All photographs © 2007 Jason Kaczorowski
Still riding the high from his birthday, Pollock set off early in the morning to tackle the first pass of his second color of Blue.
Many fans recall seeing Pollock print portions of his first pass of red both Friday at his open studio show and Sunday during his appearance at the Flatstock 13 poster convention in Chicago’s Union Park at the Pitchfork Music Festival. What many don’t know is that the entire run of approximately 75 prints was actually left behind mistakenly at the studio during late night, last minute packing and so Pollock was forced to print all 100 prints on property at the event. What some also don’t realize is that since the dimensions of the press aren’t compatible with the format of the stock, not to mention his bookbinding press was never originally intended for producing posters, he is required to guide each stamping through the press a minimum of 4 times. If the ink doesn’t lie properly in some spots, reapplying is required and the process can last up to 6-8 more times before only laying a single color to dry. Multiply that by two for the number of colors and then by 100 based on the edition and you begin to see the fascination collectors felt standing around watching Pollock toil over his craft. To produce the run of only 100 posters, the artist had to design and carve the two linoleum blocks which took upwards of one week alone. Given the first pressing that was accidentally left in Chicago upon departure, Pollock intensely labored over the project screwing that antique crank of his cast iron bookbinding press up and down over 2,000 times. It was no wonder collectors bought up every print he released immediately and the first one to hit the eBay’s aftermarket (during the actual festival run no less) sold for nearly 10 times its original price. The last time Pollock printed on site at a music festival was ten years prior at the band Phish’s “Great Went” festival in Limestone, Maine. The highest recorded sale for a Pollock hand-pressed poster produced on-site with his similar signature robot theme at the Great Went (according to expressobeans.com) is $6,600.00, sold on February 1st, 2001. Currently that poster, which is also produced in a limited edition of only 100, currently averages $5,443.73 in the auction aftermarket. Pollock’s other poster produced at that event, the infamous Great Went “Walking Fish”, currently averages at $4,840.62, again with only 100 produced on-site.
The booth was abuzz all day with excited investors returning to see the final color laid on paper. Though the original marker rendered artwork was on display, the final product had not been produced yet and folks were honestly purchasing merely on speculation and what had been created from the first block during the original sale Wednesday.
Pollock had his own share of celebrity appearances at the booth over the weekend. Thursday saw visits from members of The Grasshoppers, Mr. Blotto and Wookiefoot.
After brisk sales all afternoon, I savored the thought of sneaking away to photograph the evening's Main Stage headlining performance of Chicago’s Umphrey’s McGee and a late night set from 11:30pm until 1:30am featuring the Disco Biscuits on the opposite Field Stage. Alas we unfortunately made it back to the R.V. just in time to stash some stock and catch the last few notes of Zappa Plays Zappa set from 6-8:30. After tossing on a hooded sweatshirt and making my way through a maze of backstage barricades, I was soon standing in the pit with seasoned journalists, bloggers armed only with point-and-shoot cameras and professional photographers capturing the energy in the air within a few feet of performers above on pedestals.
Umphrey’s McGee projected an all-out assault on everyone’s senses, tearing through over 2 hours of material in one intense set. After seeing the band since 1998, this might possibly been the most determined I’ve heard the band perform. For fans in the know, their setlist featured:
Utopian Fir > 40's Theme, Divisions > Plunger > "Jimmy Stewart" > Plunger, JaJunk, Intentions Clear > "Jimmy Stewart" > Making Flippy Floppy > Glory > Divisions
Their encore of “Nemo” into “Wizard Burial Ground” and back into “Nemo” left people staggering away that night only to be battered back into a musical oblivion by the Disco Biscuits who’ve toured consistently with the boys from Umphrey’s McGee recently on their Trancegression 2007 Festival. The two acts are respectively at the top of their genre and bring their A Game to the stage with every performance. And while we're on the subject, Pollock produced limited edition posters and handbills for both acts New Year’s Eve shows this past season.
I met journalist Brian Heisler and freelance photographer Tobin Voggesser in the VIP skybox during the latter portion of the Umphrey’s McGee set. Heisler took his opportunity seriously and was sharply honed on the action exploding from the stage. Heisler, a career Research Analyst who has been seeing Umphrey’s for nearly a decade like myself, was as impressed as I at their growth and energy on the stage this evening. Tobin Voggesser and I talked shop about photographing acts on tour and he was eager to capture the lights shining from the stage later that evening from the Disco Biscuits. I met up with Pollock who had been intermingling through the lawn section and introduced him to Tobin and Brian who immediately scheduled an interview for the following morning at the booth intended to appear on jambase.com.
A raucous evening with the Biscuits featured crowd pleasing favorites such as “Save The Robots”, “Svenghali” and a truly bizarre escape from “Crickets” into “Bazaar Escape” back into “Crickets” into “Orch Theme”.
I was walking away from the front of the stage to capture some views of the band from behind their audience when they pitched into their popular jam “Caterpillar”. Nearly an hour later after emerging from a food stand nourished and about ready to get some rest, the band was segueing back into the tune, closing the set with “Story of the World” and a powerful encore of “Highwire”.
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