New Work

A lot has happened around here in the last couple of months and sandwiched between the earth shaking events of daily life I've managed to find a little studio time to produce some new work. Because I've been having so much trouble with my hands (ugly old arthritis) I've temporarily given up on woodblocks and been indulging in solarplate™ intaglio. With this medium all you need to do is get the desired image onto a transparent format and you're good to go. I like to draw directly onto aquaeous media acetate. It allows you to remove and add to your heart's content, take as long as needed, and then just expose it onto the plate using UV light, develop the plate in tap water, harden with a little more UV and print. In this case I've printed many layers of colors and textures and stenciled some blocks of color onto both sides of a very thin, transparent mulberry paper, then printed some small plates on the paper's right side. Meanwhile, I've printed the drawings/images onto another piece of fairly transparent (but not as much as the original paper) and very carefully torn around the image while the paper is damp. Mulberry paper is very tough and almost impossible to tear when it is dry. When dry the images are dampened again, sprinkled with adhesive and placed on the background sheet on a plate and run through the press. Then I may print a bit of color over the top of the two sheets which have now become one. When the image is completely resolved it is trimmed and chine collé to a Western printmaking paper - I like Somerset Satin. It is versatile and has a nice hand and is a soft white. The image above is named Persephone after the ancient myth of Demeter's daughter having eaten a seed of the pomegranate while in the underworld (she was forbidden to eat anything if she wanted to come back up topside) and thereafter having to spend 3 months down under (winter) and the other 9 with us (spring, winter and fall). Her mother brokered that deal. So, she is here with her scythe, watering can, rake, and a few samples of what she's grown so far. Since we have gone from "yard" (rather shabby & kind of unkempt) to "garden" (a place to be kept free of weeds, moles, voles, slugs and looking decent) I see that three of my new images deal with gardening and critters. As you can see there is no mercy in my heart for voles. I don't understand why they were invented in the first place and am certain that the world would be a better place if they were not here. The varmints live on the roots of your most expensive plants. They will gladly pass weeds by giving them nary a thought. They can completely wipe out a yard in a heartbeat. One day your plant is looking robust and healthy and the next day it falls over dead & has no roots. My plan is to lead a hunt and not look back until they are all gone. However, my feeling is that one pregnant vole will always be missed and before you know it you will be infested again. They were probably here with the dinosaurs and will still be here with the cockroaches long after we are gone and forgotten. But, while I'm here I will be doing my best to win the fight.

Shirts R Us

The visit to North Dakota involved fish prints on shirts and tie dye shirts, among other things. I didn't get any photos of the fish printing taking place, but I did manage to get this one of the girls in their fish shirts. Camille was having a little problem with her shorts falling off, so Grace has a belt in her hand, ready to help her little sister out. Camille seldom wears anything that is not a dress, and I think I know why. One look at that body in a leotard and look! No hips. It is very hard to keep pants up when there are no hips (or butt) to hold them up. It is awfully cute in its leotard, though, and a budding gymnast. The girls friend, Spencer, came over to fish print and tie dye. Spencer is 1 yr. older than Grace and I had to ask him to squat down so I could get them both in the photo. They are a true Mutt and Jeff, have been friends since birth, and truly enjoy one another's company. They all did some pretty cool tie dye shirts. Many art projects were undertaken - some printmaking, some painting and drawing, all a lot of fun for Grandma and the girls.

Painting Grace's Room

Last week, while in Grand Forks visiting the GrandGirls, Grace and I painted her room. She had chosen the paint and her "decor" a year ago, or more, and had the paint all ready to go. Grace is now 11 years old and 61 lbs. of pure tiger. It took us three days, but her room is now very "Grace". She donned her painting suit and booties and we were ready to launch into some very sophisticated painting. As you can see Grace is all business and a mighty force behind the roller. She also did all the brush work around the baseboards and up as far as she could reach in other spots. While we painted we listened to a Lemony Snicket book on tape -- my introduction to these works and I have to say, I think I will read more Lemony Snicket as soon as I finish all the Harry Potter's Grace sent home with me. And, speaking of spots we managed to get quite an array of them around the room. We could not find a ready made stencil for the large ones, so we made our own from poster board and the pizza pan. There were still shelves to be put back up and furniture to be placed when I had to leave, but basically the painting was done for the moment. We even managed to stencil her name on two pillow cases on the bottom bunk. I think she is very pleased with her room. The fleece blanket on the end of her bunk was another project we accomplished in our busy week. In this photo she is also wearing a fish print shirt - yet another project from our busy, busy week. When someone asked her why she wanted the green cirles she replied, " They fit my decor." My Granddaughter, the interior designer. But, she says she wants to be an archeologist.

She's Gone to The Birds

Well, it has finally happened - I have completely (almost) gone to the birds. These are two little bits of whimsy for the garden. A friend was kind enough to donate a carload of doves and crows (decoys) to the studio about a year ago and I have finally made time to get them painted and out to their new roosts. These fellows are not gender specific, however, one did have to sacrifice its tail in order to sit where I wanted it. So, now I suppose it is really having gender issues. The doves are perched on a piece of aluminum "sculpture" that I found at Tuesday Morning, a discount, jobber kind of store where they buy up the stuff that didn't sell at a place gone bankrupt, or damaged freight - that kind of thing. I turned it upside down, sprayed it copper, and perched some black doves on it and looking through it. The crows are healthy, large crows and have copper tubing crests and tails. They are mounted on a snag that stands directly behind the fire pit. Flickers and woodpeckers have been doing a job on this snag for 20 years that I know of, and the snag will not be standing too much longer, but it will probably last as long as the crows do. The wonderful part of our Heckle and Jeckle is that they are very, very quiet. Especially early in the morning - which is more than I can say for Woody Woodpecker and friends.

Susanna and The Voyeurs (2)

When I posted Susanna the other day I somehow neglected to send the photo which could be enlarged. I hope I've corrected that this time. Susanna has been a big hit and was sold at the First Friday Art Walk. This state was printed 11" x 17" and hand color with watercolor & color pencil. The paper is Digital Media archival with Epson Archival inks. Once again, that wide format printer has paid off, by golly.

Cinderella Fence Post

To the left is the fence post before its trip to the beauty shop. Actually it was replaced with a new one of the same family as the carpenter ants had about devoured the old one. Several years ago I purchased the ceramic tiles with our address numbers while on a trip to Italy. The numbers have been hanging around the studio, quietly waiting their turn for attention. Last week I had reached critical mass in the procrastination department and set about the beautification of the fence post which had been leaning in one corner taking up space. I received a new tool for Christmas which has an attachment that made cutting the trough for the tile a very easy matter. The cut had to be about 3/8" deep as these were thick tiles. The tiles were then seated with mastic and grouted with a tan sanded grout (left over from another tile project). Then some scroll and floral motifs were carved and the whole thing stained with a Rosewood/Cherry stain (left over from the kitchen). My darling son was gracious enough to bribe a friend to come out with him and set the new post for me. I'm so pleased with it, I wonder why I didn't do it years ago and now have plans to do one for the other end of the driveway. (It is a semi-circle drive with two entrances.) I haven't told the son of the latest plan, yet. ;-)

Susanna and The Voyeurs

Susanna is a composite image (worked in Photoshop) — the forest, a group of men, and Susanna in her bath. It is based on the biblical story of beautiful young Susanna who has dismissed her servants for the day and gone out to her tub for a nice relaxing bath. Some old men take advantage of the chance to watch her and then manage to get into her bath area, accost her and demand sex. She refuses, so to punish her they accuse her of hanky-panky with her lover. But, during the trial, Daniel surfaces and cross examines the men and they have conflicting accounts. Instead of Susanna being stoned to death, the two accusing liars lose their lives for bearing false witness. The moral of the story, I'm sure, is a lofty one about truth & innocence trimphing over lies & false accusations , however I choose to believe that it is if you are going to bathe outdoors do so with a watch-dog on duty. In the biblical story the accusers are pillars of the community, well respected elders. In my version they are a group of church men who have been on some sort of religious retreat. They are more the lookie-loos, than men who would do any harm. The print is digital with watercolor and color pencil. It was printed on a wide format printer with Epson Archival inks on Digital Media paper from Daniel Smith.