Register now for workshops at the AS220 Printshop — silkscreen, letterpress, book arts — and room is still available for Introduction to Offset Printing, starting October 5th with instructor Jacque Bidon. Colorful zines, single-page artists’ books, posters, and flyers can all be created in large quantities using the printshop’s offset press.
Mr. Bidon is seen here with his “baby,” also named Jacque. This avatar, the work of artist Walker Mettling, has been following me around for some time now, popping up in posters and windows. Ultimately some mysterious force led me to the AS220 Open House earlier this month where I met Mr. Bidon and his offset press, and where the Jacque Origin Story was revealed (see below: “Jacque’s Baby Marries for Love”). What does this all mean?
As for Mr. Bidon, ink and solvent flow through his veins; he has been printing his entire life.
Jacque Bidon is a commercial printer who left the world cutthroat deadlines and designers to work with artists sharing his love of offset printing. Have a project that you want to see happen? Jacque is the guy with a career of commercial printing to draw upon for solutions.
Artist and printmaker Walker Mettling provides the touching backstory of how Jacque Bidon gave birth to Little Jacque.
[It had been originally reported that Mr. Mettling had written the backstory, but he wrote to tell us that the “story was written by Maria Anderson, a printshop member who later moved to Laramie Wy.” He just wanted to make sure the correct person was given credit. BC]
“Jacque’s Baby Marries for Love”
There has only ever been one known case of a man giving birth to a machine.
What Jacque didn’t know when he became pregnant for the first and final time was that his baby would be bigger than he was.
Jacque was into some stuff back then that he couldn’t quit, not even for pregnancy, like wiping his arms and stomach and legs with a cleaning product called Kansas wash. When his dealer ran out, he tried Ohio and Delaware wash, but these didn’t cut it.
Soon someone introduced him to California wash. That was the stuff!When he was pregnant, Jacque had cravings. He was hormonal.
What he craved most was tallboys of Arizona iced tea.
When he was pregnant, Jacque drank so many cans of iced tea that the baby got hooked on it too.He sobbed every morning, tears making his face shine like a good varnish. It was the hormones.
My kid’s never going to do math, or science, Jacque said. He’s going to do color! He’s going to do varnish. He’s going to marry for love!
While pregnant, Jacque watched Ren and Stimpy. He identified most with the emotionally unstable Chihuahua and would start crying when the theme music came on. He’d watch Boy Meets World and dream of Topenga coming to rub his stomach. “It’s kicking,” she’d say, smacking her gum.
He built a crib for the baby from the Arizona iced tea cans and stuck them together with the gum Topenga took from her mouth and gave to him in his dreams. The baby didn’t like the crib, though, and preferred sitting a dark corner like it was plotting something.
All Jacque knew was, his kid, his offset, his baby, his baby was doing color, all the colors, and his baby, his baby was marrying for love.
(Other workshops click here.)
