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!

More Greed and Lies

Finally, I have managed to take a black and white print on Somerset paper which actually shows the block much better than that wonderful, silky, draping like cloth paper with the white on white Japanese symbols. I really do love that paper - the symbols represent pine, plum and bamboo - or so it says on the label.  Did I mention that the block is 20" x 24"?  It takes a 22" x 30" sheet to do one print.  Also, I found a very elemental system to register that little green "bp" block which was burnished by hand with my trusty bamboo covered baren, so no more wasting paper by guessing where to put that little stinker.

I think this is a strong image, but of course, I have to do some more playing around with it. That will be tomorrow.  

The wonderful filmy paper I am so in love with has white on white small Japanese symbols for pine, plum and bamboo, which could serve as symbols of the many species of both flora and fauna of the gulf who are now endangered in one way or another.

I hope you can see the white on white symbols and, of course, you can see them when they are where the black ink happens to print over them.  It gives a feeling of layers and I love layers of imagery and commentary.

Next is to find the ideal way to attach a few more panels to the "bolt of fabric" - that will happen after the ink dries enough that I can handle them without smudging.

Fabric of the Gulf: Greed and Lies

Finally I am back to my other love: the woodblock.  I've had this block carved and proofed and ready to go for months, but other deadlines kept pushing it to the back of the line.  Then North Bank Gallery decided to do a Seven Deadly Sins show and I was half way there!  Where on earth was their less greed and lies than in the Gulf Oil spill of this last year?  I figured I probably had all the sins covered with this one print, almost all, anyway.

It is a little hard to tell one thing from another in these photos and, of course, I do not have a flat print - that will have to be another day.  Actually, there are two blocks on this piece - the "bp"(not shown) are printed in British Petroleum green.
I pulled about 6 prints onto a very thin and silky paper with a white on white design.  While waiting for them to dry I found a piece of melmanine composite board which I cut to the size I needed and screwed a cardboard bolt form, and some wooden reinforcement, to it. I'd forgotten how much fun it is to run the saws, drill press, sander, etc., and the resulting mess there is to clean up.
When the prints were dry enough to work with I proceeded to wrap the bolt form, first with a piece of Sommerset white paper and then around several times with the silky woodblock prints until I had a bolt of the Fabric of the Gulf.

It looks like fabric - even the feel of it gives you much more of a sense of fabric than fabric itself.  So, why didn't I just print it on fabric and have it over with?  Oh, who knows, I kind of like the idea that it is one thing representing another -- especially with the theme of the show being sin and I'm working with greed and lies.  And this paper is so thin and silky and though it is probably tougher than wine leather, it has a very fragile appearance - not unlike the gulf ecosystem.
The top of the bolt is, more or less, authentic (big lie), too – however what it says is the truth!

I'm hoping you can click on that and be able to read it - if not it says: Gulf Black Plague, 100% oil pollution, Machine wash cool, certified dispersants, lie, lie, lie.  And where the price is: $200 billion.

That about covers it - I will pull a regular, "hang on the wall" print tomorrow!

A Massive Amount of Work

I've been very quiet for a couple of months - in October and November I was busy getting ready for the  Miniature show - who would have guessed that working on a 4" format could be so difficult.  After struggling to get myself down to those dimensions I found out the maximum was 5"x7".  Oh well, that work is done and off to new homes.  But, there was no rest for the weary because Xmas was practically here and I was off to North (freeze your tuche off) Dakota for a wonderful visit with the daughter and son-in-law and the worlds two most gorgeous and intelligent granddaughters.  Of course, I caught the obligatory Xmas Airport Cold, but could take no time off to soak in the misery of it.  It was back to work immediately because the call for massive work to be ready for the February show wasn't even started, yet.  Well, it is finished and hung in the gallery now.  My God, what a massive amount of work for one skinny little month.  The work is only 5' x 5' and is comprised of 36 nine inch squares.  Each "tile" has been printed with a yellow squiggly background, then a misty blue plate, and the circles in gold, and one of six various motif's: compass rose, geometric star, clock face, Celtic knot, Gordian knot, and Fleur de Lis. When those were dry a proverb was printed on each, some machine sewing with a varigated metallic thread (which was a bitch to work with) a little color pencil to highlight.  Then they were mounted onto print paper, followed by matboard, coated with a cold wax medium, eyelets and ball chain were attached. I will never do this again - so this is it, kids.  
A sample of one of the individual squares:

                                   

I'll be posting more of the individual images at http//www.barebonesart.com.  It was quite a chore hanging this piece, so I may not get to the website until tomorrow - I feel a rest period coming on....

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz.........

Support Group, again,again

I'm hoping that the third time is a charm.  This print has been trying (and succeeding very well) to drive me crazy.  I could not  understand what it was that was nagging non-stop.  Finally, a friend said she thought that the central figure was too dark.  I looked closer and the original drawing was not dark, so I must have over-developed the plate.  Back to platemaking and a 30 second developing time and this is so much better.  It reminds me of a story another friend, who just happened to be a poet, told me years and years ago.  She said she had a friend who helped her with her poetry and the problem was always the line above or below the problem line, and never the "problem line" at all.    Right after that I was painting a portrait commission and could not get the nose right.  Finally, I redid the mouth and the nose was fine.  Such was the case with this print.  I thought it was the amount of white space that was wrong, and it was instead the darkness around the hair and face of that center figure.  Thank you to my good friend for turning me around! Another lesson learned again.  I don't know if I have time to learn every lesson over and over and over.  I would really like to get to that woodblock someday.  

I'm assuming everyone recognized these three women as the Three Graces: Aglaea (beauty), Euphrosyne (mirth), Thalia (good cheer).   This image has the central figure, Aglaea, needing her support group.  She is traditionally the grace dealing with beauty and is also the oldest, so I'm wondering if she is worried about losing her beauty because she is aging.  Maybe she is considering a face lift... or maybe not.  I'll leave it to the viewer to make up the story.

;-)

Support Group, again

I wasn't real happy with the first version of Support Group, so I've tried one with more white space.  I'm still not a hundred percent, but maybe this version will grow on me.  Suggestions are welcome - including, redraw the main image.  I'm still planning to work more with this idea in a different format  and a bit larger.  The next one will include carving and probably be mainly woodblock, since it will be part of my "recuperation project # 1".  If not wholly woodcut, then maybe the color blocks with a solarplate for the line.  As you can see, this is still rolling around in the little gray cells.

       It reminds me of the metal garden sculpture I lost last night: it was made of cut outs of leaves and was spherical.  I accidently kicked it, just the tiniest bit, and off it went, down the incline, weaving its way between the Japanese forest grass, and down between more plants - any one of which could have stopped this thing - across the flagstaff path, between two large shrubs and then it was really off and running down the embankment, between cedar and fir trees, over the vinca minor, and through the horsetails and ferns and now it is lost.  I went as far down the hill as I could with a bad knee and in Berkinstock sandals which only go ahead, not back or sideways.  The further I got down the hill and the closer to the creek the more tangled the undergrowth became, so I had no choice but to climb back up.  This is not easy when one keeps sliding out of ones shoes.  Now I'm looking for someone with a metal detector, or will wait until fall, when the lost sphere, in its rusted glory, will  probably become very obvious.  Sigh.