grace in small things::14/365

1. Jack-in-the-pulpit, rich green, and purple,punctuating the woods.

2.the scent of etching inks, carded onto warmed copper.

3.A steady palm wipe, that adds another layer, to the print I am making.

4.Seedless red grapes that burst upon toothsome bite into sweet, tart and juicy.

5.Fresh Spearmint tea, and sharing it with my studio-mates.

printmaking

I have been a print maker, steady for the last 6 years. Over the last year and a half i have done strictly relief,linoleum block, wood cut. I've pulled prints, full of line and form. I am mostly a representational artist, but I have begun to revisit my love of pattern and color. Before that I used to switch back and forth between etching and relief printmaking,then I decided in the Autumn of 2007, to just strictly do relief.





I didn't suddenly hate etching, I just wanted to focus, on one thing, at that time I figured I would switch back and forth on a yearly basis. When I came back in September to the studio, I thought alot about , How now it was 2008, and I should be doing etching, but I didn't really feel like switching, which frankly had my little obsessive mind worried,maybe I just didn't have any skill at etching , where I had skills at relief printmaking, and then some, maybe that's why I didn't want to switch. Then thankfully my inner wisdom, took hold of me and game me a shake, and said "there could be worse things, are you really questioning whether you should continue doing a type of printmaking that you are really good at?"
Yes it's true, I can be that insecure about my art. So I took a deep breath, and realized I'm the one setting the schedule here, so it was up to me to choose. I chose to continue on with the relief.



Well that was until I joined in the soft ground practicum, where we experimented with soft grounds, and it was great, wiping a copperplate, came back to me, with ease, phew! It made me want to take a little break from doing relief printmaking, and concentrate on etching.
Recently a artist friend and I decided to trade prints, she has one that I really like, and vice versa, it's also giving me the idea to return to an old set of plated, I haven't printed in years, and revist them, and possible go from there, and create another version of this quilt series, I started over 5 years ago.
Either way, the possibilities are endless.

print fair north

This weekend marks Open Studio weekend at the Arts and Industry building, where my studio is located.
On Friday we are having a VIP event, for print collectors, friends and family.We have rearranged the studio, so people can flow through, view our prints, and maybe even purchase.

design

A lovely young woman that I work with is getting married,in December. I missed her bridal shower, because it occurred the same day as Open Studios. I worked with her on last Thursday, when she asked if I could make a table sign, that had to do with Santa and Reindeer, and the North Pole. I was honored.

I think I know the direction I am heading in, I have already drawn the design on the block and even started carving, the only nagging voice I hear is my own inner critic saying "remember she wants simple and elegant." So then it makes me unable to see my design, and whether it's those things.

It also makes me a little freaked to call it a design, maybe I have been watching too much Project Runway, or Tim Gunn's Guide to Style, and feel it's a design, honestly though it's a commissioned piece I am creating. So am also working with what she wants,not necessarily a print I would do,this isn't a gift.

Before you get worried dearest reader, I already gave her a gift. And she loves it.

So tomorrow I will go and carve the rest of the block, and fingers crossed, be able to pull a print to show her what it looks like.Then next week print it. Did I tell you her wedding was on December 23rd? Yeah, it is.

Am I stressed, not really. Just a little bit jumpy,but that passes, then I feel a little sure of myself.Which i much prefer feeling, sure and at peace, gives one a steady hand when carving.

So what I think I'll do is turn in, get some sleep, perhaps dream and look at this with new eyes tomorrow.

editioning

Recently, I read an article, I believe it was Art In America, and it was about how the importance of editioning a print, had fallen to the wayside. It didn't add any value to the print.

I've always looked at an edition as a goal to head for, there something exciting about knowing that 33/50, means it's the 33rd print out of 50. That you created a block, or an etching that you were able to print, 50 times, and all of the them theoretically the same. As a printmaker, I tend to be more successful with that with Relief prints, it's hard, once you know how, to f*ck up a relief print once you get going.

I keep a small notebook for the prints I've made, what year i made them, how big is the edition, is there a special little quirk to the plate, that i need to remember to keep the quality the same.
With my relief prints, there are often hatch marks, to keep track of the edition, a lot of my smaller blocks I make blank greeting cards out of, i don't print 100 cards in one shot, but i figure I will over the years, so i keep track.

Years ago when I first started open studios, I made lots of blank greeting cards, that would sell pretty well.
Inevitably I would have a happy Patron,come to me the next year, and tell me how they loved the card they bought from me, but they didn't use it as a card, they framed it, and it hangs in their house. At first, frankly I was pissed, I felt a little cheated, out of money due to me, if they had bought a print, it would have cost more then a mere 4x6 greeting card.
So one year I didn't make cards, did I sell more prints that year...No.
Did I get a little disappointed...Yes.

So after that I thought about it long and hard, and I let go of all that stupid disappointment, and I began to see what I did, in the printmaking world as a gift, to myself and others. If that meant someone could only afford one of my prints in card form then so be it. In other words I got over my big bad self.

So this year if you see me on Open studios, and all you can afford is a card. I'm happy to have helped you, buy yourself a really unique card, and I thank you.

it's all about color

In my printmaking I tend to use a lot of color, though I like black and white,I just like colors more. I use oil based relief inks, which clean up, quite easily with plain old vegetable oil and Simple Green.
There are other inks by Akua Kolor, wonderful water based inks, but they take longer to dry, so they can smudge, if say you are printing blank greeting cards, which is what I have been doing over the last 2 weeks at the studio, in preparation for the upcoming Holiday open studios.
One of the many things I love about oil based inks , is there open time, the length of time they can be out of the can, and still workable,you can set out oil based inks, for hours, possibly days, though I've never had a marathon printing session, that had I needed to have my inks out for that long, but I have printed on one day, and come back the next day to print all over again, I will cover my blob of ink over with foil, or plastic wrap to keep, the lint off of it mostly,
when I print consecutive days in a row, it keeps it from forming a skin, which oils will do
after being exposed to the air for an extended period of time.
Which brings up how to get ink properly out of the can, you could gouge it out, but there leaves an open area in the ink that will harden, and cause a skin to form, and since you can only remove that skin before, you use it next, it's better if you control, how the skin forms, an easily removed even thin layer, or a big irregular booger shaped skin, that causes you to dig out of the can forming a deeper hole,and the creation of more ink snot, yes ink snot,I'm pretty sure it's a term I've coined, but anyone I've said it too, nods knowingly, and gets what I mean.If you remove the ink, with ink knife, that pretty much looks like a spackling blade, in a circular fashion,so the ink that is left in an even flat layer, and you use a skin paper on the exposed ink in the can before you put on the lid, you may have little or no ink skin to remove the next time you need to use it.
I so love the colors, how vibrant they are, and frankly I like the smell of them too, does that make me some printmaking freak, probably but I'll wear that badge proudly. damn it.
I really love how they dry to this lovely sheen, something that i think adds to the print.
Would I switch someday to strictly Aqua Kolors, someday maybe but I'd have to have my need to procrastinate under control, and print well in advance, so there will be plenty of time for the ink to dry,and that another story, on another day.

and so it begins....

drum roll, please.
NaBloPoMo officially begins, start your engines, ladies and gentlemen.
Now what to write about, how many days I'm into NaBloPoMo? Just kidding it won't be like that, only as a last resort...ha!
Today we'll start with my" other job", not a job you hate or dislike, but a fun one, and well they don't pay me, unless i sell something at open studios.
I have been a part time printmaker, for 5 years. I began with a class at my local art museum, on non toxic printmaking,I took more classes, bought inks, and paper, and eventually moved from a 3 hour class once a week, for 10 weeks to a studio, where artist went to make art. I definitely felt like a novice, and it took me a while, to get over my big bad self, to feel comfortable enough to call myself an artist. i didn't go to school for printmaking, that was the one semester, we didn't get as Nursing students.In real life I work as a Nurse, have been one for 23 years, so this printmaking I'm still very a novice at.
What I love about it,the steps you go through to pull a print, I'm just as attracted to those as I am making the print. I concentrate on etching, on copper, and relief prints, on wood or linoleum.
I'm big into color, though black definitely has a place in my printmaking I would say, color is a big driving force , also.
I use oil based relief and etching ink, with relief prints there is something about the sheen, of the ink after it dries, in etching the strength of the color, along with the lushness of the paper, Yes, that's right, you heard it, I am a paper whore, from those deceivingly translucent, but strong as steel Japanese papers, to the lush velvety papers made by the Italians, and the Germans, they are all equally wonderful, and luxurious to use.
Figuring out how to use these papers, are as much of the print as the actually plate, or block it's printed from, your paper should be used well enough so you have healthy,meaning big enough, clean borders, and square edges. One mistake printmakers, can make is by using a too small sheet of paper, your edges are too small and it minimizes any detail in the print.Though you maybe be printing from a small plate, you don't really notice that, because the paper is too damn small.
I seem to have gotten away from why I love printmaking, but I have a whole month to write about it, and I will.
So now, it's off to the studio for me, to pull some prints.I'll continue this subject tomorrow.