Tickets are still available, get them at any Bullmoose Music location, or click here for more info.

On the heels of our wildly successful Johnny Cash Night in ’09, The Nave Gallery,Band In Boston, Rhode Island School of Design, and Space Gallery have organized a series of Johnny Cash tributes New England-wide to benefit prison book programs and celebrate the Man in Black. Join us for an evening of tribute covers by Portland musicians Christopher Teret, Jesse Pilgrim and the Bonfire (with many special guests!), and Caleb Aaron and the Thrill Pills, spanning the entirety of Cash’s discography from Sun Records-era barn burners to gospel tear-jerkers. Proceeds from this event will benefit Volunteers for Hancock Jail Residents, which has operated a jail library program since 2001 and also purchases books for Maine’s prisoners as funds allow. More info at www.jailvolunteers.org.

This poster was created by Michael Dacey at Repeat Press Somerville, MA. who you might recognize from a recent solo show at Corduroy Boutique in town. Michael will have these posters for sale at the Johnny Cash night April 28th, so please stop by and grab one while you can! The rest of this post is taken from Michael’s Repeat Press Blog.

I was approached by the Nave Gallery to create a poster for the concert series accompanying their upcoming art show, “The Beast In Me” – art inspired by the work of Johnny Cash. Jenn from the Nave worked tirelessly to coordinate a 4-city tribute series of bands playing Cash songs, all in benefit for prison literacy programs.

These posters will be available at all four concerts, as well as through the Nave Gallery. A portion of proceeds will go to the same prison book programs affiliated with the concert series.

I’ll be manning the sales table at each show so be sure to stop by and say hello if you’re able to make it out! full schedule here.

Started things off with a loose sketch at full size – I had just picked up some linoleum and was eager to put it to use as I hadn’t carved anything by hand in years, so I decided that the main element would be curved text cut from linoleum.

More process shots after the jump!

Then started working out the main text onto the linoleum block. You can see in the picture that I almost forgot to lay things out backwards. Total pro.

Text drawn out (backwards!) with some wood type for reference:

Starting to carve into the linoleum. I purchase it in large sheets that get cut down and mounted to wood for printing. You can also see an outline of an ornamental shape I was considering drawn out there that I decided not to use in the final design.

Fully outlined.

All negative area carved away, trimmed down and ready to mount.

Putting the linoleum aside for a minute, I began work on the background. One of the things that struck me when discussing the concert series with Jenn from the Nave Gallery was the fact that since all of the bands would be playing songs by the same person, there had to be coordination between the bands as to who would be covering which songs. Thankfully there was about 50 years worth of material to choose from. I chose to create the background of the poster from layers of text, spelling out some of Cash’s numerous song titles throughout the years.

This picture shows one layer roughly laid out on one of the oversized galleys that I use for poster layout.

And the second layer:

To print the background, I started with a solid block of linoleum to frame out the piece. Coverage on this layer was fairly light as the addition of the text layers will add up to a nice texture with a good amount of depth.

The first layer of background text in a slightly darker red than the original layer:

I forgot to grab a picture of just the layered text, but it is still quite visible in this picture, which includes the addition of a white star, hand carved from wood during a previous project.

You can probably guess where the color scheme is going – red, white, and…blue ink on the linocut locked up in the bed of the Vandercook SP-20.

Five layers of ink at this point!

For ease of setup I printed the linoleum block and the informational text in two separate passes – here’s the lockup for all the info at the bottom of the poster. 4 venues + over 20 bands = a lot of lead.

And of course, the final product!

Check out his ongoing art blog here.

Here’s a few MONOTONIX video’s to hold you over until the show which is less than a week away now!

Please visit my website, and on going art blog

This is a 4 color screen print, printed on thin chipboard with an edition of 102. The Images comes from a sketchbook drawing and was broken down into black and white and then the color was added in layers.

To burn the screen, I print each layers (color) out on printer paper and then oil them with Canola oil to make them transparent, this works the same as printing the images on transparencies, and is also A lot cheaper.

The transparencies are then places on an exposure unit, the screens are coated with emulsion before hand. I try and burn all the layers at one time to save time.

Burn for 5 minutes in complete darkness in our very grungy basement which is actually localed right below the SPACE Gallery bar.

The screens are then sprayed with water to remove the emulsion that was covered by the black ink on the transparencies. Sorry for no pictures of this, but I was doing it all myself, and if you wait to long the emulsion can become hard again and get stuck in the screen.

Each layer is then printed separatly, starting here with the yellow.

Each poster is hung on a drying lineso they do not smudge and touch each other. The line also helps keep everything organized.

The second layer for this poster is the black outline of the figures and lines. The only 2 left after this are the text colors.

Its handy to keep around scrap pieces of larger paper for test prints before you use the actual posters. This helps you not mess up any good prints.

Before you pull the squeegie you must flood the screen while it is not touching the paper.

I use a sheet of mylar (clear plastic) to register my prints with each other.

Myself lining up the print with the print on the mylar.

I use tabs (Target gift cards) taped down at where 2 of the corners of where the print is, so it will always be lined up at the same point. This works fairly well for posters such as this. I also always make sure to put the same corners against the tabs every time, because the paper can be cut differently just the slightest and can ruin the registration.

My friend Bryan from Hillytown.com, showed up to help me finish up the last layer of text, the white.

White ink is uaually the hardest to print. It dries much faster than any other color and can sometimes clog the screen very fast. It did not have much of an effect on these prints, the text was already somewhat grainy based off of the font I chose. “You dont need to push as hard as Bryan looks like he is.”

Finished Print!

After the prints are done I hand number the final edition with how many prints were made and sign them. I also print my emblem with my information on the back of the prints.

Clean up time!!!

Stay tuned for much more editions of the SPACE Gallery Poster Series by many other local artists.