The Poetry of Living had an opportunity to sit with photographer/artist Dan Monick recently to discuss Fathersons Press, his zine imprint which has been kicking much ass of late. A new zine drops every 3rd Friday of the month and follows the F/S credo of 20 (5.5” x 8.5”) staple-bound copies / 20 pages / 5 bucks. Holding true to old school form, Monick also stresses that each zine be copied on a home machine from a master that has been created with text, writing and images that have been cut, taped or glued to the page. In other words, these limited edition artifacts are organically conceived & devoid of any “new school” digital manipulation. Established in 2012 by Monick and Anthony Anzalone, just a few of the artists, photographers and illustrators who have released work on Fathersons include: Aaron Farley, Alice Baxley & Ryan Baxley, Ibra Ake, Zoe Zag, Cali Thornhill De Witt, Sarah Soquel Morhaim, Sage Vaughn, Chrissy Piper and the late Justin Van Hoy.
An unexpected deviation for Fathersons has been the lavishly produced (grey linen wrapped) hard cover book “Lord God” from photographer Bryan Sheffield which was unveiled at the recent LA Art Book Fair in Los Angeles. The monograph features 61 color photographs of trees captured at night and is limited to an edition of 500 copies. Monick’s hope is to offer more hard cover releases in the future.
As an adjunct to Fathersons Press, this year Monick has also begun curating art events in the front space of his Atwater, CA-based studio. (Dan is no stranger to such things, as he was one of the original partners in Highland Park’s legendary, though now defunct, THIS Gallery). In April, the F/S space featured “Cash Machine,” a group show curated by Dan along with Aaron Freshour, Delia Sweeney, and Pascale Georgiev. The highly ambitious undertaking featured over 100 artists all displaying anonymously and offered at a uniform price of $99.99. (Oh, and the curators also saw fit to completely transform the space into a mini bodega!) The “Cash Machine” concept will continue to evolve over time. The next event under the banner is slated for July 16th from 6-9pm (“ATWATERWORLD”) featuring artist Aaron Farley .
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