New Banners for Mountain Road Lamp Posts

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Mountain Road Banners 2020 is a community project involving our history and the talents of thirteen local artists! Each banner image is an original woodcut print representing an aspect of our neighborhood history. The artists each made a drawing, transferred it to the wood, carved the wood, inked it and put it through the press. Then each of those woodcut prints were photographed and enlarged into banners for the twenty six lampposts between 5th and 12th streets on Mountain. The project means so much to the artists and community!

“This new set of banners once again brings the history of our road and our city to life, making it possible for all of our visitors to see!” says Julianna Kirwin, project organizer. “History of the Neighborhood Through the Eyes of Contemporary Artists is a Public Art Project funded in part by the City of Albuquerque, and local businesses… and is now in its second year.”

Learn more about each artist’s banner at www.friendsofmountainroad.com 

 

Our Printmaking Tour of Oaxaca: A Big Success!

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 For the ten participants we had on our Printmaking Tour of Oaxaca, there was much to see and do, not to mention the actual tour of all the printmaking studios there! SO inspiring to hear how each one got started, and the way that they work collaboratively to create striking images, often of very large size. We also got to visit the Centro Cultural in San Augustin Etla where they were hosting a printmaking class by Edith Chavez. Probably the highlight though, was the three day class we took with Federico Valdez and Christopher Diaz at Cooperativa Grafica. Here’s a photo of our group!

Pan American Unity Opens at the National Hispanic Cultural Center

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The unveiling of my piece Pan American Unity took place at the National Hispanic Cultural Center as one hundred people gathered around! One of them was Representative Deb Haaland ( included in my piece). She gave a wonderful tribute to artists, my work, and the suffragettes across the Americas! It was quite a celebration! So happy to have had my hard work  honored. It will remain on view for six months. 

 

 

Pan American Unity Woodblock Mural

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Pan American Unity, woodblock mural by Julianna Kirwin

In 1940, Diego Rivera explained, “My mural…is about the marriage of artistic expression of the North and South of the continent….” With this theme in mind, I used his composition to depict some of my favorite artists and activists from across the Americas honoring a diversity of women and men whose lives have reached across boundaries. Each figure represents a particular region and contribution.

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Pan American Unity Opening at the NHCC

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Please join me for the unveiling of Pan American Unity, a mural in woodblock! I’ve been working on it since early September in order to have it ready for the Hispanic Cultural Center exhibit, El Voto Feminino. The opening is January 24th, 6-8 pm in the Literary Arts Building (fountain courtyard bldg). SO happy to be part of this exhibit!

Based on the 1940’s mural by Diego Rivera, my woodblock print replaces images of the founding fathers with eleven important contemporary women from across the Americas and two men who have inspired me and my work as a printmaker.
I want to thank Sarah Dewey, Mark Wallis and Ilene Weiss for their assistance during the process of carving and printing each of ten panels on cloth. And thank you to Valerie Martinez and Cassandra Osterloh for their guidance and invitation to include my piece in El Voto Feminino Exhibit at the NHCC!
http://www.nhccnm.org/event/el-voto-feminino-exhibit/
Contact me if you’d like to support the project…I will have giclee prints of the large piece for sale.
Hope you can join us Jan 24th!

Head of a Woman Hands-on Printmaking Workshop

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This one day Workshop is open to anyone who would like to learn to carve and print a woodblock. All materials provided. Hours: 10-5 on Sept. 27th. Cost $120, pre-registration required. For more info and to register contact juliannakirwin@gmail.com

Studio Open House July 20, 4-8pm

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Please join me for my Studio Open House featuring my recent LIFE SIZED woodblock prints of corn. In a recent trip to Oaxaca I learned how to carve large sheets of MDF (medium density fiber board). You’ll see the black and white ones attached to my outside wall, and the colorful layered ones inside the studio. Parking is on the street at 1201 8th St NW-the corner of 8th and Mountain Road in Albuquerque’s Art Corridor!

Interested in learning to carve the MDF? Join me for a workshop on July 22, 10am-5pm All materials provided. Cost $120. Preregistration required.

“Mariachi Story” in the collection at the National Hispanic Cultural Center!

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So happy to have my “Mariachi Story” in the collection at the NHCC! It tells the story of how the guitar family of instruments arrived in Mexico from Spain by way of the Moors. The instrument evolved into what is pictured here-a vihuela played by the Mariachis in the fiestas of rural Mexico. Down below you can see the marriage couple-how the Mariachis got their name from Maximillian, the French Monarch who ruled Mexico briefly and named them from the French word “mariage” because they often played at weddings.