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Tall Poppy Interview: Jeremy Wilson of Popfuel
Marc Lostracco may have been the brains behind the design of Torontoist’s TTC-themed shirts but Jeremy Wilson of Popfuel was the brawn behind of their glorious manufacture. His co-op screenprinting studio holds workshops for beginners, provides an affordable and aesthetically-pleasing alternative to Kinko’s concert posters, and promotes screenprinting as a noble art rather than an industrial process.
Not bad for a weekend hobby.
Torontoist: So what is Popfuel?
Jeremy: Popfuel is a membership-supported screenprinting studio. It’s aimed at students and independent artists who don’t have access to facilities themselves, so the price of membership is kept low. You can become a full member and get 24/7 access to the studio whenever you want for $295 annually.
If someone doesn’t want to make that kind of commitment, they can take a weekend workshop for $150, which includes all materials. You usually get three t-shirts and 50 posters by the end of the day. That’s enough for most people in terms of general interest.
What kind of facilities do you have?
I have several presses, we can do emulsions, and I’ve set up a computer pre-press system. All things you can’t do in your bathroom.
What do you hope to achieve with the studio?
Basically, create more screenprinters. Screenprinting is a very old process but it’s always been thought of as very industrial. It isn’t given the same level of importance as painting or sculpting, or even other kinds of printmaking, because it’s used for making car dashboards or for printing election signs. Then Andy Warhol introduced people to the idea that screen-printing could be fine art. This is an extension of that.
You’ve been doing a lot of work recently with the indie music scene, making posters for local bands and even for The Decemberists.
Yeah, I’m trying to encourage bands to have screen-printed posters which are both promotional and can be sold at shows as merchandise. In other cities like New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco, concert posters are a big thing. There are many artists in every one of those cities that are fighting over screen-printing jobs from various clubs and concert venues, but in Toronto that doesn’t exist. At a merch table, the band might have a CD or a t-shirt but they won’t have a poster. You can charge $20-30 for a poster at a show down in the states but if I charge $20 at a Toronto show, people won’t pay it. Even at $5, it can sometimes be a stretch.
Are you the only membership-supported studio in the city?
No, there’s also Openstudio, but their fees are on the higher end ($1600/year + studio and material fees). They tend to support the “fine art” idea of studio printmaking, where making gig posters would be kind of frowned upon. I provide a studio space for a quarter of the price with no additional fees to use the facility, and I don’t have any artistic pretensions.
I actually haven’t been to Openstudio, but from what I’ve learned from talking to their members, their equipment is about on-par with mine. I also give classes, so it’s a little more open and friendly.
I heard you have other non-screenprinting related equipment in the studio.
Yes, I have a pinball machine, and “The Mystery Machine”, a mid-70’s vintage Coke machine that I filled up with completely random cans. So for 75 cents you can pick any button on it and will never know what is going to come out. It could be a Coke, but it might also be Asian duck soup or some other foreign-language pop make out of kiwis, or a beer. I basically cleaned out every Asian supermarket in Toronto of anything the size of a Coke can.
People have gotten some really interesting stuff out of it. And it’s a good value, you know? For 75 cents, you might get $2.75 worth of beer.
What kind of beer?
Old Milwaukee and Labatt 50. So, you know, I went really high-brow with the beer as well.
Popfuel is at 444 Dufferin St., right around the corner from the Gladstone Hotel, which is a pretty cool area nowadays.
Yeah, I lucked out on that. The studio is open 24 hours, but it’s unsupervised. For people’s safety, there are security cameras and the doors have a keypad. When you sign up as a member, you pick a 6 digit code, but it only works when you go to the studio web-calendar and book blocks of time. You only have access during that time period.
Cool! How did you do that?
I’m a professional computer nerd. I’m paid to know these things.
It’s not a bad party space to have a party.
Well, it’s filled with equipment and up a couple flights of stairs in a ghetto building, but it might appeal to some. I might have a fundraising party and have bands in, because I can move things around to make people fit. But mostly, I’m trying to concentrate on having member and having them make shit.
So what you’re saying is that Popfuel is a studio first before it’s a lifestyle.
Toronto has lots of lifestyle already, but I’m very results-oriented person. It’s one thing to be cool, but it’s another thing to say “I produced this”. Actually making stuff, rather than just talking about it.
You’re something of a noted Toronto internet personality…
I prefer the term “infamous”.
Most Torontoist readers are involved in the local online community, which is actually quite large and well-established. You moderate the Toronto Livejournal community and know a lot of people via the internet. With a project like this coming from a Toronto internet celebrity, has it been easier to encourage membership from the trendy webgeek crowd?
The online presence of the studio itself has helped in getting the word out. The majority of new members come from ads I put up on Akimbo, an arts mailing list that has over 5000 members. Craigslist, Stillepost, and the Toronto LJ community have all lead to interest, mostly for workshops. We’re up to almost 40 members since May, which is a fair number.
Are you close at all to covering your startup costs?
Oh, god no. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to recover the opening costs. Right now, my main goal is just paying the rent. As long as I can pay the rent, I’m perfectly happy with that.
It’s a labour of love rather than a business for profit.
I was never under any illusion that this would be anything that would make me a millionaire. Breaking even would be the best result.
Photos courtesy of Jeremy Wilson, who will be holding screenprinting workshops on Saturday November 11 and Sunday November 12.