A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Mother

 

My favorite place to hang prints for drying - between my husband's and my guitars. Molly Chism's painting always improves whatever I put in front of it!

I took over the dining room table this weekend in order to print a linocut I've been working on the past week or so. My daughter is a little over two years old now (how the time flies) and I felt compelled to do a self portrait as a frazzled, sleep deprived mom. I don't enjoy doing self portraits, so to make it more bearable I decided to cut my face in half and really only focus on the hair and eyes. My goal was to experiment with some face shading and specifically highlight dark circles, splotches, and freckles. I don't often do the human figure, especially when it comes to relief carving, so I'm not surprised that I wasn't completely successful - but it was a great learning experience!

The result I call A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Mother and yes, that is a reference to to James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Also, I can't think of a more fitting way to end this "studio" day than with a toddler smearing one of my best prints while it was laying out drying. So what's to be done? Hand it over to her so she can complete her masterpiece, of course!

The Wecheer Carving Tool Kit & the Dawn of Dillo Dangle

Join me on my journey into the future as I purchase an electric chisel! A while back I purchased one to aide in my plans for Participation 2014 at the Maitland Art Center. Okay, so this was a looooong time ago, but it's relevant now because I've made some recent progress on that print. Let's go back to the very beginning….

Designing my table for Participation 2014 finally gave me the impetus to create the triptych I had been planing for the three matching wooden shelves that were discarded from UCF Library's Special Collections & University Archives. I finally decided on a swinging armadillo for the subject matter.

These blocks were rather large, and my design would incorporate a lot of white space. This plus a deadline meant it was finally time to invest in some hardware. I should explain that the power chisel function of the "Wecheer Professional Rotary & Carving Tool Kit" is very different than a rotary tool. I mean, yes there is a rotary tool in there, but that's not why I bought it. I hate carving woodblocks with rotary tools (or "dremel tools" in the common tongue). I feel like I loose all control once the rotary bit hits the wood and inevitably goes skidding off across the surface. Alternatively, the power chisel works much more like a hand carving tool and slices through woodblocks like butter, while still leaving a hand worked texture. (Technically, the block is still handworked, just with more power!)

Photo by Douglas Nelson

After finishing the detail work (and carving out a safety buffer outline) with my hand tools, the power chisel made the rest a dream. No more hours, days even, of carving out white space by hand with my biggest gouge, ensuring the early onset of osteoarthritis!

The triptych is designed to connect to each neighboring panel in the round, meaning if each piece were connected at the edges to make a triangular prism, the ropes in the design would connect across each edge and spiral around the prints. So, that's exactly what I created for my table display, with the addition of luminance. Each panel was printed on thin mulberry paper and backed with a fly pattern cut from Arches Text Weave so the prism could function as a lantern with images displayed both in ink and in light. I was very pleased with how it turned out, and I'm hoping to eventually create a more permanent version of the lantern. However the next step was to combine the panels into one image….. stay tuned for the next installment!

Photo by Douglas Nelson

Photo by Douglas Nelson

Special thanks to Douglas Nelson for the fantastic photos.

Looking Back at ARTLando (plus a Gridwall Review)

Photo by Don Richards

ARTLando seems forever ago, and in a lot of ways it was. So why write about it now? I never had a chance to give it the reflection that an event of this magnitude really deserves. ARTLando was September 27th, two days later I started my new job as Collections Manager at the Orange County Regional History Center, seven days later was my 28th birthday, and two days after that my mom passed away.

ARTLando just got lost in the shuffle.

This was my first foray into a legitimate art festival, and six months of reflection has left me with the feeling of "Yeah, I could do that again." A day of reflection, however, left me with the feeling of "NEVER! Never again should I ever put my body through this!" I was bruised and sore and a little bloody, but it really was worth it.

Some big thanks go out to Dawn Schreiner who lent me her big fancy white tent and saved me a huge amount of up-front investment. It took me way too long to figure out how to set that tent up, and really all the credit for that goes to Kelly Gaiser and Joey Young- my impromptu set-up and tear-down crew that I egregiously overworked. The manpower needed to pull off an art festival is something I'll be giving some serious thought to before participating in another one. I'm so used to my husband being my partner in crime for art events that the addition of my daughter (and therefore the subtraction of my husband) really threw me off my game.

One big investment I did make was the Gridwall panels for displaying my framed pieces. It took Joey and I working together to get them up, but I was able to take them down by myself (with several seriously smashed fingers) and, with practice, I think I could become self-sufficient with the whole process. Once up, I was pleased (and surprised) with how sturdy they were. They also store fairly painlessly at home - something I was worried about due to our teensy tinsey house.

One of the components that set ARTLando apart was the live art making and the judging to be done on said live art project. I thought to myself "Sure, I've carved and printed a piece in one day before, let's give it the good ol' Whitney Broadaway overachieving try!" Needless to say, that did not work. I might have been able to finish my snake linocut if I wasn't busy talking to guests, selling artwork, and just not being rude in general. Might. Well, it didn't hurt to try, and I made a lot of headway into a new print. I don't think I'll miss dragging the Richeson Baby Etching Press to the next art festival I do.

One last thing that has to be mentioned: the people. The people at ARTLando were fantastic! The staff was incredibly helpful and nice (one helped out with setting up the tent which brings the total up to four people who could NOT figure that thing out!), the artists were talented and a pleasure to be around (I met so many new friends and was able to enjoy so many old ones), and the guests brought so much genuine interest and excitement to the day (many of which I'm still in contact with). I truly hope this becomes an annual event!

Me, my husband, and my daughter meeting one of the many puppies visiting ARTLando. Photo by Thuyvi Gates. 

Classes at Art & History Museums - Maitland

It's finally happening. Not Your Mama's Print Class, that Molly Chism and I envisioned in 2011, is finally running as a bonafide nine week class at Art & History Museums - Maitland. Unfortunately, Molly moved away to bigger and better things in California, so she is not here to see this momentous occasion. But her spirit lives on in our class!

We meet on Sunday's 2pm-4pm starting April 13th for nine weeks (with the exception of Easter). We will delve much further into relief printmaking than previous workshops would allow. I plan on getting into techniques such as registration with multiple colors, Chine-colle, and printing an edition. Students will also be given the freedom to choose the relief material they would like to work in. I can't wait to see what images will be created- and what kind of knarly dumpster wood people find to carve on! If you would like to be one of those students, you can sign up here.

I am also teaching The Book As Art as another nine week course. I can't make up my mind which class I am more excited about. This class will meet every Wednesday 7pm-9pm starting April 9th. We'll be discussing the history of Book Arts and taking a critical eye to the medium as a whole. The end of the nine weeks will culminate in the production of an Artists' Book inspired by the Artist's Book Ideation Cards by Barbara Tetenbaum and Julie Chen. These cards are not only terribly fun, but are also extremely helpful in building parameters for a book project and enabling creativity to spark. You are running out of time to sign up for this class, but you can register on the website here.

I can't wait to meet all my students and start posting more updates about their work!

UPDATE 4/13/14: Sadly, I may have jinxed the Not Your Mama's Print Class with my earlier enthusiasm. Several students had to drop out leaving us with not enough to run the class. However, it will return! By Grabthar's Hammer, you shall be avenged!

Artist in Action Studio at the Maitland Art Center

I've finally been able to move into the studio at Maitland! The window that has been repaired is awesome. I now have a growing wishlist for the studio including some storage drawers and a proper workbench.

My first piece of business in the new studio - working on the swinging diptych (seen left). I've been struggling for a while with how to handle the background, and I finally developed a plant motif that I feel walks the line between pattern and object. My current plan is a four color print (black, yellow, brown, blue) and chine collé in the body of the animals (light pink or some other flesh tone). I've got the animal image transferred onto the brown and yellow blocks and I've started carving on the brown blocks. I'm keeping my eye out for some dumpster wood to use for the blue.

My studio hours are Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 9am to 5pm (except holidays). Everyone should stop by! And a big thanks go out to Molly Chism, who helped me move in.

Art & History Museums Maitland - Artist in Action

I am very excited to announce that I've been selected as one of the Artists-in-Action for the 2012-2013 season for Art & History Museums - Maitland. We had our first meeting to go over paper work and get to know each other last Friday (and get a very professional and fancy name badge). It was also the first time I was able to meet A&H's new Director of Art Exhibitions & Education, Rebecca Sexton Larson.

I had a blast getting to know everyone. Trent Tomengo is in Studio 1, Dawn Rosendahl is in Studio 5, and I'll be sharing Studio 8 with Camilo Velasquez. Studio 8 is under going some repairs right now, so Camillo and I haven't been able to move in yet. Dawn is also waiting for Studio 8 to be repaired because she can't move in to Studio 5 until Camilo can move out. Is your brain in a knot yet? In other words, don't expect to catch Dawn or myself on campus until this is all sorted out. I can't wait to move in and get to work!


TheDailyCity.com: Maitland Art and History Museum Shacks Up Four Art...: The Maitland Art & History Museum has announced its 2012-2013 "Artist-in-Action" recipients for 2012/13: Whitney Broadaway, Dawn Rosenda...

The Mad Hatter Tea Party

Yesterday was the Mad Hatter Tea Party at the UCF Library. Amanda Richards was on the committee that organized this fundraiser and she asked me to help out with creating Tenniel inspired linocuts for a print-your-own-print station. I, of course, said yes. Amanda and I each carved two of the four linocuts we had available, which was more painstaking than normal since the cross hatching from Tenniel's drawings is not a very intuitive technique for carving in relief. However, we struggled through and I was pleasantly surprised with how well they translated into linoleum. Especially Amanda's work- this was her first time EVER carving and printing and they look as good as I could have done them. She is a testament to anyone who is on the fence about getting into relief printmaking. We decided to depict the four characters (Alice, The White Rabbit, The Mad Hatter, and The Red Queen) in a frame reminiscent of playing cards and gave them each their own suit.

We had a good crowd at the print station - as in Amanda and I never got to sit down - and it seemed like everyone that came over had a good time. There were also several people intersted in possibly doing the linocut process from start to finish, and I'm hoping that will translate into students for the next Not Your Mama's Print Workshop on December 2nd.




Black Lantern Publishing

One of my older etchings, The Swing, has been published in the magazine Black Lantern Publishing Vol. III No. 8. It is a small print on demand publication that focuses on macabre short stories and poetry. The editor, Rebecca A. Huggins, approached me on deviantArt about using the print in her next issue and, of course, I said that would be wonderful. This is the first time my work has actually been published, so I was very excited- even if it is a very small magazine. You can purchase the magazine in both print or PDF form here: http://www.blacklanternpublishing.com/apps/webstore/

AffectArt Artists' Party at Taste

One of the patrons at my table was a drunk bee- the swinging bunny did not approve.

I had a table at AffectArt.org's Artitsts' Party at Taste in Winter Park on June 15th. I had a fantastic time and met a slew of wonderful artists and people. One of those people was Boone Fowler who set the whole thing up and did a great job of keeping all the artists happy and helping us set up.

Parker Sketch set up his booth beside mine, which meant I wouldn't have to be worried about boredom for the rest of the evening. That was a big relief. Thomas Thorspecken set up to sketch across the sidewalk from Parker and me, so I'm very excited to see that pop up on his blog since I didn't get a chance to peek at it the day of.

Richeson Baby Etching Press was there for print your own prints trying to drum up some interest in my next printmaking workshop. I had several people run prints and I'm hoping some of them caught the printmaking bug! Parker snapped a photo of some of the printing:

Boone is hoping to make this an every other month event, so keep your ear to the ground for the next one because I highly recommend going - whether as a patron or an artist with a table!

Richeson Baby Etching Press

 My foray into the personal etching press world continues. Some updates since last time: I sent back the school etching press from Jerry's Artarama and although I thought the press was poor quality the customer service was excellent. After receiving some birthday money I decided to go for the press that I've seen all the wonderful reviews on and bought this lovely piece of equipment- The Richeson 11" Baby Press. The sheer weight of it tells you it's quality! I especially love the pressure markings on either side and the fact that it doesn't need to be mounted.


I was first able to use my brand new press for some cards I carved and printed for my first Christmas with my husband. It performed beautifully. I still have to get used to using such a tiny little thing, but our future together is looking bright.



 

It's found the perfect home on top of the little cabinet in my little dining room at my little apartment.... making little prints!


Even though it was supposed to be a birthday present, this press sure did make my Christmas.

Merry Christmas! There is still one more day!

Etching Press Woes

I've finally hit the brick wall where if I want to continue doing anything I need to buy my own press. Not only do I need it for myself, but this way the students who sign up for Not Your Mama's Print Class won't have to spend half their time burnishing the back of their prints with spoons. (Or a baren, but the idea of spoons is more reminiscent of cruel and unusual labor)

In the end I purchased this "school" etching press from Jerry's Artarama for $186.99. A steal in the press world, which probably means I bought a very expensive paperweight seeing as anything of real quality costs at least $1,000. But this was the only thing in my price range, and if I have to send it back so be it. Here's to hoping I found a gem, and while were toasting, here's to my new series of art within 9"x15"!