(energetic music) (static crackling) - [Narrator] Coming up, on "ART inc." (static crackling) Love over a letterpress, (static crackling) the Ink on the inc. (static crackling) and the Sign Painter.

(static crackling) - [Announcer] If you wanna know what's going on.

(energetic music) (seagulls caw) (foghorn blares) (water sloshing) - [Speaker] Yeah!

(birds chirping) (audience cheering) (static crackling) (energetic music continues) (static crackling) (energetic music) (static crackling) (energetic music) - [Tatiana] We really believe in the craft of printmaking.

- We need another one?

- One more here.

It's also a very important way of connecting with people.

806.

Yes.

- Sometimes we had the posters or any kind of campaign that we were doing in Spanish and people would come to us and say, "You know what?

What's really interesting about this is that I am seen, right?

I've been heard."

(machinery purring) My name is Jose Menendez.

- And my name is Tatiana Gomez.

- And we are- - [Tatiana And Jose] Buena Grafica.

(machinery racketing) - Yeah!

Damn!

Look at that type!

- [Tatiana] That works, huh?

(energetic music continues) - [Tatiana] Buena Grafica is a graphic design studio founded in 2021.

It has evolved through these four years as a community-oriented graphic design studio.

- We saw an opportunity to really think about how can we, as graphic designers, how can we have a role in the society that we play today.

- [Tatiana] So Buena Grafica's work can be seen today at Farm Fresh.

You can also see our work at PVD prep, also at the 195 District Park in the river.

- Some new things coming up.

- Some new things are coming up, but yeah, we'll keep it there.

(laughs) (upbeat music) - So I grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

I loved cartoons since a kid.

I just drew like Bart Simpson a lot.

(laughs) - I grew up in Bogota, in Colombia.

I'm very Colombian, but I'm also very Chilean, 'cause my mother is Chilean and we spent a lot of summers there.

I remember having this conversation with my mom who was hoping that I would be an industrial designer and I was like, "I'm just in love with books.

I just love books so much and I just, like, I just want to be able to design books.

How do I do this?"

Jose and I met in 2016, when I moved to Providence.

- In the grad studio, yeah?

At RISD, at the school of graphic design.

- Jose was teaching this class called Hot Printing and he was teaching hot- - Hot printing.

- Like, (laughs) which was really hot.

- Love that name.

It was hot.

I know there was something going on, because she would stay, like, after class.

Everyone would helped me, like clean up things, and you know, I was like, "Hey, maybe there's something here.

Maybe it's more than, you know, it is more than letter press and there's some love in the making here."

I told her that I love printing with her (Tatiana and Jose laugh) and she said she wasn't ready to print with me, (Tatiana laughs) so.

- It wasn't manifest to come back there.

(Tatiana and Jose laugh) (serene tender music) - [Jose] We got married in 2020.

- [Tatiana] We just celebrated our fifth anniversary.

- We love each other, we love what we do, and we love making it together.

- Mm-hmm.

- And I just don't see it otherwise.

It's just the way it worked.

- I feel like we're also living this dream that we've been dreaming for so long and it feels really hard to say no to so many wonderful opportunities.

So yeah, I mean, we're ready for it.

(energetic music) - The exhibit we curated at the WaterFire was Graphic Voices of Latin America.

(people chattering) The exhibit showcased posters from 16 countries in Latin America.

This is born out of a research project called Grafica Latina, GraficaLatina.com.

For us, it's also a love letter to Latin America.

(energetic music continues) We love this continent.

We are from this continent and we're just interested in learning more about it.

- We've been collecting them for about 10 years.

- 10 years.

Got this prints from Felix Beltran, which is a Cuban graphic designer and one of the posters that we were really happy to get, it was an official reprint of the regional posters that he did announcing or denouncing the freedom for Angela Davis.

So, beautiful screen print color, three colors.

We were able to get a piece of history.

We're very excited.

Latin American graphic design speaking to issues that are happening here in the States.

So this is one of those moments where you have this sort of relationships come together.

(paper crinkling) (people chattering) - [Tatiana] So, La Linterna is a typographic print shop based in Cali, Colombia.

They've been doing work since the 1950s.

(people chattering) - We approached them and said, "Hey, if you're going to New York and Boston, why don't you not stop in Providence?"

- We've been planning this for a real long time and we're just really excited.

We're just gonna play the movie first, and then we're gonna have a Q&A so we can ask all your questions.

(narrator speaking in Spanish) - For us, it's very important to bring them so people get a sense of what art and design is looking like, and poster making is looking like in Latin America today.

(designer speaking in Spanish) (energetic music) - It's important to create these spaces and to find new kind of ways of interacting and perceiving the Latin American culture and say, "Damn!

Those Latin Americans are good printers.

Those Latin Americans are great designers.

Those Latin Americans can manipulate color incredibly.

They're great artists!

They have a lot to say!"

(serene music) (designer speaking in Spanish) - This huge project, it couldn't happen if we didn't love each other this much.

- I think it was that whole idea of making the print, of creating the work.

And it's just, there's just love is manifesting through different ways.

It's not just because, I don't know, she's beautiful, or smart, or all of that, it's just because we do things together and we create, and I always wanted that.

Glad that I have it.

My major project, best project.

(laughs) (energetic music) (static crackles) (static crackles) (energetic music) - My name's Jeff Palmer, I'm an artist and media maker.

I would never consider myself sort of a formally trained artist.

I guess you could say I'm self-taught.

Painting, colors, abstractions, I think it was also what I called the Pandemic Pivot, I had been doing a lot of media, a lot of filmmaking up to that point.

(energetic music continues) And then our lives were put on pause.

But I needed to stay busy doing some artwork.

Creating things, (energetic music) making things, really became my outlet for creativity.

I started to see some things (keyboard clacking) on Instagram about printmaking and I started to get curious about it, because when you make a original piece of artwork and sell that, it's gone and that's a good thing.

But I got curious about printmaking, because you can create a negative image, a plate that you can ink and make copies of.

And you can not just sell 1 or 10, but as many as people wanna buy.

I mean, I always tell people, "We're born with our own block print and it's our fingerprint."

So, basically that's what it is, and there's ink that lands on a surface and you press it, that's what makes those lines.

If we didn't have a fingerprint, it would just be all black, right?

I've always been kind of into chaos, (laughs) which kind of spirals into, you know, making art, taking things apart, putting them back together again.

(energetic music continues) And I think maybe in my head there's, you know, a lot of ideas that you could get out.

It's messy.

I guess maybe that's more of it.

It's like creativity to me, spills all out, all over the place.

I love music, I love movies.

You know, acting, artists, Frida Kahlo, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Debbie Harry, Keith Haring, Alice Cooper.

I love portraits.

I love capturing sort of the essence of a face.

And then sometimes I'll incorporate little snippets of lyrics from their songs.

You know, or just something like Prince, "Let's go crazy!"

(energetic music) I think my graphic design experience over the years really started to play into how I thought of Rhode Island, and I was just starting to think of it in terms of catchy phrases.

I have three cats.

So cats are really big part (laughs) of the content that I create.

(cat purring) What I do is I try to, you know, I find those folks that have really touched me and influenced me.

The people, the musicians, the politicians, you know, the big thinkers of a moment in time, right?

A point in history that are influencing us, that are affecting us.

But what I love most, I think is, like, really bringing the artwork to the people, you know, to the folk, folk art, right?

It's always a trip.

You never know who you're gonna connect with.

You never know who you're gonna meet.

(energetic music continues) - [Tracy] All right, well, why don't you show me what you do?

- All right, let's see some carving.

- So what have you got going on over here?

- So this is a blank block, right?

This is four by six and it's like a really hard eraser.

You wanna talk about the tools?

- Yeah, let's talk about the tools.

- All right.

Here's some blades.

95% of what I carve, I use this number one blade, mostly moving the material under the blade as opposed to moving the blade.

- Now we gotta put the ink.

- That's what we're going for, hopefully.

The ink on the inc.

I like that!

(block thuds) (press clicks) - [Tracy] So how did the first one turn out?

- I knew it wasn't gonna be perfect.

It never is.

There's this whole strip here against the A, so I've better get back in there.

- You said typically you'll do three proofs, - Sometimes more.

(water gurgles) (block thuds) (press clicks) All right, so here we are, take two.

Let's take a look here.

- Oh, it's looking good.

- Yeah!

- Looking sharp.

- Right?

Sharp.

Art sharp - [Tracy] Art sharp.

Well, Tracy, you tell me what you think, it's okay.

This is when you gotta be critical.

What do you think?

What do you think?

- [Tracy] Maybe like here there's a little bit on that I- - [Jeff] Mm-hmm.

- [Tracy] Still.

This looks sharp.

- I think that'll do the trick.

- Three time's the charm, right?

- Three time's the charm.

- All right.

(laughs) (block thuds) Okay, this should be good to go.

All right, Tracy!

"ART inc." in color!

- I love it!

It's perfect.

(energetic music) (static crackles) (static crackles) (pensive music) - Everywhere I went, I could always tell the difference between a hand-painted sign and a printed or vinyl sign.

(trunk thuds) (pensive music continues) I mean, for me too, it is a, you know, like a ego pride thing to know that when I drive around and I'll get to see the ones that I did.

(engine purring) (pensive music continues) I painted this stuff for Nicks on Broadway right here, the Trinity Rep mural and that thing.

Can painted signs just have the subtle imperfections that, like, let you know a human was there, you know, because we're not perfect.

(engine purring) My name is Shawn Gilheeney, owner, founder of Providence Painted Signs, and I paint signage (tool scraping) in Providence, Rhode Island.

(energetic music) (wheels rolling) Skateboarding from age 14 to 30, pretty steady.

That was definitely what dictated the path in my life for a long time.

Eventually, (energetic music) I was living out in California, doing skateboard videos.

I was hand painting skateboards, selling those at the skateboard park, and then I was on a big skateboard road trip, destroyed my knee, moved back here to get insurance, to get my ACL fixed.

And then sort of embarked on my fine art period.

I was exploring where, like, nature starts to overcome buildings through printmaking and paintings, all the different elements that would create that sort of slow destruction.

And then Johan Bjurman, he was a fine artist and a billboard painter here that once he started to retire, he reached out and started to sell me some of his old equipment and show me how to, you know, rig the side of buildings, like when we painted Trinity Rep, he really like opened up a like another level for us.

(pensive music) I am just trying to prep (tape crinkles) for my patterns.

I know where to put the gold leaf.

Gold leaf is like, it's so beautiful when it's done, but the process is so finicky and, (paper scratching) you know, the room for error is so small.

This is basically the glue for the gold leaf.

First I'll flood the glass with water, (paper rustles) then I'll pick up the gold and then, apply it to the glass.

Well, I always thought that like, you know, I'm like a construction worker with artistic sensibilities, you know, sort of the requirement to do all the different skill sets that I have to do.

But yeah, I mean the gold thing is definitely, doesn't come naturally.

It's a lot, like, holding my breath for two days straight.

It's only 23 karat gold, you know, it is a waste.

I still appreciate every day that I get to do this, and I think probably having my accident definitely made me appreciate it even more.

I had an injury with my table saw, you know, doing two things in sequence that I knew I shouldn't do, and destroyed the top half of my index finger and the saw blade went through the knuckle on my middle finger.

The injury initially was terrifying, and, you know, I mean, I didn't know if I'd be able to do it again.

I didn't know like how much pain I'd be in.

So much of my life is based around that finger, you know, (laughs) in that way where, you know, I look at all these old photographs and it's like, oh yeah, that's the finger that I was using and it's not there anymore.

(birds chirping) The GoFundMe, when that got set up for me was like a lifesaver.

(graphics thud) It was like getting to see all the people that would come to your own funeral, you know, it was quite profound.

But initially, ugh, you know, that first bit, it's terrifying and painful and hard for, you know, yeah, a good while.

Then you meet somebody else with a missing finger and then you're like, "Oh, okay, I'm not alone."

(Shawn chuckles) (traffic humming) I mean, amazingly, it's all on the wrist, not on the fingers.

So, you know, after a little while, once I could, once I healed up and went through, you know, physical therapy to rehabilitate the middle finger, it wasn't too, too hard.

(uplifting music) So right now I'm gonna remove the excess gold to reveal the lettering that I did earlier today.

It's definitely satisfying.

Put in all this work and then you get to, like, kind of have this magic reveal.

(uplifting music continues) A bunch of my goals I have done, which feels pretty good.

You know, like of Rhode Island businesses, I've got to work with, only the New York System, (graphics swooshing) The Avery, Narragansett Brewery, Al Forno, Oh yeah, definitely the Big Blue Bug.

You know, I never thought of myself as being super talented, but I always just worked really hard at it and just kept going.

(uplifting music continues) (energetic music) (static crackles) - [Narrator] Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time on "ART inc." (static crackles) (television warbles) (static crackles) (energetic music) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) (energetic music continues) Watch More "ART Inc." a Rhode Island PBS original series, now streaming at ripbs.org/artinc.