Green Door's International Print Exchange

The Green Door, a small open access printmaking studio in the UK is seeking an indication of interest in an international print exchange.  A small edition of maybe 10 prints, restricted to "hand-made prints using any technique you wish."  Anna Johnson would like to hear from those who would like to participate.  If you'd be interested in participating, please respond to Anna at:

ipe@greendoor-printmaking.co.uk

SOME HIGHLIGHTS

This is a linoleum cut that Kristie planned and worked on for several weeks.  A very carefully planned relief print that required considerable focus on positive and negative relationships.
This is a detail of a quilt that Julie created from the small relief prints she created from linoleum and woodcuts, using found natural objects from her environment as subjects.  All hand stitched.
This is a detail of a reduction woodcut that Brent created trying to tap into our fears.  Actually, it is kind of scary.
This is a black and white monotype that Alex created which shows his deft facility for illustrative rendering.
Anthony created this black and white monotype, a self portrait that I said looked like Kevin Spacey....he titled it Kevin.

Keep scrolling down and join in on blogging about your TENSION print....

TENSION PORTFOLIO

Allison's solarplate relief.
Rob's intaglio, relief, collagraph.
Michelle's linocut.
Kristie's linocut hand colored.
Krystal's linocut.
Julie's drypoint mezzotint.
Jay's linocut.
Brian's solarplate relief.
Brent silkscreen and relief.
Anthony's linocut.
Alex's linocut.

Allison raised the question in the previous post about perhaps extending the discussion of the Tension prints.  Here are shots of each one, and since some of you didn't get an opportunity to talk about your motivations and ideas concerning these images, maybe you could continue the dialogue here.

FINAL CRITIQUE

I'll have some highlight images to post after reviewing the final portfolios of prints, but I wanted to jump in with thoughts and impressions before they faded into the fog of grading.

Our meeting time is from 1:15 - 4:15, but in spite of having an extra week after the last class meeting, there was still a flurry of printing activity in the shop, and yet our discussion faded around 3:00. It would have been great if that flurry had been a constant throughout the semester, but as one student said, "I work better under pressure," so most of the work was done within the past few days.

The discussion started with a recap of printmaking impressions, the "love/hate" relationship was touched on, but that discussion pretty much existed between me and Allison, and we returned to that topic a number of times to open up other possibilities, other perspectives, other takes on love/hate.  Few were offered. We passed around intaglio prints, exchange portfolio prints, relief prints, but there was very little discussion in the course of those sharing moments. I used to kick myself in the butt for not offering my thoughts and impressions when I was a student.  Now I can yak it up, but only for so long as I keep digging for interaction, eventually someone else needs to make an offering.  Once we got to the advanced folks the discussion became a little more interactive.  Rob discussed his approach to creating imagery, particularly through the print processes.  He really has the mindset of a printmaker, engaged with the variety of approaches to creating imagery and following with detailed explanations of how he created those images, and he clearly recognizes the perk of "multiples": process over image.  Brent has a very different approach.  He has a "reductive" mindset, or at least for this semester, and had a number of woodcuts, wood-engravings, and a silkscreen/relief combination. His approach is very much from an illustrative perspective: image over process. Julie has been working on a 'quilt' of small relief prints, mostly wood cuts, that she's sewn together by hand. It's an engaging piece, but would be much more so with a companion piece, which she may may be able to accomplish by the time her senior exhibition opens in February.

There was discussion about the trials and tribulations of creating prints, the unpredictability of acid's reaction to metal, such as demonstrated in Krystal's intaglio.  There were also other interesting resolutions in the mix.  Alex did some unique explorations with his intaglio plate; Allison did equally engaging work with her solar plates; Kristie created an image for the "tension" portfolio that she's now hand coloring for the final edition which heightens the tension of the image; Anthony's relief is not only tense in concept, but in execution with all of those tiny diagonal lines defining the image; Jay's "Bloons" was an interesting take on Tension and that's one that I have to think through a little more....a clown hanging from floating balloons...hmmmm; Michelle's was also interesting in concept with a view of an 8-ball - - perhaps calling that last pocket, that always makes me a little tense.

Check back in a few days for final images of the semester.

PRINTATHON

Allison at the computer.
Allison's linoleum cut.
Rob's inked intaglio plate.
The resulting first impression.
The inked collagraph board.
Placing the inked collagraph over the intaglio impression. 
The resulting combination of a happy accident.

It was fun going into the shop today, a non-class day, and seeing more than one person working. An encouraging sign for end of the semester activity. Allison had printed her relief and the image above does not do it justice.  In fact, none of the above images above are very good, but it at least documents some interesting activity in the printshop.  Allison created the print by water coloring some Hosho with some very transparent washes of various colors. After the paper dried, she cut out various 'orchid' shapes to chine colle with the linoleum cut, and then printed it onto a decorative Thai paper with subtle fern shapes within the fiber.  The resulting print is beautifully executed.

Rob was working on an intaglio/relief that combined a collagraph on masonite with a reverse etched plate.  He was very focused on it until I showed up with the camera and then the distraction created some interesting results.  After he printed the intaglio, he had the collagraph board inked with both intaglio and a relief roll and was going to print it over the first impression from the plate.  The two maticies have the same imagery, one a postive and one a negative. After he pulled the impression and lifted the collagraph off of the paper, the board had been printed in the opposite direction of the first impression.  Oops.  Usually that results in an obnoxiously symmetrical image, but since he had used some opaque and some transparent colors, the resulting image was very engaging.  Happy accidents in the print shop often create beautiful results.

Let's see more prints. 

  

The BFA Critique

last evening's BFA critique raised some interesting points about how we each perceive CREATIVITY.  It was during the discussion of Ben's work when Nate stated that Ben's sculptural pieces were allowing him to "exercise his creativity", thus relegating his functional work to something perhaps less creative.  Rob then interjected distinctions between "producing" brochures in graphic design and images "created" in more traditional studio practice.  Forgive me, Nate and Rob, if I've mischaracterized your comments, but the gist of those thoughts was on some level a bit disconcerting.  It made me realize that we don't spend enough time looking at or thinking about creativity, about the nature of it and how it impacts and influences how we live.

Creativity is a way of both thinking and behaving with both subjectivity and objectivity.  It's a combination of feeling and knowing between what we sense and what we know.  When we're aware of both, when we embrace both, there is a sense of wholeness. Of course I don't think it's possible to have a perfect balance of both, and it's that imbalance that makes us unique to each other.

Our society, in general, is either subjective or objective; in fact, that split kind of typifies the individuals of our society.  The objective person is a knower after the fact, the one who kind of senses the situation and then makes a determination based on that experience. The subjective person is sort of a here and now type, savoring the sensory experience and caring little for the conclusion.

When we combine the two, as I hope we all do, we gain more than both.  We have a more natural conscious balance between extremes. It allows us to see ourselves from a more unique perspective and our wholeness becomes more apparent, more palpable.  We can lead and follow, we can determine our goal and go toward it - - we can design the stimulus and experience the response.

Creativity is expressed in so many ways, infinite ways.  Such as designing a brochure, or throwing, glazing, and firing a mug or a platter.  Creativity has been expressed it the chairs we sit in, the benches we sit on, the orange tables in the studios, the colors of our walls, the patterns in the carpeting, where the little trees have been planted out by the 'lodges', the way we install exhibitions in the gallery, even how we light those exhibitions, and on and on.  I even get creative when I cook, sometimes when I shave.  When we each have an idea that we want realized, we're being creative.  Sometimes our creative solutions may not be as strong as we'd like, but they're still our creative solutions; we're exercising our CREATIVITY.

Wednesday's Solarday

After what seemed like an interest in doing Solar plates turned out to be very different.  I went in earlier this morning to do a test plate, an image I put together in Photoshop about my recent dental bridge replacement and that may be the image for the Tension portfolio.  I tried one plate with an exposure of 35 seconds for the aquatint screen and 30 seconds for the transparency. It was over exposed, the teeth looked like big white boxes and the hand-written text was nonexistent.  I tried another plate and cut the exposure back to 30/25...still too much.  My time for experimenting was fading so I decided that for the in-class demo I would use a 25/30 exposure.

When we finally focused on the project of the day, only one person had an idea ready to roll.  So I went through the whole process, how to use the exposure unit, and exposed the plate to the aquatint screen and the transparency, developed/etched, and then proofed the plate. Everything showed up in the proof, but the dense blacks had light areas.  I had printed another transparency and layered it one on top of the other, and as Rob pointed out to me, the density of the layered blacks had blocked each other out thus producing an area that didn't have enough tooth to hold the ink.  That made all kinds of sense.  Good thinking , Rob.

I'm going to try combining the various over exposed plates into a separation image and see if there's anything there.  If not, I'll look for another alternative. Anthony has an image ready to go that's pretty nice, so I guess he'll attack that this weekend.  Everyone else got solar plates and we'll see what happens with them.  We'll look at collagraphs on Monday.

So, when do you want to do a print-a-thon?