Across the street from the old Amway Center downtown, tucked inside an institutional-looking brick building, an unobtrusive printing operation with a big reputation is quietly turning out some unique items. Flying Horse Editions, a 20-year-old nonprofit that publishes limited-edition art objects and fine-art books, is located here in the University of Central Florida\u2019s Center for Emerging Media.<\/p>\n
Flying Horse uses both vintage printmaking tools \u2013 such as a centuries-old hand-operated letterpress machines \u2013 and digital technology to create highly \u2028collectible reproductions of images created by renowned artists.<\/p>\n
Though the operation has been around for a couple of decades, few people in town are aware of Flying Horse\u2019s growing prestige in the art world. Last year, it moved downtown from its long-time location at the Central Florida Research Park on the east side of the city; the move could help raise the small press\u2019 profile a bit \u2013 but its low profile may be what makes it so special.<\/p>\n
According to Flying Horse\u2019s director, Theo Lotz, the press is exclusive by design. It\u2019s funded entirely by donors who pay a $2,500 annual membership fee to belong, and in return each gets a copy of the works produced by Flying Horse Editions. Membership is limited to 25 donors, and although the dues may seem steep, Lotz says there\u2019s a waiting list of people who want to join.<\/p>\n
Lotz selects the artists who work with the press and then helps them come up with a concept for the press to produce. It can take months to develop an idea, Lotz says, and up to a year and a half to finish one project.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Flying Horse partnered with noted William Blake scholar Michael Phillips of the University of York in England. For the past 20 years, Phillips has been trying to determine how the noted 18th-century British poet, painter and printmaker created his famous relief etchings. Lotz worked with Phillips to produce 18 plates inspired by the illustrations in Blake\u2019s books the Songs of Innocence<\/em> and Songs of Experience<\/em>.<\/p>\n The Blake project was well received: \u201cIt\u2019s gone into the British Library in London and the Morgan Museum in New York,\u201d Lotz says. \u201cThe New York Public Library bought it, too, and the Library of Congress [in Washington, D.C.].\u201d<\/p>\n Lotz says he\u2019s very interested in working with nationally emerging artists, and he sees his job as helping artists \u201cpush their own work in a way they wouldn\u2019t be able to do if they didn\u2019t come here.\u201d He worked with James Siena from New York, a painter who uses a mathematical system to draw his abstracts, on a series of unbound prints that Lotz says might be replicated in a subway station in New York.<\/p>\n \u201cThe subway wall will be black and inset with white square tiles showing how [Siena\u2019s] red-and-black pattern was built up,\u201d Lotz says. \u201cThe first tile, or page, would have one element, and as you move past it, the next elements will be added, tile by tile, so viewers will see the entire image develop, like a flip book.\u201d<\/p>\n Lotz, 44, took over as director of Flying Horse approximately two years ago and still teaches art classes at UCF. Previously, he was the curator of the UCF Gallery and worked for the Florida Art in State Buildings program. He also has served as curator for the Cornell Fine Arts Museum. His father, Steve Lotz, was the chairman of the art department at UCF years ago.<\/p>\n On a recent visit to Flying Horse, Lotz is leaning over a Vandercook letterpress, working on a project for artist Kristopher Benedict based upon his interpretation of French writer Jean de la Fontaine\u2019s fable about a rat. The casual attitude of Lotz and his skeleton crew \u2013 three staffers, eight interns and several master printers who are used on a contract basis \u2013 defies the weight they carry on their shoulders to achieve the quality their collectors demand.<\/p>\n Lotz has a passion for architecture as well, and he helped design Flying Horse Editions\u2019 spacious, minimalist production studio, which houses odd-looking 19th-century presses and typesetters \u2013 some of them antiques and some of them modern.<\/p>\n Part of the room is used for production, and another area serves as exhibition space for the artists. It feels like an industrial warehouse with exposed ceilings and bright white walls that look like they glow under the natural light that pours through the windows, strategically placed to catch the sun. From the hallway outside the studio, there\u2019s a bank of windows that allow those passing by to watch what\u2019s going on without interrupting the technicians at work \u2013 kind of like watching fish swimming in an aquarium.<\/p>\n \u201cI always wanted it to feel like a gallery and wanted to be sure the fine art looked good, [but] it always had to be a production space too,\u201d Lotz says. \u201cBecause I think of this as a research space, I always like to push the boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n