Mobile Printmaking Studio to Park at Pitt Oct. 20

PITTSBURGH-Having logged more than 100,000 miles across the United States in a mobile printmaking studio, artists Gregory Nanney and Joseph Velasquez are bringing their studio-on-wheels-Drive by Press-to the University of Pittsburgh on Oct. 20.

In an event sponsored by Pitt's Department of Studio Arts in the School of Arts and Sciences, the two men will deliver a free lecture and demonstrations on the printmaking process at noon in Room B-15, Frick Fine Arts Building, 650 Schenley Dr., Oakland.

From 2 to 5 p.m., there will be a print exhibition outside the Carnegie Library entrance facing Schenley Plaza. Custom printing from a number of woodblocks will be available for one-of-a-kind wearable art or paper prints.

Nanney and Velasquez-co-owner and curator of exhibitions, respectively, at SlingShot Gallery in Madison Wis.-loaded a printing press into a pick up truck and set out 18 months ago to educate the public about printmaking, a 600-year-old process. At the universities, museums, and art galleries they visit, Nanney and Velasquez collect contemporary prints and accept woodblocks from some of the country's most renowned woodcut artists. Drive by Press is self-funded through small honoraria and the sale of woodblock prints on paper and T-shirts.

For more information about Drive by Press, visit www.drivebypress.org. For more information about the Oct. 20 event, call 412-648-2430.

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10/16/08/tmw