April 10, 2017

Meet Tony Clough and Trina Faundeen of Serio Press Fine Art Editions in Pasadena

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tony Clough and Trina Faundeen.

Tony & Trina, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Tony – After graduating from Westwood College with a BS in Graphic Design, I worked at a renowned LA print studio called Modern Multiples for seven years. I started off as a studio assistant, but by the time I was unexpectedly laid off in 2013, I had managed and hand printed hundreds of fine art print editions for artists, publishers, and galleries. I knew I had the skills and knowledge to run projects on my own, so I started accepting jobs at a 300-sq. ft. subleased art studio in Boyle Heights. I custom designed a printing table, bought a drying rack and started getting calls from clients immediately. My goal was to raise enough money to sustain myself and my new company, as well as buy more equipment and move to a larger studio. Within six months, I was in a new 1,000 sq. ft. studio in El Sereno working together with another long-time printmaker, John Miner. By 2015, I was in a 2,200-sq. ft. studio in South Central LA.

Trina – When Tony and I met in 2011, I was finishing my BA in Art at the University of Texas at San Antonio. I was taking a screen printing class, and met the owner of Modern Multiples, Richard Duardo, when he came to do a demo for our class. I was an older student, having taken off quite a few years to work while I figured out what I wanted to study, and I became friends with Richard, assisting him whenever he came into town. I came to Los Angeles to work at Modern Multiples during breaks from school, and though Tony and I didn’t talk much the first time I visited, we eventually became good friends. and started dating in May 2012. We went from having a long-distance relationship to moving in together when I moved here in October after graduation. Ideally, we would have lived in separate places, but the financial reasons for sharing an apartment were very real. We worked together at Modern Multiples, managing all the contract print projects until 2013.

At the time that I left in 2013, Tony was still working at Modern Multiples. As we had no idea that Tony would soon be starting his own company a few months later, I found employment managing an art store on the west side. Two years later, in 2016, we made the decision to team up once again, and focus solely on Serio Press. Tony had reached the limit of what he could manage by himself. After I started working with Tony at the South-Central LA studio, we realized that we wanted to expand even further. We found the perfect spot for us in Pasadena, right across from the new Art Center building. Now that we are settling in to our new location, we are focusing on training new employees so we can take on more work and increase our publishing projects.

Richard passed away shortly after Tony left Modern Multiples. He played a key role in both our lives, as we would not have met each other without him. He was a huge supporter of the arts, and the things we learned from him are integral to our business today.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Tony – When I was first laid off, I was very concerned about my next step. I had to make a big decision: either find a job or create my own job. The biggest motivator for me was the idea of being self-sustainable. Trying to build a studio from practically nothing, and acquiring much needed equipment piecemeal was a struggle. I wanted to avoid taking out loans, so I sold some artwork, and started with a total of $9,000 as seed money.

Before I had all the equipment I needed to prepare screens in house, Shepard Fairey was kind enough to offer his facility whenever I needed. I showed up there once or twice a week with donuts and breakfast sandwiches for the employees,

Trina – We face the same challenges as many other small business in Los Angeles. The rents here are high, and our margins are low. Many creative professionals are priced out of developing artist districts, so there is a constant lookout for decent studio spaces.

There is also the challenge of working with your significant other. We are always around each other, so we’ve had to learn how to communicate without taking things personally. Some days are not the best, but we both work hard to overcome differences in communication styles. We do know a lot of couples who work together though, with the same structure as we have- with the woman almost always in the organizing/managing role – so it’s a comfort to know that we’re not the only crazy ones doing it and making it work.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
We specialize in hand printed fine art silkscreen prints and print editions of medium to large format sizes on various flat substrates, though we mostly work with 100% cotton fine art paper. We work with local, national, and international contemporary artists, galleries, and publishers to create very high quality, collectible fine art prints, using archival materials.

Print editions are a great way for collectors to own artwork from artists who they might not normally be able to afford, being more affordable than original art pieces. Even though there are multiple prints with the same image within an edition, each print is handmade, using hand mixed colors, with each color printed separately, so each edition becomes a piece of art that can be shared by collectors. There is a certain vibrancy and tactile quality to the ink being laid on to the substrate that we feel cannot be reproduced digitally.

What a lot of people don’t realize, is that screen printing is actually an old and traditional form of printmaking, but due to its accessibility and versatility, many people associate it with t-shirt printing. There are a lot of different types of screen printers out there – commercial screen printers, t-shirt printers, semi-automatic machine poster printers, and even other screen printers who do hand pulled art prints like we do, though we don’t know very many other companies that have full in house capabilities. We have a full-service large studio facility that is ready to be utilized by artists of any caliber.

Tony has had a decade worth of experience. Each new project comes with its own unique problems to overcome, and printing every day for ten years meeting various artists’ needs, has given him a certain advantage over others with less hands-on experience. We hold ourselves to extremely high standards, always pushing ourselves to make the extra effort, instead of letting small things slide.

What were you like growing up?
Tony – I’m a proud Midwestern transplant from Fort Wayne, Indiana. I grew up with a fair amount of work ethic and haven’t been jobless since I as old enough to work. I grew up playing all the normal sports (mostly because I was a little bit freakishly tall) and loved drawing and painting. Art class was always the highlight of my day in school.

I definitely wasn’t the world’s best communicator while growing up. I really cherished time spent alone working on projects and letting my mind wander. Indiana was a pretty low key place so it was a bit of a shock when I first moved to Los Angeles in 2003. It was really eye opening showing up and getting to know a city of this size. I still feel like I’m getting to know LA constantly.

Trina – I’ve always been a jack of all trades and been interested in everything. Growing up, I spent an equal amount of time reading as being outside, playing violin as playing sports. Everything I did, I wanted to be the best, and I actually had some amazing experiences due to my varied interests. I was very strongly oriented to both science and math, as well as art and music, so it was difficult for me to choose what to focus my energy on. I went through a bit of a process to get to where I am now, because I spent most high school taking advanced science and math classes, but realizing my first year of college that I might not actually want to go to med school after all. It took me a while to discover that my personality is more suited to creative fields.

It’s also always been very important to me to be self-reliant. I remember going out of my way to learn how to do things that were traditionally masculine skills, specifically because I never wanted to have to wait around for a guy to do things for me when I got older. I’ve been asked, “Why don’t you have a man do that for you?” more than once in my life. I love the feeling of accomplishment I get when I fix something by myself.

Any announcement?
We recently started a publishing program called Three Sheets Editions. Our mission is to invite artists to explore possibilities which would normally be overlooked in silk screen printmaking, expanding the boundaries of what is possible. We open our professional art studio facilities to multiple types of creative processes, incorporating different mediums and substrates into the final edition. The aim is to make editions that intrigue viewers, while simultaneously education of the production process. You can check out more at http://3sheetseditions.com/

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