Let's Get Some Paint On Those Clothes

When you’re a kid, the paint goes on the paper. But when you’re an adult, paint goes on whatever you please.

That’s the simple magic of the SARTQ Print Party, a free-to-the-public, come-one-come-all outdoor celebration of color, creativity and collaboration. And it returns to Sarasota this November 5.

The concept is straightforward enough. For each Print Party, member artists of the SARTQ artist collective create new designs and graphics, ranging from the weird and whimsical to the abstract and affirmative, in turn creating a series of silk screens out of those images. And when the day of the party arrives, each artist sets up at a booth with their new silk screen and a whole mess of paint, ready to print that image on whatever it is that attendees might bring. Simple white t-shirts are the most popular, but the years have seen the community bring out everything from towels and handkerchiefs to books and underwear.

Whatever fits the silk screen is fair game, they say. Armed with a squeegee and the reckless energy that can only come from a heady mix of high heat and concentrated artist-per-square-inch, they’ll take a stab at just about anything.

“And if anyone’s brave enough to pull their own print,” says SARTQ co-director Julie Kanapaux, “they’re welcome.

“This is all about getting to experience the creative process”

Setting up in Art Central—a small enclave of artists’ studios on the 1300 block of Central Avenue—this year’s Print Party will feature the work of seven member artists, each available in a color selected by the artist.

There’s Danielle Dygert’s warrior harpy crouched in green, enfolded by her great wings, looking ready to be stamped on some sort of flag or emblazoned on a shield. There’s Taylor Robenalt’s most adorably delicious trio of ice cream cone animals—cat, dog and bunny—begging to be printed in light blue as a whole series of hand towels or framed in the entranceway. And there’s the ever-whimsical Javo, whose helmeted space-chicken making lunar conquest belongs both in my dreams and on a NASA patch somewhere.

Grace Howl brings something sculptural and abstract to the offerings, with an atavistic design in purplish-red that looks as though it could be scrawled in blood on the side of an ancient rock face, while Samantha Wuerfel dives headfirst into the abstract with perhaps the most complex design of the year, and what almost appears almost as a cross between a QR code and a snapshot of botanical frenzy, as though the plants suddenly became desperate to communicate something in a language we might understand.

Laine Nixon eschewed her usual abstraction, however, opting to use this year’s Print Party and the collective’s return to community events with a heart-shaped message of love to her surroundings.

“It’s an homage to Sarasota,” she says, and there’s the sun, the beach and the waters encased in a bulging heart, the words “Love On” inscribed above, silhouetted birds flying free from the frame. It’s something of a simple design, but one that the abstract artist has been working on for the past few years—especially in the dark times. For an artist most known for the exactitude of innumerable series and conceptual work that can approach the inscrutable, this more direct representation became something of a touchstone for all of those things she loved about being an artist in the community—and sharing that love and appreciating the things that maybe we don’t as much as we should.

“But that sounds complicated,” Nixon says. “It’s just a nice heart with a sunset over the beach.”

As for Kanapaux, she makes no bones about the inspiration behind her design. A simple genie’s lamp with smoke pouring from the spout, the billowing clouds curl upwards to spell out “Big Dreamer.” It’s a reference to her son, a budding young actor who loves to perform at Venice Theatre and will soon be in a production of "Arabian Nights" and just can’t get enough of Aladdin.

“And then the idea that you can build your own destiny,” Kanapaux says. “You can be your own genie and make your own magic happen.”

Come November 5, the festivities will begin at 10am, with all of the contributing artists in attendance, as well as the Big Blue Grilled Cheese Company food truck and a DJ. And not hosted at a bar or right along a busy street, but rather tucked into a cozy artist’s den where fellow artists Howl and Wuerfel have their own studios, Kanapaux hopes that this year’s party will have more of a family-friendly and independent artist atmosphere than previous years, and make people feel more comfortable coming out and trying something new.

“The most enjoyable part of being in SARTQ is getting to interact with and make art for the community,” she says. “It’s opening up the creative experience.” And in that spirit, not only will the artists be there to talk about their own process and their own work, but attendees are welcome to try their own hand at using the silk screen and feeling firsthand that rush of exhilaration when the frame lifts and the print is revealed.

“And so they get to be part of the process too,” says Nixon. “And that’s a huge part of what SARTQ is about.”

Kanapaux agrees.

“The process of making art is always exciting,” she says. “And getting to do that with the community and maybe inspire someone to try this process or make their own designs is really rewarding.”

At this point, I know what you’re thinking. Attendance is free, but what about the prints? Are those free too?

No, ya dingus, they’re not free. Artists are working professionals and ink is expensive.

But the prices are reasonable--$10 for one print; $20 for three—and all of the money goes right back to paying for the party and supporting future SARTQ projects and events. When it comes to original artwork custom-printed on whatever you choose, it’s not a bad deal and, let’s be honest, you’ve probably dropped $20 on far more questionable purchases in your life.

And who knows? Maybe pulling that squeegee across the helmeted visage of a crimson space chicken will awaken the slumbering artist deep inside, that messy little goblin whose deep-seated dissatisfaction with the structures of order knows no release but to create something better from what you’ve been given.

That little voice that says to keep making, to keep collaborating, to keep creating events like these where all the artists who don’t even know they’re starving can come together and feed off the creative impulses of like-minded makers and maybe we can all just keep going.

“And that’s the key,” says Nixon. “If you don’t quit, you’re still an artist.”