New Year, New Projects!
Happy New Year! It’s January, 2024. It’s officially the 5 year anniversary of Secret Room Press — we didn’t have a long term plan when we initially rented a room on Lower East Burnside, put a few desks in there for artists to hang out at, and made it the home of a RISO RP3700 we had bought from a print shop graveyard in Tacoma, Washington. We spent over a year there with our lil crew — Ross Jackson, Kristin Howe, Sabine Rear, Momo Gordon, Carlos B, John James, Cielle Charron — before the pandemic forced us to move the studio into our house for a few years.
In November 2023, we opened Secret Room Work•Shop at the Lloyd Center Mall (paid for in part by a RACC Grant), a combination active RISO print studio and gallery/shop space. It’s been a great time! So fun, in fact, that we’ve extended our initial November-December run to stay at the mall through the end of this January.
This isn’t a comprehensive history by any stretch, but we’ve got a lot of new subscribers to this substack recently and wanted to celebrate 5 years of this weird, weird print medium!
Life on Earth (on display til January 28, 2024)
When we put together LIFE ON EARTH: A RISO ART SHOW, we didn’t realize how many people would resonate with it. It’s truly a gift to get to put together things like this and platform artists we love and want to work with. Since we’re staying in the mall for the rest of this month, Life on Earth will remain available to view until January 28th, our closing date! If you haven’t seen it, come swing by the Lloyd Center!
Wanna buy a print from the show? They’re only $25.00 (come see us!)
Handmade birch & acrylic frames by Takahiro Moriki are available for $140.00
Okay, time to plan the next art show!
🌀 JANUARY CALENDAR 🌀
We’ve got a lot of stuff going on this month! Here’s the calendar, as updated as we could make it.
our calendar of events for January (for the most part)
🦇 RISO Animation Workshop w/ Zine Hug 💡
SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 10:00-2:00p in person
Our pals from Seattle Zine Hug are back in town for another installment of the RISO Animation Workshop — we taught this to a full crew in December and we’ve got a few spots left for the workshop we’re running this Saturday. Zine Hug are not only developing techniques for animating with RISO, they’re amazing publishers and artists. Come learn from some of our favorite folks!
Learn how to utilize the risograph as a medium for creating textured, lively animated videos and take away a printed contact sheet & RISO Animation: Zine Hug's How To Guide — the comprehensive guide to creating riso animation!
contact sheet of individual animation cels printed on black paper w/ melon & mist inks
😵💫 What’s Next for Secret Room? 😵💫
Well, uh… we’re figuring that out! We’ve really enjoyed our time hosting the pop-up gallery & shop. So much so, in fact, that we’re currently looking at alternate locations for where we might do something more “permanent” — details to come!
If you’ve been in the shop and asked us “what’s next after the Lloyd Center"?”, we’ve probably given you a noncommittal answer. That’s because we really don’t know yet. We’re looking around Portland for the right place to settle into and we’ll give an update as soon as things feel solidified — the perfect situation for Secret Room’s next iteration is out there!
Upcoming Publications
Aside from a physical location, we’ve got a slate of incredible books on the publishing schedule for this year! If all goes according to plan, we should have at least 5 new books in the Secret Room Press collection, including the sequel to the 2023 Ignatz nominated Live Rock Part 1: Aquarium Life by Ross Jackson! Updates are coming, gotta lock down details before we announce anything concrete.
We’re also putting out a few cassettes this year, including a mixtape of 80s Latvian pop and avant-pop by geographer Austin Charron, a project we’re extremely excited for folks to dance to. 100% bangers!
Okay, time to go outside before it rains.
💛 GOODBYE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR! 💛