Octavio Irving of Habana

CALL TO PRINTMAKERS

CONVOCATORIA ABIERTA A GRABADORES

We had a great workshop in the private studio of Octavio Irving, printmaker in Habana, Cuba, on July 12, 2018.

We signed up for Octavio's workshop through AirBnB; but had a bigger experience since he also edition-ed Tanya Rich's print for the Ambos Lados International Print Exchange.  I hope we didn't exhaust him too much.  Hopefully he will also participate in the Ambos Lados exchange, if we are lucky and can arrange it. (Tanya also contributed to the Desert Triangle Print Carpeta)

We bought this print

from Octavio Irving

Karl Whitaker, Tanya Rich,

Beti and Octavio Irving

AirBnB workshop

with Octavio Irving

Studio apron

MAESTRO OCTAVIO IRVING

Huge collagraph print

Octavio participated in an LA/Havana portfolio

sponsored by Self Help Graphics in Los Angeles

He is also in the catalog of the

3rd Shinzaburo Bienal (2012) 

page 25

TANYA RICH'S EDITION

Tanya Rich in Octavio Irving's studio in Habana

Note the chop,

which I think is a raised 3D print

Father and son running the press

DEJAR HUELLA WORKSHOP

The idea of this AirBnB workshop was to create a relief print from a photograph.  After downloading a photograph to their laptop, we reduced it to a black and white image in high definition, and printed it out.  Then Octavio laid that print out on a piece of wood, and rubbed mineral spirits over it.  He rolled the paper on the wood panel through the press, to fully transfer the image.

After the image transferred to the wood panel, we could cut out the white areas with Power Grip carving tools, to make a relief print.

Tanya Rich carving out another print

My certificate of participation

Octavio Irving

used to be the director of the famous

Taller Experimental de Grafica

in Old Havana

Appreciation from Michelle Obama

when President Obama and the First Lady

visited Taller Experimental de Grafica in 2016

when Octavio was director

 FROM TAKACH  PRESS WITH LOVE

Marcos Polaco

selected some printmaking supplies 

from his employer Takach Press in Albuquerque,

which we left with Ocativo

Our Ride in Habana!!!

To paraphrase Octavio Irving -- "It's not a print shop without coffee.  You can do without presses, but coffee is essential."

We are very grateful to Octavio Irving for having us in his studio.  It was a wonderful experience.