made by applying ink to a plate that is smooth, traditionally copper, but most people now use plexiglass. Then paper is laid over the plate and pressure is applied to create a one of a kind image. Monoprints on the other hand use a plate that is not smooth. The plate will have some sort of element, usually etched lines. And though the ink is applied in a unique way, that one part of the image will show up the same each time.

I asked these questions of both Lawrence and Zach:



Woodcut by Lawrence Gilmour

  

What is it about printmaking—why not painting or sculpture?

Lawrence: Printmaking is a natural extension of drawing, which is the core of my practice as an artist. However, I do paint, and currently I am making ceramic sculptures as well.

Zach: There’s something about the process of printmaking that forces you to step away from your work as you make it. When you put the paper on the plate or block and put it through the press there is a level of unknown 'until you lift the paper back up and see the result. That interaction of hand, ink, plate, paper and pressure just works for me better than anything else.

  

What artists or artworks have influenced your work?

Lawrence:  All the great draughtsmen, from the prehistoric animal drawing masters to the generation just ahead of my own; Rivers, Kitaj, Baskin, Jim Dine, Oldenburg, and the masters of sequential art, that would be comic book artists. Moebius was particularly influential during the late 70's and early 80's.

Zach: Sort of a random group: Russell Chatham, Nathan Oliveira, Egon Schiele, Degas, and right now the person's work that inspires me a great deal is a local painter named Kristen Garneau. Lastly, both my parents have been the most influential as I have grown up watching them work.

Where did you receive your training?  

Lawrence: At the Art Center College of Design. I now take ceramic classes at College of Marin

Zach: The San Francisco Art Institute and the California College of Arts and Crafts.

Is it true all three generations of Gilmours have used the same press?

Lawrence:  No. My father's press was a proof-press used by typographers in the age of hand-set metal type. His wood engravings were done on type-high blocks of boxwood and locked up on the press bed for inking and printing.

Zach: Though we still do have that press in storage, we just have not had the place/room to set it up.

Lawrence: Zach and I do share the etching press that I bought in the 1970's. That press is now in Zach's studio in Forest Knolls. 

Interview by Larry Rippee

Photos and images courtesy of the Gilmour family

The San Francisco Mime Troupe

Every year, the San Geronimo Valley Community Center (where I work) hosts the debut of a new play by the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

Founded in 1959, the SF Mime Troupe has been offering political satire performed in the tradition of commedia dell’arte  for free in public parks around the country. (By the way, they do not do pantomime
a la Marcel Marceau-- they, in fact, tend to be very vocal).

Backstage: everyone, including actors, unloads the truck and construct the sets.

Warming up before the performance

The play this season is 2012: The Musical –described as a musical satire about corporate funding and the “art of mass distraction”.

Typically we get the rough draft version, sometimes the sets aren’t finished. Sometimes, as this year, the play isn’t even finished. They perform up to a point and then turn to the audience and say “That’s all we have for now”.

The performers then usually chat with members of the audience about the play—listening to critiques and suggestions.



Packing up



2012: The Musical   is indeed very funny and I’m now anxious to see the conclusion.  I’ll have to wait until at least July 2^nd when it opens at Dolores Park in San Francisco.

Here's the poster by Spain Rodriguez.

(As always, click on thumbnails to enlarge)

Printmaking: "Larry's Dream"

 

I make block prints from linoleum from time to time (never as often as I’d like).

Here’s how I put together my latest printmaking project:

I wanted to do a print based on a dream I had some years ago.

 I used the original sketchbook drawing and added new elements (based on another dream !)

I traced the new composite drawing.

I transferred the tracing to a sheet of battleship linoleum–reversing the image.

 Then I cut the block. 

 I tend to print by hand rubbing with a soup spoon and a baren.



Finished print





Exhibited in the Spring Art Show



Larry's Cartoon Vault: Gary Arlington

Congratulations to Gary Arlington.

Last Gasp just published a collection of Gary’s drawings “I Am Not of This Planet: The Art of Gary Edson Arlington”.



Gary in the early 1970's



 Former comic book shop proprietor, publisher, editor and comic artists mentor, Gary Arlington had hit on hard times in recent years.   But surprisingly, has reemerged as an artist. Gary now lives in the Mission Creek area near the SF Giant’s ball park.  He spends much of his time drawing.



Gary's place



Gary Arlington  founded the San Francisco Comic Book Company in San Francisco on 23^rd street  in 1968—arguably the very first comic book shop in the country, possibly the world.   R. Crumb wandered in with Zap Comix not long afterward and Gary’s shop soon became ground zero for the emerging underground comix scene.

By the beginning of the 1970’s, cartoonists from the east coast began moving into the Mission District—Roger Brand, Kim Deitch, Trina, Justin Green, Spain, Bill Griffith and others. Underground cartoonists congregated at the shop on a daily basis.

 I first met Gary there in 1969.  As a young neophyte cartoonist I spent many hours at the San Francisco Comic Book Co .  I got my first glimpses of Rick Griffin, S. Clay Wilson, Gilbert Shelton, George Metzger, Greg Irons --and quite often their latest artwork. Rory Hayes worked behind the counter. Greg Irons gave me a tutorial on color separations. I also met Leonard Rifas at the SF Comic Book Co. 

Leonard and I both came into the shop the same February afternoon in 1970.  Gary had Leonard’s mini book Quoz on the shelf next to a comics tabloid Dirty Girdie’s Comix  featuring  my work.  Gary introduced us to each other and said “You guys should get together” (I eventually contributed to a handful of Leonard’s EduComics titles).

Gary knew comics; He had lots of good ideas.He had an immediate intuitive understanding of what the undergrounds were all about.  He created the San Francisco Comic Book and the EC influenced horror comic, Skull Comix. Gary published Hayes’ Bogeyman, Larry Fuller’s Ebon, the Nickel Library series and Rick Griffin’s Man from Utopia.

By late 1971, I became roommates with Gary and later worked at his Eric Fromm comix mail order operation . The Albion Street flat was a sort of waystation for cartoonists –during the time I was there Kim Deitch, Sally Cruikshank and Simon Deitch lived there at least briefly.



Eric Fromm crew: Gary in upper left. Larry as shoe rack- early 1973





A caricature I did of Gary in a comic strip in 1972



When Gary had to leave his home and shop a couple of years ago things weren’t looking so good. This book stands as a remarkable new chapter in Gary’s life.

21st Annual Spring Art Show part II

                                   




              Here's a few more shots from the Spring Art Show opening.



Brian Staley's sculpture

Mot

Pedersen sighting

Pedersen jawing with Bud Meade


(Photos courtesy and copyright Michel Kotski)



The 21st Annual Spring Art Show

The San Geronimo Valley Community Center’s 21^st annual Spring Art Show is launched-- much to my relief.   There are nearly 100 artists participating in the show this year.

 We had between 300-400 people in attendance at the reception on Friday, May 6^th.




Larry has a few things to say

 

Molly with her painting of Askia

The Thursday Night Old Time circle playing in the Portico

(Color photos courtesy and copyright Michel Kotski.

Black & white photos courtesy and copyright Donn DeAngelo)

 

Larry's turn: The Spring Art Show

I’m on the home stretch of the 21^st annual Spring Art Show.

As the visual arts coordinator of the San Geronimo Valley Community Center, the annual Spring Art Show has been my primary focus these last few months. The show is held every May and features up 100 artists from the San Geronimo and Nicasio Valleys.

The show hangs on this Thursday, May 5^th and the reception is on Friday, May 6^th.

(Photo courtesy of Donn DeAngelo)

The Amazing Grace of John and Judy

I painted this sign for John Pedersen and Judy Kaufman's Amazing Grace music store in San Anselmo.

Amazing Grace will be moving soon to a new location, hopefully this year. Larry decided it would be a good idea to post these photos of me painting the sign and its placement in the store window.  Here you can see the plywood sheet with the shape of the sign painted in.

Here is the sign in the window.  You can see the reflections of the passing cars in the windows.  I think I will be reworking the lettering when Amazing Grace moves to its new location one building away.

Amazing Grace has been here at this location for over 30 years; my sign for 14+-years .

This sign is the first I ever painted and unfortunately I did not realize that there was sign paint created for lettering.  I used acrylic paint for the lettering which did not flow smoothly. 

The story of how the sign came to be involves a certain guitar. I was working in the store one day when I picked up this guitar and it would not leave my body.  I came home and talked about it with Larry and my mother and they both said I should try and get it. John and Judy are the kind of people who understand how important an instrument can be to someone. They came up with a creative solution of time and trade for me. I traded time in the store, my 1967 Martin guitar and the work creating the sign for the most wonderful guitar--a 1956 Martin 0018-- I could ever imagine. 

However, the irony of it all is that I painted one day straight for 13 hours on the lettering and injured my right hand.  I was unable to play my sweet guitar for 5 years and over the last 10 my hand has been slowly recovering.  I still have to decide which I want to do for any given day, paint, play my guitar or garden.  Even though the healing has been slow I am very grateful to have the use of my hand again.  Take heed everyone - don't over use your hand!

Striking a Blow for Creator's Rights:Or Larry and Sam Beat the Hell Out of Hardware Wars

Filmmaker Ernie Fosselius offered me a trade of a new  DVD of his classic Hardware Wars for video documentation of the destruction of the older unauthorized version (created without the approval or consent of Ernie Fosselius) which I owned.

Here are a few clips of my son, Sam, and I striking a blow for creator’s rights (I’ve left out many magic moments including those dealing  with power tools).