Mapping a Traveler's Mind

Next month I'll be participating in a show at North Bank Gallery dealing with Map and Bridge images.  I've always been fascinated with the idea of mapping the brain - especially as it would lend itself to being able to change that part of the brain that allows people to disagree with me. (Especially when that person might happen to inhabit the same residence).  My interest was first spiked (no pun intended) by the story of Phineas Gage, a railway worker who suffered an accident where a long pointed spike pierced his skull and brain in an accident related to an explosion.  His subsequent behavioral changes led to much of today's research and knowledge of which parts of the brain control what actions or processes.  

Well, the first attempt was a dismal failure.  Not only did my model have a really goofy and demented expression, but she looked as if she had been decapitated, and she also had a serious skin condition.  The latter the result of an attempt to use an old canvas which has held many paintings and been gessoed many times and the sanding between layers apparently left a bit to be desired.

                                                                                                                                                            

After fighting for days I finally gave up and decided she should be a plaster cast, rather than being a no-body.  This way, I reasoned, if a blemish occurred it would be in the plaster and no fault of the painter.  (I like to give myself a way out of these messes ahead of time, if possible.)   Also, I could capitalize on the surface texture instead of fighting it to a stand off. So, with a few modifications, and a little more pigment she became plastered.  In her condition I figured a compass might come in handy.  I think she is finished, unless one of you can give suggestions to improve her.  

By the way, I am really excited about showing Annie Bissett's Three Prophets in this exhibition.  I hope any of you in the Portland/Vancouver area will come by in April and see what all the excitement is about! First Friday artwalks are from 5 - 8pm, but you can come any time during the month.

Swinger

Last Fall when it was sign up time for Baren Forum Exchange 39 I was about as enthusiastic as one can possibly get, but then I ran into a snag.  The theme was a self portrait as a tree.  I just couldn't get moving on what the heck kind of tree I could possibly be.  I could be a fir because I love the rain, I could talk myself into being just about any tree you can think of, but I could not decide.  Then I was hit with another kidney infection and spent 5 hours one Sat. in the ER with various liquids being dripped into my veins as they waited for my heart rate to go down.  After that it seemed to just take forever to get any energy back again.  I had decided to back out of the exchange on Jan. 1, the last day to withdraw and let some other eager woodblock printer to get their chance in this one.  Wouldn't you know, that very day the Exchange Coordinator sent an email to everyone saying there was no one waiting in the wings and we were already short two people.  Immediately, guilt and obligation moved in and I started cutting and carving and printing furiously.  Suddenly, I had settled on an image and it was full speed ahead.  The deadline was Feb. 1.  I think my prints were 3 days late getting to Connecticut.

The image I finally settled on was of me, as a 5 year old, swinging in the backyard in the apple tree I always wanted, but never actually had.  Instead, I swung from the laundry poles, which of course, was forbidden.  And, for good reason as I eventually fell and broke my arm.  But, I was a swinger and did so at every opportunity.  Finally, when I was an adult my Grandmother gave my Dad an apple tree with 4 or 5 varieties of apple on one tree.  It was his pride and joy, but I was middle aged before it was large enough to support a swing.  Did I mention that my folks had planted a Weeping Willow in the backyard when I was small?  If ever there was a tree that did not offer the possibility of a swing it is a Weeping Willow.  It finally grew too large and they cut it down, but fat lotta good that did me.   So, my image is a fantasy - a complete fabrication, but it would have been true if I had carried a little more clout in the landscaping field at the time.

The print I did for the exchange was a bit more simple.  On the second printing I included a stencil and an additional bokashi, and beefed up the color on the red dress.  When printing for the exchange I ran out of time to do much experimenting, so it came later.  I lost track of how many drops were involved, but I'm guessing about 15, at least.  It seemed like a hundred and I began to think I was going to have to live well past 100 to finish.  The paper is Echizen Kozo from McClains Printmaking supplies and it is truly a joy and the colors do glow!  It is such a pleasure when things do what is promised!  

Virgin Annunciate

It's been a long time between posts, but I have not been idle.  Between finishing the print for an exchange and taking a painting class, there has been little time for anything else.  The painting class was "Techniques of the Masters" taught by Mike Southern at the Kenton Studios in Portland.  The artists covered were the Flemish Masters, Titian and Rubens.   We were each to do an egg tempera based copy of a Flemish Master on a small piece of panel prepared with the traditional gesso and a Titian work on canvas.  I chose the Virgin Annunciate, an early Titian. It was a real personal challenge to stay focused on copying someone else's work – I kept wanting to take off on my own, especially when it came to the drapery, which has always been a challenge.  I think I managed to stay half faithful in end, but a forger I will never be.  Now the challenge will be to somehow make this woman mine.  She is currently residing in the studio where I can look at her every day until I come up with the solution.

Many years ago I would make a value study drawing in graphite and then water color over it. What a surprise to find out I was doing a Titian technique (of sorts - his were in oil) called grisaille, which is simply a painting done in shades of gray from black to white.  The under painting, which was first done in burnt umber, then in grisaille, and then many glazes of transparent oil pigments.  I gotta tell you, Titian worked a whole lot faster then I did.  It took me a month of classes, and sessions between, to finish this little 16 x 20 inch canvas.  But then, I didn't have a cadre of apprentices, either which makes for a handy excuse for being so slow!  (I don't have a wife, either.)

As to the final solution, I have some things in mind, and when they are in place you will see an altered image.  

But, next I will post the woodcut for the exchange.

Earth, Water, Wind and Fire: Installed

Finally, after months of grinding away with various bits and my handy Foredom, the piece is ready for installation in the great outdoors.  It has been securely mounted on exterior grade plywood which has been primed and painted within an inch of its life.  The final coat is a clear enamel on the copper itself to prevent oxidation.  At first I was going to just let it do its natural thing, but then I realized that gradually all that engraving would disappear.  That was when I decided to add color with the propane torch, and sure enough! Gradually, all the engraving disappeared and had to be redone.

In a few years the plants will be halfway or more up to the bottom of the installed piece.  Right now it looks like it has been installed much too high, but hopefully, in a few years it will look just right.  I'm told that the first year plants sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap.  Right now we are heavily into sleep, because nothing is doing anything.  There is a tiny tip of new growth, but that is it -- just enough for us to know they are still alive.

Earth, Water, Wind and Fire looks for all the world to be exactly where it was meant to be: and it is!  

The next project is to carve the fence posts!  I don't expect that to take near as long as this piece did. ;-)

Earth, Water, Wind and Fire

The four elements: earth, water, wind and fire seemed appropriate for a garden piece.  Of course, each of these had to be represented visually.   Water                                               Detail of fern representing earth.  The fern

was chosen because it is one of our oldest botanic specimens and it is a wonder to me how it can propagate so effectively with such a primitive and demanding reproductive process.  It seemed to demand some kind of recognition. Air/wind - my favorite to draw or paint, and

                                                        least favorite to experience. Another representation of earth simply because

    I love plants with berries and wanted to do berries. In the upper right hand corner is an 

image representing the sun and fire.  However, after

I decided to take the propane torch to the copper to

add color, the torch became the representative for fire.

This is the finished piece in the studio, mounted on primed and painted exterior plywood, ready for installation outdoors.  (To be continued...)

Working on Copper

This looks more like a Halloween costume than someone doing serious work, but under all of that gear sits a mild mannered printmaker working her little heart out. Several years ago I burned out a Dremel tool working on zinc and replaced it with a Foredom which is much more to my liking. So far, I have not managed to burn it out. This is a 2' square piece of copper intended to be installed in the yard when completed. To date I have been through 4 little burrs and have completely emptied the bin at our local Home Depot. It is slow going and I'm getting impatient! Especially impatient to get out of all of this gear! Before the piece is mounted and installed I intend to get at least one print from it.

Mirror, Mirror On The Wall...

North Bank Gallery in Vancouver, where I am one of the artists, is having a Politik: Left, Right and Center exhibition this month. Since I am pretty much chair bound, recovering from surgery, I had to do what I could manage from my chair. This didn't exactly conform to that requirement, but modeling the pig did. The idea was after the reference in the political dialogue of putting lipstick on a pig, the old saw that is just another version of you can't make a silk purse from a sow's ear, which was my mother's favorite. Somehow the Right managed to twist the comment to infer that Sarah Palin, the Republican nominee for Vice President, was a pig in lipstick, which was never the intent or context of the comment in the original. But, since that seems to be what is making the rounds, I decided to play on that. The most surprising part of this story is that the piece sold before the show opened, making me think maybe I should go for folk art and give up the printmaking!