The Whole Wide Room

Showcase!!

2010-04-28T04:50:00.000-07:00

Today, one of my printmaking pieces is featured in the Etsy art showcase: (scroll through the tiny arrows on the top of the page to "Art")

So let's be honest. It's not like someone picked my art to feature...I signed up for this honor myself :) Nonetheless, it's kind of nice to see my work highlighted, and I hope it brings some traffic to my site. It's difficult to advertise on Etsy, especially when you're completing with so many other crazily talented artists, but I'm navigating the ins and outs.

Knit Happens

2010-04-26T16:58:00.000-07:00

Three years ago (it may realistically be closer to four, but that seems scary to me), my fellow teacher Zayne taught me how to knit. As I've mentioned before, I'd been a life-long crocheter, and I was ready for something new.

I went over to her house on a Saturday night...as teachers, there wasn't a lot of going out. (Eh, who am I kidding...I would much rather spend a night doing needlecrafts than going out anyway). She showed me the basic stitches, gave me a thick brown yarn to work on, and let me have at it. I spent about an hour and a half feeling as if I had no control over my hands. The needles just didn't feel right, and I could sense that there was a way in which they uncomfortable process was supposed to feel fluid, but I wasn't there yet.

The next week, Zayne took me to a yarn shop, and helped me pick out needles and yarn. "You want bamboo needles. They feel good when you use them."

"Can't we just go to Hobby Lobby and get cheap yarn?" I asked.
She gasped in horror. You don't want acrylic going through your fingers. You want something that feels nice."
I shrugged, and we picked out some discount soft cotton yarn that would be good for practicing on with my new bamboo needles.

When I started knitting, one of the first things I realized was that you use so much less yarn to made the same length of fabric than you would use crocheting. Knitting is much less bulky, whereas in crochet, each stitch involves several twists of the yarn, so it just takes more. But as a result of this difference, knitters tend to be much snobbier about their yarn -- because they can afford to be. It takes less yarn to make a sweater knitting than it does crocheting -- same with afghans, scarves, etc.

I still try to work on the cheap, because my life involves a certain degree of frugality. But when I knit, I can appreciate a nice wool in a way that I don't when I crochet.

A couple weeks ago, I got a coupon from Creative Habitat, one of our craft stores here in Burlington. They just opened a new store, so they were sending out $5 off anything. I went to peruse their yarn selection, which involves some nicer fibers than our local Michael's, and found a beautiful chunky wool in a gorgeous red/purple eggplant color.

Isn't that just to die for?

When I started working with it, I had to do some experimenting, since the texture of the yarn isn't even -- parts of it are spun much tighter than others, which gives it a fun, chunky, uneven look. I ended up making a scarf out of it, but as happens when mixing techniques, it had a weird rolling of the fabric where I mixed garter and stockinette stitches. (These are just different combination of your basic knit and purl stitches, but they yield very different-looking fabric).

This is a 100% wool, and wool has some pretty interesting qualities. One of them is that if you wet it and then allow it to dry, you can re-shape it. This is called blocking. The technique can be done in a variety of ways, but my preferred tools involve my steamer and/or a regular spray bottle and a big bulletin board. You just tack up the knit material, give it a dousing of water by one method or another, and let it dry:

Depending on the stitch you use and then thickness of the yarn, this might take several repeats, but it works wonders for flattening out a product.

This particular length of scarf is actually going to be turned into a cowl -- but I'll post pictures after it dries and I've put it all together.

Up next...cabling!!!!

Me-Designed Chucks

2010-04-21T17:08:00.000-07:00

On a trip home from college, my brothers DJ, Sam, and I drove to Bellfountaine, near our home in central Ohio, because there was a store there that carried Chuck Taylor's for cheap. As I drove the boys home, windows open and "Goodnight, Saigon" blaring on the radio as we sang along at the top of our lungs, my new, blue, Chuck lo-tops rode on the floor at my feet. It was my first pair.

Of many. Chucks are my go-to shoes. They're fine for school (one thing I DO like about my job is the casual wardrobe), and they give off an air of "...yeah, whatever." And while I have my basic blues and browns, I also have a kick-ass pair of floral hi-tops.

For my birthday this year, I designed my own pair. George and Ann sent them to me, and they arrived today!!!!

They're black paisley. And slip-on. And maroon. And lime green. And they have my initials embroidered on the back. And I looooooooove them.

Dear Chucks, never go away.

Cafepress: Tiny Brain Pins

2010-04-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

I have a shop on Cafepress called, incidentally, The Whole Wide Room (I'm so theme-y). It's filled with designs that come from my short tenure in printmaking (oh, damn you, expensive printmaking hobby!), and though it doesn't yield many sales, it's a fun little venture. Back in the fall, when I was producing lots of printmaking work, I'd add a new product here and there to the inventory with the new designs, and since then, the shop has been open with a random sale here and there.

The shop has bags and t-shirts, waterbottles and bags, etc. But by far the best-selling item is this guy:

It's a mini-button with my etching of a brain. Whenever I get a random e-mail saying I've made a sale, I would bet money (lots of it) that it's this guy. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that THIS is the item people would go for in the shop. Why not the brain mug, or the bear water bottle? (I mean, seriously, the BEAR WATER BOTTLE IS SO COOL! And ferocious.)

The moral of this story is that it's tough to market yourself. It's hard to know what people will want and not want. It's hard to put your own idea of what's awesome aside and understand what others think. My brain understands marketing, but my gut doesn't.

A Poem by a Guest: Maureen

2010-04-20T03:52:00.000-07:00

As I mentioned, it was my birthday about a week ago. One of my most fun and exciting birthday surprises was an awesome, simple, and heartfelt poem by my good friend, Maureen. It is also pertinent to my crafting and Etsy store. Also, the first letters in all the lines correspond to my name, which I find kitschy and wonderful (really, my friends are the greatest!).

"Birthdays: A Meditation"
Birthdays must be especially hard to shop for when the birthday girl has her own
Etsy store full of the
Cutest things in the universe already. It
Kind of makes me glad that I had to cede the "Intended" status to
Your Husband.

Long ago, when we read Heart of Darkness for a Literature Seminar, Maureen and I joked that we were one another's Intended after we became "engaged" over a hot dog.

And now, off to start my week on a Tuesday after a long weekend in Montreal prolonging the birthday celebrations. I plan to put a few more Muggies up in the shop this week, and perhaps work on some more cards, as I'm stocking up for when one of my art pieces is featured in the art showcase on April 28th.

Giftcard, Greeting Cards, and a New Layout

2010-04-14T17:27:00.000-07:00

Monday was my birthday, although I hesitate to make that fact known nowadays. Not because I'm upset about aging (I'm not), but because I suck as birthdays. As I've gotten older, I've realized that if I don't tell others about mine, I don't feel so bad when I forget theirs.

But my dear in-laws sent me a very thoughtful gift for my birthday -- a gift card to Michael's. Today, when I stepped into the store and found a sale, I went nuts. Everything seemed like an amazing bargain, and as I shopped, ideas sprung into my head for all kinds of new crafty things.

I picked up a bunch of new paper for card making, and as a result, I have quite a few new greeting cards in the Etsy shop today. Some are collaged:

...and some are printed using designs I created when I was taking my printmaking class a few months ago:

But there's more (much more) in my head.

In other news, there's a new layout for the page. It's subtle, but stems from a facebook bug that won't let me publish thumbnails with the old format. C'est la vie! Please let me know if readability is an issue.

Smart Camp, the Amazing Kristi, and Necktie Purses

2010-04-11T16:54:00.000-07:00

When I was in 11th grade, I went to smart camp. And if you think that sounds egotistical of me, let me assure you it beats referring to it as the Martin W. Essex School for the Gifted. Oy!

Smart camp was a defining week of my life, because the people I met there were so freaking awesome. There was Katie, lover of Madonna and, well, herself; Brian, lover of show tunes; Rob (also called Raab, after his Saab), lover of Schroedinger's Cat; Meghan, lover of the University of Michigan; Jay, lover of drama; Paul, lover of jazz; Mike, lover of China; and Kristi, lover of Rag-o-rama and amazing fashion.

The year after smart camp, I kept in touch with my camp friends, and Kristi made me an amazing necktie purse for my birthday. I mean, made totally out of neckties. I once declared that if I ever got married, I would make my wedding dress out of neckties...and while that didn't happen, I do think that my dress was somewhat reminiscent of the stripey-ness one might associate with ties.

Then there was the phase in college during which ties were belts. Danny, the college boyfriend, once bought me ties as a gag gift for a dance, which I proceeded to wear all year through the belt loops in my jeans.

Ties are just so cool! They're masculine, which makes them interesting, but they're also extremely versatile. I mean, with a long, thin piece of fabric, you can make a belt, a Rambo headband, a light-pull...or a purse strap (thank you Kristi, for being my inspiration).

So this weekend, when I dug out my old neckties, I thought to myself, "Well, I don't use these as belts anymore...might as well make something of them!" Then I went to my fabric box and found scraps from various projects I've made over the past year. The result...

Muggies

2010-04-10T08:58:00.000-07:00

When the seasons change from winter to spring, I don't have the urge to sit down with hooks and needles like I go when it's cold. The need to hunker down has been severely lessened here in VT the last couple weeks, and although it's only in the 40s today, the sun is shining and people are abuzz outside, walking, running, biking, and just hanging out.

Nonetheless, when I plop down for my nightly TV viewing (Andy and I recently finished the 3rd season of Mad Men, and it is SO GOOD), I like to keep my hands busy. Lately, I've been working on more of the reusable coffee cup sleeves, like these guys:

The beauty is that they're fast, easy, and a great way to use up yarn scraps, which are the bane of my existence.

I'm hoping to put out a whole set of these, little by little, but as for today, I'm going to try to get a little sunshine...because the town I live in is awesome.

Cat Couch

2010-02-06T19:00:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned Pascal here before. He makes me believe that perhaps children are unnecessary and I could truly become just a crazy cat lady.

I guess that would make Andy the crazy cat man.

Anyhow, today I decided to make a nice little couch for this guy. He spends a lot of time on a little IKEA table looking out the window and hey, why shouldn't be be comfortable?

I will preface this by saying that I am not a seamstress. Yet. I do have a sewing machine (thanks, Mom and Dad), and I have a general sense of spatial intelligence, good for things like reading patterns. However, I have a certain amount of haste and urgency in doing things, which means I inevitably rip out 1000 seams for every project I attempt. This one was no exception.

Nonetheless, I forged ahead.

Mass this afternoon was a little boring. My mind wandered to how I was going to plan out this project, working without a pattern. Sorry, Jesus. It was not intentional.

I decided to use some things I had around the house, and not purchase anything new:

*1 Snuggie (out of four that we received for Christmas)
*1 old twin-sized mattress pad from grad school
*piece of cardboard from a box we had lying around
*needle, thread, sewing machine, etc.

I started out by cutting the elastic part off of the mattress pad. Then I moved on with my piece of cardboard, which I cut into cat couch shape and laid on top of the mattress pad for a good idea of where to separate that batting.

I saved that long strip of mattress pad, because it became the cushion for the couch.

Next, I doubled up the piece of mattress pad I had cut for the base, and taped it over the back of the cardboard. Nothing less than ultimate cushiosity for Pascal!

And now back to that awkward long piece. Super easy part. Sew it in half long ways with a sewing machine (or by hand, whatever), and turn it inside out.

Then stuff it. I use the pieces I cut off the mattress pad for stuffing, as well as some old t-shirts I didn't want anymore, and a bit of polyfil for the ends, just to plump it up. Anything soft and fluffy will do. This is a great way to get rid of scrap fabric.

Now we get a little tricky and painful on the old fingertips. I lined up the cushion and the base, and sewed them together around the edges using big ugly stitches.

Then, just trim off the extra on the very ends of the long tube cushion.

Sweet-tastic! The base is made!

Now, in all reality, here's a cat couch right now. Done. However, Pascal likes fleece, I have a plethora of Snuggies, and frankly, I want a cover I can launder.

I folded the bottom of the Snuggie robe up to the armpits and cut off the top (that's at the bottom of this picture). Then I did a vague cut widely around the top curve of the white base:

Next, just pin up the curved parts, and sew along those seams on the side. Keep the bottom open so you can insert the base.

After that...just slip the base into the cover, and tuck the edges under. I had these grand schemes of buttons and button holes (HA!), and then snaps, but honestly, I just tucked all the loose ends under. Pascal's still considering the final product:

...but I think it's pretty sweet.

I'm confident he'll come around.

Scarves and Lion's Brand Fisherman's Wool

2010-01-25T13:58:00.000-08:00

The first thing you learn to knit or crochet is a scarf. There are a few reasons for this:

Flat things are easier.
"Square" things are easier...as opposed to things that involve working in rounds, such as hats.
Scarves are quick. Relatively speaking.

I love to make scarves. Sure, they're easy, but they are also a great way to try out new stitches. It's very easy to make scarves that are different with a simple tweak here and there. Take this scarf for example:

While the majority of the scarf is done in stockinette stitch (the simplest of knitting patterns), the edges are a bit of fun, with a purl 5, knit 5, purl 5 set of stripes that move one stitch with each row. The effect is a couple sets of stripes that just make the scarf a little more fun.

I totally dig details like this. Scarves (or other accessories or pieces of clothing) don't have to be crazily ornate to be beautiful.

And may I just scream the praises of Lion's Brand Fisherman Wool?

For those of you who don't work in the fiber arts, there are two basic types of yarn -- acrylic and wool. (In reality, there are hundreds of different fibers, but I would say that these are the two most common). Acrylic is cheap, so I often use it for crochet projects because crocheting in general uses up more yarn than knitting. But when I began to knit with some regularity not long ago, I started exploring the world of wool yarn. Paton's makes a decent yarn in some fun colors, but until recently, that was all the wool my Michael's store had....

Until November. I found a beautiful wool made by Lion's Brand, which, as previously mentioned, is called Fisherman's Wool. This evokes awesome memories for me, as I had this sweet fisherman sweater in high school that used to belong to my Dad. But this yarn...oh, the yarn.

Wool is usually a tricky thing. It can be scratchy, frankly. But the Fisherman Wool is "100% pure virgin wool", and it has all the natural wool oils in it, which make it just wonderfully soft. And the colors are all browns, whites, and ivories -- nothing dyed or fake. (Don't get me wrong, I love me a good chartreuse green or variegated striped yarn, but there is something soothing about muted tones.)

I discovered this wool when I was making a scarf for my father for Christmas, and I bought way more than I needed. So I've been created projects here and there from the remnants, like the scarf above, and another of my reusable coffee sleeves:

Love, love, love.

Collage and the Handwritten Letter

2010-01-18T04:57:00.000-08:00

I worked last weekend on a project using a process near and dear to my heart: collage.

I have adored collage since, oh, middle school. Nothing gave me greater joy that destroying my parents' old magazines (Rolling Stones always had the best clippings due to their ginormous format). And for a girl who wanted desperately to be artsy but didn't have the ability to do anything life-like (good Lord, you should see my drawings), collage was a great way to feel creatively accomplished.

I liked to collage doors. They were a huge, flat, functional surface that was great for displaying things. In collage, my freshman year, my roommate (the sweetly awesome Catherine) brought me back some catalogs from a jaunt she took to Chicago. I think they were from Urban Outfitter, but they had beautiful western landscapes with lots of dusty reds and turquoise blues. I was in heaven. They were shred to pieces and collaged onto our dorm-room door immediately. (Bless you, Pangborn Hall)

So, when I bought some nicely-colored cardstock the other day, and had a brand-new bone tool in hand for perforating, I slowly dug out my old collage box, full of already-ripped out pages and pictures from years past. I cut and folded my notecards, and went to work.

I like quirk. I like things that are silly and nonsensical. I approached these cards as such, and came up with a set of 8 fun little notecards:

Then I tied them in a bow, and put them in my shop.

I'm also a huge fan of the handwritten letter. There's something magical about getting a card or note from a friend that they took the time to write out. The cards and mementos I treasure most are those from friends, where I can see their handwriting and see the time and thought they put into their words. It's just more personal somehow.

More cards to come! I found a sweet little deal at Michael's where they sell cards and envelopes in a little variety pack. I plan on adding to the card stock (Ha! Get it?) soon.

Felted Clutch

2010-01-12T15:59:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was truly delightful. I spent lots of time lazing about, watching reruns of LA Ink on Netflix, snuggling with Pascal (kitty extraordinaire), and knitting. Oh, knitting. The perfect task to keep my poor jumpy hands busy while I veg.

I often use knitting as a time-filler, so I like projects that require minimal thinking -- stockinette stitches or simple ribs are awesome and relatively mindless. I worked on this swatch over the weekend, with some sweet self-changing yarn by Paton's:

It was super easy and mindless, but then the fun begins...

I've done just the tiniest bit of felting lately, which is when you use wool for knitting (or crocheting), and after you're done making whatever you're making, you agitate it in the washing machine to turn it into felt. It only works with wool yarn, but the effect is pretty sweet, and after you felt something, it has a lot more weight and sturdiness to it. On the other hand, it also shrinks. After felting this swatch here, I turned it into a cute little clutch:

Super simple -- just sew a seam up the sides, stitch on a snap, and done. How fun is this for a night out, or errands, when you don't want to carry your purse?

I'm going to keep working at it, do some with space for credit cards/IDs, but the general product is laid out, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. The most exciting part? A trip to the yarn store soon to find some really nice wool to work with. Michael's, dear to my heart, doesn't have the greatest selection :( And besides, there's something magical about a yarn store.

Fiber Arts

2010-01-03T15:09:00.000-08:00

Printmaking has been on hold for a bit now. Partly because I no longer have free and open access to the studio (since my class is over), and partly because the holidays are just busy. Also, partly because I've been spending time bonding with this guy:

Just because I haven't been printmaking, however, doesn't mean I haven't been using my creative juices. I've been turning, instead, to the fiber arts.

When I was 9, my grandmother taught me how to crochet. I started a rose-colored blanket with her that day that I never finished, but I've always had a bag of yarn lying around, with pieces of projects and scraps of leftovers. I love to make gifts for people -- scarves and hats and sweaters and such.

In the past year, I've really tried to expand my crochet repertoire, and move beyond your basic winter hat and scarf. I did this cardigan for my wedding a year ago (today!):

and I made this pretty sweet quilt last year out of yarn scraps.

Today, I was going through all of my yarn, and I have a ton of leftover from various projects. Trying to think of something quick and easy to make with the nubbins, I came up with these guys:

Now, I've recently become a coffee drinker. And I unashamedly like coffee with annoying flavors like blueberry (sorry, you coffee snobs, but it's just delicious). I asked for a couple travel mugs for Xmas, which my dear brother Sam provided, but it turns out that this metal one, which I quite enjoy, gets really freaking cold in the walking time between my car and the school during these chilly Vermont winters. (By the by, we've gotten 30 inches of snow in the past 24 hours. And likely will STILL have school tomorrow) So, when I hunkered down after Mass today, determined not to leave the house for the rest of the day, creating a few little coffee cozies with some of my scrap yarn seemed like a brilliant idea.

I envision swiping a few Starbucks/gas station cups in the near future to test the fit and size, but I think that they could be used on those cups, too. And heck, since I'm a granola Vermonter now, just think of the trees one would save if you didn't have those silly paper sleeves or (God forbid), the extra cup on the outside of the regular cup.

I'm going to tweak my methods a bit, but before long, look for these guys in the Etsy store!

Christmas in Kansas

2009-12-27T04:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-16T15:06:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-14T17:45:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-10T03:58:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-09T17:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-06T14:19:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-01T13:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-21T14:18:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-21T14:03:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-21T13:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-20T06:26:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-16T17:09:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-12T16:59:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-11T19:03:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-11T17:44:00.000-08:00

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!)

Mixed Media: Etching and Watercolor...(or For Psychologists or Zombies II)

2009-11-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

Finally, my quest to mix printmaking and watercolor has been successful!

It's not the best piece I've ever done, but it opens the door to a whole new realm of possibility with mixing the etching and watercolor. Much experimenting shall follow!

More watercolor fun to follow...I've got some watercolor in the work for good ol' St. Joe. More to come later this week.

New linocut done today, too -- the first totally of my own design (previously, I've been working from photos or other pictures/designs I've found.) I'm excited to print it up this week. What a productive evening this has been!

For Psychologists or Zombies

2009-11-08T16:11:00.000-08:00

Soon to come will be a step-by-step process post about etching. For the time being, I would like to display the fruits of my first etching:

Things that I love include the sweet raised edge on the paper where the plexiglass imprinted and the murky inkiness where I didn't wipe off all of the etching ink (on purpose). I love the old-school antique-y look when there is leftover ink on the glass.

This week, experiments with watercolor on etching. I know, I know, you may be thinking, "Right, watercolors worked so well for you in the past on the red mixer print." Ha! I say to you. This time it shall be different, because the etching ink is oil-based. Or, at least, that is my hypothesis and deep, deep hope.

For those interested parties, there are a few shirts, buttons, and kids' clothes available with the brain in the Whole Wide Room Cafepress Shop, as well as a few other new designs, like my monotype human heart. I'm really into the anatomy illustrations lately. Maybe I'll work on a series...

St. Joe Returns

2009-11-08T15:40:00.000-08:00

Last Monday, on the same day as the middling success with the red mixer, I printed a couple prints of the St. Joe linocut I've been working on. So far, so good, I think!

Words may appear this week. Maybe. This is one of those moments where I decide whether it's time to stop...or keep going.

Adventures of the Red Mixer #867: Coloring Trial and Error

2009-11-05T18:27:00.000-08:00

On Monday, I went to the print studio after work and created a set of outline-less stand mixers using oil-based paints.

On Wednesday, with happy anticipation and stubborn determination, I returned to add the linocut outline of the dear mixers. I lovengly lined up all seven prints...

...and then pulled them one by one. When I had finished, I had lying in front of me:

One print that was over-inked

Two prints that were blurry and made me feel as if my eyes were dilated at the optomestrists'

Two prints on which the red was not dry and so the black ink did not transfer onto the paper

And two prints that turned out respectably

Lessons learned:
1. If trying to color a linocut with oil paint, let the oil paint dry. Completely. Not mostly. Completely. Really. Even if it takes a week and I'm impatient.
2. Perhaps the old ink at the print studio is a bad quality. This would not shock me.
3. Linocuts don't tend to do well when run through the press more than once per print. I think that's where the blurriness came from.
4. 2/7 is not a ratio I'm ok with. Must keep learning.

The Red Stand Mixer

2009-11-03T14:14:00.000-08:00

I have a vision of a tomato red stand mixer linocut print, like the awesome "rite of passage" appliance I have sitting in my own kitchen down the hall. Alas, attempts to achieve said red mixer have proven futile thus far.

At first, I thought I could just monotype some red oil paint on top of the prints I made from the linocut. This wasn't altogether unsuccessful, as shown previously, but it removed some of the clarity of the black outline, which I'm not ultimately willing to compromise.

My next thought was to simply paint the print with watercolor. Turns out that since the ink we use for the lino prints is water soluble, then the watercolor paint just makes the black ink run, which does a real number of the crimson paint I attempt to add. Strike 2.

Yesterday, I monotype printed some red mixer shapes, and tomorrow I will try to line up the linocut over them to provide an outline. Best case scenario, they line up perfectly, problem solved. Middling scenario, they don't line up perfectly, but the effect is awesome. Worst case scenario, they don't like up perfectly and look like poop. (Even if the worst case scenario plays out, I will OWN those linocuts and love them as the fruits of my labor).

Any printmakers out there with amazing suggestions for adding color to linocuts? I thought about simply using oil-based ink so that I could in fact watercolor the prints, but the argument our teacher had against that was that using mineral spirits to clean the lino block would deteriorate the linoleum and make it useless faster. For a pro who is making just one run of prints from the block, this might be totally fine. But for someone just finding her way in the world of printmaking...I would like to save my linocut as long as possible so I can continue to experiment with it.

More news to come...

Work in Progress or St. Joe is My Homeboy

2009-11-01T15:15:00.000-08:00

Today is the feast of All Saints, where we Catholic folk (and perhaps other Christian religions, too -- I don't mean to be exclusive!) celebrate and honor all those who have died and made their way up to heaven. This includes the official canonized saints, and the unofficial saints, the ordinary people who made small differences in our lives that we remember.

Growing up Catholic, I was surrounded by the saints in imagery, prayer, and books. The gave me a great deal of comfort and guidance. The notion of a patron saint for different people, places, and contexts is extremely comforting to me: St. Anthony helped us find parking spaces and lost items, St. Germaine, my patron through confirmation, reminded me of humility, St. Cecilia guided my love of music, etc, etc.

One saint who has literally surrounded me throughout a vast majority of my life has been good old St. Joseph. He gets a lot of mention, as a part of the Holy Family, but not always a lot of credit, in my humble opinion. I mean, think about it - he had to raise and discipline Jesus. Good Lord, can you imagine?

My tiny home parish, where my heart will forever lie, is St. Joseph's, and while I was growing up, it was made of a small number of families and many familiar faces. I made my first communion and confirmation at St. Joe's, and have many warm memories of the small church packed to the seams on Christmas Eve and Easter. The priests who resided at St. Joe's throughout my life have been wonderful men, and a couple were (and are) close family friends.

In my adult life, I feel fortunate and grateful that St. Joe seems to be watching out for me as I begin married life. When Andy and I looked for a parish here in Vermont, we thought that St. Joseph was the closest to his then-apartment. It turns out that there is actually another small parish up the street, but we didn't find that out until much later, and became parishioners at this St. Joseph. I feel as if there is a beautiful kind of symmetry to the fact that I was married at St. Joseph's, a parish under the same patronage as the one I left back home. I believe St. Joseph is a special patron saint of my marriage -- perhaps not official honored as such, but in my mind, he's looking out for Andy and I the way he did for his own small family.

And so, on the feast of All Saints, I present to you all my tribute to the man himself, earthly Dad of Jesus -- in lino print style.

I began yesterday by printing out a pic of St. Joe that I would use as the basis for my lino cut.

I searched the print studio, and came up with a piece of tracing paper that I taped over the image, and used as a guide to determine which chunks of the picture I would remove on my lino block, appearing white on the print, and which parts would remain in the block and appear as black. This isn't as easy as it sounds -- despite the fact that it's a black and white image, there are a lot of shades of grey that don't exactly work when you're dealing with a two-toned operation like this. The final tracing appears below, along with a makeshift piece of "carbon paper" that I created by rubbing a lot of pencil on a sheet of blank paper:

Now, the challenge: transferring the pencil image onto the linoleum so I can carve along some pre-determined lines. Like I mentioned in the last post, linoleum printing involves some challenges because, well, you can't see through it like you can with other mediums used for print-making. So transfer of images is necessary. In this case, I turned the "carbon paper" upside down onto my linoleum surface:

Then, I taped my traced image on top of the upside-down carbon paper, and traced with a pen over the outlines of the areas I would remove:

Then, the reveal...

At this point, the most tedious task, the carving, is up next. I dug in last night, working from the top down, and plan to continue more tonight. Printing should occur this week!

Have a peaceful All Saints, friends!

Adventures in Printmaking: Linoleum Block Printing

2009-10-31T17:32:00.000-07:00

Soon to come is a very step-by-step look at linoleum block printing, but for the time being, I wanted to write a bit about my very first experience with this method.

(Actually, this was my second experience, my first being a month or so ago when I worked with linoleum with one of my students. That lino was extremely soft and easy to carve, and therefore a COMPLETELY different experience than this "real" first try...but I digress).

Our printmaking teacher asked us to pick a design, and I immediately reached for my kitchenaid stand mixer printout. I had been waiting to use this one, and my teacher "hmmm"ed over it, and then nodded. "It's very graphic. It will work well for this." Yessssss!

After transferring our designs onto the lino block using a graphite-transfer method (again, more to come too), we jumped in with our carving tools, these incredibly awesome Speedball-brand tools that have various carving tips that you can take on and off the end, depending on what kinds of cuts you want to make in the lino. I took a deep breath, and dug it. I placed the tip of the tool to the lino on one of the outlines of my stand mixer, and pushed it forward, slowly, with great control, being careful not to get my hand in the way of the tool and gouge my palm...and it slipped.

First cut, it slipped.

I used one of my school-friendly swears -- "F!" -- and started again, struggling with the ridiculously stiff linoleum.

By the end of the three-hour class, I had approximately 60% of my design carved, a cramped hand, and a frustration so immense it threatened to eat my soul.

"Oh!" pipes up George, the slightly sarcastic and disorganized but delightful teacher. "I forgot a trick! Where's the hot plate?" He looks around, can't find it, and then tells us, "Well, anyway, if you use an iron on low, it will make the linoleum soft, and easier to cut."

Bingo.

I went home last weekend, and finish the project, and then printed it in the studio the following Monday. The first print was beautiful:

I decided that the bowl was a little busy, so I went back at the lino block with my tools, and carved away some of the shading. After printing the re-done block, I decided to add some color -- not an easy process, due to the opacity of the lino block! With some forms of print-making, your inked surface is a clear piece of plexi-glass, so lining up layers of ink is pretty easy and, well, visible -- not so in this case. I ended up experimenting (and I'm not done experimenting yet!), and came up with this:

I'm not 100% thrilled with the way the red sits on the original print, and I'm going to do some water-color painting on other test prints, but overall, I like where this is going.

Constant revision is the name of the game, I guess!

Styrofoam Printing

2009-10-29T04:00:00.000-07:00

One of the things I am really enjoying about printmaking is that it has that it has this incredibly awesome low-tech side to it that allows for making prints out of easy, "non-artistic" material. When I taught 6th grade in Louisiana, I co-taught an art class with my good friend. We did some small printing using gum erasers as a medium, pencils/paper clips for carving, and markers for ink. Cheap, low-tech, and easy. Potato stamping is another great example, near and dear to many people's hearts, as they recall classroom memories from elementary school.

Another beautiful and simple material is styrofoam.

When I bought something this past summer (and for the life of me, I have no idea what it was), it came in a hulking piece of white styrofoam as packaging. I was about to toss the styrofoam, but instead thought, "Wait, I bet I can use this for a class!" I work at a school where we do all project-based learning, and so I'm always collecting random materials that "might come in handy." Turns out that keeping the styrofoam was a good decision.

Yesterday, my student and I explored carving and printing with the styrofoam. It was truly a learning experience, and involved some creative problem solving. First, we tried just "drawing hard" into the foam to create a lined image, but we discovered that the styrofoam was created from small circles or balls of foam, and so it had a texture into which you couldn't carve a uniform line -- you basically has to "push down" the tiny circles to form your image.

Once we got past that hurdle, we went about creating our images. In the mood for Halloween, I envisions a bit of a Grendel character roaring. But as I went to carve his roar, I remembered one of my previous oopsies -- in relief printing, the print is backwards from the stamp, so I had to reverse the word in my head before I carved it into the foam. Crisis averted.

My finished block appears below (this is a post-printing picture, so it does indeed have paint stains!)

After the carving, we jumped right into printing. At school, we have a collection of acrylic paints, which dry quickly, so we had to work relatively fast in "inking" our blocks. I wanted to print on black construction paper, so went with a cream color for my print. The first inking turned out less-than-satisfactorily:

I couldn't read the ROAR!, my little guy's green color hadn't printed, and it was just too light. We moved on, and decided that a heavier inking was necessary. Try 2 was a vast improvement:

Much better, much more legible! We decided on a final try, with even more paint on the block, and came up with this final image:

Success. And quite cute, if I do say so myself.

Sure, it's nothing that's going to win any awards, but it has good contrast, good texture, and was virtually free to produce (construction paper and acrylic paint are cheap, and the foam was literally free!).

While I appreciate the more technical aspect of printmaking, I'm starting to see the beauty in simplicity, too.

The Whole Wide Room at Cafepress

Adventures in Printmaking: Monotype

2009-10-26T15:14:00.001-07:00

As I mentioned before, I've started a printmaking class recently, and I am in love. We started with additive monoprinting, which is basically copying or creating a painting on a piece of plexiglass, and then transferring it onto paper. With a monoprint, you generally get a single print (with perhaps a follow-up or "ghost print"), but it's not an endless supply, like those you could make with, say, a lino block or a silkscreen technique. For example, I started with a pretty simple picture I love from the Sound of Music:

Just a dab of blue paint in the dark spots (and an ever-changing handle on ideas of light and dark) and voila! Monoprint!

There are also subtractive methods of monoprinting, in which you roll up the piece of plexiglass, and then subtract ink before printing it. You can subtract ink by wiping it away with Q-tips, pieces of cardboard, cotton balls, or by placing something solid over the plate -- for example, grass. Behold:

Nice, eh?

By adding a step, you can get different gradations of hue. Here's a subtractive monoprint I did with yarn:

For this one, I rolled up the plexi with brown ink, added yarn lying over the plate, printed one piece with the yarn on, then took the yarn off and printed this second one. The places where the yarn HAD been had more ink, hence the darker squiggles. The places the yarn HADN'T been had already been printed once, and so some of the ink was gone, hence the lighter shade. Cool, huh?

I think that's the beauty of printmaking, is that you can add processes together, and get endlessly complex pieces. Along with this, however, comes the fine art of knowing when to stop. It's easy to take one extra step and end up with something that's overdone. Take this conglomerate, for example:It's got a certain charm, a kind of printmaker's camouflage. But before that final layer of gold, it had a totally different look, a much more clear and articulate style. There was more white, and the white really pulled together and separated simultaneously the areas of color. I learned my lesson here. Stop when I like something, and don't overdo it.

Next time: subtractive red, yellow, blue monoprints. Get psyched!

The Whole Wide Room

Cafepress shop has opened!

2009-10-26T03:57:00.000-07:00

I decided to take my crafting to the next level, and open a cafepress shop selling t-shirts, mugs, water bottles, bags, clocks, etc, with my artwork on them.

I've been pretty inspired lately, primarily by the printmaking class I am taking. While I've always considered myself to be quite the craftster, I really love trying out new artforms. Printmaking is something I've never done before, and I'm a little in love with it right now. I feel very fortunate that my relatively new hometown of Burlington, VT, has a bumpin' arts scene, and things like printmaking classes are even available to the general public.

I find myself scattered in my inspiration, and my shop reflects this. A little of this, a little of that, but all fun and, I like to think, quirky. It's who I am!

So, without further ado, please check out www.cafepress.com/thewholewideroom