LINCOLN SQUARE — The Chicago Printmakers Collaborative is inviting neighbors to the return of its popular steamroller printing festival this weekend.
The free Monster Truck Mash event goes 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday at the collaborative’s rear driveway, 4912 N. Western Ave.
Organized by the collaborative and Hoofprint Studio, the event will feature live music from The Parsnip Factory and The Tuesday Night Old Time Jammers. Food and drinks for sale will come from Baker Miller and Tropical Smoothie Cafe.
Printmaking typically uses much smaller copper plates, lithographic limestones and carved wood blocks to make art prints and posters, said the collaborative’s director, Deborah Maris Lader.
But at Saturday’s event, a big steamroller typically used in sidewalk or street paving will be used to roll over woodblocks that are as big as 24 square feet to make prints, Maris Lader said.
“People from come from far and wide to see this because it’s kind of unusual to see something on such a giant scale. It becomes almost a performance,” Maris Lader said.
The event will also have artists from the collaborative screen printing T-shirts using more traditional methods, and an area for children to do relief printing using vegetables, Maris Lader said.
“We carve little carrots and potatoes and things to make prints that kids love,” Maris Lader said.
The collaborative first used a steamroller to make the large prints in 2016 and then organized a second event in 2018, Maris Lader said.
Another steamroller event was planned for 2020, but the pandemic postponed its return until this month, Maris Lader said.
The latest steamroller event will happen in tandem with the Lincoln Square Artisan & Makers Market happening across the street at the Ainslie Arts Plaza, which will allow people to visit both, Maris Lader said.
“The idea of having some kind of gateway to the northern section of Lincoln Avenue with the Ainsley Arts Plaza has been really good for us,” Maris Lader said.
For more information about the event, visit the collaborative’s website.
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