Filed under: printmaking | Tags: art, artist, CMYK color model, Ink, Paper, print, printmaking, visual art, Woodcut
I’m working again with pronto prints and my previous woodcut. I’ve been scheming ways to make registration for the CMYK pronto prints work better. My latest attempt may be good. I managed to register the yellow and magenta layers. Here they are:
I’m also experimenting with three types of paper. The paper on the right is Arches 88, an unsized paper…very absorptive. This isn’t such a great quality with the way that I’m doing these prints, as the area around the print gets wet from the plate, and this causes the surface of the paper to deform from the moisture. Hmmm. The other two papers are better in this regard, but I think that because they are sized and have more of a texture, they don’t take the ink as well. Here’s a close up:
I also changed the halftone lines per inch, to make it less fine grain. I have to balance clarity of printing (as pronto plates like distinct black/white), and clarity of image (fewer/larger dots=more abstract/blurry print). Hmmm! I think that the cyan layer, which I hope to do this weekend, will be revealing…
I am printing the woodcut on grey paper. This is a heavy paper, unlike the fine Japanese papers in my previous post. I have to let the first layer dry before putting on the second layer…I also switched inks again. I know…I keep changing all of the variables! I am quickly running out of space for all of these prints. I need to devise some safe storage system.
There are some sparse snowflakes blowing around outside right now. I really hope that they don’t amount to anything. Maybe I should make some prints about snow angst? The flakes are almost like white gnats bumping around…shoo! Go away! I’m tired of my boots/hat/gloves/scarf ensemble! 🙂
Filed under: printmaking | Tags: art, artist, Ink, lithography, print, printmaking, pronto print
So, I printed a pronto print this evening. This is a type of lithography, where one uses a polyester sheet as a plate. Then, an image is put on the plate, either by laser printer/copier, or by hand. THEN, when this plate is wet with a solution of gum arabic and water… the oil based ink sticks only where the marks are. Confused yet? It’s very finicky. It takes some serious practice. It would also work a million times better if I had a press, but no luck. I had to hand burnish, which adds to the “wonky” character of the print. On a similar theme to my linocuts, this is an image of the local Regent Theater.
I know. You’re wondering why the colors are all bizarre. Well…the ink is happiest on clean, high contrast images. When you have some subtlety…then things get dicey. I printed each process color separately…CMYK. So, this is an attempt. I will try again another time…but it took around two hours to print this thing…just one print. SIGH. I kind of like it, though.
It actually snowed today. I know. Horrors. Big, fat snowflakes covered the yard…probably only 1/2″ or so. Still, it was distressing. I really thought that we were done with that for the season. It has been known to snow in April though…
Filed under: Fleeting thoughts... | Tags: art, artist, decay, decordova, Exhibit, fragments, Leonardo Drew, museum, sculpture
So, this was the last day that the work of Leonardo Drew is at the DeCordova. I am SO lucky that I went. I seriously loved it. He’s brilliant.
His works are primarily sculpture…and his work is often a gridlike arrangement of decayed fragments. Think: rust, dirt, remnants, remains…gathered with beautiful sensitivity to texture, form, and pattern. I know…how can these things be “beautiful”? Trust me, they were. Jawdropping.
I believe that after a trip to Japan, he began to think about works of paper…but he initially struggled with how to convey his worldview with this pristine, flat medium. His idea became creating intricate paper castings of the debris that was once a part of his work…old shoes, a broken toy truck, a telephone. These were like light, fragile cocoons. I loved the transformation of these previously gritty, broken, discarded items to something so…delicate and ephemeral. Both the heavy/dark/decaying pieces and the pale/delicate/ephemeral pieces still had a similar sensibility, which was kind of amazing to me. I’m not sure how to describe it, but it was almost as if he captures a beauty that exists within death. I know. That makes no sense. But the individual objects all had a previous life…someone wore that shoe, some child played with that toy, and someone else used that phone. Now, this is their second life…where their uniqueness merges into the overall assemblage/texture/form.
I wish that I could post images of his work, but I think that would be wrong in the world of intellectual property/blogging. Am I right? Please follow this link to get to his webpage and see what I’m rambling about. [I also just found someone’s blog post on this exhibit]
I’m so bummed that I cannot demand that my friends and relatives go see this show TOMORROW. It’s gone. Moving on. I’m going to start saving up now to buy one of the teeny weeny pieces of his work. I settled for buying the book, in the meantime.
slightly wonky 