Independent Researcher

About

Over the past decade, I have had the good fortune to work collaboratively with artists in Havana, Cuba and Hanoi, Vietnam.

In the spring of 2011 we are returning to Havana for the  completion of two planned books in collaboration with fifteen Cuban printmakers and thus define a trilogy based on themes chosen by Cuban artists to describe their social and political relationships.  These themes and the idea for the project emerged during extensive meetings and conversations with the artists dating back to 2007.  Poder: Power, the first book in the series, was completed in April 2010. The second book, Privacidad: Privacy completed in 2011, Esperando: Waiting, in February 2012.

Power, Waiting and Privacy are at the core of daily life in Cuba:  the Power of governmental bureaucracy; the Power of a neighbor’s dog barking at 3 a.m.  Waiting in line for two hours for a bus or for bread; Waiting for a change in relations with the United States.  Privacy in houses designed for a single family now bursting with three generations and the forth on the way; Privacy when awakened by music and/or noise thumps in the middle of the night.  Living in Cuba, I have experienced all this and more. “Come back tomorrow,” “maybe later,” “it is possible,” “it’s very difficult, la lucha” --reverberating phrases for services I take for granted in the U.S.  Given the absurdity of so many situations, humor and laughter become the only means of survival. The afternoon we completed Poder, with rum in hand, we designed our next book Imtimidad: Privacy. Each artist will create images on a bi-fold sheet of paper with a window cut into the paper--a view into the private or out to the public/ community. These impressions will be bound and contained in a house-shaped box.

I have come to know this group of printmakers while working along side them in various print shops in Havana.  Cuban printmaking is narrative, and teaching/ sharing book arts with them was a natural compliment to their work. Through word of mouth, the group of artists interested in making books continues to grow.  The 15 artists collaborating on the trilogy book project are all mature artists who have national and international reputations in prinkmaking.

Since 2003  I have worked in eight different print shops and offered book arts and printmaking workshops at individual studios.  In February 2010, I was invited to teach two, week long workshops at the San Alejandro Art Academy High School and the Institute of Superior Arts (ISA University) in Havana-- the first book arts classes taught at either institution.  I offer these workshops gratis and supply materials as well.  We have so much stuff, and they have so much to tell us of the great tradition of Cuban printmaking, from its origins in German Expressionism to its Revolutionary ingenuity.

Our troubled and entwined political histories empower our collaborative work as artists and contribute a sense of urgency and purpose.  I have a deep respect and admiration for the artists with whom I collaborate, and their trust in me has changed my life and my art. The books I create with Cuban artists tell their stories of Cuba’s lived reality in the twenty-first century along with my observations as an outsider of the Cuban people caught in the politics between Cuba and United States.

My family and I first visited Cuba in 2001.  Since then our longest annual stay was ten months in 2003 and our shortest visit, three weeks.  My wife, Jacqueline Hayden, is a Professor of Film and Photography at Hampshire College and a founding faculty member of Hampshire’s study abroad program in Havana.

Since 2003 I have facilitated and participated in five book collaborations in Cuba. With all my collaborations there are two goals:  first to create a shared story and second to place these books into collections and distribute the profits back to the individuals who helped create them.  I also promote the work of Cuban artists by placing their work in U.S. galleries and libraries, for example, the exhibition Making Connections: Contemporary Cuban Printmakers, November, 2009, Laconia Gallery, Boston; The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN; Green Library at Stanford University, CA; Free Library of Philadelphia, PA and the Mortimer Rare Book Room, Neilson Library at Smith College, MA.    I continually update my website, www.redtrilliumpress.com with our activities and represent a dozen Cuban artists who are unable to set up their own websites.

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