“My life is my inspiration”
A HUGE thank you to Hamilton High School art teacher Daniele Vickers and her filmmaking class for creating short documentaries of local artists. I was one of those lucky few! Her class made a harrowing trek up my road to do the filming. The whole process was interesting and an amazing amount of preparation and background work went into making this movie. The students did a fantastic job preparing interview questions, setting up and running the equipment. They presented themselves professionally and edited quite of lot of film into this well produced documentary.
Over the years Laughing Mule Press has grown significantly but the heart and soul of the company remains the same. I talk about some of the animals that have inspired my pieces and the process behind making the prints. The first step is getting inspiration from animals (either friends or my own) so I can share a glimpse of their personality in each piece. Then, I start sketching a series of images in my sketchpad and eventually onto my iPad. This is printed and traced onto linoleum. The carving is a slow, methodical process that takes 3-4 days to complete. Ink is rolled onto the print, paper is pressed by hand, and carefully peeled off - resulting in a beautiful, unique print! There are approximately 30-40 original prints made of each design to keep them in an affordable price range. We can also make you a custom frame from wood that we log with my mules and mill down on our portable sawmill into frame profiles.
More than anything Laughing Mule Press strives to bring people together, put a smile on everyone’s face and share some positivity in this big, messy thing we call life!
Thank you to Hamilton High School and specifically:
Director: Jay James
Editors: Grace Keele, August Hughes,
Camera Operators: Jay James, August Hughes, Dom Smith, Jaylyne Solis, Katy Laird Hollister, Matthew Clifton
Sound: Aidan Clark, Jaylene Solis, Alexis Kaul
Interviewer: Katy Laird Hollister
Teacher: Daniele Vickers