Printmaking with Professional Artists & Professors in the Fullerton College Parking Lot on Saturday, July 19

The final large-scale woodblock print by Pavel Acevedo made at last year’s Parking Lot Prints event

For the second year in a row, the Fullerton College Art Department will be hosting a large-scale collaborative printmaking and zine-making event called Parking Lot Prints ​on Saturday, July 19, 2025. This is a one-day only free community event featuring over 50 zine artists and printmakers transforming the Fullerton College Art Department Parking Lot into a hub of artistic ingenuity. Recently, I had a chance to interview event organizers Todd Smith, a full-time faculty member who teaches printmaking, and 2-D Foundational Art at Fullerton College; and SeijaRohkea, Art Gallery Technician at Fullerton College, about the history of Parking Lot Prints and how they’re preparing to take over the parking lot this year for a vibrant celebration of zines, book arts and printmaking.

​It all started last year, when the Fullerton College Art Department had a visiting artist-in-residence by the name of Pavel Acevedo, a woodblock and linoleum block artist and muralist from Oaxaca, Mexico.

“He was our artist-in-residence for one week, and we asked him if he wanted to print his large-scale woodblock that he had created with our students,” said Todd. “During the week, we had asked if he wanted to print that at the end of the week on a Saturday, extend his contract just by a couple of days, and use a drum roller and everything to make it more of an event. So, we decided to call it ‘Parking Lot Prints.’ I made a t-shirt for it, and we just invited the students. People were welcome to come from the community, but we didn’t really announce it or anything. It was just an extension of his residency, but we had a great time.”

​Seija said, “We had 50 to 60 people show up in the rain. Pavel wanted to invite a fellow traveler, artist and printmaker named Daniel Gonzalez, and so we invited him. He created a kind of medium-sized round block, and then we had several larger blocks from Pavel, plus the one that he made with our students. But the turnout we had in the rain was so impressive that we realized we should do this again, but invite the community and make it a community event.”

Print Artist-in-Residence Pavel Acevedo, with Todd Smith and students at last year’s Parking Lot Prints event show off the large print by the artist. See  more of the artists work  at https://pavelacevedo.wordpress.com and check out his instagram P.A. (@pavel_acevedo) and YouTube interview

Todd remembers that they brought the prints inside last year because it was raining, and that’s what gave them the idea of having a bigger event.

He said, “Hey, we should do this next year and invite just as many print artists and people from the public who love printmaking and want to make their own block, like students or weekend print warriors, whoever wants to do it. It wasn’t going to be exclusive for ‘fine artists,’ and anyway, we said, let’s do that and make it an event and call it Parking Lot Prints 2025.

From left to right: Todd Smith and Seija Rohkea hold up posters for Parking Lot Prints

They also thought to include zine makers, full-fledged artists and smaller entrepreneurs into this year’s event. Todd remembers attending a couple of zine festivals and finding out that it’s a very welcoming artistic community.
​Seija explained that this year, they were initially going to cover half of the parking lot off of Chapman Avenue, but Todd put a call out and all of a sudden, they had 60 or so people who wanted to bring their artwork to sell and print. Now, they had to cover the entire parking lot and at the time of my interview with them, the Fullerton College Art Gallery space was packed with tables and chairs in preparation for filling the entire space.

“It got a little bit bigger than we bargained for, but we’re up for it,” said Todd.

Parking Lot Prints event organizers, Todd Smith and Seija Rohkea.

Together, Todd and Seija are hoping to expand the Parking Lot Prints event in years to come to include more workshops and have it last longer than one day. “We want to make it bigger next time and if not next year, every other year. But we’re definitely going to continue this. It’s going to be some kind of tradition with zine artists and printmaking. Who knows whose going to be here in the future?”

On Saturday, July 19, from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, Parking Lot Prints will be taking place outside Building 1000 on the Fullerton College campus in parking lots A and B. This event will be free and open to the public, so if you happen to be in the downtown area, feel free to stop by and watch seasoned printmakers hone their craft and celebrate the city’s arts community. There will also be free parking for the visiting public at any of the Fullerton College campus lots, although Handicapped Parking violations, red zones, etc., will still be enforced by the College’s Campus Safety.

Here’s a close up of the Parking Lot Prints flyer for this year’s event.