Tell us a little about yourself - what'll you have available to pick up at AZF '15?
SW: Mystic Multiples is a Houston letterpress and risography print shop. We do commercial jobs and quite a lot of art prints, comix, and zine publishing. James Beard is the fearless founder / master printer and Sarah Welch is the artist / printshop lackey.
The hot new newness for this year is the third installment of the Endless Monsoon series, Only Humid. I spent a good chunk of summer 2015 making this book, and then making an art exhibition about the book, so I’m very excited to share it!
Our other new, very exciting thing is the Brackish zine and Brackish Box Sets. This project was a collaborative effort between myself and Houston artist, Katie Mulholland. Brackish images the past, present, and invented future of the Houston landscape. The book features local and invasive flora & fauna, architecture, interior spaces, city infrastructure, industry, and residential vignettes. Special attention is lavished on locations with ancient, sometimes futuristic presence. Think 2001: A Space Odyssey meets Jurassic Park. The zine is great, the box set is even greater and comes with three risograph-ed prints and one amazing letterpress Mossman print by Katie Mulholland.
As always, we're gonna have lots of fun riso art prints. A new 11 X 17 riso poster that is a riff on t-shirt my brother once owned. All sorts.
What zines / books / printed materials have you picked up recently? Any favorites we should be also reading?
SW: I like Leah Wishnia’s anthology, HAPPINESS. Wishnia is based in NY, but does this book with artists and comix-creators from all over the US and probably beyond. I think that’s the last extremely impactful thing I’ve purchased. And of course there’s Rough House, which I picked up when they were down tabling at Menil...that really set my brain on fire.
JB: I’ve gotten majorly behind with collecting cool prints, but keep my ‘virtual’ collection running by checking in on Issue Press and Colour Code Printing for amazing Riso work.
100% must see Austin recommendations for our out of towner folks?
SW: I grew up in Austin so this is an impossible question to answer without sounding like a jaded, bemoaning townie, haha. Barton Springs still exists and it’s still beautiful, so I’ll throw that out there. As far as Houston goes, there are more art museums, galleries, and alternative arts spaces than you can shake a stick at: The Menil, The Museum of Fine Arts Houston, CAMH (Contemporary Art Museum Houston), Alabama Song, Gallery Homeland, Project Row Houses, Box13 Artspace, Art League, Diverse Works, and too many others to list here. For food in Houston, I recommend Hot Bagel, Christie’s, Black Hole, Tacos Tierra Caliente, Chapultepec, Les Givral’s, and House of Pies for the pie. James will say Villas Arcos, but I’m just not sold on the extreme crunchy bacon yet.
JB: I lived in Austin for a spell, and still really enjoy the South Congress Cafe’s brunch service. But you can’t go wrong with the Houston recommendations that Sarah listed out above!
Where can we find you online?
mysticmultiples.com
sarahwelch.info
insta: mysticmultiples
sarahwelch_shaped
