Local printers schedule tours to celebrate craft, educate public

Printmakers around the world and several in Las Cruces will have their doors open, making prints and giving studio tours and demonstrations Saturday, May 7, for International Print Day.

Art lovers and collectors and anyone wanting to learn more about printmaking are invited to visit local studios that day, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.:

• Black Bird Studio, 651 Watson Lane, Mesilla Park. Artist Noël Sandino will open her home studio and give demonstrations in collagraphy, using elements of collage, relief and intaglio printmaking. Visit www.noelsandino.com.
• Reviver Printing, 801 W. Organ Ave. A master of serigraphy, Chris Shelton will be working on screen-printed apparel. Visitors can check out the large collection of printed posters, bandanas and more made by Chris and Steph at Reviver since 2009. Visit www.reviverprinting.com.
• The Crooked Man Press, 1145 N. Alameda Ave. Visitors can park in front of the house or around the corner on Chestnut (no street parking on Alameda Avenue) and find Chris Bardey’s Crooked Man Press in the studio out back, down the driveway. Bardey will do block printing using hand-cut cardboard plates. Visitors are invited to make a quick print themselves, as well as view Bardey’s collection of prints that he and others have made. Visit www.facebook.com/christophbardey.
• Gallery 925, 925 N. Mesquite St. Diane Alire’s print studio is behind the gallery. Her medium is photogravure, fusing photography and the intaglio method of inking metal plates, then printing them on an etching press to produce limited-edition prints. Visit www.gallery925nm.com.

Visitors to all four studios will have their names entered in a drawing for a unique collaborative print made by Alire, Sandino, Bardey and Shelton valued at $100, the four artists said in a news release.

“Print Day in May is celebrated on the first Saturday in May, every year,” according to https://printdayinmay.com/about/. “The event celebrates the art and community of printmaking. All over the world, printmakers open their studios to friends, use their cars as presses, and make handprints on the beach, all to spread the joy of printmaking.”

Follow the worldwide event @printdayinmay on Facebook and Instagram and search for #printdayinmay.

For more information, contact Alire at 505-417-8028 or artserf@fastmail.com, Bardey at 575-312-9892 or csbardey@gmail.com and Sandino at 916-224-1245 or noelsandino@yahoo.com.