'Just Press Play' Residency at the Frans Masereel Centrum

After visiting Belgium, the land of chocolate, printmaking and beer, I feel like it may in fact be my unknown homeland!

I was part of group of printmakers from Concordia invited to design, and print a limited edition of artistic playing cards at the Frans Masereel Centrum this spring - 52 decks of 52 cards, each hand-printed at the Centrum in northern Belgium!

The project, called 'Just Print Play', was set up as a collaboration between Concordia University (by Mitch Mitchell) and the University of Georgia, with our team being responsible for the red half of the playing deck.

Arriving in Brussels to perfect weather, I walked around to admire the architecture - Belgium is beautiful!

Continuing to the Frans Masereel Centrum involved a train, a bus ride, and a short walk made much longer after losing a suitcase wheel to the beautiful-and-bumpy cobblestones of Brussels!

The Centrum is a giant round 1970's spaceship filled with intaglio presses, lithography and letterpress, while the resident artists stay in picturesque A-frame houses - with bikes!

 And the biggest surprise were the four resident miniature horses - one of the AMAZING perks of each morning is visiting the horses with carrots!!!