Nov 20, 2013
Crosshair, Chicago.
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Crosshair, Chicago.
Primavera 2012
You don't want me to sing? Ok wait...
Hi my names Dan McAdam and I run Crosshair screen printing in Chicago and I do photorealist screen prints and this is by Willy Nelson…
(full song to follow!)
That was really nice, I think you should quit all this and get on that stage up there! What really interests me is your printing technique, I've never seen this before, is this method something you have come up with?
I have come up with my own particular way of colour separations, there are certainly other people who do similar things, probably more efficiently than I have and with more theory behind it, but this is the DIY way that I have stumbled upon. It typically involves a lot of transparent overlays, lighter colours with some transparent printing over a darker colour to produce a thirds tone so when you have a palette of 5, 6 or 7 colours, you can get all these secondary colours and the idea with screen printing to always be efficient. If im going to the trouble of printing a lot of colours, I want to get any extras I can in and it really comes down to planning. I start with limiting myself to a certain amount of variables, I'll confine myself to a palette of 7 colours and figuring out what the most efficient use I can make of those to best simulate something thats full colour, but isn't really.
Do you do all the printing yourself?
I do yes.
Tell me a little about your background, did you study art?
Oh no, I studied economics and instead of an economist Im now a poster maker and i think i would be miserable if i was an economist, instead of wearing a suit and telling people things they don't want to hear, now i get to go to Barcelona and go to poster shows! Im also a printer of other peoples work and i think thats a lot of what makes Crosshair viable is the significant portion of the work i do is purely production of clients.
Are the photos you take for your posters based around Chicago?
A lot of them are based around Chicago but they are form a lot of other places too, pictures represented here have been taken in Chicago, in Germany, in Scotland, in Kentucky, in California, all over. I try to keep the camera with me and im always looking for subjects that have the potential to turn into prints
When did you realise you wanted to do screen printing full time?
Its been quite a while now, we started Crosshair in 1995, so since that point.
So whats after Barcelona, whats next?
Well im going to do another Codeine poster thats going to be a collaboration with another couple of artists from Chicago who go under the name Sonnenzimmer and Im very excited about that because I love the band Codeine for whom I did the Primavera poster and also im just in awe of Sonnenzimmer and really looking forward to the opportunity to collaborate with them, going to do something for Mogwai and Im responsible for organising the Chicago Flatstock so thats going to be a time consuming couple of weeks.
What other festivals are you showing at?
Well Flatstock is at Pitchfork Chicago, which is only 2 blocks from my studio so I can walk there then its Flatstock Europe in Hamburg again in September plus another solo show somewhere that I can't remember because im not the best self promoter but there will be plenty of opportunity to see my work at shows or on the Crosshair website.
Crosshairchicago.com