Sandow Birk Interviewed on Hawai`i Public Radio

Noe Tanigawa of Hawai`i Public Radio was at the recent opening of Sandow Birk's Depravities of War at the Koa Gallery, Honolulu. There she caught up with Sandow Birk and HuiPress Director Paul Mullowney for a special interview to be aired on Hawaii Public Radio on Friday, July 3rd. Check out the link here for programming and to listen to the archived interview by following the News link and going to Noe's archive.


Sandow Birk and Paul Mullowney with Noe Tanigawa (front row left) and Koa Gallery Director David Behlke (front row right), Cathie Byrne, Elyse Pignolet, James Jensen, Michael Arcega, Stephanie Syjuco.


The Depravities of War books on sale. Co-published between HuiPress and Grand Central Arts , in Santa Ana, the catalog is available on line from Last Gasp Books in San Francisco. The catalog features essays by Catharine Clark, Graham Larkin, Paul Mullowney, Darius Spieth, and Marilyn Vierra.

Max Gimblett at HuiPress

Casey Neumann and Max Gimblett

New Zealand artist Max Gimblett, who has been living in New York for the past three decades, spent the summer of 2008 in residence at HuiPress teaching a workshop and working on a remarkable set of four Enso sugar lift etchings. The editions are printed chine collé on handmade Sekishu paper from Japan. Please visit our website to view the images.

The four OKTP proofs on the wall under the watchful eye of the resident Ida-ten, guardian of Rinzai Zen temples in Japan.

The sugar lift solution on copper plate (shown here) is dried; covered with a hard and thin asphaltum ground; "lifted" in warm water, exposing bare plate; dusted with rosin aquatint; and etched in ferric chloride for over an hour.

Sandow Birk's Depravities of War

Sandow Birk's Depravities of War opened at Koa Gallery, Honolulu and runs through August 6th. Check out the website here. The exhibition was attended by many Honolulu luminaries and Sandow was joined by HuiPress Director Paul Mullowney for a lecture Thursday night, followed by a two-day woodblock workshop at Kapio`lani Community College. Thanks for the support of the Honolulu Printmakers, the John Young Foundation, Honolulu. Thanks to Koa Director David Behlke for making it all happen.

Emilie Clark Spit Biting Plates at HuiPress Studio

Wife and husband team, artist Emilie Clark and Poet Lytle Shaw, collaborated on a forthcoming portfolio of seven spit bite etchings with text. The series, Over Cook, is based on the voyages of Captain James Cook to the Hawaiian islands. Here is a video of the action in the studio. Lytle is trying out titles on Emilie who is busy spit biting an image with nitric acid on copper. The working proof is pinned to the wall above the sink and HuiPress printers Casey Neumann and Nichol Markowitz are busy working on preparing and proofing more plates.

Inking a Block by Sandow Birk

Watch a short video of Kamehameha High School interns Alea Keomaka and Alyssa Ross assisting HuiPress Head Printer Casey Neumann in the inking of one of the large woodblocks from Sandow Birk's Depravities of War, pulished by HuiPress in 2007. The blocks are carved in 4 x 8 foot sheets of birch plywood. The printing is on large sheets of Japanese handmade Sekishu paper which has been seemed together specially for the project. Katherine Godwin Assists HuiPress Director Paul Mullowney and Casey Neumann in laying down the paper prior to printing.

The impression is printed by hand with ball bearing barens from Japan. Samuel Carr-Prindle assists Casey Neumann, as a relaxed Sandow Birk looks on.