Jim Pollock is currently using a Washington Iron Hand Press.

It’s the same style of a press that Benjamin Franklin used when he was shaping our country.

It’s a very hands on procedure.  It has a large bed that gets inked up and then it gets slid under a platen. The platen is a flat metal or wooden plate pressed against a medium to cause an impression.   The earlier versions are all made out of wood and newer versions use metal to create this mark.   Jim grapples the lever one by one and pulls the platen down as it crunches the paper onto the inked plate.  It’s slightly contrary from his previous machine that he used called the Crank Wheel Bookbinding Hand Press.   He was printing on this machine and introduced the process to the Phish fan base at The Great Went. He was printing on a little bookbinding press and allowed people to watch as he sculpted blocks of linoleum.  It remains an extremely labor intensive pursuit and Jim explains that he gets more out of it than the commonplace practice of digitizing an image and then printing onto paper.  It’s all about the hands on development of a concept with Jim Pollock.  He has always been positively absorbed with the progression and fundamental process of  print making.  The German Renaissance is especially close to his heart where individuals were experimenting in advanced forms that are now being reproduced by using specific types of plates.  With the print making style you can make multiple types of these works and through this multiplication it becomes something different than just a single piece of art that is revered as a stand alone work.  However, the potential to limit the quantity is what continues to make the pieces by Jim a high demand feature at shows and on the Internet market.

I continued to speak with Jim  and he educated me on the differences between the presses and how he is able to register tighter tolerances on certain machines.  He also explained why he prefers to use linoleum when carving out his blocks for the posters.

http://jasonkaczorowski.com/

Robert – What is it about the linoleum blocks that make it desirable to use for what you are doing?

Jim – It’s a lot easier to use linoleum when you are doing large plate pieces than wood.  It’s nice to be able to carve it quickly.  I’m trying to make tight deadlines that someone like a screen printer would have to make.  I have to be able to do this in a timely fashion.  Linoleum is a really good medium for that.  Plus, I can get a fair amount of prints out of it before the linoleum starts to deteriorate.  I’ve learned how to do that better over the years.

Robert – Do you get more joy out of taking big chunks or little chunks out of that linoleum when you are ripping into it?

Jim – (Laughs) It depends.  I guess the big chunks.  That is usually when I am at the end.  I’m just carving out big chunks and it’s always exciting.  I like the print making medium because you are basically carving and carving.  It could take days or weeks and you don’t really know what you have until the very end and when you get it then it’s fun in terms of other types of art where it is more direct.  You’re carving letters backwards.  At this point I know how it is going to look but there still is a certain amount of excitement to finally see the first proof of what you have toiled with at the time.

Robert – Jim Pollock.  He is a big chunk guy.

Jim – (Laughs) I’m a big chunk guy!

Robert – What is the one thing you love most about making art for Phish?  Is it the long standing relationship?

Jim – Yeah.  It’s something that I kind of fell into.  I did not plan any of it.

Robert – I hope you were laughing the entire time.

Jim – That’s right.  It was a big surprise.  I wanted to do art and I actually ended up getting a computer science degree and did web oriented computer programming and design because I was seeing the end of what I was originally getting into like spot illustration and cartooning.  It was starting to go to the way side.  Once the Internet came along it was all digital.  You lived and died by the web.  My process is old school and it is interesting to practice this ancient or older style of print making in a world that has left it behind.  I started doing linoleum prints after I left the Art Institute.  I had taken one print making course and I wanted to do another then things got busy.  My wife was taking methods of art in education and in one of her classes they had to do a linoleum print.  She carved one of the two blocks and I decided to do one.  Then, I just decided to keep on doing linoleum prints after that and just really liked it and fell into that type of art form.  It’s nice.  It’s in multiples.  I can sell stuff online and by that time I was savvy enough to understand how to do web related stuff and I just continued to do it.  Then, that is when I got the idea to approach Phish with these linoleum posters.

They finally said yes and it blew up from there.  You have ebay and I did some artist proof sets to big collectors.  It was all really amazing.  I had no idea it would turn into what it has become.  I just wanted to continue my art stuff and it blew up in my face.  It’s a wonderful thing as an artist to feel it.

Robert – Here is one question that has stumped more than one person I have interviewed.  Have you ever experienced any cases of synchronicity while being around the Phish culture?

Jim – Right.

Robert – Maybe you’re going to a show.  This is just an auxiliary example.  You go to a show in any such environment and you look up.  You look up at the right moment and it looks like Kuroda is drawing an arrow facing upwards with the lights (Jim laughs).  The show goes on and they play “Fluffhead” or whatever  and you leave the show.  You’re walking out and you look down and someone has fashioned an arrow out of three sticks.  That is an extreme example.  Is there anything off the top of your head were those kind of dots were connected where you thought is that just me or is there something moving me in this direction?

Jim – Right.  It’s mostly the relationship with the crowd.  I see a lot of it in day to day life.  The interesting part about Phish is the long relationship I have with them and with the people that I have met over the years by being at their shows.  I just met some guy last year who was at the UIC shows.  He was in the womb of his mother when she saw me at The Great Went.  She reminded me that I touched her belly at The Great Went and there he was.  It was him.  It was this big kid.  It’s cool.  It’s nice to have this interesting relationship with this large fan base of people for a really long time.  I’m pretty old and I still get out and have contact.  Hopefully, over the Summer I will get to do it and that is my synchronicity with Phish.  They stand on the stage and get the energy and I get this energy from people appreciating my art work.  They live with it and they are always very nice about their compliments to me.  I know these people and feel not like the unpopular dude in high school that I remember.  I know a fair amount of people and it is nice.  They are always very friendly and it is a nice group of fans.  It’s nice to be known and appreciated by such a diverse group.

Robert – Those are the rewards you get when you stay the course.  We get in High School and some of us fit in and some of us don’t and a person goes forward fifteen years later and they are on Facebook and wondering why this person wants to be friends on it.  This person hated me in High School and now they want to friend me on Facebook.  That is such a weird vibe.

Jim – Yeah.  You know there is always someone more famous than you in High School and you can beat yourself up but when I am walking around in the lot…I like walking around in the lot.  It’s fun.  People give me space and I talk to people and meet people again.  It’s like being at a family reunion of sorts.  Like I said, people are always very nice to me.  It’s nothing that I would ever want to avoid or think of avoiding.

Robert – That must have been an amazing feeling knowing the mother of the kid who is also into Phish and is influenced by the music and your work.  It must be amazing to have the luxury of that time span.  It is such a joyous thing to reflect on and the timeline of that has got to be fulfilling.

Jim – Phish fans have been painted with a very broad brush stroke in terms of popular culture.  I know a lot of Phish fans and it is far from the truth.  It runs the gamut.  People of all types are Phish fans.  It makes for a good joke on late night talk shows but it is a vast array of smart people and they have been well connected to the Internet from the very early stages.

Thanks for checking out this latest installment from The Philler and stay tuned for our next cloudcast. We’ll be talking to Jim and Mr. Miner about all sorts of fun Phish related stuff.  Mr. Miner will be choosing his favorite live picks off Junta through the years.  Record Store Day is fast approaching and so is the kick off to Summer Tour.  Keep a look out for The Sloping Companion in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Noblesville and East Troy for the first leg and I am sure we will be making the rounds once a second leg (fingers crossed) is announced.

Also, I would like to let everyone know that I am selling a phish related pin online and at Phish shows this Summer.  It’s entitled Page’s House.  I know there are several similarly themed pins on the market but we tried to produce ours with a simple, cute and to the point design.  Twenty percent of all sales go directly to The Mockingbird Foundation and there are only 100 available.  We are trying to raise $240.00 for this non-profit organization before Summer Tour starts.  The pre-sale is going on right now and you can order your pin by clicking here.   If you preorder the pin then you will also receive a special magnet highlighting the work of Chris Kuroda free from The Sloping Companion.  Also, shipping is free for anyone that orders now so we thought that would be a cool bonus as well for those that purchase early. The pin is only twelve bucks!  Order one today and help fund The Philler and give a little gift to the hardworking people at The Mockingbird Foundation. Here is a little philler for you to tide you over until the next cloudcast.

My wife and I had the pleasure to see Paradise Waits last Friday in the Chicago suburb of Darien. Paradise Waits is a Chicago based outfit that plays Grateful Dead and Jerry tunes.  I took my camera and recording equipment to Q-Sports Bar and Grill to see these guys lay it down for the first time.  If you are in the area then you have got  to check out this room!  It’s like my own miniature Park West in the western burbs.  The acoustics are outstanding and the sound system is something to be experienced.  It was a rare treat for my wife and I to get a night away from the kids and Paradise Waits delivered and made the trip out more than worth it.  I put together a compilation of photographs that I took to their version of “Peggy-O” that I recorded on this evening.  We were lucky to be joined by special guest Eric Lambert on lead guitar.  It was a pretty good turnout and I am excited to have these guys play our Spring celebration at my home this April on the 28th.  Hit me up if you are interested in attending.  Give this delicately alluring version a listen below and let The Sloping Companion know what you think about these guys. Take care of each other.

Peggy-O

As we rode out to fennario, as we rode on to fennario
Our captain fell in love with a lady like a dove
And called her by a name, pretty peggy-o.

Will you marry me pretty peggy-o, will you marry me pretty peggy-o
If you will marry me, Ill set your cities free
And free all the ladies in the are-o.

I would marry you sweet william-o, I would marry you sweet william-o
I would marry you but your guineas are too few
And I fear my mama would be angry-o.

What would your mama think pretty peggy-o,
What would your mama think pretty peggy-o,
What would your mama think if she heard my guineas clink
Saw me marching at the head of my soldiers.

If ever I return pretty peggy-o, if ever I return pretty peggy-o
If ever I return your cities I will burn
Destroy all the ladies in the area-o.

Come steppin down the stairs pretty peggy-o,
Come steppin down the stairs pretty peggy-o,
Come steppin down the stairs combin back your yellow hair
Bid a last farewell to your william-o.

Sweet william he is dead pretty peggy-o, sweet william he is dead pretty peggy-o,
Sweet william he is dead and he died for a maid
And hes buried in the louisiana country-o.

As we rode out to fennario, as we rode out to fennario
Our captain fell in love with a lady like a dove,
And called her by a name, pretty peggy-o.