ArtprintSA news

Hulloo,

Greetings from the lush hills of Mpumalanga where the rains have not stopped falling. The last time we wrote an update was when we had just returned from New York and now we are well into the new year, what happened??? Its one of those questions one doesn't want to ask, rather like admitting to your friends that you pass out at 8.30 p.m. each night, exhausted by another day at the press!

Things at the press continue to be really busy and we have finally caught up (almost) with our edition printing. This has been made possible by both the lithography presses doing a 7am to 4pm shift each day. Syneth has been joined in the workshop by Sarah Dudley and Ulrich Kuehle (Tamarind Master Printers of note) who are a fantastic asset in the workshop bringing with them German precision and Canadian can-do attitude. Since they arrived they have been trying to set up a tandem jump from an aeroplane but it's been too windy. Mark has suggested a bicycle safari in the Kruger Park seeing as they seem to have something of a death wish, but so far they haven't explored this option.

Two thousand and five seems to have been the year of us returning to the San. In September six artists from the Kuru Art Project in Botswana spent two weeks in the studio working on a series of prints. The workshop was chaos, artists working on the stoep floor, on the tea table, on the proofing press bed, with Ndodonyane (their printer and translator) gallantly holding things together. While they were here we contacted Conrad De Rosner who is works for Bongani Mountain Lodge near Matsulu (Sibusiso Vilane also works for them). Conrad has spent the last ten years recording rock art in the reserve and is now busy researching the Kruger National Park (he is finding up to five sites a day). He is the rock art expert of the Lowveld and took us on a fabulous trip to look at some of the sites around Bongani. The Kuru Artists are the first San that he has taken to the sites and for some of the artists it was the first time that they had seen rock art. By the end of the workshop the artists left us with twenty-five editions to print.

In May, Tamar started to work on a commission for The Origins Centre (a museum to be housed at The University of the Witwatersrand, focussing on rock art and the origins of modern man being here in Southern Africa). It has been like being given free reign to create a necklace with a box of the most beautiful gemstone beads. Tamar was asked to use rock art and contemporary Bushman art imagery to design 11 panels measuring 4.5m x 2m. The panels depict the history of the San and were embroidered and beaded by ten women from Kwaggafontein with the assistance of the Mapula (Winterveld) and Ikageng (Bus Factory) groups. Erika Hibbert and Laurette van Zyl helped with the design and what has resulted is the most fabulous artwork that is a true collaboration across countries, time, techniques and cultures. The museum opens in the March, if you can get there please take a look, South African museums have come of age! The museums installations include work by Willem Boshoff, Pippa Skotnes and Russel Scott. There is also a floor copy of the Driekops Eiland rock engravings and an exact replica of one of the Machabeng caves (late white rock paintings of steam trains and what could be the Johannesburg Fort). Quite stunning.

Simon and Maru continue to thrive in their own wacky ways. Recent obsessions of Simons have included ant lions (he had a collection of about thirty on the stoep for about three weeks), magnets and making boats out of the seedpods of Frangipani trees. Maru has joined him in lengthy games involving Balgodons (dinosaurs made out of plant leaves), it took us a while to realise that Balgodons are their own invention and are not related to t Rex. A pet hamster was demanded by Maru and after lengthy negotiations and a bit of luck this was replaced by a Forest Shrew, which Tamar caught in the house. The little creature gripped their imaginations for a few days and was fed a diet of earthworms, braai chop fat, rose beetles and flying ants. As interest waned we were able to release it back into the garden. Hamster issue neatly sidestepped... Maru insisted on cutting her hair very short and took to wearing boy's clothes only for a while and ditched Barbie in favour of playing warriors. Recently she seems to be returning to a more balanced spot and cuddles up with her pink and silver fluffy unicorn at night.

The garden is growing out of control at the moment and we have had a great strawberry and artichoke crop. We bought some pineapple plants in Mozambique (we have taken to going to Maputo for lunch on the odd occasion) and they are doing well, although no fruit is in sight. The litchis did well and we managed to harvest a basket full of our own, if somewhat sour, fruit. The warm winter and lack of rain are impressing on us the need to contribute to the environment instead of just leaching it. Adding to recycling everything we can, we are going to be putting in solar powered geysers (we read in the Framers Weekly that each litre of hot water provided via Escom uses just under half a kilo of coal to generate). It's scary stuff. Uli suggested we get a solar powered robotic lawn mower for the garden (they have them in Germany)! It would at least give our collie dog Zip something to do during the day.

Anyway, its time to go and make lunch... Please take a look at the New Editions page on our new website www.artprintsa.com
Best wishes

Mark and Tamar

PS with the heavy rains two hippos have moved into the river that runs below our property. Morning walks have been spiced up with hippo track sightings in the vlei crossing and under our pecan trees.

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