There’s No Place Like Swoon For The Holidays

December 18, 2012 Artists, Interview

Going to Swoons studio in Brooklyn for a piece of blueberry pie and a cup of hot cider on a windy and rainy grey day is sort of like going home for the holidays. There are so many familiar faces here, printed and hand colored, like the ones you have seen in decaying doorways and on weathered walls around your city for years. Many have faded with time and the rays of the sun bleaching them opaque, the wind and rain battering and peeling them off in pieces. Here their faces are clear and their lined expressions, contoured hands, and personal stories are vibrant once again – here are your old friends in full regalia, happy to have you nearby to keep them company.

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As you walk gently passed the 3 people on their knees pressing large sheets of translucent paper onto a freshly inked 6’x 8’ linotype carving and are careful to duck behind one drying piece hung from above to dry, you may strike up a conversation with a tall handsome woman named Tennesee with dangling earrings, or ask a round-faced lad about the tinfoil and craft paper boat he’s just made in Swoon’s ad hoc workshop – and learn the name of the Lego captain he’s made to guide the vessel.

Swoon. A detail of the lino cut for “Neenee, Braddock” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The double height factory loft ceiling, peeling brick walls, flat files, buckets of tools, and long work tables piled with cookies and bagels feel like a welcoming place, and Swoon invites you to help with the lino printing or to pick up and inspect still-damp portions of a sculpture she’s made recently. If there was a fire place crackling under a limestone arch of a high-collared violinist suddenly pirouetted out from behind a pile of reclaimed wood and began playing Christmas hymns, you wouldn’t be surprised. In this most sacred place, an artists’ studio, it feels like home.

Swoon. An assistant firmly but gently rubs a soft cloth on the paper to get the image transferred from the lino cut onto the paper. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. “Neenee, Bradock”. The results on paper. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. A detail of the lino cut for “Neenee, Bradock” (photo © Jaime Rojo

Swoon. The sheet of the freshly printed paper (seen here on the reverse) being pulled up from the lino cut on the floor. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. Printed details of “Neenee, Braddock” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon “Neenee, Braddock” in the wild on the streets of Brooklyn. The background is by a different artist and was there prior to wheat paste. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon studio. A young visitor shows a boat and plane just completed. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon covers the world. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PLEASE DONATE to Swoons new project building shelter for people in Haiti. Your donation will bring protection and cover to families. Please click HERE to learn more and see a video about this important work. Thank you.

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