We recently connected with Alex Giffen and have shared our conversation below.
Alex , thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
I keep my creativity alive by picking up nearly any medium that strikes me. Printmaking will always be my career but sometimes, especially after a decade of merely being a really nice tool in a really nice shop, I need to just flit off and learn stained glass or twist up a field of barbed wire flowers. It’s my way of taking care of myself as a creative tool at the service of others, making sure I still get to make for the sake of making. Lately I have been making more Damnbanas (my version of a bandana, slightly larger and wilder) and collaging as well.
Recently, I’ve been taking blank woodblocks into the woods and spending a day by a firepit, make a steak and some veggies and just draw and carve. I’ve really been enjoying this slightly unhinged day activity and will say it has been great for creativity.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Hi! I’m Alex, I am a career printmaker, fine art publisher, interdisciplinary artist working in traditional technique printmaking, collage, stained glass, metal, painting and nearly anything else I can get my mitts on. I spent nearly a decade at Flatbed Press in Austin, Tx learning the ins and outs of print publishing. After too long, I decided you know what, I’m doing this running a shop thing for myself or I’m doing this for no one, and I started my own shop I call The Asylum. I used my experience in Texas to create an all-inclusive residency model aimed at all the artists the art world works really hard to exclude. I sell my own art to pay for the materials and operational costs of inviting an artist for a custom tailored residency. After three years on the east coast, I’ve moved back to my home state of Colorado to expand and evolve The Asylum. I’ve continued to do markets and fairs and am saving up to purchase a piece of land and put up The Asylum, fully leaning into giving artists the opportunity to detach from their world for a little bit, get into nature, get into print and make some insanely beautiful work.
This month I’m heading to Victor, CO for the Oddites Festival June 21-22 and I am so excited to see y’all there. I usually am at Mirus Gallery one or two Fridays in the month and I’m always seeking more opportunities to get work out in the world. The best place to keep up with my “In The Wild” Shenanigans is on my instagram @ttheasylumm and the next best place is my website www.ttheasylumm.com.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
For me, my work ethic, collaborative skill and long term goals were most impactful. My personal journey in print, as well as my professional journey, have been really complicated and not going into a professional print setting with a foundation of an academic network of friends to stand on, was really interesting. Printmaking has always been a job for me, and this fact has been really hard for some of my peers to accept. My long term goal of learning everything there is to know about traditional technique printmaking has kept me focused and able to forge my own path forward. My work ethic is what got me where I’m at, I wanted to be in print publishing, in the shop, on the press side of things so bad I worked 5 W2 jobs at one point to afford being able to continue working in the print shop. I learned through observation and after hours experimentation. I worked every single day and I worked harder every time someone in the community got twisted about me being there. The collaborative skills I developed are so incredibly important to me because as Master Printer, I need to make sure the artists I’m working with trust me with their work. It’s a sort of creative intimacy that, for me, is of paramount importance. I need to understand their color theory and how they watch their work come into completion so that I can mix inks, and suggest processes that will achieve their goals and push my skills.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
Currently my number one obstacle is space. I am searching for a space that will accommodate my presses (there’s 4) and my vision. With the prices in Denver, and being self funded for my whole 4 years, I’m not looking to take on a NNN lease on a building I will have to change my entire way of functioning to keep open. The residency model I’ve started to build and would like to expand and evolve, would be better suited for a location not directly in the city. People looking to go to the city can and should utilize the existing offerings Denver has, however I am working on creating a space for artists to get really focused on making work and to detach from their normal lives. I’m looking at raw land to develop right now, in fact after I finish this, I’m driving a few hours away to check out a plot. Its slow motions, but I’m making them and I’m proud of myself for that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ttheasylumm.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ttheasylumm
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ttheasylumm
- Other: I’m also on tik tok @ttheasylumm
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
