- Will you consider this, admiring prints you've seen is something we all do and appreciate, but today we're going old school.

Stay right here.

(upbeat music) In today's copy, paste and print world maybe we've never considered the process of how printmaking began in the first place.

With me is Alex Carmona, a young printmaker, young, I emphasize that, who gets it done the old fashioned way and, really, it is the real old school, Alex?

- Yes, it is.

It's an old process a lotta people don't know about.

I often get asked if I invented it, that's how- - How bad it is.

- Much people don't know about it.

Yeah.

(both laughing) - Well, first of all, let's figure out how you got to central Illinois in the first place, 'cause you were born and raised in Colorado?

- I was, yeah.

My wife works for State Farm and an opportunity came up for her to, you know, get a promotion at corporate and so she decided to take it and we moved out here.

- Hmm, just that easily.

- It was, yeah.

We were actually trying to move for a while and just kinda try something new and we actually tried Austin and the housing market there is just like Colorado, so couldn't afford it and so we were just looking for a new opportunity and it popped up and we said, "Why not?"

- And then you ended up in Peoria.

So, she travels a little bit, she commutes a little bit back and forth, but we're glad to have you in Peoria.

- Thank you, I'm glad to be here, it's a hidden gem if you ask me.

(both laughing) - Yeah, we keep finding that out.

Okay, so, you are a printmaker, what does that all involve?

- Well, there's different forms of printmaking.

I am a relief printer, so what I basically do is I take a block of wood, I carve into it and then I roll ink on it when it's all done, lay paper on top, burnish it or run it through a printing press and then when you lift the paper up, you get a print.

So, that's how, like, old wanted posters used to be made, you know, back in the Wild West.

- Mm-hm.

- Basically before the printing press came out and, actually, while it was out, as well, they still, you know, they still do it in similar ways but they're etched with, you know, acid, they use computers to put the actual image on there, so- - [Christine] But you do it all by hand.

- [Alex] I do, yeah.

- What kind of projects have you done to date?

- Well, I think one of the biggest projects I've done, I'm very into old cars, I'm very into old everything, music, you know- - Houses.

(laughing) - Houses, yes, I live in a very old house.

So, I actually traveled around a lot doing car shows because I have such a passion for cars.

Now, after doing it, and I did it all over the country, ran into a gentleman who asked me to do the artwork for the SEMA Show which is the, it's actually the biggest small business gathering in America.

It's a big convention in Las Vegas and it's such a big show that they need signage to kinda point 'em towards wheels and tires, hot rods, whatever it is.

I think it's about 14 miles long if you walk the whole thing.

- [Christine] Wow.

- So, they used my artwork, my printmaking, to direct people to those different areas and they used 'em for their advertising, for parking passes, I mean everything.

- Well, that was fun.

- It was.

(laughing) - That was one of those serendipity kinda things.

- Yeah, it's weird the way things work out.

- Well, you served in the military for 10 years?

- Yeah.

- Air Force or...?

- I was in the Air Force, I was in the Air National Guard and I basically worked two jobs for, I'd say most of that time because although the Air Force was great to me, met a lotta great people there, I knew it was really not what I was meant to do.

So, I'd say about two years in I took, you know, I took the steps towards becoming a full-time artist and I did it, you know, in small steps until I, you know, finally realized that I could make a living out of it.

- Okay, so going back to when you were a young boy, you were always interested in art, you were always doodling or what?

- Yeah, you know, that's one of those funny things that, um, I have disagreement with a lotta people about, you know, "You have a God given talent", this and that, but I've literally been drawing, I love drawing, since I was four or five years old, as long as I can remember and drawing obsessively, that's all I ever wanted to do.

My family likes to tell a story, we, I was probably seven, eight years old, we went to Cancun and everyone is out on the beach playing.

My mom bought me a cool little sailboat at the gift shop- - [Christine] Mm-hm.

- And I was in the room drawing this little sailboat, you know?

(Christine laughing) So I don't know, I really have, I've had, I'm 34 years old, I've had almost 30 years of practice doing art, you know?

- That's crazy.

It's crazy.

Okay, so, now this, and we can't really see it right now but we'll get a close up in a minute, but this is, you have a lotta lines, angles and everything drawn on there and you did all that drawing by hand?

- Yeah, so, when I, the way my process starts is, and as you can see, I'm very into jazz, this is John Coltrane,- - Mm-hm.

- Is I'll sketch my image onto the wood block, after that I'll spray it with something to darkened the wood, that way I can see what I'm carving- - What your lines are, right.

- With contrast.

- Right.

- And the lines that I'm using now are really kind of, they're patterns, because I've finally realized how to create tonal value, darks and lights, grays, with lines the way you kinda see on a dollar bill- - Mm-hm.

- And so I thought to myself, "If I could do that with, you know, those wavy curvy lines, the contour lines, like you see on a dollar bill, you should be able to do it with any kind of line."

So, I've really been experimenting with doing, you know, these different, crazy patterns and I'm really liking the effect that it gets.

- And people have discovered you all over the world.

- Yeah.

Like I said, it's, I've had a strange, I've had a very fortunate career as an artist.

You know, the person who found me at SEMA, Peter, and then he ended up getting hired by another company, an international company, and he called me one day and asked me if I wanted to go to Saudi Arabia 'cause the, you know, the country, they wanted to promote their tourism 'cause they just recently opened and I was actually, me and one of my friends, were the first publicly displayed art in Saudi Arabia and we were one of the first tourists, as well.

So, they had this big automotive show and they used, again, all of our artwork to be all over the show to get kind of, you know, people excited for it.

I've also been to Japan several times and I've been to a lotta states in the United States traveling around with my car.

(laughing) - So, they bring you in to demonstrate what you're doing also or mostly for your signage and the artwork itself?

- Well, one of the perks, I think they might mainly want the imagery, but one of the perks that we get is we get to go there, display artwork and make sales, so- - Talk to people.

- Yeah, talk to people, make new connections.

So, one of the examples is when I did the SEMA show, there was a guy looking at one of my blocks and I talked to him and he's like, "Hey, could you do this on a guitar?"

and I was like, "Yeah, you know" and he's like, "Well, I'm the master builder at Fender."

He's like, "If I send you some guitar bodies, can you make it into guitar?"

I was like, "Yeah, of course I can."

So, I got to talking with him and we became friends and sent me some bodies and they actually unveiled the guitars at the NAMM Show which is a international show where, you know, distributors of Fender and all these other music companies come to look at new products.

- Mm-hm.

- Kinda like the SEMA Show- - Mm-hm.

- And, man, that guitar that I, the first guitar that I carved for them got, it was really well received and I think it actually ended up selling for somewhere around $75,000.

- [Christine] Whoa.

- Because they took the body back and created it into an actual guitar.

- [Christine] Crazy.

- Yeah.

(laughing) - Yeah and who would've thunk?

- Yeah, I wouldn't.

(Christine laughing) I didn't have a clue, that's that's crazy to me.

- Well, so what's been the most challenging discovery that you have made in all of the work that you've been able to do?

I mean, have you met any challenges?

Like, "Okay, gotta throw this on the burn pile."

- Right, yeah, there's been a lotta that, you know, with just because of the nature of this artwork, if you make a line somewhere, you chip a piece of wood off somewhere, you know, it's hard to fix that so you learn how to improvise.

I think the main thing that I've, the main accomplishment as an artist that I've really been proud of is to figure out how to use these funky lines here and turn 'em into an image.

You know, because, as I said before with the dollar bills, a lotta people know how to engrave and create those tonal values, but I think what's kind of, hopefully, setting me apart now, because as an artist I think that the more original you can be, the more things will come to you, the better your business will go, and that's why I've taken a lotta risks like this to create and learn more about tonal value.

- Mm-hm.

So, the interesting thing here is that you've carved out some things, you have a lotta lines here, you've already done the first print of the John Coltrane- - Mm-hm.

- But now you're going to add some other colors, tonal values, so you have to carve a lotta other stuff out that you've already done.

- Yeah, one of the, so, there's two ways to make a color print.

My whole, the beginning of my career, I would make basically just black and white, one step, you carve a wood block, then you print it.

(Christine laughing) Well, with a color print you can do it one of two ways.

You can either create separate wood blocks for each individual color, then you print those separate wood blocks on one sheet of paper and it creates the color image.

- [Christine] Mm-hm.

- The reason I don't do that is because there's a lot of, there's a lot of things that can go wrong.

Every wood block has to be exactly the same size, you're drawing all has to be exactly the same.

Lining it up everything- - Thickness, yeah, exactly.

- Yeah, everything.

- Yeah.

- Now, I do what's called a reduction woodcut.

They also call it a suicide cut (Christine laughing) and I'll tell you why in a second.

Um- - That sounds accurate.

(both laughing) - So, I carve out everything that I want at the beginning stages, I want, I carve everything out that I want to stay the color of the paper, which is white.

Now, after that, I'll print my first color.

Once I print my whole edition, I'm only making 10 of these, so I printed 10 of 'em, now that I have my whole first color laid down, whatever I carve out now, like say this background, it will stay that previous color.

- [Christine] Okay.

- It's kind of a confusing process, but basically the way, the reason they call it a reduction woodcut is because every time you add a new color, you're reducing your plate more and more.

- [Christine] Mm-hm.

- So, by the end of this whole process, you will not be able to go back and print your lighter colors because you take 'em away from your block.

- [Christine] Okay.

- Because when you roll ink on it, you're basically, like, say if I take this whole background away because I'm done with it, you know, I have to carve it away, that way my roller doesn't get on on it.

- Correct.

- So, at the end of the process and this upsets a lotta people, trust me, (laughing) (Christine laughing) because they see all this work I've done and then I just- - Then you chip away at it!

- Swipe it all the way, yeah.

- Right.

That would be, okay, so that's the suicide part.

(laughing) - Yeah, oh well, why they call it suicide is because, say, you get to your last color and you've printed 5, 6, 7 colors, if you ruin that part of the process, you can't go back and redo anything.

- [Christine] Start over.

- You've ruined your whole edition and you have to do the whole thing all over again.

- Have you had to do that often?

- Actually, I have not.

I've found creative ways of fixing problems.

I love wood working- - [Christine] Knock on wood.

(hand knocking) - So, I know how to patch things up, you know?

- [Christine] Mm-hm.

- So, it was, luckily I haven't had to, none of mine have been ruined.

(laughing) - That's incredible.

Well, so you went from doodling and doing all this stuff, then how exactly then did you get into the actual wood carving, I guess?

- Sure.

So, I went to college and I was actually a business major at first and then I realized I didn't- - [Christine] That wasn't for you, either.

- No, no.

(both laughing) It's funny 'cause I run a business now- (laughing) - Not right brain enough, yeah.

- But after I decided business wasn't for me, I just joined the art program.

I was like, "I don't care if I make money or not, I'm just gonna be an artist."

Right?

Well, I had taken all my core classes and my advisor sat down with me at one point and said, "Well, you can", you know, it was one of those meetings where he's like, "Oh, you gotta take more classes.

You can pick either pottery or printmaking."

I'm not really into pottery, nothing against it, but it wasn't me, so I was like, "Oh, I'll try out this printmaking, see what it is."

I learned printmaking in college and it was all kind of by happenstance and it's changed my life.

- Do they still teach it, printmaking, or- - Printmaking's actually making somewhat of a comeback.

They, a lotta the older people that I see at shows said they actually used to learn this in grade school.

You know, either they'd, like, carve a little potato out and make a potato print out of it- - [Christine] Right.

- Or carve linoleum, which is a lot easier.

But it's actually making like a comeback where there's a lotta art programs that do offer printmaking as a class and a major.

- Hmm.

So, how many of your type are out there right now do you think?

- Oh, boy, um, I don't know.

It's really hard to say but it's a fraction of pencil artists and painters.

You know, the things that you grow up learning how to do as an artist are, you know, are that type of thing.

When you have to use sharp tools, I think parents are a little more wary about, you know,- - You're telling me.

- Yeah.

(both laughing) - I'm bad with a nail clipper.

(laughing) - But it's definitely a fraction.

I would say if, for every painter out there, there's, or for all the painters out there, there's probably, I don't know, 5%, 3%, maybe, that are printmakers.

- Unbelievable.

Well, so you've made, you've done your first print of the John Coltrane or the first run, I guess.

- Mm-hm.

- And you're only doing 10, so that increases the value?

- Yes.

- And then where will you sell them?

They'll be on your website or how do people know about 'em?

- So, I'm in a very fortunate spot in my life where I did a lotta traveling around and I really got my name out there with the different opportunities that I have.

So, a lotta the promoting that I do is actually on social media, mainly on Instagram, and I've had a lotta success with it.

You know, artists, there's no handbook for how to become an artist, how you're gonna sell your stuff, and that's just something I've kind of had to learn along the way.

So, I have a website and you can purchase any of my prints there, it's oldschoolalex.com, but- - [Christine] Oldschoolalex.com.

- Yeah, that's right.

(laughing) - Okay, he said it really fast- - Sorry about that.

- So that you could hear it.

Okay, go ahead.

- But I'll, when I'm done with the piece, I'll promote it on Instagram and Facebook.

They, the tools they have there are pretty easy to target people who like jazz or cars or whatever, so I do a majority of my sales online and that's also one of the ways that people, you know, that I get commissioned work from companies or corporations or whatever is through them seeing these images and them just shooting me an email and seeing if I can do something for them.

- What do you like better?

I mean, this might put you on the spot too much- - No, no, this is an easy, this is an easy answer.

I absolutely like doing my own thing better and like I said before, I'm in a very fortunate spot where I have a following.

So, the people that follow me know that I'm into old stuff, old cars, old music, so, you know, I get a request for a lotta different types of musicians, but ultimately at the end of the day, I can create artwork that I love and I have complete control over it, which is why I like it better, (Christine laughing) and you know, my followers will buy it or people who newly discover me will buy it, so, and there's no middleman, you know.

When you do artwork for businesses, it gets very, you know- - Murky.

- Yeah, it's murky, so- - So, now you're using that little bit of business that you learned in college to apply to your own business- - Yes, absolutely.

- And you can do it, how many hours a day do you work on it?

- Well, I'm an early riser.

I wake up very early and I carve eight to 10 hours a day and that comes with a lotta different, you know, complications as well because carving is a physical thing.

Sitting down that long, you know,- - [Christine] Or standing up- - Standing- - Depending on what angle you have to- - Exactly.

So, I try to stay as healthy as I can.

The minute I cleaned up my diet, my hands stopped hurting.

So, just having to think about a lotta different things like that because I wanna do this for the rest of my life.

As I get old, you know, I want to continue to be healthy and have my hands work the way they should, the way they do now, so... - What's the biggest project that you've worked on so far?

- Big in scale?

- Yes.

- I would say the biggest one I did was for the Kremer racing team outta Germany.

They have a historic race car that I've always been really into.

It's a 935 K3 Porsche that has, its bright orange and it's been sponsored by Jagermeister forever.

- [Christine] Mm-hm.

- So, this historic race car, I, it's funny how a lotta these things work, I just took a chance and made this big print of it and I think it's probably eight, nine feet wide- - [Christine] Right.

- It's about three feet tall, it's a very big piece and after that- - You sent them the print just because?

- Well, they were actually supposed to send, this was all while the SEMA Show was going on.

- [Christine] Mm-hm.

- So, they were actually supposed to send, after I showed 'em what it was and how it was made they got, became very excited about it and they were supposed to send that historic race car into my booth at the SEMA Show so it could just be there displayed.

- [Christine] Whoa.

- What had happened though, was that, that car still races around at historic races and it in got a wreck.

- Oh!

- So, it had like extensive- - Damage, all right.

- Damage that they needed to repair, so couldn't make it, but I've made a lotta connections like that throughout my career where I just kind of follow my passion and then, you know, like.- - Again, serendipity.

- It just kinda works out, yeah.

- You have a lotta serendipity going on.

- I feel like my, yeah, a lotta my life has been like that and I'm very thankful.

(Christine laughing) So, I don't know,- - Wow.

- I just try to put good vibes out there and I, they kind of find their way to me, as well.

- Ooh, yeah.

(Alex laughing) Well, I'm seeing that this wood has several different kinda layers in it.

So, that helps you with your carving?

Do you have, you don't assemble the wood that way or do you?

- Well, actually I, this is actually something new that I've tried with John Coltrane because, like the wood on your table, most of the wood that I use is actual planks of wood, basswood or maple, that would get glued up and they would be planed so they're completely flat- - Mm-hm.

- But I wanted to try doing it on, this is actually, oh, I forget what kind of plywood it is, but it's, like, it's very nice plywood.

- Mm-hm.

- And the reason I like it is because it's very stable.

What happens with the form, how I used to do it, is wood naturally moves a little bit.

- Mm-hm.

- So, even though it's glued and it stays in a climate controlled environment, when you go to print it, there's, it warps just a little bit, so it ends up becoming harder to print.

- [Christine] Mm-hm.

- So, what I found out with this nice plywood is that it stays pretty flat because of all the different layers and the glue, it actually adds to the integrity of it, the way they line it up.

So, it's actually, it carves pretty nice and, you know, I'll use it for certain projects for sure 'cause it's just so easy to print.

- You just keep discovering and reinventing and inventing.

- I think that that's, as an artist, I think that's a crucial thing to do.

I know a lot of artists and seen a lot of artists who do the same thing over and over again and to each their own, that's great, but I really think with anything, if you wanna be good at it, you just have to continue to be a, like, always be a student.

Always learn new things and experiment and you know, you never know what you can get out of it.

- Mm-hm, and so you've done Miles Davis and now John Coltrane and who else do you have on your bucket list that you'd like to do and share with others?

- Well, I'm very into music, of course, but I think one of the next pieces I'm gonna do is of George Washington 'cause I'm really into history, as well, I love to read.

I've done a Abraham Lincoln piece and I think it's time to do our, you know, original, you know,- - Founding fathers.

- Commander in Chief, yeah.

So, I'm, I wanna do a piece about this size, George Washington on his horse or something like that, you know.

So, I- - So, this is all the bubbling in your brain right now?

- Yeah, it's processing right now.

I have kind of a idea of what I want it to look like, but the closer I get to finishing this up, the more seriously I'll take that, start sketching things out and it'll be a color print as well.

I've been, since I was a pencil artist my whole life, an illustrator, I've been very, my whole life I was very attracted to just black and white- - [Christine] Mm-hm.

- Which is why I did a lotta black and white prints when I was first- - Starting out.

- When I first started and now I'm really trying to experiment more with color, how to use it effectively and so I have a, my friend, Jim Owens, and I, he's a painter and he's an incredible painter.

Me and him get on the phone on, like, a FaceTime meeting every couple weeks, we help each other out 'cause he's a full-time artist and- - [Christine] And where is he?

- He's out of Mesa, Arizona.

- Hm.

- Yeah, now- - And he'll help you decide the colors that you need to use or?

- Well, not necessarily, but he's a person that I can bounce ideas off of and he can gimme a lotta resources as to, you know, why colors work better with others, you know?

So, it's, I would recommend to any artist out there to get an artist friend who doesn't do the same thing you do- - [Christine] Mm-hm.

- Because it's pretty incredible how much you can help each other out.

Me and him help each other out with business ideas, with artwork, you know, and really to keep each other motivated to continue this fight as a artist because it is not an easy one.

- How did you find him or how did he find you?

- I found him at a car show.

- (laughing) Imagine that.

- We were just one of those vendors there.

It's funny 'cause that we always joke about this, but we were all, we always said we were like a couple, like a bunch of carnies just meeting each other.

"Oh, hey, just saw you in a LA" Detroit, wherever it is, you know?

(both laughing) Yeah.

- Well, another, you know, I mean we're talking serendipity, that's what this segment needs to be called, "Serendipity".

(Alex laughing) What do you look forward to next?

Well, finishing this, other than this?

- Yeah, I think I just look forward to more opportunities.

I would really like to do things on a bigger scale.

I really like big pieces of art now and so I'm gonna continue to do my own thing until the right situation presents itself.

You know, I've, they have artwork like at airports, artwork's everywhere- - Mm-hm.

- And with printmaking, not a whole lotta people are doing it on a big scale the way I kinda have, so there's a lotta cool ideas I have to make, you know, one print that's 10 feet wide or whatever, become a entire long hallway, making that print with different colors or whatever.

So, I'm just kinda looking for or waiting for something to happen.

I do work hard every day and I create art and I have a business of selling my own art.

So, I don't know, we'll just see where it continues to take me.

- And each piece is signed, then?

- Each piece is signed and numbered.

So, like I said, there's only 10 of these, so it'll say 1 out of 10, 2 out of 20, it'll have the title on it and my signature and that's all that will ever be made of all these, they're all limited editions.

- Well, this is incredible that you've brought this old school technique back to life and then you brought it to Peoria, which is even better.

Central Illinois benefits.

- Thank you.

- So, thanks so much for being with us and sharing your story and the oldschoolalex or is it the realoldschoolalex?

- Well, on Instagram, I am @therealoldschoolalex.

- [Christine] Okay.

- And my website is just oldschoolalex.com.

- All right, perfect.

So, look him up if you're interested in seeing what he does and it's pretty fantastic.

So, thanks again for being with us.

Thank you, also, stay safe and healthy.

(upbeat music)