Christmas in Kansas

After two days of airport adventure (which were thankfully not as disruptive as they sound), I arrived in Kansas to celebrate Christmas with my in-laws. While I never thought that traveling on Christmas would be a positive experience in any sense of the word, once I finally got off the ground in Burlington, it turned out to be quiet uneventful.

I arrived in Kansas to a white Christmas, the very white Christmas that I was afraid would make it impossible for me to land at all. After braving the traffic of poor sad Kansans without snow tires who were, it would seem, scared to pick through the drifts, we arrived home to a household of hungry in-laws who good-naturedly ribbed me about holding up the Christmas present unwrapping by more than 24 hours.

On this fair occasion, I was blessed with a Snuggie, a telescoping meat fork, and a digital picture frame (preloaded with our wedding pix, which was very thoughtful), as well as a BluRay edition of Big Trouble in Little China, perhaps one of my favorite childhood movies of all time. My brother-in-law, on quite an art kick, apparently, got me a really nice book with lots of pictures called "Graffiti Women." He told us, "I bought this when I saw the print you'd been working on of the mixer. I thought you needed to get out of the kitchen."

"And onto the streets?" I asked.

"Right."

Said with usual Proulx dry humor, I am 97% sure he does not think of me as a 1950's housewife. But this did get me to thinking about the way people interpret ones art, and what it makes them think and believe about the artist themselves. I was looking through the book of Graffiti Women, which has some really amazing art in it, but I have some really mixed feelings about illegal art -- which forces me to think about how I feel about the artists tagging trains and public spaces (especially the ones who work without permission -- although some of them DO obtain it). As I looked at the work in the book, my thoughts went something like this: "That's awesome. I love those colors! I can't read that writing. Oh, look, that one is painted inside a house! That makes me feel better. Oh, that's on a train. Likely not legal. Why would someone do that?" Which then makes me wonder...what do people think about me when they see my work? Not that I do a ton, or am very prolific...but even so.

It's interesting when you're trying to create something. I find it difficult to just whip out a print when I was to -- I have to expend a good deal of mental energy finding a subject (and I use the word loosely) that is interesting enough for me to want to work with. And there's that additional hurdle of seeing the image you want in your head and being simply unable to make it work on paper. The art I create in my head (especially during church when I actually allow my brain to turn off my constant to-do list) is incredibly inspired.. What comes out on paper is this sad sad reflection of what I hoped it could be.

I think, too, about what a body of work says about a person. I use the word person instead of artist, because calling someone an artist seems so pretentious to me...and because I don't think of myself as such. When my brother-in-law was looking through some of the art books he got for Christmas, I borrowed the book on Magritte to flip through it. When I look at a large collection of an person's work, I wonder what it means. How does it fit into the framework of the lives they have developed for themselves? Does their art actually reflect who they are on a day to day basis? Can you guess anything about the way they walk, talk, or interact with others by looking at the visual imagery they create?

Is it important to view art in the context of the artist, or does it exist independently? Can one have meaning without the other?

Like a Layer Cake...but with paint

The last couple weeks of printmaking class, our teacher tried to convince us to work on layering some of the different techniques we had learned. I wasn't feeling particularly inspired at the time we were given this "assignment," but I decided to do some monoprinting and add it to this screenprint I had already worked from:

I had some moments of panic in which I started working on my monoprint upside down. One of the hardest things about printmaking, as far as I'm concerned, is having the spatial intelligence to understand which way your print will print. It varied by technique -- some techniques, like etching and linocut, print backwards from the way you make them. Others, like silkscreening, print forwards. When you try to mix a backwards technique with a forwards...then your brain turns to noodles.

In the end, I ended up with these two prints, one more detailed, and the other more abstract:

 

While these are cropped digitally, there is some mad crookedness in the original that is less than ideal and deserves some consideration, but overall, I think that the effects of these two are nice -- and crookedness can always be cured with a good trim and frame, right?

I also worked on this little piece, which did not turn out perfectly, but is certainly something to continue working on:

While currently the bottom just looks blank, it is in fact chunky and white (snow, if you will) in the paper print. This is an etching I worked on (the tree), with oil paint filling in the outline, and then a monoprint of the snow and bluebird.

I think that layering has it's advantages, but unfortunately, the techniques that is easiest to layer (screenprinting) is also the most time-consuming and expensive to prepare...not particularly feasible for me right now, seeing as I am poor :) But I plan to do some work with etching, linocut, and monoprinting, and am still hatching the greeting card plan, if only I could find a good producer of blank cards...

Pascal

The blog has been quiet because life has been busy! This past weekend, we traveled to Ste. Beatrix, QC to pick up our newest family member! Meet Pascal (formerly Boubou):

The good news is that after the new year, I've decided to go to one day a week at my part-time retail job...which means more time for printmaking! I'm psyched to get back into the studio after the hoopla of the holidays, and I have some ideas hatching in my brain for a new kind of project! :)

Our Lady of Guadalupe Shirt Giveaway

I've mentioned in previous posts that while I by no means do exclusively religious work, I am very inspired by the imagery of my faith (Hey, worked for Michelangelo, right?). Sarah, a friend who blogs over at Just Another Day of Catholic Pondering is giving away one of my Guadalupe t-shirts as part of her novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Check it out and leave a comment if it's something you're interested in -- she'll pull a random winner after the 12th, so there's still a couple days left!

Last Day of Class

Today was the final day of printmaking class! We got a dump of winter weather up here in Vermont last night, so I was feeling ready to hibernate and not at all eager to attend, but I decided to put in an appearance, and hoped that my teacher and classmates would show up.

Luckily, George did appear, and so did one of my classmates. I did a little work silkscreening over a couple monoprints I made last week, with mixed success. A couple of the pieces turned out well, and a couple were big fails. Once they dry and I pick them up, I'll include pictures here. I also printed a couple more Norman Bates prints, as I sold my last one! :)

And now class is over, and the decision remains...will I become a member of Burlington City Arts and shell out the money to use the studio space each month ($50/month) in the hopes of continuing my printmaking work...or will I find myself too busy?

I think that I'm going to continue to use the studio throughout December (I feel like that's legitimate since my class just ended), and then perhaps pay for January use of the space, and see how much use I get out of it. I'll then make decisions accordingly about continuing. The other options exists of renting the space by the day (for $35). In that case, I could work at home on lino-cuts and etchings, and just print a glut of work one a single full day in the studio.

What's a great creative outlet, though! I've really enjoyed the work I've done, and while there is always more to learn, I've found a couple techniques that I love...and a couple techniques I'm not sure about yet. More exploration to come!

Tulip Silhouette: Linocut

I'm a crafty kind of girl. Actually, it's kind of weird for me to be doing "art," in this whole printmaking adventure instead of working on the handicraft side of things. I crochet like mad. I knit. I love to collage. I've made jewelry. I have been known to fold a paper crane or two...hundred.

I'm approaching my one year wedding anniversary, and for the big event, I crafted by butt off. I made my hair comb, I made my veil

I made my shrug I wore at our reception

I made ornaments for favors and I made our centerpieces out of silver sticks

And I made a metric ton of origami tulips

I really loved those flowers, because the lines of the origami were so simple and crisp. I still have the tulips all over our apartment in various vases and places. I thought that using a bud in a vase would make an interesting linocut, so I took this picture and did a little photoshopping.

And then I made a linocut, and printed it in two different colors

I enjoy the red, in that it's perhaps a more traditional flower color, but the black is really quite striking, I think. It lends itself better to the idea of shadow and light, which I love about this piece.

A Quiet Week

Although I have been quiet to the blogging world in the last week, I've been busy.

Last week, my husband and I flew home (to my home) for Thanksgiving, which was really wonderful and relaxing and celebratory. My siblings and their significant others were all home, as well as the whole posse of dog nieces and nephews that I love dearly.

While I haven't been working, per se, I did have my mind on printmaking while at home. I took a happy trip to Dick Blick, which has a fabulous selection online, but no stores here at home in Vermont. Bless their Ohio location. While I really reigned in my desire to purchase several thousand things, I managed to restrain myself and just purchase a couple types of block printing ink and a piece of their linoleum for testing, with the idea that I can always order things that work. They did, however, have 6x6 pieces of lino, a size that our art store here doesn't, and although I did not buy it, I am intrigued at the idea of making square prints. Look out for those in the future...

Also, while hanging with my Dad in the garage one night (long story), I had the bright idea that he could help me make a carving board for my lino work. The previous week, I gouged two of my fingers while working on a linocut (my first printmaking related injuries, and two at once!) and I determined that a board to have at home would be mighty nice. We got to work, and produced one relatively quickly.

When we arrived home Saturday, I immediately started preparing for my upcoming term in school. We operate on trimesters, and even though it's a pain, I'm grateful to have a new batch of kiddos to teach, and a new set of classes to tackle. I was desperately in need of a chance before I left for break!

I have class again on Wednesday, and plan to get back into the studio as soon as possible. It's good to be home, and I'm ready to work on something new...when time allows!

Norman Bates

My husband and I love Hitchcock's movies. We have pretty similar tastes, but this is one of the genres we can always agree on. I adore images from old movies, the pop-culture feel they have, and thus I was pretty stoked to work with this image from Psycho:

Psycho scared the poop out of my when I was a kid. I was totally into the whole movie, and good to go, no worries with the whole shower scene and murder...but when Norman Bated had that internal monologue in the epilogue of the movie, where he's his mother...and then I realized that all those conversations in the movie he had with his mother were really just him...my poor 10-year-old brain couldn't quiet handle it. But I KNEW I was fascinated by it.

Anyhow, there's no scene to quite capture that weirdness like this one, when Norman realized that his "mother" has killed Marion. I took that picture and cranked up the contrast:

Then added a little photoshop static for fun.

And then silkscreened it with a touch of blood-red for some psychological effect.

 Love, love, love.

Which brings me to a fine point I have been debating...the issue of copyright. I have trouble finding information about the current copyright of Hitchcock's films (I think they were re-issued to someone in 1997), but I don't know if that counts for things like screenshots from the films. And if you change the screenshots by altering them and adding awesomeness (see above), can you skirt around copyright issues? My guess is no, but there's no good guide out there for these things. I really want to do some art based on old movies or characters...but I have a hunch it's illegal. Anyone out there with any information about this?

In the meantime, I shall love Norman.

Architectural Linocut: From Photo to Print

One of my most exciting product this morning was a linocut that I've been working on from one of my own photos (which I mentioned in this post). I thought it would be a neat idea to show the progression from photo to print:

Obviously, there is that pesky image flip, which is sometimes jarring when you pull the print, but even taking that into account, I really love seeing the way an image can evolve. And I feel good knowing that from start to finish, the image was mine, not something I took from somewhere else. What a thrill!

A Prolific Morning

I tend to jump into endeavors with full enthusiasm. When I took pottery classes in college, I produced a TON of pottery...enough to give away for several Christmases. It was so very Zen for me that I just couldn't stay out of the studio. I wouldn't say I was good at pottery -- I was ok. But I can say I was prolific.

I'm beginning to feel the same way about printmaking -- I can't say I'm good (yet), but this morning I had a very prolific morning. I did some silkscreening with mixed results, and printed a bunch of my linocuts. It was very peaceful to be on Thanksgiving vacation and doing something just for me.

In other news, I SOLD two of my prints this week! One of them was to a family friend, which was awesome, and the other was to a strange, which was much more unexpected. There's not a lot of variety in my etsy shop as of now, but I figure if I put a piece or two in a week, there will be a substantial collection in time! What is does have is a lot of different versions of the same prints as I experiment with different techniques.

Silkscreening

In our class on Wednesday night, we worked on silkscreening for the first time. I think it's a process that is draws a lot of printmakers. It's pretty versatile, you can work in many different sizes, and there's a lot of freedom about what kind off images you use, since preparing the screens (especially using a photo-emulsion method) is pretty easy. Hence, the images can be more complex than some other methods of printmaking.

I worked on an image of Norman Bates from Psycho, and I have a couple other screens made, one of my own photo (the one with the light and the chair which I posted in my last blog) and one of Martha Graham. I haven't printed these last two images yet, though. I'm planning to go pick up the images of good ol' Norman today, which I'll post before I leave for Thanksgiving.

In all honesty, I did not totally love silkscreening. For one, our teacher pre-prepared all the screens so they were ready to be developed with our images, so we missed out on a big step of the process and I don't really know how to recreate it. Second, the screens are pretty unwieldy, and it's a pain to print and image, wash the screen, dry the screen, print an image. Third, I seen to have a deficient skill for dragging the squeegee. I'm sure it takes practice, and I know that there are likely some really awesome uses for silkscreening, but I really appreciate the methods of printmaking and lend themselves to making multiple prints pretty quickly for practice.

I plan on going into the studio today or tomorrow, and will do some further experimenting, and print my other two screens. Who knows...maybe I'll end up loving silkscreening,. For now, though...eh.

"Cheating" in Printmaking: The Use of Photos

I have this idea in my head that "real" artists don't have to use things like photos to come up with images. I don't actually mentally believe that this is the case. But sometimes my gut and my head don't listen to one another. I'm starting to feel better about using photos, especially when they're my own. That, at least, seems slightly more legit to me.

I was digging through old photos the other day. I recently switched to a new computer, and so some of my old photos aren't yet switched over. (I thought they were, but the transition didn't go smoothly, and some of them are as-of-yet inaccessible on the new computer). Nonetheless, I found a few that, when put into high contrast, which is necessary for most kinds of printmaking, look pretty awesome and appropriate for various processes.

Case in point: This picture was taken on our honeymoon at our B&B in Montreal. The lighting is less than perfect:

But when put into high-contrast...Totally interesting.

I think I have a new picture for my upcoming silkscreening lesson. Because the other ones I have are copyrighted images of Martha Graham and Norman Bates. Which are amazing and awesome and may still be made, but probably technically aren't legal.

My next linocut inspiration:

And my next-next linocut...for when I get brave:

Printmakers....HELP!

I have questions. Issues. And no printmaker friends to ask. Questions such as:

1. Why can't I get a good even roll of ink on my linocuts? Is it the (water-based) ink I'm using? Is this the "look" of a linocut? When I look at awesome and beautiful linocuts online (like this one, and this one), they don't have weird differences in inkage on their prints. Why? What am I doing wrong? What is the proper technique?

2. Why is linoleum so freaking hard to cut? Is this normal? Am I weak? (Yes, I know the ironing trick. It is awesome. And seems like cheating.)

3. How do "series" work? If I'm pulling several prints from the same block or etching, how do I number them?

There are more. Always more. Any printmakers out there who can offer their sage wisdom and advice? HELP! Send them my way!

Adventures in Printmaking: Etching

Because I don't own a tool that will cut into plexiglass, at the moment I need to do any etching work at the studio.

Etching shares some aspects of linocut, in that you cut into a medium to form your image. What is different, however, is that in etching, the part you carve is the inked part of the final image, but in linocut or woodcut, the part you carve is the white or negative part of the image.

Tonight I started with some sketches of a tree, but they quickly turned into a much more graphic print of a wave. After creating the original image, the next step is using a super-sharp tool (which likely has a super-technical name I don't know) to cut into a piece of plexiglass that is placed over your image. Afterwards, you have a nice etched image.

 

After that, it's a trip to the cabinet to dig out the etching ink. I was lucky enough to find blue ink this week, which I thought appropriate to use with my wave. You take the ink out of the jar (which is likely cakey and gross if you are using ink at the public studio) and rub it into the lines you've etched with a cloth called a tarlatan. You employ the tarlatan to work the ink into the lines, and then use another (clean) portion of the cloth to wipe the plexiglass clean so that only the lines have the ink in them.

For etching, you have to use paper that is wet. Since the ink is worked into the tiny etched spaces, the water helps to draw it out of the plexiglass grooves. You blot the paper with two gianter pieces of blotting paper, and then set it all up on the press.

The first print was clean with nice crisp lines. For the second go, I went with a different look as I prepared the plate:

When I wiped off the plate after working the ink into the etched grooves, I decided to leave some of the ink on the plate instead of wiping it completely clean.  It struck me as misty and ocean-wave like. I quite enjoy the effect!

Watercolor backgrounds

Tonight was a super-productive evening in the print studio. When I arrived for class, all ready for the collograph lesson, I was taken back to the days of college, with a handwritten note taped to the door: "George had an emergency. You're welcome to stay and work." So I did.

None of my classmates showed up tonight, so perhaps it was best that George wasn't there. I was kind of stoked to have some free time in the studio, and I set to work printing up some of the things I've been working on this week at home.

I mentioned watercolor in my last post, and that was the name of the game for the first few prints. I've had a couple of linocuts going, and I prepared some watercolor backgrounds for them before I went in today:

I wasn't sure if the white block printing ink was going to be bright enough to show up on these backgrounds, but I decided to give it a go. I had prepped the blue/brown backgrounds for St. Joe, and rolled him up first. The result?

Awesomeness.

( By the by, I decided to add St. Joe's name at the bottom. I think it was a good choice.)

I also rolled up a plain old black copy of this same linocut, which also turned out well. As soon as it's dry and I can scan it, I'll have it up in the cafepress shop (ahem....Mom).

I've also been working on a quirky little scene of my own. This is the first linocut I've worked on that has come entirely from my head, instead of being worked from a pattern or picture. Here's the linoleum all inked up:

I printed her on a watercolor background, which was slightly less successful than with St. Joe, but not bad:

And I gave her a straightforward printing, too.

 

I still need to get a really fabulous black and white print, but it's a good start.

Lessons learned:

1. I still need to work on the right method for rolling up a set of lino prints. The ink gets dry and sticky fast, and I'm not sure exactly how to handle it. I think that oil-based would be better to work with, but will also deteriorate my linocut faster, which I'm not interest in at this point in my printing education.

2. I LOVE the watercolor background, but I need to either go really dark and print in white, or really light and print in black. These are easy changes to make.

(All of the images in this post are just pictures, not scanned versions of the artwork. Once they dry, I'll try to post some of the final products, which will be a bit clearer!)