Shop Show & Tell with CARO

Welcome to ‘Shop Show & Tell’; a blog series dedicated to sharing our favorite stories, projects and even objects from the studio (Think of this as the “Staff Picks” section of a book store - only the print studio edition!). This month, we’re kicking things off with the newest member of the team, Caro Gutierrez. Caro began as an intern with some serious illustrating chops and an interest in all things screenprinting and zines. After proving to be a huge asset to the studio, we recently welcomed her on as the new Sales and Fulfillment Associate for Nocturnal Press!

Caro is a multidisciplinary artist and designer born in Barranquilla and living in Miami. Prior to joining the Nocturnal Press team, she worked in art direction, product development, and is also a freelance illustrator, printmaker, and graphic designer. She graduated in 2017 from Emerson College, where she focused on Global & Post-Colonial Art & Film History​, and conducted research for Boston's Museum of Fine Arts in 2018.

Her love for music, art history, and cooking are all driving themes in her illustrative work. When she is in the studio working on her practice, she is usually screen printing or doing letterpress and when she is not in the studio, she can be found writing dreamy songs in Spanish or riding her bike into the sunset. Check out a few of Caro’s original screenprints below and visit www.caro-gutz.com for more info.

Which project have you learned the most from?

“A couple of months ago I was getting some work done in the studio and Ingrid had mentioned a client would be coming in later that day to print his negatives and drop off some stuff. He came in towards the end of the day with a large item rolled up and I didn't think much of it, we had some small talk, and I eventually left the studio to go home.

The next morning, I saw there was a humongous painting rolled out on the gallery floor of a mandala with a VERY complex Persian rug pattern. I told Ingrid I had read about an artist from Miami who painted these crazy detailed Persian rug-inspired pieces a long time ago somewhere on the internet and had even blogged about his work. As I pulled up the article that I had read about him years ago, Ingrid mentioned that it was the client I had spoken to the night before! I ended up working with Ingrid on this ridiculously high-stakes screen printing project, watching her problem-solve in real time blew my mind. The solution to getting this guy printed right required an intricate and unusual setup and had little to no room for error. It was an honor not just to see and touch one of Jason Seife's pieces, but to see Ingrid's crazy critical thinking printing expertise be applied to an unusual format.

I ended up getting ink on my shoes, on my phone, we stayed late at the studio working on it for a couple days, but seeing the canvas stretched out and the painting hung up at a show at a gallery in London felt gratifying and very mind blowing. Sometimes when I wear the shoes that I stained working on this project I think ‘crazy to think the rest of this ink is hung up on a gallery somewhere’.”

What’s your favorite press (and why)?

“Close call between both Vandercook presses in the studio! CB has been the press I've spent most time with working on production and Sam has seen me through difficult times while trying to improve my letterpress game. Although screen printing is my personal fave, the Vandies have a special place in my heart forever and always.”

CB

SAM

What’s your 'MVT' (Most Valuable Tool)?

“100% my sketchbook, I use it for everything and I bring it with me everywhere and it's the only place where I feel like I can let my creativity run unabashedly free and unsupervised. Some of my favorite pieces have come from little doodles that I've made in my sketchbooks that eventually turn into well polished pieces of work. I am also constantly flipping through them when making new work, they serve excellently as catalogs of thoughts and ideas that I can look back on.”