THE ARGOSY: Published on September 22nd, 2009 - Vol. 139, Issue 3
What a (KG) riot! - Arts and Souls: spotlight on artists - By Vivi Reich

While most people screen their calls, Kallie Garcia screens clothes in her apartment – silkscreens, that is.
Garcia, a second-year fine arts student, attended a silkscreening workshop about five years ago, where she fell fast in love with the art. Thereafter, she periodically showed up at a silkscreener's studio to ask questions. One day, the woman needed to take out the trash, so Garcia volunteered. This was the start of a free learning opportunity for Garcia, who cleaned the artist's apartment in exchange for studio time. She printed yards and yards of silk screen, adding hours of experience to her study.
 
With this experience behind her, she has started her own clothing line, which she calls KG Riot. Over the past five years, she honed her 'ghetto-style' technique, as she laughingly puts it. This past summer, she cycled to festivals where she sold her clothing from a 'modern-day gypsy booth.' She also sold $90 worth of clothing at the START student art sale, and printed her own clothing to sell at the student art sale in Tweedie Hall at the end of the winter semester in 2009. In addition, the 'Do of the Week' of last week's Argosy featured a dress printed by Garcia.

To start, she photocopies an image or draws her own on vellum, mylar, or acetate. She puts together a screen by attaching a silk screen to a wooden frame. The screen is soaked in photo-sensitive emulsion, making the paper light-sensitive. The image is shone onto the screen so that it is burned into the silk – anything in the original picture that was white turns black, and vice versa, much like a photo negative. After a screen is made, the process is surprisingly quick. Garcia, using white lingerie that she buys at thrift stores, such as the Salvation Army, soaks garments in dye with hot water in her kitchen sink. She keeps the garments dry before dyeing.

“I like the patterns the dye creates when you do it dry,” she says, poking a slip that was once white in dark purple dye with a wooden spoon. Why lingerie? “It's cheap and easy to dye” is her answer. After the image has been burned on the screen and the garments are dry, she spreads ink across the screen so that it filters through onto the garment. An image is then left on the cloth. Garcia's pieces are normally worn under a shirt with a belt like a dress, or over pants or a skirt. She also prints her own skirts, vests, dresses, and long-sleeved shirts. A “lace connoisseur,” she knows what kinds of lace will dye the best.

When looking for an apartment, she has to have a bathtub so that she can rinse her screens afterwards, though when making prints in the summer while living with her parents, she used coolers, as her mother was 'having an aneurism' about her using the bathtub. In terms of prints, Garcia currently has sixty-four that she rotates. “Anything I like,” she comments, “I collect it and make it into a print […] I really like anatomy books.”

She also traces from animal dictionaries. Most images have meaning for her, or tell a story. For example, she missed the city pigeons when she moved, so she printed city hawks. Because her father plays harmonica, she has a print of a harmonica. She even has an image of a deer against a starry background. Her motivation for this print is: 'I want to name my kid Aurora Borealis.'

Other images include famous composers, pigeons, cats, a reoccurring beaver, flowers, and armadillos. A unique print that Garcia is proud of includes tickets from Toronto public transportation in a repeated pattern. Not to mention the print of Madonna on the Playboy cover in 1983. Garcia tells the story of Madonna as the 'last stapled' star – readers of the magazine complained about the stapled centerfolds because if they tore them out, the paper was left with small holes. The magazine changed their method of binding in 1983 after Madonna's appearance. These unique prints are done completely domestically, and are an apparently diverse and transportable art. You never know – in a place like Sackville with such a rich artistic culture, your own neighbour might be creating amazing pieces in their apartment or house, just like Kallie Garcia.
THE ARGOSY: Sept.22/09 - Vol.139, Issue 3 - By Vivi Reich