Big Tuna Returns to Nashville

Join us for the fourth Nashville installment of really big printing, facilitated by the really big press, called The Big Tuna, owned and operated by our fellow inky-hearted maker, Lyell Castonguay, also known as BIG INK. It will be a weekend of monumental woodblock printing at Hatch Show Print October 25 and 26.

BIG INK will transform Haley Gallery into a print studio featuring The Big Tuna: a custom-designed giant mobile press. Visitors to the building can witness the spectacle of participating printmakers working together to produce large prints from the wood blocks they’ve carved ahead of time.

For the printmakers, the event blends elements of a formal class and a maker fair. It’s a fun way to expand their skill set, meet other artists, and engage with the public. If you are curious about the process of relief printmaking, stop in during the day to see the artists in action and ask them about the process.

If you would like to participate, you have until August 8 to commit yourself to an inky-good time in October in Nashville. For more information about signing up to carve a block and print with Lyell and Big Tuna, visit the BIG INK website.

This event is facilitated and run by BIG INK, founded in 2012 by Lyell Castonguay and Carand Burnet. The duo wanted to foster a community of printmakers who make large woodblock prints. Since then, they’ve traveled the country nearly every year to provide an opportunity for artists to work at a very large scale, using Big Tuna, a giant mobile printing press.