FTP setup video
How does the latest technology get to San Miguel? By the magic of chance.

Two years ago New York artist Jod Lourie returned to San Miguel for the first time since the ‘70’s just for a vacation and a quick look-see. One day choosing an out-of-the-way table at La Gruta she ran into an old friend, a Boston art dealer who introduced her to photographer Ri Anderson.  With only days left in her stay and without in the least intending to, Lourie bought a house on Calle Beneficiencia.  The few words she exchanged with Anderson at La Gruta have blossomed into a friendship and a partnership -- the two women have joined forces to create San Antonio Studios which specializes in large scale and giclee printing using a 44” inch  printer, the biggest in San Miguel.

Jod Lourie who has degrees from Columbia University and Boston Museum School, has been artist-in-residence in Padua, Italy and at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France. She creates composite prints of southwestern and Mexican landscape imagery. She also designs furniture and has created sculptural installations in buildings and parks in the United States. Her work is shown in print and studio furniture galleries in New York, Los Angles, Miami, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Award-winning photographer, Ri Anderson received her Master of Fine Arts at Massachusetts College of Art, and has lectured at Harvard, Massachusetts College of Art, and Tufts. Included in the Permanent Collection of the DeCordova Museum, Anderson’s work shows in galleries in Boston, New York, Atlanta and Ottawa, and has been described in the Boston Globe:

“…her black-and-white images have had a film-noir edge and a persistent, bruised vulnerability….in her [newer work] she’s moved into color to explore the depth and rawness of mother-daughter relationships, focusing on the women in her own family. The photos have a potent, fairy-tale mix of succor and threat.”

Living with artist Larimer Richards and their two daughters, age 5 and 2, she divides her time among San Miguel, Pozos, and Cambridge.

Using a 44” inch giclee printer, Lourie and Anderson are able to create luscious prints on photo, watercolor, and fine art paper, as well as materials including canvas and silk. Best of all, the inks and papers are archival, and will last between 100 and 200 years without fading.

Their studio is located at 35 Refugio Sur above Lavinia’s Frame Shop. The printing studio and the frame shop will enjoy a symbiotic relationship where artists and art lovers may drop off files and pick up beautifully printed and framed treasures.

Those artists and art lovers are invited to a party that is being co-hosted by San Antonio Studios and Lavinia’s Frame Shop on Tuesday April 8 from 6-8 PM. 35 Refugio Sur. Colonia San Antonio (154-5645).

Richard Lourie, a columnist for The Moscow Times, is the author of a new novel, A Hatred For Tulips.