Cristina Montejo

a second, darker version of the girl w/ butterflies & bats print.

*here’s another mono print w/ a silk screen image over top. bat and butterfly shapes in a rainbow of colors serve as a background in this image of a girl and her quest to balance the light and dark sides of her being. sweet and naughty, good and bad, soft and strong – trying to temper and express each inclination with self-possession to achieve a balance of the conflicting emotions inside of her. dark and brooding, lush and deep vs. bright and light, carefree and colorful. two sides of myself i’ll forever by trying to resolve.

*the silkscreen layer was done with the Gocco using blank and pearlescent blue inks.

here’s another one of the prints from this past spring. this one began with a ghost mono print of sorts which was made by lifting up the cut-out bird shapes used for the migration poster images after running them through the press, and then laying them back down randomly on the plate ink-side up before running it back through. It gave the effect of the flock of birds and the entire picture plane having much more depth and also created a nice sense of movement.

i found some shots of telephone wires and power lines and decided to layer those on top of the mono print using silk screen. i really wanted to top tap into that feeling of our man-made world increasingly encroaching on natural habitats. so, i tried to show the poles and wires pushing their way in, forcing themselves into the picture plane and creating a sense of havoc and tension in doing so. i also wanted to address the human fascination with flight and getting up high. always looking up, and projecting ourselves into the realm of the birds.

this past spring, i participated in an experimental printmaking class @ the college of the redwoods w/ the amazing bob rhoades. above are pics of the first piece i completed for the class. it all started w/ an oil-based monoprint underlay (made w/ bird paper cut-outs) which i then decided to silk screen over using water-based inks. despite how awful the silk screen image came out this piece is very special to me as it was made using my very first totally made-from-scratch silk screen!

it’s been years that i’ve been dreaming about creating a series of silk screen posters based on natural phenomenon. my inspiration for the idea came from both the posters i would see plastered all over DC’s walls featuring movies and musical artists as well as a raptors class i was taking at the time. we were observing the fall migration firsthand and i was stunned at how much was going on over our heads ever day! lucky for us, we were smack dab in the middle of a migration route.

what if all those posters sprawled across the urban landscape served to remind us of the magic of nature going on all around us? what if the images bombarding commuters ever day featured celebrations of whatever season we were in and whatever natural events accompanied it?

this piece is just a little experiment w/ that idea. eventually, i’d like to refine the poster design, mass produce it, and plaster it all over my home town. for now, i just wanted to try out a couple of different designs and color ideas to see what works and what doesn’t. besides the inks, I also used a micron pen to clean up the silk screen-blotched areas and make it a bit less of a mess (learning to silk screen w/out my gocco was difficult!!)

overall, I love how it came out. just another step in the process of making my migration poster dream a reality!

i liked these two drawings framed and displayed together. there seems to be some serious drama going on here.

here are pics of this year’s valentine’s day cards… mini, rectangular three -color silk screen cards featuring the cutest cupcake on tiny paper remnants rescued from Z Studio. they were printed on my gocco using pearlescent pink, pearlescent baby blue, and black inks in a limited edition of 75. i loved the idea of handing these out on valentine’s day to all my friends, loved ones, and strangers alike. the most fun part was passing them out to classmates in my experimental printmaking class. everyone got a kick out of them! it’s funny the different kind of projects you come up w/ using a gocco versus a traditional silk screen.

for xmas presents this year i drew a series of portraits based on a set of sculptures made by my sculptor friend mike. as i sketched, i became particularly obsessed with one of the three hybrid animal/vegetable/people sculptures in the set. most of the drawings above are of him and he’s the focus of my new header – i just love him so much! his expression and the magical quality that surrounds him. i don’t know what it is about this little object but he really does fascinate me so. adding the stitching and finding cute frames helped take it into the realm of tiny mixed-media portrait creations – perfect gifts for creative, art-loving friends during the holidays!

i made this hat last november for a “silly hat” contest at work. i sketched and sketched but couldn’t come up w/ any ideas. silly? i just couldn’t get inspired. i put it off until the last minute and with only a few hours left i knew i had to do something. so, instead of thinking of it as a silly hat contest i began to pretend i was on project runway (i actually do this a lot) and made it into a challenge. you’ve got three hours to make your dream hat using only materials you find in your house…GO! i imagined tim gunn on my ass the whole time, whispering or screaming “make it work!” into my ear when i wanted to give up or was making poor design choices. i was determined to make it amazing and to win!

i used 1/16″ clippings of high quality printmaking paper that i had acquired from z studio and colored them w/ chalk pastels before twisting them into a bird’s nest. i had a little fake bird from a craft store sitting in a clear box on my window sill so i placed him in the middle of my paper nest. next, i found a piece window screen that i normally use for making sprouts and sewed on some tiny crystal beads to class it up a bit. last, i took a few feathers from a feather duster and… viola!

i totally fell in love w/ my hat but didn’t end up winning the contest. my hat, it was decided, was “too adorable to be silly” so i didn’t even qualify for a vote! HA! so funny. but, thank goodness for the inspiration! when would i ever have taken the time to make this object? probably never. and, now i’m excited to start making more! part hat, part sculpture, using paper and found materials!?i love the idea of its impermanence and how that elevates the uniqueness of the piece and rarity of the moment when wearing it. it’s art but it’s also wearable and it’s special in that it’s delicate and can’t be used very often. the object and it’s purpose are fleeting and ethereal, something delicate to be cherished. something to be experienced and appreciated in the moment. i want to get married in this hat!

Last August, only a couple of weeks after moving to Ft. Bragg, CA, I was fortunate enough to begin a short volunteer stint with Studio Z, an amazing letterpress studio created by Zida Borcich over twenty-five years ago. Check out their assortment of classy, sophisticated, and uber hip business cards, calling cards, and wedding invites. Who new business cards could be so sexy?!

This place is a letterpress/paper-freak’s dream come true!! So, I was instantly at home as soon as I walked through the door. My days in the studio were incredibly fun and reminded me a lot of my work environment at Paper Source. There are stacks of paper everywhere, samples displayed and strewn all about, and drawers filled with an array of extraordinary type. I had the honor of assembling wedding invites and boxes of samples for marketing, punching out business cards, packaging up goodies to mail, and basically helping with whatever task needed extra hands.

Due to my demanding work schedule, I wasn’t able to continue to volunteer past the holidays. And, I can’t tell you how much I miss it!! The staff is the friendliest I’ve ever worked with in my entire professional career and being around all that deadline stress and paper and ink with the machines running…WOW!

There is nothing more exciting, I tell you!

Nothing!