little black journal

These were the final few prints that I cranked out last month – I held off on sharing them because two of these were a late birthday gift for my mom, but she received them last week, so I’m no longer in danger of ruining any surprises.  These are all monoprints, done with hand-cut stencils loaded with ink and run through the press.  I’m pretty happy with how several of them turned out – none of these are perfect, but I’m coming to learn that these imperfections are the beauty of printmaking.

These are two of my favorites, which will soon hang on the wall of my parents’ newly remodeled bathroom (my first piece of art to ‘grace’ someone else’s walls!):

These are all part of the same series…

And so my intro into printmaking has ended.  But due to the generosity and thoughtfulness of my ever-supportive husband, I’ll be able to occasionally rent space in the print studio next year with my Pratt school gift certificate!  I have some thinking/organizing/prepping to do before I’m ready to get back in there, but there are lots of ideas swirling around in this busy ol’ brain of mine.  Can’t wait to see what comes of it…

My printmaking class ended a couple of weeks ago, but I made the most of my final days of studio access and cranked out some good stuff.

The two images below are collographs, made by carving into a shellacked piece of cardboard, rubbing ink into the carved areas, then running it through the press.

My next focus was on paper lithography, using some of my photos of Paris to make prints.  I spent a few hours wrestling with this process one night in the studio, and still don’t feel like I got it right, but are some nuggets of quality in here…

I also put together several graphic monoprints that I was pretty happy with – a couple of them are being given as gifts, so for the sake of not ruining any surprises, I’ll post pics of those once they’ve been unwrapped.

In short, this class was amazing – I now see printmaking potential in all kinds of random things, from tangled netting to old photos to sketches I did 4 years ago.  I’m in the midst of figuring out how I’ll get back into the studio sometime soon – can’t let all that potential go to waste!

Good stuff happening in the print studio!  The last two weeks have been focused on relief printing and lithography.  So many possibilities!  Here’s what I came up with:

block print (a block of linoleum or rubber is carved, then used as a stamp):

paper lithographs (a fancy kind of xerox transfer process):

Still loving my printmaking class – these are the latest monotypes, made with bits of lace, hand-cut stencils, and baking powder.

buds:

ghost tree:

checkers:

hexagons:

lace:

Next up: relief prints.

I had my first printmaking class at a local art school on Thursday and loooooved it.  We will be learning several different printmaking methods over the next 8 weeks, and we started this week with monotype printing.  Paint is rolled onto a plate of plexiglass and overlaid with any stencils, and the image is then rolled onto a sheet of paper using the printing press.  I love the little imperfections that result from the process – it’s good for me to have to relinquish some control with my art.  And the fact that I showed up to class without the faintest idea of what we’d be doing and walked out of there with several prints four hours later made me quite happy – below are my faves.

faux bois:

branches and lace:

drippy silhouette:

I’m on the lookout now for fabrics/objects/textures that I can bring to class with me next week.  Feels good to be back in the creative saddle!

Below are a few more food paintings, done for my art class which ended on Thursday.  It’s fun being “outside the box”.  My mind is still brimming with all kinds of new possibilities.

This one was done on rice paper, with curry powder sprinkled over tea and a small seaweed accent (can you tell I went a little crazy at the Asian food store?).

Pod outlined in tea on soy paper (I totally scored when I found these brightly colored wrappers) and sprinkled with cinnamon.

Flower shape cut with an X-acto knife out of dried seaweed.  Smells fishy, but looks pretty.

Seed shape painted with red wine and dashed with cinnamon, for good measure.

Seed outlined in pencil (I cheated a little), filled in with olive oil, and dotted with soy sauce.  Simple, but the color of oil-soaked paper is beautiful.

Rice paper soaked in water, dribbled with soy sauce, and laid out to dry.  I love the translucency of the paper and the way it wrinkled and cracked.

Lemon slices soaked in wine and used as a stamp.

I’m ready to switch back to regular paints for awhile now, but I expect I’ll revisit edible art-ing again someday.  It’s good when art-making feels like playing.

I’m taking a class on abstract drawing and painting at a local art school on Thursday nights and have recently been introduced to some really fun, new ways of making art.  Case in point:  My assignment for the next 4 weeks is to make at least 10 drawings out of edible materials.  I am using patterns found in nature as my source of inspiration, and these two pieces are the start of my tasty little collection.

The first drawing is a blow-up of the shell of a foxglove seed (I found a fantastic book that has beautiful microscopic photos of plant matter).  I used a paintbrush dipped in Diet Coke to fill in the solid areas, then sprinkled the drawing with salt.  This has faded a lot as it has dried, but I kind of like the mix of subtle color and gritty texture.

The second is a cross-section of a pomegranate.  For this one, I painted the core with tea, then sprinkled with paper with cinnamon, which stuck to any of the wet areas.  The texture and color remind me of rust.  Cool.

I never knew there were so many art supplies to be found in our kitchen cupboards!  Olive oil, molasses, corn meal, the possibilities are endless…  Stay tuned for more savory drawings.

I’ve been busy and distracted and rather unmotivated lately and haven’t done nearly as much “creating” as I’d like to do. The only thing that has kept me from being completely unproductive has been the oil painting class that I’ve been taking at a small art school in Seattle for the past few weeks. This has been my first experience with oil paints, and learning to work with them has been both fun and frustrating. I love the richness of their color and texture – they blend beautifully and have a “creaminess” that I haven’t seen with acrylics. But they can take a loooong time to dry, which means you must have patience when layering paint or covering up mistakes. And clean-up time is a chore, since brushes must be cleaned with paint thinner or turpentine (acrylic and watercolor paint brushes can just be rinsed with water). Nonetheless, I look forward to continuing to play with this new-to-me medium. Below is one of my first stabs at a still life, painted during my third class. It still needs a little work, but it’s a start…

This was a chance to play around with some ideas I’ve been toying with for awhile… I like the idea of using printed fabric as a background, and I had some scraps left over from the curtains I made last year, so that was my start (though I ended up feeling like the damask I used in this was so bold and contrasty that I didn’t want to paint over it). The tree was also the product of some scraps I had laying around – I have a bag full of basswood pieces left over from my days as an architecture student, so this put some of it to use. I painted the woman pretty quickly (used a picture from one of my old bridal magazines as inspiration), but the background is where I really got stumped. The first time I painted it, it was too monochromatic. So I layered another shade of green over it. Then it was too varied. Then it was too light, too dark, too green, too yellow, etc. There are probably about 12 layers of green paint on this canvas. Last week I finally just threw my hands up, squeezed a bunch of green and yellow and red and white paint onto my palette, mixed it all together, and started slapping big daubs of acrylic onto the canvas with my palette knife. I’m not totally satisfied with the effect, but I don’t know where else to go with this one, so I’m setting it aside for now and moving on (more ideas brewing…).

Just for kicks, I’ve been playing around a little with some of the photos I took while I was in Europe – a mix of Photoshop manipulations and hand drawing over prints. It’s been awhile since I’ve scrolled through my thousands of photos; it was fun to review, reminisce, and revise:

berlin: grayed-out photo of Rotes Rathaus on a snowy January day, linework in ink.

prague: fantastically colorful street facade mirrored in Photoshop, pavement replaced with water, memorial statues imposed in front.

venice: favorite photos, lamppost cut-out, damask background outlined in ink.

munich: composition of snowscape, church, lampposts.

paris, cimetiere du montmartre: photo background with statue drawn in pencil.

Memories…