A New Year for Prints

We're into September 2012. That's a long time since the last posting. I had taken a hiatus from this blog due to the inactivity. I was a bit tired of only communicating with myself and responding to my own posts. But some interest has been expressed to resurrect INTAYLO, contribute more posts and include more images from the two groups of printmakers. I'm hopeful we'll have more online discussions/critiques.

There's a beginning and advanced group. The advanced group has already been working pretty steadily so I have a few images to share from those efforts. The beginning group in in the midst of the three color separation monotype process, so after this evening, there'll be some images to share from those efforts.

The advanced group is already very involved in their new work. I've changed some things around this semester hoping to make the printshop a more collaborative, interactive, and innovative arena. We started the semester with some collaborative projects, teaming up small groups of two to create prints from nontraditional matricies. There are some pretty interesting results that I hope will fuel further investigations. I teamed up with Dani, and we layered several kinds of surfaces, such as a screen door guard, shower mat, carpenter's square, stamps, and a few floor mats.

Wende and Anna created a layered impressions from shelf liners, doilies, and twine. They offset those impressions onto a sheet of sheer paper and then waxed it to hang over the original impressions, creating a veil of color and texture.

Alex and Stasha inked up a sheet of mylar, placed it on a sheet of paper and placed it under a car. They then drove back and forth over it. The remaining image on the mylar was then printed onto another sheet of paper.

Laura and Emily printed a flat of yellow, then inked up string and printed it in layers over the surface, with each layer getting more and more vague. They finished with a layer of transparent magenta that has Saran wrap textures impressed in the surface.

Brian and Dani

Wende and Anna

Stasha and Alex

Laura and Emily

Each of these collaborative experimentations examined less conventional approaches to creating images through a printmaking sensibility. There was ink and pressure and layers and paper. Aside from the work each individual will be exploring and discussing throughout the semester, we will also continue to push for more innovation through collaborative efforts and critical dialogue.

New Printmakers

The images below are the first three-color separation monotypes by all the new printmakers. A pretty exciting bunch of prints. We've had discussions about each one and suggested the things they might try to make their messages stronger. With the knowledge they gained by this first effort, and from watching others execute their processes, their second effort will be even more exciting. Everyone is developing a theme through their work this semester, so how each one grows in concept and process will be fun to see.

Brittany Loop is investigating the visual dynamic of Koi.

Todd Brewer is exploring isolation, but not necessarily in a 'dark' way.

Tiffany Walker is exploring the seasons.

Patrick Berry is interpreting A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Miri Fetko is responding to Spanish poetry.

Maggie Poe is examining work related symbols and iconography.

Kirsten Goodman is utilizing cultural symbols representing the elements.

Kaitie Skinner is examining architectural possibilities.

Ellen Everwine is seeing through different points-of-view.

Brittany Norris is responding to social media and its effects on identity.

Allison Jones is exploring narrative fantasy.

Some of the images went through some funky color shifts in the translation from ink to pixel, but I hope you can see how the various approaches have expanded the process into some unique discoveries.

We've Started Printing

On Teusday, the first day of class, besides detailing the usual first-day-of-class kind of stuff, we also created a Trace or Touch Print. As folks arrived in the studio they were sent over to a black rectangle that had been gridded off and instructed to do a quick self portrait within each of the frames and to include their names at the bottom of each section. The result is the first image above, a fun composite of those who were there on the first day.

Today we discussed themes and concepts that would drive the explorations into Intaglio, Relief, Monotype, and Collagraph, and then we created a collaborative three color separation monotype (second image above). Three groups worked on three inked sheets of mylar, one yellow, one cyan, and one magenta. By creating this collaborative print, everyone became familiar with the inks, the paper, and the press. One of the advantages also of pulling this impression was to realize that the process colors do not yield the same secondary colors as the primary colors do. Instead of green, orange, and violet, the process colors result in red, green, and blue.

Each of the three groups explored different approaches to reducing the field of color with marks using stamps, textured materials, solvents, plastics, etc. The result was pretty cool for a 15 person 90 minute collaboration.

First Full day of class, 09/01/11

Looking forward to discussing ideas and themes with the new printmakers tomorrow. we're also going to do a collaborative monotype so that everyone will be prepared to execute their own image. The monotype above is from last spring's class. Anna Loos created this print based on her theme of home. She carried that theme throughout the semester creating some interesting images in intaglio and relief.

See you in the morning.

Fall Semester 2011

Welcome back to the printshop. There has been a lot of activity in the shop getting it transformed from a paper-making studio back into a printmaking studio. Wende, in particular, has done a Herculean job with that transformation. There were some really beautiful things created this summer with the paper makers, and I know that energy will continue as we explore intaglio and relief during this fall semester. I have not posted a syllabus yet because it's still under construction, although there aren't that many changes, I've simply been dragging my feet a little through the final remnants of summer. So we'll all have a fresh look at what's in store during our first gathering tomorrow. See you in the shop bright and early with the coffee pot perking!

Spring Printmaking: we're done.

Below is the colophon for the Self-Portraits exchange portfolio created by the afternoon printmaking class. I don't have many of the individual images documented, but if you click on the colophon, you'll see it on a larger and more detailed scale.

Other highlights of the semester included some inspiring color intaglios by Wende Cudmore:

Pako Martin, one of our graduating seniors crated some interesting work with the prints below. The first has a waxed print (thanks Rob) sewn over a color intaglio. The other is a piece of linoleum with holes cut into it and then coins dropped into the holes, intaglio inked and printed.

Miranda Becht explored some multi-plate intaglio prints using both etched zinc and solar plates.

Daniel Marshall also did some engaging images with solar plates, and check out the one he has on the colophon. Pretty nice.

Dani Maudlin, our newest BFA printmaking major, tried many different approaches with her work. This piece is an intaglio chine colle mounted on hand made paper.

Our shop had some very good energy in it the past few days and we were all a little sad and a lot tired when Nicole headed back to Murray. It was one of the most intense and productive printing sessions in a long while. Starting on Sunday afternoon and finishing the printathon on Monday evening, resulting in an edition of 35, with a small hand full of printers proofs for Wende, Dani, Daniel, Pako, Brian, and Donna. Rolling Knob press is especially please to have one of Nicole's prints in its collection.

Declining Constraint is a four plate, six color intaglio print, filled with personal symbols, rich textures, and subtle references to Nicole's life, her losses, and obviously her passions. She discussed the developments in her work to many students and many different classes, including drawing, foundations, and ceramics.

Nicole presented two very impressive portfolios, one of her prints and another of her current and former students. Our students and the printmaking faculty were especially impressed to see the work that students were doing at Murray State. They were ambitious, large, and beautifully drawn and printed.

Here Nicole places one of the four plates on the press bed, the RED! plate. Wende was the master of that plate for most of the printing sessions. Nicole leaves the paper engaged so that the multiple plates register, and her template is a thin tympan with a plate-sized hole cut out to fit each subsequent plate into. There were only three registration issues, all caused by me (rats!)

Daniel had a session with the RED! plate as well when Wende and Dani got promoted to other plates. All had very rewarding experiences with the entire process. We're going to try to bring Nicole back next year for a special book making workshop, and Donna's paper making class this summer will be geared up for creating some very special papers for that experience.

See some of the past few posts for additional images from the past few days.

Thanks, Nicole.