Filed under: printmaking | Tags: art, artist, chine colle, croissants, print, printmaking, woodblock printing
Last night, I had my woodblock printing class. I managed to get my act together and finish a block for printing. I was initially sort of lukewarm about the block, as it seemed sort of flat and 2D to me. But, after printing it, I think that it is interesting. The first printing was with some chine colle, or additional handmade papers collaged into it. My teacher provided the colored papers. Here is that print:
It’s a bit of an overcast day, so it’s hard to get the colors right. This image seems a little dark to me, even after I lightened it a bit! The red paper is a scrap of beautiful handmade paper that my teacher had. The small green piece is a scrap of paper that had been used in previous prints. I’m really happy with this.
Then, I started layering this block with a small block. I printed this small block at the last class. It needed a lot of “cleaning up”, which means that there were parts of the block that were printing that I did not want to print. So, I had to carve more to get rid of those stray marks. Here it is:
I may try to print this one again, as I think that it would be better without the black, and with more white in it. Here is a detail:
This last print begain with a ghost print of the large, blue block. Then, I layered on some red with ripped paper stencils:
I think that my teacher liked this one. I tend to overwork things, so I decided to just leave this one alone and not do anything further. Here is a detail:
I like woodblock printing. I think that having a class once a week is good, but it does add stress to the process. I mean, you have to have something finished each week, or else you will waste your time at class carving. I try to use class time to print, as that is a rare opportunity to use the press. I can carve at home, but I can’t print with a press at home. I think that the carving would be more meditative for me, if I wasn’t rushing to finish a block for class! So, I can imagine that having one’s own press would help, even when carving.
Someone recently sent me this fabulous link to watch someone baking croissants. Please watch, as it’s fascinating! It’s kind of scary how much butter in involved. Anyway, I thought that if I ever get a press…and if I ever decide to stop printmaking, I could use my press for flattening out dough for pastries…who needs a rolling pin when you have a piece of precision equipment, right?
Hmmm…a pain du chocolat would be perfect right now.
Filed under: printmaking, travel | Tags: art, artist, collagraph, Mount Rainier, printmaking, Seattle, woodblock printing
I just got back from a great trip to Seattle! It’s such a fun city. My brother, his wife and their two kids live out there. We had a great time visiting with them. We spent the 4th of July at the beach on Bainbridge Island. I’m used to the weather being so hot that you HAVE to go swimming to survive. Not so in Seattle…the weather was clear and warm, and the water was icy. As a result, vegging out on the beach while the kids created general chaos was just fine for me. Here’s the view we had at the beach:
Yes, that’s Mount Rainier. I’m not used to being at the beach and seeing mountains in the distance. Heck, I’m not used to seeing mountains at all. Did I also mention that they don’t have mosquitoes? I kid you not.
I have the usual array of tourist photos to show:
and
and
That’s a chocolate brioche from Fuji Bakery. You must go if you’re in Seattle. So divine. I was directed to go there from the owner of Cullom Gallery. I have wanted to see this gallery for ages, as it focuses on woodblock printmaking, especially Moku Hanga. Moku Hanga is traditional Japanese woodblock printing. Please go visit this gallery if you can. The owner was so kind. She took out all sorts of beautiful prints for me to look at. I was thrilled! In May, I took a Moku Hanga course with Annie Bissett. Annie’s work is at Cullom Gallery, so it was great to see her work again. If you can’t make it out to visit the gallery, definitely check out the website.
I have my own woodblock printing class tomorrow evening, which I have not prepared for. I had dreams of working on carving one of my blocks in the evenings in Seattle, but no way. I was completely beat by the end of the day.
Before I left on my trip, I did this collagraph print:
I’m really happy with how it turned out. I plan on doing more like this. Comments?
While it was a great trip, I’m happy to be home!
Filed under: printmaking | Tags: art, artist, print, printmaking, woodblock printing
Last night, I had another woodblock class. It was good…but I had not done much prep work. I only had one small block that was new, so I just focused on printing more. I tried printing the mutant plant again. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get to pick the colors, as she had these ones out. The yellow had some white in it, which kind of makes it a bit flat. (right now, my preschooler is yelling/singing…so I may go postal in the middle of this post)
So, here are the woodblock prints from last night:
I am happier with the printing of the purplish building. The ink was drier, and didn’t fill in all of the small detail lines. At first, I was not sure, but now I do like it. Here’s a bit of a weird mess:
I started by just printing the “ghosts” from the first print. Then, I decided that it all looked too washed out, so I started doing more layering. I like the new block (the yellow shape). I need to clean up the block more, so that other areas which aren’t supposed to print actually don’t print. Last:
This time, I just used the crazy plant block with the new, small block. Hmm…
Here are some continuations of other prints that I posted previously. They weren’t finished when I first showed them. I think that they’re getting better, as the layering and contrast is better. All of these pictures are a bit dark, as the sun keeps hiding behind a cloud…
That one is probably mostly done. This next one may need some more:
It’s a bit Paul Klee…but I just wanted something non-orthagonal to go crazy across the whole thing. Next:
My printmaking teacher said that I should add more to that one. I’ll have to work on it another time. She felt that the yellow field feels a bit flat. Detail:
Last one:
I like that one. I may add some more, though. Any comments? Thumbs up? Thumbs down?
I hope that I somehow get time to work on another large woodblock. I want to have more blocks to layer. It takes quite a bit of time to carve them, so I’m not sure how far I’ll get. We don’t have class this next week, so I won’t be there until the following week. I love the way woodblock prints look. I hope to get better at it! I’m still going to keep on doing collage as well, as I had such a great time doing it.
Have a happy 4th everyone! I plan to pig out on hot dogs…
Filed under: Collage, printmaking | Tags: art, artist, Collage, printmaking, visual art
I’m very sad that my collage class has just ended. It was so fun, and I think that I most enjoyed seeing everyone else’s work. It’s always amazing that we get the same assignment, but we have such a variety of responses. I was not finished with the collage that I showed in a previous post…it was an interpretation of a still life that the entire class created and composed. So, I worked on the collage a bit, and balanced it out. Here it is:
I’m much happier with it…it felt really “off kilter” before. So, during our last class, we needed to create an interpretation of this collage…so here it is!
I’m not sure if this one is completed yet…but I liked it. I’m still wondering about collage as an artistic medium. I have this sense that it isn’t considered a “serious” medium, like oil painting, etc. It sort of is a diversion that some great artists (and architects) have dabbled in. I think that if I made an oil painting…someone would consider that serious art. But, if I make a collage, then that’s just having fun. Is this how the art world thinks? Comments, anyone???
I still haven’t heard much from anyone out there on collage artists that you’d recommend. I think that I got one response! I’m familiar with Kurt Schwitters, Hannah Hoch, Juan Gris and Georges Braque. Anyone else that I should look at????
I began to experiment with a sort of scratchy, collage type of printing. I’m not thrilled with them yet, but I think that they form a good basis for something more. Here is the first one:
Please ignore how “un-square” the print is…I still need to flatten these. I like the strength of the values in this one, but overal it’s a bit flat and needs more layering. Here was the ghost composition from this:
This has a more unified feel, but it is a bit pale for me. I changed the colors slightly here:
It’s too static, and needs something else breaking it up a bit. I’m still pondering what my next step is. Here is the ghost of this one:
I’m very neutral about these prints. I need to do more, but I’m trying to plan what that would be. I like some of the details, so perhaps I need to cut up all of the prints!
another:
another:
I’m also working on a chaotic woodblock. I’ll hopefully print this on Tuesday night. When I had to start cutting the block, I sort of drew a blank…as I hadn’t really any plan. The teacher told me to “just start making marks”, so I did. This is what resulted:
I know…total hodge podge. Still, I’m excited to see what it looks like. There are lots of fine lines that I also inscribed into the wood, which you can’t see here. So, we’ll see how the actual print turns out. I love cutting the wood…there is something very “zen” about it. Just don’t cut your finger. I think that it’s considered very “un-zen” to curse and bleed.
Filed under: Fleeting thoughts..., printmaking | Tags: art, artist, chine colle, drypoint, printmaking, Visual Arts
There are lots of goals that one can have in life. One of mine is to pursue art. Lucky me…I’m getting to do that a bit! But, then what? Art is a field where there is no clear path. In some ways, being an architect is simpler…as once you get hired, someone is coming to you with their problems to solve: “We’re designing new student housing for this college”…or…”Find out what the zoning restrictions are for this site”…or…”Draw up some wall sections for this facade”…etc. Even when you own your own firm, and you’re “the decider” (silly word), the client comes to you with their problem to solve. In art, you’re coming up with the problems, and the answers.
Back to goals: there are so many different goals that one can have as an artist. Someone might dream of getting their work shown at the Whitney. Someone else might dream of just making a living off of one’s art. Another person might just want to feel happy with the work itself, regardless of any outside recognition. These are all reasonable, of course, but they require different strategies for working. In the first one…the cutting edge fine art world is your “client”. Are you innovative enough to be at the Whitney? In the second example, the art buying population is your client. Is your art buying population people who love landscapes…so, you’ll do landscapes? Or, is it people who love photographs of people? old buildings? puppies? In the third example, you are the client. Are you happy with your work? Do you feel satisfied/stimulated/excited by the work?
Ideally, I suppose, one would be able to satisfy all three of these goals at once: to be recognized by the fine art world as worthy…to be able to live off of that worthy art…and to feel a sense of satisfaction with the work. Not an easy thing to do! I have yet to decide where I’m putting my energies. For the moment, I seem to be focusing primarily on goal three: just being satisfied with the work.
If you are an artist, what have your experiences been in regards to these types of goals? What are your goals?
Food for thought that I have been gnawing on for some time now…
Here’s is what I printed last night in class:
On the day that I was making sketchy scribble doodles, I also made a drypoint plate. This is the print from the plate. I like it. I like the feel of it and the look of the lines. I may do more of these. I also added some chine colle to another printing of it:
Sort of interesting…the paper looks very dark in this photo. It’s actually a sort of dark, orangeish, sand color. I’m not sure about these pieces, as they are a bit of a distraction. I may try this again with a more neutral/lighter color of paper…but I didn’t have any at the time to try out. Here’s a close up:
I also made another print of a child, similar to the previous one. This one was printed with different ink and different paper, however. I think that I might prefer the other ink that I was using. Here it is:
This is based on an image of my friend’s daughter. I’ve also got a closeup, so you can see that the black area actually has some texture:
I think that on my next print in this series, I’m going to do more with that texture…play with it a bit more. Any comments?
It is very cool and mild today…we had lots of rain and thunderstorms yesterday. I love this kind of post-storm weather. I also like pre-storm weather as well.
OH…for those of you in the Boston area…you MUST go to Berryline for frozen yogurt. There is one near Harvard Square on Mass Ave. SO AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS. I despise TCBY, which tastes like frozen plastic. Berryline, however, is so delicious. The yogurt actually has that tangy, yogurt taste…and it’s FABULOUS. You know it’s good when instead of getting M&Ms on my yogurt, I decided that fresh mango was better. It was. Go now and get some. I’m suffering from some serious Berryline withdrawl, I think…
Filed under: Collage, Drawing, printmaking | Tags: art, artist, Collage, doodles, drawing, printmaking, sketches, visual art
This week, I had some paralysis in deciding what to focus on. Therefore, I was a bit unfocused. I managed to mount one of my prints onto canvas. This is something that my printmaking teacher showed us. This was my first attempt to do it myself:
Can you see the shadow on the bottom and right edge? This is the print mounted onto canvas. See, here is the edge:
Much clearer, right? You will also note the difference in the colors of the print between the top and bottom picture. The bottom picture is closer to the true colors. I have to work on my camera skills, so that it doesn’t do odd things to the color of my prints, as in the uppermost picture.
Back onto mounting prints onto canvas: this is kind of an interesting way to turn a print into a painting of sorts. I’ve been told that it really only works with prints that are completely covered with ink…no areas of bare paper. The bare paper gets dirty too easily without a frame/glass. Interesting, right? It is a very laborious process, so I don’t think that I’m going to do too many of these. I wanted a 10″ x 12″ canvas, which of course, is an atypical size. So, I had to make and prime my own. Very tedious. But…I think that I like the result. I’m going to do one more of a related print, so that I’ll have a diptych.
As I mentioned, I was in indecisive/pensive/sketchy mode this week. Here are some of my sketchy ramblings:
and this one:
and this:
Don’t ask me what I was thinking about. These are just doodles. Why am I showing doodles? Because I was waffling on what to do, so I just grabbed a pen and scribbled. Coincidentally, my collage class also began with scribbles. Everyone had to bring in small boxes that they had “collaged” into. Then, we composed everyone’s boxes into different arrangements. THEN, we were asked to sketch different views and parts of the arrangement, as a basis for a 2D collage. So, here is my initial scribble sketch:
Yes, the objects are fairly unrecognizable…you may see a ribbon bow, an empty plastic tofu tub, crayons stuffed into a cigarette box…etc. So, based on this sketch, I was supposed to create a collage. This is what I did in class:
I was only really looking at the right hand area of the sketch. I think that this is interesting. I’m not sure if I’ll keep going with it, or just let it be. It’s always hard to find a stopping point, right? It seems a bit “even” to me…and I’m not so sure about the big slant on the right hand edge. Comments?
So, to address the “scratchy” in the post title: I managed to get poison ivy on my arm/hands. This is a very mild case of it, as I’ve had horrible poison ivy in the past. It is NOT fun, though. I noticed my son playing with a bush that he was standing near…and I realized that it was poison ivy. Needless to say, I panicked…took him home, scrubbed him down, and now I’ve got it on me. Luckily. he doesn’t have any! So, I either did a fabulous job scrubbing him, or he’s not allergic, or it’s his first exposure…so he won’t be so lucky next time. Why is there such a thing as poison ivy? Why? Whyyyy?
Filed under: Collage | Tags: art, artist, Collage, Mixed media, painting, visual art
So, this weekend…I took an afternoon collage class with Alexandra Sheldon. She is a local artist, who began as a painter…but now also does collage. Her work is so beautiful, and she has an amazing, intuitive sense about composition. She is also extremely enthusiastic, which creates a very fun atmosphere. This class was focused on edges in collage. We looked at hard/soft edges, their relation to one another and to the collage’s perimeter, and used all sorts of interesting techniques to create our collage material. I much prefer to use “made” material for a collage, rather than found material. I always struggle with found material…as it may have text that I don’t want, or simply be too strong of a singular image.
Here’s my first one…it took a little time to get “warmed up”:
I like the colors. Here is the next one…Alexandra suggested that I add the orange curve on the left…I’m glad that she did!
I think that cutting out the orange curve (hard edged), was not something that I would have thought of, but I like it. Here is the next one:
I really like the colors on that one. This is the next one:
That was one of my “exercises in restraint”. I was testing out different pieces, and another classmate said that the orange piece on the right was good. I agree! The last one:
My classmates liked the turquoise blue next to the yellow. I liked this one as well. I do think that the last one shows improvement over the first one. I guess this is typical…it takes a little time of working to just get “in the zone”. Alexandra suggested this might happen as the left side of the brain eventually stops interfering, when it isn’t being asked to participate. Interesting! I’d often like to tell the left side of my brain to “chill out” when it’s whining about things not being EXACTLY right, whatever that means.
I went to the Danforth Museum this week. I love that place. They had an exhibit of works by a local artist, Adria Arch. I really liked her painting…they almost looked screen printed to me. She works with “doodles”, or abstract symbols. I found that really interesting. Another artist also had work there: Elizabeth Keithline. I LOVED her work. She made figures out of wire which were amazing. It was really almost like looking at a computer generated wireframe of a human form, but it was standing in the room with you. I liked the fact that the forms were clearly handmade, and not overly precise, as a computer would do. Really extraordinary. Go see this show immediately, as it is going down on June 5. So worth it.
Happy Memorial Day!
This week, I’m working on incorporating stencils into my collages. In spite of the fact that I do this ALL THE TIME in printmaking, I haven’t really done much with it in collage. My initial moves are pretty minimal:
What I really like about collage is that it seems like a purely compositional exercise. I know…all forms of art are concerned with composition. But in collage, one can simply arrange found scraps of paper…it’s the arrangement that is the creation. Sure, some people make their own collage material…and one can certainly draw, paint, stencil, etc. on a collage. But at its most basic…collage (2d) is a composition of found papers. I find it really challenging.
I have a book of collages by Richard Meier (famous architect). They’re amazing. SO simple…yet so beautiful and provocative. He does mark his collages, so he isn’t a collage “purist”, so to speak. In grad school, we could only work with found papers, the collage had to be rectangular, and no additional marks were to be made. I know…these are more reasons why I didn’t enjoy that class.
Filed under: Fleeting thoughts..., printmaking | Tags: art, artist, artwork, flowers, Garden, printmaking, tulip, Visual Arts
Believe it or not, some of the bulbs that I plated last fall have actually come up! Seriously. I have so little faith in gardening, that I thought that planting bulbs was a sheer waste of time for me. Not so! See!:
Don’t they look great? Granted, there are only three of them…and I actually planted eight bulbs. The other FIVE tulips were mysteriously decapitated. I’ve been told that this is squirrels. I have hard time believing that. I think that it must be the little person who lives in my house and calls me, “Mommy”. Hmmm…
Don’t they look great???? Trust me, I’m shocked. Here are a few other things growing, that I did not plant:
And also:
Of course, I’m just showing you the highlights. I’ve edited out the crabgrass.
I did another print:
I’m still on this long theme, with a lot of black. I think that the photo makes this one look uniformly black, but in reality, there is more going on. The black in the upper right area isn’t really black at all, but a dark green…somewhat translucent. This doesn’t seem to be coming through in the photo. Here is a detail:
I think that you can kind of see the layers in the black area. I like this one. I like the shadowy things barely visible in the dark areas…with just a few pops of color and lightness.
I’ve ordered a special brush to do the Moku Hanga printing (as shown in the last post). As soon as I get it…I’m using it! In the meantime, I’ll have to get some wood blocks carved. I’ll keep you posted…
slightly wonky 