Next stage

So I spent all night last night fiddling with my Adana No. 2 4x6 (while the link is to a five-three, the image is very similar to my press) and my new sample inks from Faust Inks. Here is one of the better results (Faust AquaLine ink printed on Rising Stonehenge white, 245 gsm) from my last reduction plate:

Copy Cat II

The Faust "Relief Ink" was very stiff - almost like an etching ink. I didn't have much success with it, as I couldn't seem to get enough layers going. I suspect it might work well for my wood engraving, whenever I manage to get back to that again. And dampened paper really didn't work with water-soluble ink (although the paper was no longer wet, it still had moisture in the fibres). The Faust "AquaLine" ink has a beautiful buttery consistency, but it's kind of smelly (which doesn't do me any good). I seemed to require a lot of layers to get the ink depth required, and that strikes me as odd. Finally, I tried the Graphic Chemical ink again, and am just not happy with it. Sigh. I've had suggestions to try Akua Intalgio, so I'll maybe order some to try it, or see if anyone nearby has some that I can steal a small sample of.

Inspirations

While visiting my Aunt Jean this October, I took a few photos of her black and white cat, Booger. He's very photogenic, and I really wanted to do a print including him somehow. I was perusing my resource bookshelf for inspiration when my eye fell upon Persian Designs and Motifs for Artists and Craftsmen by Ali Dowlatshahi (1979, Dover Publications Inc., London). Within the pages of this book are some spectacular designs from various sources of Iranian artwork, from pottery to weaving to tile work. I spotted a page of geometric carved stucco designs from the 13th and 14th centuries, and thought that one of those would be perfect. Also a source of inspiration is an upcoming theme show "Red & Gold" at the Federation, which had to be submitted this past Thursday. Deadlines are always a great driving force for creativity!

I wanted to utilize one of these patterns from the book, but I didn't want it to be perfect. My first layer is a golden yellow, applied in a rainbow roll so that there was a value gradient from left to right. I also had the pattern break down at the fainter end, so that it looked like the tile was crumbling away from centuries of use.

First state

The next layer was also done in a gradient using the rainbow roll technique, but unfortunately, it's really subtle. You can't even notice it when I just printed the red alone on a white sheet of paper.

Second state

Red alone

The next layer was just the cat in blue (straight out of the tube). Now, this was a bit of a trick, because I wanted to save the final carving in order to produce a black & white image. If I did the true reduction where I remove everything that I wouldn't want to print in blue, I would have had to carve away all the background tile in red that you see above, but then I wouldn't have a plate to do the black & white image that I wanted. So I inked just the cat as best I could, and carefully wiped away the excess wherever I didn't want it with a lightly dampened cloth. This was rather time consuming and exacting, so I did this layer and the next (same problem with the reduction) in batches.

Third state

Finally, I didn't want the cat to be a solid object sitting on the tiles, so I repeated the pattern in the cat's body, but reversed (i.e. the dark value was now reversed with the light in the pattern). I also didn't want to obscure the face of the cat, so I tried to show a breakdown of the pattern similar to that of the tiles on the left-hand side of the image.

Final state - "Copy Cat"

This piece is done on Rising Stonehenge 245 gsm paper (white in colour) using water based Speedball inks, and carving an actual linoleum block for the first time in a really long time. I'm very happy with the composition; I especially like the echoing of the triangles just in the overall shapes of the cat itself, not just the repetition of patterns. I'm also happy overall with the way the colours worked, as that's not always easy with a reduction.

Because I'm so lazy, I haven't yet tried to set up Andrew Gott's ridiculously easy and apparently fail safe registration method, and as a result, I only have a tiny little edition size that I'm happy with (3 out of a total of 9 pulled, sigh!). This should teach me, but I still haven't done anything about it yet!! Maybe before the next reduction print :)

Opening Night, Mark II

Thursday, November 8 marked the opening for the Place des Arts Positively Petite exhibition, which coincided with the solo exhibition opening, Solitude, paintings by my friend, Alice Rabinowitz. As my relief printmaking class at Port Moody Arts Centre got canceled (only one person signed up, sigh), I was able to make the opening.

Alice's show is a collection of paintings and haiku, from florals to life models to en plein air, including watercolours, monotypes and mixed media work. The work was beautifully hung in a spacious room at Place des Arts, and there were many people in attendance admiring Alice's work, including a number of friends that drove all the way out from the west side of Vancouver, White Rock and North Vancouver on a weekday evening!

Alice Rabinowitz with her monotype "Sun Shower" at "Solitude"

At the Positively Petite opening, I met a fellow Wet Canvas! addict, Madelaine Fedorowich. She hangs out usually in the acrylics, oils and miniature forums, so I don't cross paths online with her too often. Anyway, it was very exciting to put a face to a web presence, and to her art - it was nice to meet her there. This was Madelaine's first exhibition, with a delightful selection of tiny, cheerful little birds (and other subjects), so congratulations Madelaine!

Work of Madelaine Fedorowich at "Positively Petite"

Madelaine and myself in front of my works at "Positively Petite"

Also in attendance was another fellow Federation (and Wet Canvas!) artist, James Koll, who had absolutely exquisite watercolours, two of which (both of sunflowers) sold and left the building that night. Great work James!

I actually ran into quite a few people that I knew and didn't expect to see, so it was really a fun evening. If you are in Coquitlam, Alice's Solitude exhibition is on until December 8, and the Positively Petite exhibition until December 21.

A BC Bestiary

Last night was the opening for my first solo exhibition, "A BC Bestiary" at the Blackberry Gallery in the Port Moody Arts Centre. There were a total of four shows opening that evening, and thank goodness, because the turnout for Kwi Am Choi's retrospective was significant. If they had relied solely on my contribution of followers, the attendance would have been pretty slender.

That said, it was a fantastic evening. I'm thrilled with the final product: the show hangs very well, the work has a unified theme & feel, and it just looks great.

Here is proof that I was at the show, but unfortunately, it's not the world's best photo, and it's the only one I got!!

It quickly became crowded in there once guests started to arrive, and I was so busy talking about my work & methodology, that I didn't have the presence of mind to take any further photos of people actually looking at anything!! Ah, well, maybe next time!

I received many extremely positive comments, and quite a few people told me that I should publish the project as a book. That was certainly my intention early on, but I got so sick of the whole thing by the end of the year of working on it, that I didn't want to think about it at all any more. I am now more positively inclined towards the collection, so I might yet look into how to get it published in the near-ish future. I also spoke with a number of people who were interested in learning relief printmaking, and were intrigued that my method does not require a press. Perhaps some new students? We shall see!

Anyway, for those who might be interested, here's the "artist statement" from the show:

I am from a family of biologists and artists, so I honestly come by my fascination with nature, and my desire to transform that feeling onto paper. Strongly influenced by my grandmother's art and my parent's knowledge and love of our natural world, I could hardly escape. I studied the world through the eyes of the scientific method and now my work is directed by the methodology of printmaking. I love the challenge of interpreting an image or an idea into a print, building the process in my mind, working within the constraints of the media, exploring ways to expand beyond them, and realizing the final outcome on paper. Printmaking requires development of precise technical skill and craftsmanship, yet provides an expressive medium for creative dialogue.

Interpretations of the alphabet have always intrigued me. When I was very young, my father returned from one of his trips to the Arctic with an Inuit alphabet poster. That was my first introduction to different way of looking at the alphabet – an alphabet which was in a different language, representing creatures and items that were not common in my daily life. Another source of early inspiration was A Collection of Thoughts and Pictures Based on the Alphabet by Mike Yazzolino, a very esoteric approach to this most basic listing of the building blocks of our language. One of my favourites, and perhaps one of the most exquisitely illustrated and presented children's alphabets, is Wallace Edward's Alphabeasts - required bookshelf content for all.

An alphabet of BC's familiar and not-so-familiar denizens seems a perfect way to combine my knowledge in science, my interest in nature and my skills as an artist. By working in miniature, I aim to encourage the viewer to take a step forward and investigate further, rather than standing aloof and uninvolved. The bestiary ranges from the common to the bizarre, but each member has a job in the mosaic of our landscape. The visual alphabet of the printed image provides a glimpse into our natural heritage.

In Memorium

"Xmas Goose" multi-block relief print

Poor Goosey is no longer with us. After a valiant battle with a mink a few nights ago, while Goosey didn't appear to be physically damaged, we think that he was just stressed too far with the chase. Goosey, a great guard goose famed across Cobble Hill for his presence, will be missed dearly by all of us, as well as his field buddy, Lady the horse, who'll probably miss him the most of all.

Here is a small tribute in art of the various expressions of Goosey that I've done so far over the years. I'm planning on doing another one this year, probably for my Christmas cards, as a reminder of our favourite goose.

"Gramma's Goose" mixed watermedia monotype

"Goosey" watercolour

"Marilyn" (Goosey after Warhol) watercolour monotype

Added November 4, 2007 - Mom also has a recent painting of Goosey & Lady from a photo of them in the snow last year that she wishes to add to our memorial. This is a watercolour painting called Friends.

Demo-tainment

Last night I held a demonstration of relief printmaking at the Federation of Canadian Artists on Granville Island. While the turnout was pretty small (four), it did mean that everyone got to try their hand at carving. The ink was playing up (atmosphere too dry?) so I couldn't really give them an opportunity to roll up, but I think they had fun nonetheless. Everyone said they learned something, and were keen to try when they got home (apparently, all had their own lino cutter tools, ink and brayers). The most common problem that they'd had was way too much ink blobbed onto the plate, and loss of detail. Now that they've witnessed such fine inking finesse on my part (hint - that's pretty heavy irony; I'll discuss the ink disaster shortly), they have a better idea of how to tackle it again.

Showing how to carve the Safety Kut block

Participants try their hand at carving

First roll up with Speedball water soluble ink

Transferring print to paper by burnishing

The reveal - demonstrating (on purpose!) too little ink

Creating crab prints for participants, using Graphic Chemical ink
(too little ink, this time not on purpose!)

So, the ink fiasco. I had been warned that Speedball inks are finicky in certain environmental conditions (well, you just have to search the Wet Canvas! printmakers forum for "Speedball" to get an idea of the opinion there!), and while I'd had experienced it to a certain degree at home, I'd never had a complete lack of any functionality whatsoever. I definitely had that happen last night! The ink dried almost as soon as I rolled it onto the Plexiglas plate. I think that the atmosphere was just too dry, but I'm not positive what the reason was. I did have a fan blowing down on me, so that might have been the problem. Anyway, I had to switch to the Graphic Chemical ink, but I'm not yet able to get a very dark print using it with the Safety Kut blocks. I have yet to try on linoleum to see if it makes a difference, but perhaps I just have to keep layering. It's really difficult, because I am so used to Speedball that I think I must have a ridiculous quantity of ink on my block, yet it isn't dark enough. I'll have to keep experimenting.

Artifact

I just completed a monochromatic miniature of a piece of late 19th or early 20th century farm equipment that I photographed at Luxton Fall Fair last September. I am captivated by old equipment - there is something fascinating about rusting metal, and my curiosity is always piqued by inexplicable (to me!) machinery. Dave is much more cleaver at gleaning meaning from the various valves, cogs and sprockets than I am.

On grey Rising Stonehenge 245gsm paper, image size is 10cmx10cm (just shy of 4"x4") using first Graphic Chemical water-soluble black:

and using Speedball mixed deep indigo:


I find that Safety-Kut can have good and bad sides; you'd think you'd be able to use both sides, but not always. Often the texture produced in the print is grainier on one side of the block than the other. This is a print as an example of such grainy texture. At first I thought it was the Graphic Chemical ink, because I'm not used to it, and it seemed to take a ridiculous amount more than I would have expected. But GC ink is much stiffer than Speedball, and more like a "real" printing ink, so you have to work harder to build up the layers. The ink was really "zinging" (the sound made when you pull the brayer through the ink), and I thought I was overloading it, but apparently not. I tried with rice paper as well, thinking that it was the thickness of the Stonehenge, and same problem (although I was able to get a somewhat clearer print). I think I'll try the GC ink with actual linoleum and see how it does. I also want to try this print with an actual press, rather than burnishing. Hand burnishing can produce just so much pressure; a press makes a big difference with tricky materials sometimes.

As this is a piece of farm equipment, I'll use it for our POG monthly challenge "On the Farm". I'm happy with the piece, but a little disappointed in the printing quality. We'll see if using a press makes a difference, but it'll have to wait for a while!

Powerhouse

Last year, Dave & I visited the Powerhouse at Stave Falls in Mission. It was the power generating station for the Lower Mainland for much of the 20th century. There are many fascinating displays on hydroelectricity and power generation, and they've got a lot of the old machinery and gauges etc. in this huge generating room. The machinery definitely caught my fancy, so I have many photos from that trip for potential source material.

This print was done using the reduction cut method. I started with a cream-coloured paper (Rising Stonehenge "Cream" 245gsm), and used three colours in Speedball water-based inks: orange, rusty brown, and a dark plum brown. The final dimensions are just shy of 4"x4" (10cmx10cm)The image is a very close up look of part of one of the generators at the Powerhouse.

Printing setup (click to view larger)

First state (low light conditions make it look a bit yellow)

Second state

Final state (this one is a bit white; I think I used a flash!)

As I was working on this edition, I also did a monoprint using the various states. This piece is 9"x19"; please click on it to get a larger view.

Powerhouse Array
(colours aren't really correct - image software editing low-light exposure)

I seem to work best at night, or at least that's when I get in the groove to work. So these were printed between 7 -1130 pm last night (hence the weird light conditions). I have a "monthly challenge" from POG that I need to work on next... maybe that'll be tonight's project!