Art Walk!

I will be participating in the May Art Walk: Bloom at the Essex Studios. The exhibition will be Friday May 4 and Saturday May 5. Check out the Esssex Studios website for more details. I haven't finalized what  pieces I will be showing, but I think it'll be some of my intaglio prints from this post and any of my oil paintings, if they are ready. I might bring some other prints to sell, but that remains to be seen. It should be a good time! If you'll be in the area then, why not stop on by?

Contact info:
Essex Studios

2511 Essex Place

Cincinnati, OH 45206

(513) 476-2170

Directions 

Experiment: Screen-printing (Part VII)

In winter quarter, as well as taking film photography, I took another round of advanced printmaking with the phenomenal Noel Anderson. As is evidenced by my FYASO Friday segments, I love the FYASO meme. It's been burning in my brain to recreate it in art somehow, and so I decided to go with it for printmaking. I thought screen-printing would be most useful and effective. I like the idea of using a handmade process that can be messy, time consuming, and potentially one-of-a-kind to create a physical version of an internet meme. Thi sis because, in contrast, internet memes are quick and spontaneous, created to fit the situation or mood, meat to be more throwaway images. You don't need any editting software to make them; the more popular memes have websites where you can quickly throw words on the image (for example, at memegenerator.net).

First, I tried to replicate the FYASO image with original words.

Then I loosened up and put layers together more haphazardly, letting them fall as they would, to show more of the frustrated feel the Owl often has.

In the second half of the quarter, I worked on images of a sunset. I used many transparent layers of ink to achieve the floating layered clouds. This piece of a good lesson in embracing mistakes and not letting them frustrate me, which is a problem I often have.

Here is a close-up of some of the clouds. I used silver ink in some of the layers.

Experiment: Photography (Part III)

Here are most of the final prints I made for film photography. Photography was fun, but at times irritating, and always time-consuming. If attempting to work in the darkroom, always set aside at least a five hour stretch of free time. And bring a radio.

Experiment: Photography (Part II)

One of the studios I am currently taking is Intro to Film Photography. I was lucky enough to take a basic film photography back in high school, and it was a great experience, overall. I enjoyed it very much. However, I realize just how lucky I got in that class. While the art department's budget was tight and we had few supplies (and therefore students could not experiment), nearly everything was given to us: paper, chemicals, darkroom, film development canisters, etc. We only had to provide the camera (which everyone seemed to already own) and film (and we only shot about four rolls all quarter).

In college... let's just say that film photography is expensive. But it is also very rewarding. I think that I will feel very good about myself at the end of the quarter once I have somewhat mastered things. For now, it's a mixed bag. Some days go smoothly while others are a struggle. Of course, that's typical of any studio class!

Here is a contact sheet of one of my rolls of film and a few test prints I have done, as well as an example of test strips I made to determine how long to expose my photo paper to make a print.

Experiment: Screen-printing (Part VI)

Long time, no see. Hell Week and Finals Week at school. But here's part of what I've been up to.

Part V showed you the stencils I made for my comic print. I managed to pick up contact paper (who knew that Contact was actually a brand name?) and remade all the stencils. They still did not want to print very well, but by doing two drops of color without lifting the screen, I managed to make them work. Here's what a test print of the blue, the first drop, looked like on newsprint.

And the newsprint with test prints of all four color drops. The bottom half of the black comic lines came out much thinned and fainter than I expected, which I was not pleased about. But again, with a double drop, they were acceptable.

Quick shots of the (basically) final prints. I'm picking up my graded portfolio from this class tomorrow, so proper scans will be up later in the week.

A second print was due at the same time as the above print, and I wanted the two to be related. I mentioned this in Part V as well. So as I printed the comic print, I slipped in smaller sheets of good paper where I knew ink would be coming through and I hadn't bothered to prevent (knowing I would be making these other prints). Each one has a drop of each color and most have a second drop of red. There was no registration, so they are all a little bit different. I burned the smaller comic transparency onto my screen and printed in on top of the color. Like the above print, I will scan them properly tomorrow and have them posted later this week.

Experiment: Screen-printing (Part V)

One thing I dislike about being in college for art is having to share studio space with other students. I won't get into the details, but let's just say I don't necessarily see eye to eye with certain other students regarding space and cleanliness.

But I digress.

Here's the image from Part IV, printed on a transparency, a large and small version. I've decided they will be they will become two different prints. The paper I tore into the sheets for the large prints left over pieces of paper conveniently sized perfectly for the small transparency. The large print will be an edition, and the small print will be... something a little freer, crazier, unplanned.We'll see.

I didn't get as far as I would have liked today, but here's a taste of what's to come.I'll be printing in yellow, red, and blue. Below, you can see the shapes of color I'll be using. The jagged shapes are for sound-effect bubbles. There will be a red one and a yellow one, on the same spot but slightly offset from each other. The bottom shape is the blue of Superman's suit, in the middle, the red, and on top, the yellow. There are a few more shapes unpictured, but these are the big ones.

The shapes shown below are cut out of cardstock to be used as stencils. However, one reason I didn't get very far today was because the cardstock failed me. I need to retreat to the store and pick up some contact paper instead. That should work out much more nicely.

Meanwhile, at the Pendleton...

Last night I attended the Final Friday event at the Pendleton with some friends. What an experience. I didn't know anything about the event or the location before I went. The Pendleton is an eight story building that houses hundreds of artist studios. The studios are private, but the last Friday of every month, they open their doors and let the public poke around.

It was pretty exciting to see artists in their own studios, displaying their work. It was a little awkward at first; we came earlier in the evening than most of the crowd. Walking into the studios felt like entering someone's home (which, in a way, it was). Everyone had wine, cheese, and crackers set out. I could have gotten quite drunk, if I'd been in the mood. Many of the artists greeted us as we came in. The first few floors of studios felt real and lived-in. You could see piles of canvases and book stacked in the corners and desks with supplies in the back, often behind a curtain. As we progressed up the building, however, with a few exceptions, the studios become more and more business-like. Some had counters, like you'd see in a small store, for checking out. They were cleaner, neater, almost cold. Many artists higher up didn't say anything unless spoken to and didn't make themselves known. It was intimidating.

There wasn't a large variety of media among the artists. Most people were painters. There were a few photographers, a jewelry artist, and a print-maker. Many of the painters painted realistic natural landscapes, although there were also several portrait painters. One man had a whole wall of self portraits he'd done throughout his life. (He probably had the most work displayed; it was inside his studio and on all the walls outside as well! He was very nice, too.) It was interesting talking to the artists. I had a list of questions for a short interview, and I tried to talk to different kinds of artists. I expected them to answer mostly the same. "How do you support your artwork?" "Um... by selling my artwork." But several of them had second jobs they did on the side. One even said he was a substitute teacher, which took up the majority of his day.

I would like to go back to the Pendleton, perhaps on a Second Look Saturday instead of another Final Friday. The crowds got to me, and the halls and studios were almost too small to fit everyone. My visit really inspired me to work hard so I can get a studio of my own one day.

Experiment: Screen-printing (Part IV)

A sketch of my new screen-print project. I wanted to try out the process you use to screen-print photos. I'm obviously not using a photo here, though. The process work with whatever image you want. You make it bitmap and print it on transparent film, coat your screen with a photo emulsion, expose your screen with the transparency on it, and wash away the coating. And there's your image on your screen, ready for printing!

The image I wanted to create is a comic book page that eventually crumbles and crashes at the bottom of the paper. There's no real reason behind this image, I just thought it looked interesting. I also wanted to bring together the worlds of comics and of screen-printing, for me. The image, as sketched, is black and white. However, over top and possible underneath as well, I will add in splashes of color, in the form of sound effect bubbles. There will be no text in the bubbles, just the shapes that dramatic sound effect bubbles have. Think old-time Batman.

Here's the final image that I have used with the photo process to put on my screen.

Experiment: Screen-printing (Part III)

The final product of my project:

A series of four prints of the rising, waxing moon. I like how they turned out, which can't always be said for my projects. I usually end up hating them. Maybe I'm more easily tapping into things I really want to create. Or maybe it's because I finished in a timely manner and didn't have to rush around like a crazy person. Tough call.

Experiment: Screen-printing (Part II)

Here's the sketch of the goddess figure to be featured in my screen-print. I was afraid to just start drawing blindly on my screen without really planning out which part you would see for each phase of the moon, how exactly it would look, all that. For drawing her on the screen, I used blue drawing fluid, which is a positive drawing technique (as opposed to crayons or stencils, which are negative and block the ink). I actually like how she turned out: a bit wilder and perhaps more primitive than the sketch.

Printing was wonderful this time around, full of happy accidents as opposed to being a comedy of errors like last time. I'm not finished with the prints (I have eight in progress), they still need one more drop of ink. If you look at the sketches in part I, you'll see it's the graphic black layer, which will also be created on the screen with blue drawing fluid.

One of the happy accidents: you can see the whole figure through the dark grey layer. I'm ok with that. I think it will work out well. Look at all my prints!

Experiment: Screen-printing

Screen-printing is a very interesting process. Before this year, the only printmaking I had done was relief (woodblock), which I loved. While similar, relief and screen-printing are different enough that I am excited to explore them further. For example, in relief, the bulk of your time is spent on carving your wood to create what is basically a stamp. Then you ink up, zip zip, and you're printing. For screen-printing, the physical act of printing takes the longest. This is because you usually do many layers. You're able to have much more flexibility with your prints, changing up the colors and design on the fly. Relief prints are often a single color, and doing multiple colors on the same print is difficult (maybe that's just me, being inexperienced in it). Screen-prints are almost expected to be at least three colors and are often many more.

Here's my sketch for my next screen-print. (I may or may not post pictures relating to my first group of prints. It was, shall we say, a learning experience.)

The first print was also of the sky, so I wanted to continue with that. I'm fascinated with the sky, even attempting to do a daily sky-photographing a while back (didn't end up panning out). The moon has always been an aspect of the sky I love. So this print will be the moon on a grey (probably not that shade) background, with black markings around the edges. Yes, they will be graphic and choppy as I have sketched them. There will be four variations, with the moon rising across the sky and growing from crescent to full. To mimic the markings on the real moon, there will be a faint picture of a goddess-like figure behind everything else. As the moon travels across the prints, it will reveal a little bit more of the figure, as I attempted to depict in the top-right corner.

The edges of the print will not be straight, flat edges. They will be jagged, rough, to correspond with the graphic mark-making of the black. The effect was achieved on the screen by using a pressure washer to take out the red block-out around the edges from a pre-existing composition. I'm excited to see if they will work as well as I imagine they will.

Moon goddess, eh? I guess Sailor Moon will never really stop influencing me.  (Although, in my defense, I liked the moon before I got into Sailor Moon, so there.)