A Printmaker At Heart

A funny thing happened on my way to nowhere in the middle of the Serengeti last week.  My party and I were merrily bouncing along when we happened upon a Lion pair snoozing beside the road.  The moment we stopped moving they stopped napping and began inspecting our vehicles.  This could have been a Vehicle Emissions Test Station, but it was not so marked.  Mr. Lion continued his snooze, but his lady friend was intensely curious.  She was particularly enamored with the spare tire cover on the vehicle immediately preceding the one I was in.  I'm sure I could read her mind and she was saying:

 "Hummm, This is something new. I wonder how they did this, it is a very interesting effect.

Looking from this angle I think I can see how they did it.

Ahh, yes, first the tire and then this thing over it. Yes, I will have to try that.

But, for now, I think I'll just have a little snooze and think about it."

Now, if that doesn't sound like a printmaker I'll eat my Wildebeest.  We had to wait several minutes for this couple to get out from under the vehicles so we could be on our way to snapping photos of other beautiful creatures.  I must have roughly 652 photos of lions, although some of those could be elephants.  Some day I will have to count them, but for today, I think I'll snooze and think about it. There could be a print in there - in fact, I think there is......zzzzzzzz

Photo Finish

The ponies are headed for the finish line and with any luck at all, they will reach it today!  The latest incarnation involves playing in mica.  Well, why not?  The deadline is flexible so I can take as long as it takes, which is really quite a grand feeling!

There is some pesky trimming to be done, too - unfortunately, the fingers were not always pristinely clean when handling the paper.  Rats.  Here is a photo of the pony with his/her iridescent  circles - I hope they will show up on various monitors….

Now the only thing remaining is the clothing.  You didn't think I would send these babies out in the buff, did you?  Having already gone silly over this project, here is the finishing touch -

After the trimming and dressing are complete there will be the little matter of finding envelopes which fit.  Oh oh.  Probably should have thought about that quite some time ago.  And then there is also the story about this little pony to be written.  He/she has had quite an illustrious past and I'm sure everyone will want to know all the delicious details….. maybe not!  At any rate, I do hope everyone will enjoy this little fella as much as I've enjoyed putting it together and that it will bring you veritable downpours of good luck in many different forms.

Trouble at the OK Corral

This gift horse is quickly becoming the gift that keeps on giving.  Finally, I finished mucking about in the background and moved onto the blue and yay! it was time for red.  Such excitement in the corral, and then to my horrified eyes should appear - the part of the red block that I had mistakenly carved away.

The stripe on the saddle nearest the animal's head has no red.  I'm sure to the less obsessive compulsive of us this would not have mattered, but to the rest of us - well, this had to be remedied.  So, on comes the fake wood -  or to be more genteel, QuikWood, as it is known at McClain's.   Or, you can find a similar product at your local home improvement store.  I simply mixed a little ball of this wood putty stuff, flattened it to the right height, smushed it on the block where I'd made my mistake,  and when it was dry, carved the missing part back in.

Now all the stripes have their red part.  The purple line block has been printed again and everyone is in blotters drying.  Or eating, or sleeping, or whatever critters do when they are between blotters and weighted with a piece of plywood.  They will rest there until morning and then it will be on to the next step. I'm not hearing any noise from them - they must be resting peacefully.   I think we can surmise that the trouble at the corral is over.  For the moment.

Meanwhile, I need to run down to the local version of a yarn store and see if I can get the right size needles for the next knitting project.  It is a constant problem to keep me entertained and off the streets.

The Gift Horse

It must be the Year of the Horse - I assume that is why ponies of every description have been galloping in here since last December.  After a  few years forced hiatus (forced by lack of time, and/or energy) from the Barenforum New Years Card Exchange, I decided to again participate.  But, January, February, March and now most of April have come and gone and I have yet to produce a pony.

We've seen Trojan horses, galloping horses, dancing horses, prancing horses, rocking horses, stick horses, horses of many colors, chess piece horses (that was the one I had in mind and then Andrew did it first and better which really ticked me off! Especially the "better" part), and you name it, that kind of horse has been through here.  Henceforth, and to wit and all that, it was really hard to come up with something everyone hasn't already seen.  And then I had a flash of brilliance.  Truthfully, that may be a bit overstated, but suddenly I remembered this little horse on wheels that my granddaughters had when they were toddlers.  They rode that horse all over the house until their legs got too long for it.  Their mother tells me it is a "hand me down horse" from Kmart.  So, I decided to call it the Gift Horse.

Pre-launch of the gift horse I was going to post moment by moment progress, however I was several moments into it before I remembered that that was the plan.  It started with a plain yellow background, followed by a stencil of green circles, another stencil of kind of orangy circles, then those seemed too bright, so another drop of lemon yellow and then I remembered that this was going to be step by step.
But, before I managed to scan it I plunged into the blue body which required two drops to get a bright blue.

Up until this point it really looked pretty much like a beagle with round legs anyway, so you didn't miss much. And then I realized that I really should have printed the purple so I could tell if things were lining up properly.  Guess it has been awhile since I printed this way.  Today the purple is going down and we can see that  registration is going pretty well:

So, this is where we are today - about half way through the purple.  When we move to the next color I'll let you know.  But, a funny thing happened on the way to this print.  I started cutting paper and apparently didn't know when to stop because I have about 68 of these things and it takes a while for me to get through the pile.  Sometimes it is two days to get one color down.  Therefore, don't hold your breath for the next sign of progress.  Easter is coming and there are eggs to prepare and other forms of foolishness and fun.  Happy Easter, Passover, Solstice (a few days late, but hey! any excuse to party) or whatever you may be celebrating this weekend!  We will be having our annual Geriatric Egg Hunt at son and daughter-in-law's house this year.  The age range of hunters is 4 - 80+.  We are heavily slanted on the over 60 end of this thing.  The bunny hides about 150 eggs and it is every man or woman for themselves when the starting whistle is blown!

The Print From Hell Begins...

All of the deadlines have been met except one:  Barenforum exchange # 55, which I foolishly signed up for on Oct. 1, 2012 when Feb. 1, 2013 sounded years away.  I thought I needed something to occupy my time, and then I turned around and flew to North Dakota for a week, and then it was Thanksgiving, and then flew to ND again for Christmas, and then it was Dec. 31, 2012 and I discovered that the Sketchbook Project was due in two weeks.  Their  "next Jan." was tomorrow and my "next Jan." had been 2014.  Well, got to work quickly and did that and the portrait and now it is back to woodblock.

It all started with a simple drawing which I had planned to do Moku Hanga.  This is the drawing:

The theme is motion in nature - immediately I had thought of my daughter, when she was a toddler, and rode on a little seat on the back of my bike.  I updated it with a helmet, but in those days the only thing I really remember was a little plastic strap that went around her middle.  All during our rides she was absolutely dead quiet and I thought she must be scared to death and certain I was out to kill us both. In contrast, her older brother when he rode back there chatted continually about everything in sight.  I never had long straight blond hair, either - call it artistic license.

OK - so got the block carved and proofed and ready to print and realized that I had no way to register this beauty.  Out came the cheater registration system. Voila!  I lined everything up, got my margins all set and pulled some proofs for registration purposes and went to bed.

The next morning the blocks were all waiting for me and I went to work.

I had blocks for blue, red, brown,  and grey and yellow on one block, and a blended blue to green background block.  Oh oh!  Right away I can't get the background to line up properly.  Finally, after hours of trial and error I gave up and carved a new background and printed it - so far Moku Hanga is working great!

But, NONE OF THE BLOCKS WILL LINE UP AND REGISTRATION IS DRIVING ME NUTZ.

It was obvious that I should throw in the towel and start over, but I was already late, so what to do? What to do?  Fuss and fury, what to do!  I did what any half crazed, previously level headed printmaker would do, I opted for hand coloring and got to work on that, which went rather quickly compared to recutting half a dozen blocks.  The only problem was that it looked really goofy with a mix of even sides and sides that went off to nowhere.  So, cut another block!  A frame block to cover all the sins.  I mixed up some blu/black Akua Intaglio ink, rolled it onto the block and to the press with paper and rubber blanket.  Moku Hanga has been totally abandoned at this point.  My patience is caput.

Toddler Flight

It worked moderately well, but this was about as far as I could go with what I had.  Barely visible in this shot is a swirl of interference pigment, added via stencil,  which shimmers when the light hits it properly.  At this point I did throw all the towels in - (the washer) and rushed this lot to the USPS.  And, I want to tell you that I really don't know what they're worried about money-wise.  The fee was outrageous and should keep the USPS solvent for several years.  And, now I need to go write another check to Monica because what I included was pathetic.

One more thing - I want to apologize to all the #55 folk who have been eagerly awaiting this portfolio. This is the first time I've ever been late.  I promise that reformation is on my resolution list.

Caer & Angus

After several weeks of carving (I'm neither speedy nor tenacious) and a solid week of printing, the work for the Mythology exchange is done and ready to go into the mail and wing its way to IL.  Carving the line print on a piece of cherry plywood from McClain's was pure joy.  I think I only had one spot where a piece splintered and took off on its own and that was easily repaired with the fake wood stuff.  In addition to the line block the others were yellow, blue and red.  The final block was for embossing the swan's heads, necks, and wings.  I think it was a successful print, but I, of course, had to run into one pot hole along the road to completion.  I read David Bull's entry on embossing in the Encyclopedia at www.Barenforum.org and he cautioned to dampen the block to keep the paper from slipping.  I guess I overdid the dampen part and the sumi, which had been printed the day before, blurred and ran in places of its own choosing.  Finally, I quit the dampening and had no more problems.  The paper was still damp enough from printing, I guess, that it didn't move.  I confess to cheating - I used the etching press to do the embossing.  It wasn't particularly faster, but it was a lot easier on my elbows, which is what David recommends!  He is just made of sturdier stuff than I am, and besides, he's younger.
Enough good things can't be said regarding Guerra pigment dispersions.  They are just truly fabulously fantastic.  Such nice rich colors and so very little ink used - they are amazing.
The story of Caer and Angus was told on the previous entry, so I won't repeat it here.  Here they are making beautiful music together.  Listen carefully and you may be lulled to sleep for 3 days and nights. (Or maybe just reading this entry will do that.....)

Progress is slow

It has been very quiet around here as the carver has been busy plying her trade with her  poor little arthritic fingers. (Play for sympathy, in case you missed it.) They (the fingers) seem to move a little slower each time a new block is started.  But, today was Proof Day.  I don't know how other woodblock people approach this by my feelings are a mixture of pure dread, and curiosity.  Therefore, I seem to breathe rather shallowly until that first proof has been pulled.  This time there was a great letting out of breath and normal breathing quickly followed.  It is not bad!  Here is a photo of the block - from which you can probably tell very little.  I had intended to show where I had to build the block back up because my line peeled right off with a mere brushing of a shirt sleeve.  I don't think that shows very well, so you will have to imagine that part.  It was done with wood epoxy pressed into the spot that needed repair and then carved again just like it was the original thing. McClain's sells this product and it can also be found at most home improvement stores.  It is like a miracle drug.  Fixes even the most egregious errors. (I imagine - since I have never, of course, had any of those egregious errors myself.)   :-/

And, here is the proof on dry copy paper

                  

So, now we are ready to march along with the colors.  Two blocks have the images transferred so I am ready to start seriously seeing how I can combine colors on the same plate... I guess I'll start with the yellow and see what happens.  These things are always an adventure - one step at a time! (Hopefully, those steps are forward...  it is so annoying when they go the other direction...)

Mythology 101

OMG, I signed up for another exchange -- something I think I remember saying I would never do again, but here we go.  Anyone in the Baren Forum group who is also in Exchange 48 - in case I have the number wrong it is the one with the mythology theme - and you want everything to be a total surprise, stop everything right here! Read no further.

The myth I have chosen is an old Celtic story about Angus who has gone to visit the Bov the Red, King of the Dannans of Munster, and is wined and dined (in this story I suspect there is a lot of the wined and less of the dined) for three days and nights, during which Angus spills the beans for his visit: he is madly in love with a maiden of whom he has only dreamed.  Bov, being a god himself, knows to take Angus to the the lake shore where there are 50 + 1 swans, the 1 being taller than all of the others and he recognizes the maiden he has been smitten by 6 months ago in his dream.  He demands to have her name, which is Caer, daughter of Ethal Anubal.  They send a message to EA requesting Caer's hand, but he refuses to give her up.  BTW Bov has explained to Angus that Caer spends 6 months of the year as a maiden and the other 6 months as a swan.  Well, Angus enlists the help of other gods and again requests Caer's hand, and again he is denied.  But, her father explains that she is more powerful than he and it is not in his power to give her to him.  However, if he will go to the Lake of the Dragon's Mouth, next November 1, he will see her with 150 other swans.  So, the next Nov. Angus is on the edge of the lake looking out over this sea of swans and he calls to Caer.  She asks, "Who calls me?" (The dialogue in these stories is not real original) Angus declares who he is and he plunges into the lake where he is immediately transformed into a swan, which is a form of acceptance, and they fly off together to the Palace on the lake.  After that they fly to the palace on the Boyne, uttering as they go a music so divine that all who hear it are lulled to sleep for three days and nights.  Angus is a special deity and friend of beautiful youths and maidens.  His full name is Angus Øg, (Angus the young) son of the Dagda and by Boanna (the River Boyne). His palace was at New Grange on the River Boyne.

The image I have come up with will take a bit of time for me to accomplish, but it should keep me busy and off the streets between now and May 1 when the prints are due.

This is a rendering of the design in colored pencil.  The two swans are far from anatomically correct, but that's the way we Irish do things: do whatever is needed for the design.) Now, we will see how accurate it is after I have cursed and cried and screamed hysterically through the carving of the blocks.  The materials I needed  came in from McClains yesterday - I'm hoping to get a bit of carving done before I leave for FL for a week.  When I get back it will be nose to the woodblock, shoulder to the wheel, eye on the barrel of the bat, etc.  And, as long as no one distracts me with a pretty good social opportunity I can do this!

Vancouver's Printmakers: Pressing the Boundaries

This is a show I've been working on for a couple of years - the idea being to showcase half a dozen or so local printmakers.  Part of the idea is to introduce the printmakers and their work to a larger audience and the other part to educate the public about printmakers.  In this show we have about an even split between relief and intaglio with some monotypes thrown in to make a terrific mix.  Vancouver has been having  really good turnout for the First Friday Art Walk - we hope that will hold true even though it is a long holiday weekend. ( Hold your breath! )

There will be fish printing for adults and children going on in front of the gallery and Barbara Mason has agreed to bring the small press and demonstrate intaglio in the gallery.  With all that, lots of terrific prints,  a little wine and some good food it should be a terrific evening.  If you're in the area the date for the opening party is July 2, 5 pm - 9 pm.  Hope you can make it!

Back at it: making art

It has been ages since I've communicated via blog.  Mainly, because I was laid low the months of Oct., Nov., Dec., and January with emergency surgery & all that goes with that.  In January I was back in the hospital again because I had done everything wrong - ate all the wrong things and was, in general, a very bad girl.  In my defense, the hospital sent me home with no direction.  When they said I could eat Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast, I ate what was in the house: brown rice & whole grain toast. No! It was supposed to be white everything.  Basically, I could eat anything over-refined and with absolutely no nutritional value.  It is hard to generate any energy on such a diet. 
Due to this turn of events I missed my Christmas visit to Granddaughterland, aka North Dakota, and by March I was getting desperate for a Granddaughter fix.  I've just returned from glorious Grand Forks and Camille and I managed to get in a printmaking session.  I helped Grace with a couple of paintings

for a school project, and Camille and I did various craft and art related projects.  After a rousing game of Fancy Nancy we drew bedrooms and Nancy.  But the printmaking was the most fun.  Here is a shot of Camille burnishing her foam plate.  I'm not sure she ever really got the concept as the plates seemed to be much more important to her than the prints.  I think Grace will be ready to do some actual carving next winter, so maybe I can get her to do a little linoleum print - or we might find time for that this summer, though their time here seems to pass much too quickly to do much of anything that requires staying in one spot.
Next on the agenda is some studio clean up and then Grandma had better get back to work or she won't have much for a July show. Yikes!

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.

Year of the Ox

Finally, my herd of oxen are leaving the premises.  To tell you the truth I was beginning to think they would never leave.  The mess they have left behind will have to be dealt with now.

Many images of bulls, oxen, buffaloes, you name it, have danced in my head since last Fall, but none stayed there long enough to make it onto a block.  Ferdinand has always been a sentimental favorite, but in the end this fellow won out.  There was a fabulous mosaic bull in Cadiz, but the thought of cutting all those little lines for the mosaic idea was more than I could handle, especially since I have two more urgent projects waiting in the wings.

So, here we have Spiral Ox.  That sounds like it could be contagious - some kind of new virus, but he is really a tame and good natured fellow.  He is a reduction print, just one block of precious cherry wood has been sacrificed for this print.  Originally I had planned for him to be lime green, but try as I might, all I could get was brown once the orange body had been printed.  That kind of thing just does not work with reduction methods and transparent ink - surprise! one gets brown every time, which I knew  of course, but for some reason thought I could overcome if I printed it often enough.  Other than that, things went pretty much as planned.  

And now I am off to release the herd at the PO.  I hope they are ready for this!  Hooves away —

Froggie went a courting...

A few years ago I carved this little woodblock from parts of wood around other images. I only needed a little spot approximately 2.5 x 3.25 inches for the key and pond blocks, and even smaller for the other colors. Last weekend I printed up a fresh batch of Froggies and made them into gift cards by trimming them and mounting them to various scraps of papers and finally onto cardstock and finishing them off with a few odd beads and embroidery floss. Of course, they were not standard envelope size, so the envelopes are made from scraps of various mulberry papers hiding out in drawers. Nothing, but nothing goes to waste around here and very little gets tossed out. In that respect I suppose this could be considered house cleaning. Yes! I spent the weekend cleaning house! I wonder if anyone will notice.... Maybe one of these days I will put some of these on my poor little neglected Etsy site.... someday....