New Book! Mall Pop-up! Gallery! More!
There’s a lot going on. We’ve been sorta heads down in our studio and home (which are effectively one in the same) printing books, building objects, creating dioramas, and otherwise not lookin’ up from the weird lil world we’re crafting. It’s been nice to spend all of our time working on art- and studio-related projects but boy oh boy it’s a journey!
In this issue:
Secret Room Work•Shop
The Pattern Grows Clearer by Sean Christensen
Our first ever RISO Workshop… with ANEMONE!
Shows Shows Shows!!
🔥 Secret Room Work•Shop 🗞
The cat’s outta the bag! We’re opening a temporary art gallery, weird shop, and active RISO print studio in the Lloyd Center Mall (in Portland, Oregon). It’s a dream come true to get to do a project like this and we’ll be right down the hall from our pals at Floating World Comics — it’s an incredible opportunity to bring our weirdo print junk to the mall and showcase a whole bunch of artists and fellow RISO publishers. We’re officially opening on November 9th with a big ol’ art show and we’ll be posting about events & stuff on our instagram as we go!
🌎 Life on Earth: A Risograph Art Show 📄
Half of Secret Room Work•Shop will be dedicated to our gallery space. The pieces are all vignettes of what it means to be a part of life on earth. We’re printing everything on 11x17” paper in Bubblegum Pink, Sunflower, Aqua, and Black — we wanted the artists to have a wide range of color to explore (there’s a weirdo CMYK analog in there somewhere) but have at least the limitations that will make the show cohesive visually.
We’ve invited 25 artists to participate in the gallery show… the full artist list is comin’ soon, stay tuned because it’s certifiably bonkers! A lot of friends, a lot of new friends, a lot of folks who we’ve admired greatly for a long time. The only thing that was truly terrible about figuring this show out was having to recognize the limitations of our time & space and not have all 60ish people we initially threw into the hat — it’s nearly impossible to pare down an artist list when there’s so many amazing folks making comics & art.
OPENING PARTY:
4:00-7:00p at the Lloyd Center Mall in Secret Room Work•Shop! Upstairs at the end of the hall behind our neighbors at Mortal Emblem!
We are extremely psyched for people to see this show!
🌀 The Pattern Grows Clearer 🌴
A book by Sean Christensen
Oh, to hold a new book in our hands! We dropped this book off at the Portland Bindery two days before we left the country for three weeks. It physically existed in the world just out of reach for what felt like an eon. Now, it’s here! It’s real! And we’ve got a big release event on the calendar — November 11th!
The Pattern Grows Clearer is a collection of four parts made between 2015 - 2018 by one of our favorite artists, a true pioneer of comics and art in Portland, Sean Christensen. Our paths have crossed for years in the Portland comics scene, in ways both overt and obscured — this is our first collaboration together and the first opportunity we’ve had to print Sean’s introspective, winding, silly, and deeply moving work.
We’re really glad he reached out to us to realize this collection of his work and we’re beyond excited about how it all turned out. It’s a beautiful object! 125 pages of gorgeous art & comics. Sean is also a musician — check out his album Self Taught Artist and dig into his bandcamp discography while you read this book!
SYNOPSYS:
The Pattern Grows Clearer is a questioning book with a fiercely blissful energy. The book’s recipe is two parts narrative, leading you on a journey to find the self and your footing in time, and two parts organized explosive affirmations in line drawings, meant to activate your sense of dimension while guiding you to find the lines between you and the pages in your hand.
This book wants to connect with you, as you question the patterns in life.
Pick up a copy at our release party on November 11th | 5:00pm at Secret Room Work•Shop or anywhere cool comics are sold!
Zine Making Using Spectrolite & Google Docs
w/ ANEMONE (🎉WORKSHOP🎉)
We’re hosting a special workshop at the at the Lloyd Center Mall
November 12th, 10-2pm! It’s our first ever workshop and we’re excited to do it in collaboration with our friends at ANEMONE, who designed and built Spectrolite — the free Mac desktop app to make colorful 🌈 risograph prints and zines more easily — and have published tons of gorgeous, informative, fun zines & books.
If you’re interested in taking the workshop or learning more, check out the full listing by clicking on this button 👇
🌎 UPCOMING EVENTS 😵💫
We exist IRL to make things we enjoy IRL
Portland Zine Symposium | October 28th/29th in Portland, OR
Short Run | November 4th in Seattle, WA
Life on Earth Gallery Launch Party | November 9th @ 4:00pm at Secret Room Work•Shop | drink wine at the art show with us and look at 25+ pieces of RISO art from some of the country’s best cartoonists!
The Pattern Grows Clearer Release Party | November 11th @ 5:00pm at Secret Room Work•Shop | Join us for an evening of art, performance, and comics merriment 🌴
Where to Find Secret Room Press
👇 Buy comics in the REAL WORLD and support local shops 👇
Floating World Comics | Portland, OR
Books with Pictures | Portland, OR
Cosmic Monkey | Portland, OR
Fantagraphics Bookstore | Seattle, WA
Lucky’s Comics | Vancouver, BC
Secret Headquarters | Los Angeles, CA
Silver Sprocket | San Francisco, CA
Mission Street Comics | San Francisco, CA
The Escapist Comics | Berkeley, CA
Lion’s Tooth | Milwaukee, WI
Vault of Midnight | Ann Arbor, MI
Partners & Sons | Philadelphia, PA
Wigshop Webshop | Online
💛 GOODBYE AND SEE Y’ALL AROUND! 💛