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: printmaking | Tags: art, drypoint, intaglio, print, printmaking, visual art
I have a few new, drypoint prints to show. These are a bit different that the woodcuts that I just posted. I got some positive feedback on the woodcuts…so, what do you think about these prints? Comments? Do you like the woodcuts better, or are these interesting in their own way? Feedback, please!
I’m going to post them in the order that I made them. I really liked how this one above turned out. The odd, prickly image is a magazine clipping of a strange sea creature. I loved how it looked, so I thought that it would look cool incorporated into a print. This odd sea creature is making me think of my odd plant woodcut. Maybe there is actually a theme here. Next print:
I also like this one. I like the punchy, graphic quality with the scratchy marks. I may do more like this one. Next:
You can see the red plate printed again here on another magazine scrap. I thought that the vertical arrangement in the photo of the people worked well with the long plate. I think that this one initially looks abstract, until you notice that there are figures in the print. Next:
I was on the fence about this print above. I wondered if it was too “even”, without any focus. Someone in my print class thought that it was nice, but does anyone else have a comment? As this is not a big print, perhaps it doesn’t need much more. The print size is only 3″ wide x 7.5″ tall…thoughts?
It’s so hard to decide what kind of printmaking to do. I loved the woodcuts, but I also like doing these intaglio prints. I feel that I should have a certain aesthetic that I build on, but you can see that my aesthetic thus far is rather varied. I suppose only time will tell, right?
Any artist out there have a suggestion on how you narrowed down your focus to get a unified body of work?
Any non-artist have thoughts on this as well?
Filed under: printmaking | Tags: art, print, printmaking, visual art, woodblock printing, Woodcut
Last night’s woodcut print class was great. I brought two large woodcuts, and a smaller one. Annie, the teacher, did a great job by suggesting that I combine the two woodcuts to make a single print. So, here is the first print, which was from the woodblock shown in the last post:
I liked this one, even though it’s kind of crazy. The orange splotches are shellac, which wasn’t quite dry yet. Those won’t appear again. This was my second block, which I thought ended up rather dull:
I wanted to do something very different than the first. I did something vaguely architectural, just to get it out of my system. It seems a bit lifeless to me. Then, I threw together this tiny one:
I abandoned this one, as I didn’t really have a plan for it. I paired the first two blocks together, which I think looks kind of interesting:
I might stick with this size of block, and do other combinations like this. All of these prints are on newsprint, unfortunately. Maybe next week, I’ll switch to real paper. Newsprint will crumble in a few years.
So, here is the first of the hybrid, mutant plant prints:
Hilarious, right? I love it. I was totally apathetic about the architectural block at first, but now I think it’s so funny to have this crazy plant thing in the mix. So, this was the improved version:
I love this! So funny. I love the craziness invading the staid architectural space. I think that I may do more of these combinations. What do you think? I really like this type of printmaking. The colors are beautiful…I love the messy, handmade quality of the marks…and the layering is so interesting. I need to build up an inventory of blocks, so that I can do some more layering. So many possibilities!
Here’s a scrap of my newsprint, which I thought looked neat as well:
I’m itchy to carve/print more of these. Luckily, my poison ivy has gone, so THAT itchy has gone away…
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: Collage, printmaking | Tags: art, Collage, drypoint, print, printmaking, visual art, woodblock printing
So, I started a new class this week! This is good, as my collage class is ending tomorrow. My new class is woodblock printing with Annie Silverman, and I am so excited! She’s super talented, funny, and nice. It was great to see all of her work, and she got me started on a woodblock, which I can hopefully print next week! This is very different woodblock printing than the traditional Japanese technique of moku hanga. I took a weekend course this summer on that type of printing. This class is more free-form/free-wheelin’ woodcuts. Moku hanga, in my opinion, is sort of the opposite of free-wheelin’…it’s very precise…very methodical…very controlled…etc. So, I’m excited to try a new way.
I have another new print in this “dark” drypoint series. I tried to do something more with the background, but it came out a bit too subtle. Here’s the print:
So, the black area in this image is uniform…but there is actually some texture there that you can see better in this print:
See the texture? So, I tried to get a subtle figure in the background…but it was too subtle, in my opinion:
Hmmm…I want to pursue this idea, so I’m going to have to do it differently.
I also did a little collage this week for a friend:
I like how this turned out. I really like collage. I’m not sure that my collages are worth pursuing more seriously, or if this is just an artistic diversion that I’ll continue to simply play with. I don’t mean that collage isn’t serious…just that I’m not sure that I want to try to do any more than I’m doing at the moment. Any thoughts? I asked once before if anyone out there has a favorite collage artist…so I’ll ask again to see if I get any more responses:
Do you have a favorite collage artist? Who is it, and why?
It was a GORGEOUS day today…70 degrees and sunny…no humidity. We get just a few days in the year like this. I can’t imagine living in a place where it’s this lovely all year. BTW my poison ivy has subsided quite a bit, so it was just about 1 1/2 weeks of torture. I thought that it was a good sign that I woke up this morning, without having gotten up in the middle of the night to slather on more itch cream.
Maybe I’ll do a series about loathsome poison ivy?
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: Fleeting thoughts..., printmaking | Tags: art, Art education, Art school, James Elkins, printmaking, Why Art Cannot Be Taught: A Handbook for Art Students
I just finished reading, Why Art Cannot Be Taught, by James Elkins. SO fascinating. It’s the most “academic” book that I’ve read in a while, so I think that reading it again would be beneficial. Not to be a spoiler, but his primary conclusions are:
1. The idea of teaching art is irreparably irrational. We do not teach because we do not know when or how we teach.
2. The project of teaching art is confused because we behave as if we were doing something more than teaching technique.
3. It does not make sense to propose programmatic changes in the ways art is taught.
He begins with the history of art instruction, from ancient art schools onward. He then discusses how different studio art study is from studying other liberal arts subjects, such as English/literature. He also describes the type of art that cannot be attemped in schools, such as “Art that takes time”, or “Art that isn’t serious”. In addition, he takes on an analysis of the almighty critique, or crit. It was so fascinating to read his methodical study of this odd teaching method…it really struck home as I recalled the years of crits that we had in architecture school. I got the impression that art crits are somewhat more kind than architecture crits, but perhaps that’s not really the case. Because art is often about personal feeling, I think that perhaps reviewers may tread more gently…whereas in architecture, they really don’t want to hear anyone’s personal feelings about anything. Even when a critic provides some judgment…it is presented as “fact” not anyone’s “feeling” about something.
I know. How can someone take apart the entire art education system that we have, and then not propose a solution? This is how I felt when I began the book. Now, I see how messy and unclear the whole business is…part of what separates art from more concrete things, like many areas of math, is that there is not one right answer. Some solutions are just agreed on as being more “right” than others…but anything more definite than that tends to get murky. How can there be a clear answer to something that is so unclear?
I highly recommend this book. If anyone out there has read it, please comment and let me know your thoughts on it. It is very dense with rational analysis of something that the author concludes is inherently irrational. FASCINATING!
I have not much to show for myself…many things “in progress”.
So, does anyone out there have any thoughts either on the book, Why Art Cannot Be Taught, or on art education in general? Enquiring minds want to know…
Filed under: Collage, Drawing, painting | Tags: art, Collage, El Anatsui, Mixed media, Printmakers, printmaking, visual art
Today, I went to the Davis Museum to see the exhibit of El Anatsui. He’s an artist born in Ghana, who makes these amazing metal tapestries from discarded liquor bottle tops. Totally crazy. They’re a multicolored chainmail of trash…and they’re stunning. He also does ridiculously amazing sculpture and painting. Go see it now. Seriously. Why are you still reading this?
I keep thinking about this portfolio review. It’s really made me stop and ponder…I’m not sure that I’ve come to any brilliant conclusions. I just keep mulling it all over in my head again and again. Tumultuous.
As a result, everything that I’ve been doing is tumultuous. I started by just making marks in a “zen” sort of way…ended up with this weird garden:
Hmmm…a physical manifestation of the chaos of thoughts that I’m having…
I also made material for my collage class. Here is what the pile looked like earlier:
It’s a mix of relief prints…gelatin prints…and other randomness. I don’t think that I’m a big fan of gelatin printing. I like the immediacy of it, but I am never in awe of what is produced. I’m sure that I need to work on it some more…
I decided that I should attempt a couple of collages with this new material. I threw caution to the wind, and came up with these two:
and:
I liked using these materials for collage. I almost felt that I didn’t have to do too much to them, as they had so much character of their own. Naturally…I did too much to them anyway. Perhaps I’ve given up on restraint. Restraint can be so boring. Yes? No? Any comments? I don’t even drink anything with caffeine, so you can’t suggest that I cut back a little.
One of the challenges that I’m having in general, is that I like to do so many different things. I like printmaking…painting…drawing, etc. I think that I should try to focus on one, but each time that I do…I wonder if I’m narrowing down unnecessarily. I know that Picasso could make art with a potato and a dry stick, but the REST of us might do well with a bit of focus. True?
So, the theme for today is: wishing for focus, whilst seriously out of focus.
Is it any coincidence that I’m going to the eyedoctor tomorrow? I hope that those eye charts don’t start looking like my collages…
slightly wonky 