Filed under: Fleeting thoughts..., printmaking | Tags: abstract, art, Brayer, colorful, Ink, monotype, printmaking, red, Visual Arts
I was about to write, “it’s amazing how much frozen water can disrupt everything”, but then I thought of the Titanic. Hmm. Makes our perpetual cocoon of snow seem less formidable.
It’s hard to keep a schedule now. Snow days abound. Our thermometer read -6 degrees one morning this week. 15 degrees is starting to feel pretty good, and 32 is positively balmy.
I hope that in spite of the snow, I can make it to my two classes this week. I can see why taking classes in the winter can be a bit of a challenge. But, the light outside can be so great! When the sun is setting…all of those mounds of snow glow with a pinkish light, while the shadows remain a purplish-blue. Throw in some black, jagged branches, and you have quite a scene! I’ll try to remember to take a picture.
I’m continuing with my printmaking. I worked with the new brayer technique that I was shown in my last class. The teacher actually paints/draws like this. In fact, during class she “drew” a remarkable hummingbird with her brayer. (A brayer is a hard, rubber roller used to apply ink). Pretty amazing. I like working with lots of layers of ink.
I would LOVE to own a press someday. I know…dream on. They are $$$$. The images are just so much more saturated and crisp when you use a press, instead of hand burnishing/rubbing the back of the paper. If you know of someone who is somehow TIRED of their exquisite press, and would like to see it go to a good home…let me know.
Here’s my recent work…stay warm!
It feels like such a relief for me to be taking a break from straight lines, clean drawings, neat everything…In architecture, drawings are legal documents, or instructions. No extraneous or unclear information should be provided. CLARITY. Well, obviously…these kinds of drawings/prints have an entirely different purpose. How refreshing!
Filed under: Fleeting thoughts..., printmaking | Tags: art, cabin fever, cambridge, education, printmaking, snow, Visual Arts
Today is a snow day here. Schools closed…cars buried…cabin fever…
This is the first moment that I’ve had to think…my three-year old son is not one for just lazing around. He’s a man of action, and he expects a partner in crime at all times, namely, me. I’ve been Big Bird, Elmo, someone named Harry, Richard Rabbit from Peppa Pig, and countless other characters during our playing today. In other words, I’m fried.
My snow day today also meant that my printmaking class today was cancelled. Oh well! But I DID have my other printmaking class last night. It’s at a fairly new arts center called Maud Morgan Arts in Cambridge. I’m taking a class called Print Sampler…with FOUR different, highly respected printmakers. Each teacher will teach two, non-consecutive classes. Last night, we have a fabulous teacher named Jan. Her last name escapes me right now. [edit 1/26: Jan Arabas] Truly, in one class I already feel that I learned SO much. Who knew what kind of fun stuff you could do with a brayer? I do wish that she had brought some images of her work, just for inspiration. The group seems varied and nice, so I think that it will be great…assuming that I can attend all of the classes.
Last night, I also had a drink with my dear friend KP. She’s the one who finally pushed me to get this blog going, and who is a constant font of thoughtful and kind guidance. Anyway, she pressed me to have my posts share more information…not just the images. One question she asked was, “why printmaking?” Good question…I don’t have an eloquent answer. So, what is printmaking? In essence, it is transferring ink from a matrix (copper plate, wood block, etc.), to another surface (typically paper). This impression from the matrix is a print, and it is this process that sets it apart from painting, drawing, etc. etc. So, why printmaking? There is something amazing/unexpected/mysterious that happens when you make a print. Until you actually press the paper to the matrix…you don’t actually KNOW how the print will look. Obviously, skilled printmakers probably have a highly refined sense, and know exactly what they will get. But even then, I still think that there is something (and I hate to use this word) “magical” about peeling back the paper for the first time to look at a print. You control so much of the process, but there is a final toss of the dice that adds a fascinating twist. This twist can be VERY frustrating. NUMEROUS times I have imagined how I believe the print will turn out, only to be surprised by the actual result. Again, with years of experience this surprise lessens/disappears, but undoubtedly the excitement of pulling the print remains.
Here are pictures of the snow, the toys we played with endlessly today, and the print from last night…each a moment in my past 24 hours…stay warm!
Filed under: Drawing, Fleeting thoughts..., printmaking | Tags: art, drawing, Ink, printmaking, Rilke, Visual Arts
I’m still on this microcosm theme. Tiny things…organisms…swirling around together…there’s something about imagining that miniscule world that is fascinating. We all rush around in cars, in subways…talking, laughing, frowning…and the whole time there are little worlds like this bumping around…inside of us? (Hopefully not on the grab bar on the subway…gross!) I remember peering into microscopes in high school, searching for that paramecium or ameoba. The ameobas were slow, but the parameciums could really move! Sometimes, we’d have to stain the solution that they were in, so that they were more easily seen. I guess these are the types of images I have in my head…peering and searching, appearing and disappearing…
So, this evening is one of my first printmaking classes! I am very excited. I am somewhat concerned, though, as there is no materials list. I’ve never had an art class with no materials list, so I’m hoping that all the materials will be supplied. If not, I’ll be bummed..either because I don’t have what is needed, or because we are just going to TALK the entire first class, which is NOT ideal. I know. Some talking is good.
I had lunch today with an ex-colleague. She’s wonderful, and it was great to catch up. It was definitely STRANGE to walk into my old office. Everyone is SO nice there, so it isn’t because I didn’t like being there. It’s just so odd to walk in as a spectator, not a participant. I remember the intensity of my existence there.
Wish me luck on my class tonight. I found a lovely poem about being a beginner:
If the Angel
deigns to come
it will be because
you have convinced
her, not by tears but
by your humble resolve to be always
beginning: to be a
beginner.
– Rilke
Filed under: Drawing, printmaking | Tags: art, drawing, illustration, monotype, pen, printmaking, sketching
No, I’m not talking ABOUT anyone…
It’s been snowing steadily all morning with the fattest flakes I have ever seen. It’s like tissue paper confetti. I tried to take a photo of the flakes, but they don’t seem to show up at all in the pictures.
I’m still working in drawings, mostly. I JUST ordered supplies for pronto printing, so I’m going to use these drawings as a basis for that printing. I am just exploring lines and patterns, really. I make a line, then just see where it goes. It’s kind of freeing to just start a drawing, with no plan about where it’s going. Each mark just reacts to the mark beforehand…
I did manage to do one print. Here it is…
All of these seem to have that “primordeal” look to them. I just find that these are the types of marks that I like to make! A micro world…what do you think?
Filed under: printmaking | Tags: art, Ink, Printing, Printing press, printmaking, Publishing and Printing, Visual Arts
This week, I went to the studio of printmaker Nancy Diessner. She was kind enough to agree to give me a tutorial on pronto printing [a.k.a. polyester plate lithography]. It sounds exotic, but it is much less intimidating than true lithography. I’ll try to summarize it as best as I understand…marks can be made on thin polyester sheets either by hand (with a sharpie, for example), or by a laser printer/copier. So, it has the ability to print hand drawn images, or photographic images. Then, the sheet (plate) is saturated with a mixture of water and gum arabic. The oil based ink is then rolled on the plate, as is typically done…but the water magically repels the ink from the unmarked areas, and the marked areas accept the ink. So interesting! These can either be printed by hand or on a press. Luckily, Nancy has a beautiful press, so that we could print some of them by press. The ones printed by hand have a different feel, as they are lighter and irregular.
So, below are the prints that we made! They are a bit simple and crude…but there are amazing things that can be done with this type of printmaking…so don’t let these early experiments put you off…
This was printed on the press:
See the lovely emboss?
This was printed by hand:
See how it is lighter, and there is no emboss mark?
This was also hand printed…you can see where I rubbed with a bone folder:
This is more “photographic”, but is clearly different than a photo. Please don’t ask me why my child refuses to smile for photographs:
The last one was done on the press:
up close:
See? Wasn’t all that neat? These are so rudimentary, so don’t let that put you off the process. I hope to get the materials so that I can do this at home (without a press, of course!). My printmaking classes start THIS WEEK, so I am SUPER excited for what’s to come!
Besides the pronto plates, here is a hodge podge of other stuff from the week…a linoleum print:
detail:
Besides printmaking, my son and I created a contemporary apartment tower for his chutes and ladders people…note the lovely cantilevers and expansive views! If Fallingwater were tall and made of cardboard…:
And for those of you not in the Northeast…this is what the first blizzard of 2011 looked like:
These photos were taken at 9am…and the “snow emergency” was through 7pm…EGADS! Eventually, the snow in the seat of the chair was taller than the armrests. Sigh…is it spring yet? My ever optimistic friend, KP, was waxing poetic about the lovely blanket of powdery goodness…I was peering out feeling trapped! Perhaps if it was good snowball snow, that would have made up for it. 🙂
Filed under: Drawing, printmaking | Tags: abstract, art, Art book, book, drawing, goat, handmade, Pencil, portrait, printmaking, sketch, sketching, Visual Arts
So, I managed to get a bunch of stuff done before the weekend. I probably won’t get much time to work on stuff until next Tues. Yes, this stuff is “all over the map”. Think of it as a pu-pu platter of attempts.
I keep thinking that I need to make a more coherent set of things. Then, I get distracted and want to try something new. Thus, the randomness of it all.
I’m not going to post every day. While I’m still working on my 365 projects, I’m not going to barrage you with posts. It’s too exhausting for everyone…well, mostly me.
So, if any of you have some thoughts on this stuff, I’d love to hear it. Even if you tell me NOT to EVER do that again…at least I’ll have some feedback. Right now, I am kind of working in a bubble. I am trying to investigate ways to possibly get some feedback from people. So, until I figure that out, this is my forum for comments!
I’ll stop rambling now, as my hands are too cold to type, and just show you my stuff. I kind of like this one:
a detail of the above print:
another similar one…I like the colors, but the design is so-so:
detail:
this one was not good, and i couldn’t save it:
and a detail:
at last…something recognizable! no, it’s not me…:
detail:
And now for something completely different…a pencil drawing:
detail:
I liked this drawing, so I made a print of it:
detail:
And I made another little book! This one is about winter:
detail:
even CLOSER:
Whew! Okay, that’s it for this week. Seriously. Speaking of winter, my hands are so cold that I can barely type. We’re supposed to get snow this weekend too…brrrrr! Have a good weekend!
Filed under: Fleeting thoughts..., printmaking | Tags: art, Collage, painting, printmaking, Visual Arts
So, I didn’t hear from many on you on my question regarding posting EVERY DAY. Perhaps I should interpret your silence as polite pleading not to innundate you with posts.
Clearly, I’m ignoring this for now. The first image is my 365 creation from yesterday. It’s so much better to photograph with sunlight.
detail:
This was obviously a departure from the printmaking stuff. Well, I take that back…as that isn’t really obvious. This was a collage/painting.
I also took another stab at another print in the series of the cartoonish guy. It turned out so-so…I took away too much red ink.
detail:
I’m not sure that I have much more to say with him. We’ll see. Here is a print using yet ANOTHER type of ink…oil based:
detail:
I wasn’t too thrilled with it. I think that the general technique has some interesting possibilities (if I was Picasso), but I’m going to have to try again.
Here are a couple of experiments:
I photoshopped out two big smudges in the margins of this last one. I know. That’s kind of cheating. If I wasn’t so sloppy, I wouldn’t have to do that!
Thumbs up? Down? No comment? I am so looking forward to my classes, as I feel that I am fumbling around with a lot of these printmaking materials. Also, feedback from my teacher/classmates will be good (or OTHERS…hint..hint).
🙂
Filed under: Fleeting thoughts..., printmaking | Tags: art, Collage, Graduate school, Visual Arts
Okay, here is my print for the day. Again…not so good. (try to be surprised) It took me a couple of hours. I know. Doesn’t look like it. The collage part took a while. I’ve been pretty hesitant to do any type of collage work. I took a collage course in grad school with this pretty well respected painter teaching it. Anyway, he didn’t think much of what I did. Neither did I. As a result, I’ve kept my distance from collage, as I have decided that I’m bad at it. Now, as I’m trying to throw caution to the wind…I’m trying it again. We’ll see how it goes. I’m liking the whole glue stick thingy. It feels so “elementary school” and fun.
[okay…once again, i couldn’t leave well enough alone. i messed with this print…see below. notice the smudgy fingerprints now in the margins…nice!]
okay, so i photoshopped out all of my smudgy prints, as they’re sloppy and distracting:
Filed under: Fleeting thoughts..., printmaking | Tags: boston, New Year, New Year's resolution, Project 365
Happy New Year! We had a LOVELY 50 degree day here in the Boston ‘burbs. Yummy! Why can’t winter be like this all the time? Oh yeah, then there would be no snow, ever. Bummer.
So, I’m wondering if I should jump on this “make-some-kind-of-thing-every-day” bandwagon. Here is a link to a blog about this kind of thing. I know. It’s a good thing to do. Basically, you commit to creating something every day for a year. In fact, I believe that my brother is going to do this…by creating at least one photograph per day. I’m interested in this whole idea, as I hope that it would push me to make something every day, and not be so precious about what I do. Some days, I hardly get any time to myself. I use that as an excuse as to why I haven’t created anything. But, maybe that’s kind of lazy! Maybe I just need to make something…ANYTHING, regardless of how much time I’ve had to make it. In the spirit of this, I made a print, which took less than an hour. I know. It LOOKS like it took less than an hour. Who cares. Here it is:
I know. Not so good. But, considering that I would probably have not bothered with it at all, as I had so little free time today…I think that it’s okay. Not great, but okay. Just THINK how much “stuff” I’ll have if I can keep this up! I may even learn something! Hopefully, some of these creations will be reasonable. I originally thought that I could make several things in one day…and then keep some to use on those days where I don’t actually do anything. BUT, now I see that this is really defeating the purpose. I really do need to push myself to make something every day. Even if it turns out lousy.
Is this my New Year’s Resolution? I guess so. I originally thought that I would try to be “less grouchy”, but perhaps I should work on that anyway.
Okay…signing off here. Here are some photos I took this week when we had heaps of snow and sunshine. Doesn’t it look lovely out?
[okay. I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I messed with that print again. Here it is again:
I think that it looks worse in the photo, but better in reality…okay, I’m cleaning up now…]
Filed under: printmaking
As this is a holiday week, I haven’t been able to do too much new stuff. I’ve read 3,015 Richard Scarry stories, built 247 block castles, and prepared numerous meals and snacks for my son. Did I mention cleaning up at all? Probably not, as I’m not very good at that.
I’ve been working on another linoleum print. Here it is so far. I kind of thought that I would add another layer, but for some reason, I only imagined it with these colors. So, now I am stumped.
I also did some sketchy prints…
These were kind of quick, but fun. I like the second one much better than the first. Live and learn.
Here is also one of the numerous castles that my son and I built this week:
Please excuse the general mess. You’ll notice that he’s munching on an apricot. Every day, he asks if we have any peaches. Peaches??? Nooooooo. So, I managed to get apricots, as a consolation prize. Still tasty. Wish me luck getting anything else done this week!
slightly wonky 
