Description

I made these in 2009 in residence at New Orleans’ Hot Iron Press with the help & guidance of artists Jenny Le Blanc and Kyle Bravo.  It was a crazy, multi-tiered process that taught me tons and produced this spectacular and fun piece that speaks about art, craft, fashion, work, masculinity in country music and culture, self-help, faith, class, and cuteness.  It’s also cool, because you can actually use it to make a shirt!

It can also be displayed tacked to the wall or stretched on stretcher bars and framed or kept in your file of oddities, curiosities, and art objects.

To make this piece, I first printed the words to be used on the shirt using a real letterpress and antique wood and metal letters, some dating to over a hundred years old.  Then we scanned the prints and printed them onto acetate twice, flipping one of the two prints over  and lining it up to create the mirror image effect.  For each different colored pattern piece, we burned a separate screen.  For the main black line printing, I drew the outlines of the shirt pattern pieces directly onto the acetate, lined everything up, and we burned 2 enormous screens borrowed from the Flavor Paper wallpaper factory nearby.  Printing these huge panels required 2 people to drag a huge squeegee between us while walking in unison along either side of Flavor Paper’s special long table equipped with a vacuum and tiny holes all over its surface to suck the muslin securely in place while we printed.  Then we added the colors one screen/one patten piece at a time.  If we messed up on one of the colors, we had to trash the whole panel!  Lastly, we stacked the two panels, folded them lengthwise, rolled them up, and wrapped them with acetate of safe keeping.

It’s called an “Inspirational” shirt kit, because the words on it are all from inspirational country and traditional songs.  Look closely, and you can read these words: “Someday,” “Any day now,” “Amen,” “Hallelujah,” “Keep your eyes on the horizon,” “It’s all about to change starting now,” “In the sweet by and by,” and “Good News”.

• Stranger in my Mirror  2009
• Silkscreened muslin, acetate packaging
• 15 x 3 x 3” packaged (contains 2 panels 76 x 30” each; stacked, folded lengthwise, and rolled.)
• Edition of 44