Timeless techniques - and less time to do them.

 

My egg tempera demo was a lot of fun, thanks to everyone who came even though parking was a challenge and the action looked more "spirited" across the street in the 3 bars celebrating St. Patrick's Day. Above is a little panel I did using egg tempera of the yellow mounds in the South Dakota Badlands where I was artist in residence back in 2002. I'm hoping to keep working in egg tempera, but it might be more of a winter medium. I'm anxious to get back to oils now that the weather is more reasonable and my studio less frozen.

I've also taken some printmaking classes this winter at the AS220 printshop:

Walter Feldman at the Vandercook press

The first was Woodblock Printmaking with Walter Feldman. It's such a treat when you sign up for a class and it exceeds your expectations. I knew Walter Feldman was a master woodcut artist, but I didn't know he would be so inspiring as a teacher. It's not that he gives and exhaustive blueprint of the printing process, but he imparts a love of the medium, a respect for the tools, and an appreciation that woodcut is an art form onto itself. "Let the block speak to you" he says, as he runs his printer's hand over the wood's surface. But don't get the idea that he's one of those artists who hear voices, he's down to earth enough to warn you not to get a fingerprint on the paper "Then you won't be able to sell it".

I took another woodblock class last year that taught how to use a laser cutter to cut the block, but while interesting, is not the way I'm going with this. Laser is surely capable of cutting just about any line, but the hand is the better tool, in my opinion.

I'm also now taking a refresher etching class, the toxic kind. I took the non-toxic intaglio class but once again, toxic is better. The concession to health and environment is to use ferric chloride instead of acid, but I even miss hanging over the acid bath brushing the air bubbles off the plate with a feather.  Not good for you though.

Why am I learning even more techniques when I don't have time to use the techniques I already use? 

No answer to that question but to change the subject. Hey, look over there! Wonderful landscapes, check them out! http://weimarart.blogspot.com/2011/03/crucified-land.html

snailbird

It's snowing again, but unfortunately not enough for a snow day. So I'm at work with the consolation that right now the snow is floating like down feathers outside my window, big flakes against the dark buildings and slushy streets, and it's Friday. The snow won't keep me out of my studio this weekend, but two other things probably will. The first is a Saturday class I'm taking with master woodcut artist Walter Feldman  at the AS220 printshop. We have only 3 classes but after the first I'm already thinking it will take a lot more time to learn even part of what he has to teach. I'll post more about his class soon.

Then it's off to the Newport Art Museum to drop off this painting for the annual member's show.

The other thing that will keep me out of my studio this weekend is a frigid forecast for Sunday (high of 18).  I'm usually pretty content in there when I can get the temperature up to around 50, but it will take so much propane ($$$) to get it that "warm" that I'm better off working in my house. Which is ok, I have to work on developing drawings for my new series of paintings, like the study for snails in snow at top.

The sun just broke through but it's still snowing—sunshine on snowflakes, you don't see that too often.

Shepard Fairey, unedited!

It was fun playing reporter for the Providence Journal, but it stinks getting edited, even if it was (hopefully) just for length. Here's my self-edited and just a tiny bit longer version, which of course, I thought was perfect as submitted.  I'm glad my paintings don't get copy-edited . . . at least not out loud.

Johan Bjurman opens his email to find a digital file, a drawing by artist Shepard Fairey for a 40’x80’ mural in three colors. His mission—translate it to the wall of the Pell-Chafee Performance Center, on budget on and on time. The budget being small, time being 4 weeks.

Which is why AS220 turned to Johan, an artist in his own right and a professional billboard painter. A “walldog” to those in the trade. And it’s why Johan hired E.F. O’Donnell & Sons to make short work of the square footage. And it’s why he looked slightly amused when I pitched the idea of “helping” him. He was gracious enough, though, to let me hang around and watch how it’s done.

I meet Johan at the worn parking lot behind AS220. Two white clad painters, high on a cherry picker, dip rollers into 5 gallon buckets covering the side of the building with a white canvas of paint. Johan goes into a shed and pulls out the plan he has mounted on a 3ft board, the graphic on one side and a map of broad areas of color on the other. He has time now, while he waits for his canvas, to explain how he’s grided the drawing in sections to fit to together “like a swiss watch”.  

When I stop by the next day I see rolls of brown paper, tied with twine and chalked with numbers and arrows, leaning against the shed. Forty 4’x20’  pounces have been prepared in his studio by tracing a projected enlargement using an electrically charged “pencil” that burns tiny holes in the sturdy brown paper.

High above, Johan is silhouetted against the white expanse. Unfurling a roll, he hits it with a cloth bag of powdered charcoal, leaving a wide smudge of black dust which escapes though the holes and imprints on the wall.

By day 5 the painters, following Johan’s charcoal lines, are finishing up huge areas of black, red and cream, creating a lively abstraction. The outline of the Bank of America, better known as the “Superman Building” anchors the center.

Day 7. More pouncing is done, this time for detail. Now it’s up to Johan, alone on the lift, to pull the mural from the abstraction. 30 feet up he is both removed and on display. The mural is starting to attract attention and the occasional Shepard Fairey groupie wondering if it’s Fairey himself up on the lift. Johan keeps his concentration on the wall. Each section has been assigned a fixed numbers of days to complete, with only a few days grace for bad weather.  The unveiling is scheduled for AS200’s Foo Fest on August 14 and he’s right on schedule.

When people speak of this, and they will, they’ll refer to it as the mural artist Shepard Fairey painted. Although Johan often wields his brush as both the artist and the painter, for this project being just the painter is fine with him. It’s good work when you can get it, being a walldog.

 Thanks to Johan Bjurman for being such a good sport and letting me take up his time when he needed to be painting, check out his website when you get a chance.

Here's the version of the video and story that projo ran, maybe it's better and I'm just a jerk!

Off the wall

It looks projo.com is going to run my story on Johan Bjurman painting the Shepard Fairey mural, and probably the video I shot, which ended up being more fun. Look for it around Aug. 8th if all goes well.  I was scooped though, by the Providence Pheonix's story this week, but that's ok, it's a good story and Johan deserves all the publicity he gets.

I'll post links soon and also a pic of my Great Sand Dunes painting, when I get a good photo of it.

In the meantime, here's a link to a beautifully written post on a blog I just discovered. Her work's not too shabby either.

Shepard Fairey, with a little help from Johan Bjurman

I've spent the last few weeks stalking this project going on downtown, and friend and mural painter extraordinaire Johan Bjurman, as he turns a mural concept by Shepard Fairey into reality on the side of the Pell-Chafee Performance Center.  I'll be writing a short piece about the process which I hope will be published in August. I'm also creating a video documenting how the heck you get a mural from a digital file to an eighty by forty foot wall. Links to come.

Now, to the studio to work on my Sand Dunes painting!

Traditional Japanese Ninja Laser Annihilation Woodcut

This block is the result of my third class in Japanese Laser woodcut. It's a reduction block, which means I took the block I cut (well, the laser cut) and sent it back into the jaws of the laser.  Since I already printed the lighter color, I can now annihilate more of the wood, leaving only the darks to be printed. The area that looks green is what's left after the second pass. The previously cut areas look darker, since the laser cuts deeper each time it passes over the block.

Below is the actual machine. It reminds me of an ink jet printer, that is, if an ink jet spewed sparks and smoke. The actual laser is so bright you aren't supposed to look too long at it, although it's tempting. You also are not allowed to leave the room while it's printing, just in case you have to pull the flaming block out of the cutter and dowse it with the fire extinguisher. We did see some flame with my block, but I think it was just leftover pigment flaring up, so no drastic measures were needed.

I'll post some more photos, as soon as I print it (in my studio this time, cubicle printing is good in a pinch, but my studio is a nicer place to be).

Printmaking, the movie

Introduction to Printmaking - Drypoint Etching on Vimeo.

All this thinking about printmaking made me think I should re-edit the video I made when I took a another printmaking class at AS220, this one on drypoint. At a little over 11 minutes, it was too long for youTube.  I had no idea when I'd find the time to do that, then a voice came from above....

**use VIMEO, they have no time restrictions!**

So here it is, in all Vimeo's glorious RGB color.

I love the smell of burning horsehair in the morning...

Yesterday we printed the first color of our laser-cut prints. After vaporizing the block in the last class (we'll be doing more, so I'll show some photos of the machine in the next post), we're ready to print the first color.

First we make a "damp pack" for our rice paper by spraying newsprint with water until evenly wet, then layering it with our paper which we've torn to the correct size. We leave it for about an hour, but  even better, prepare it up to a week before and store flat in a plastic bag. The wet newsprint will impart a nice even moisture to the paper.

The block should also be dampened by running it under water till evenly wet then wrapping it in damp rags.

To spread the ink we use a horsehair brush called a Maru Bake. Because our brushes are new, we need to prepare the ends of the bristles. To do this we lay the brush on a hot plate until the hairs start to smoke, sizzle and smell awful. I advise an open window nearby.

When the edges of the brush are singed, we run it back and forth on a metal grate called a sharkskin. I imagine they once used real sharkskins, which must have really annoyed the sharks. We do this until the brush looks nice and velvety on its face. This splits the ends of the hair so the ink spreads evenly.

Now we are ready to ink the plate. You can use gouache, watercolor or sumi ink and a white glue called Nori. We brush paint and half a dozen dabs of Nori here and there on the plate. Then we take our brush and spread the ink and Nori over the surface till we have a nice satin sheen.

We take a sheet of paper out of the damp pack and register it to the edge of the plate, and drop it down, giving it a quick swipe to adhere it to the surface. Then we lay a sheet of wax paper over the back and rub down with our burin till we can see the image appear through the paper.

That's about it, it's pretty simple in theory, but incredibly complex in its ultimate form, like in the prints of Hokusai.  And he didn't even need no stinkin' laser.

For more info on the tools and how to use them, iMcClains.com is a good source.

The first cut

Last night I took the first of 3 classes in laser cut Japanese woodblock printing at AS220. I thought it would be a good chance to check out their new cutter, which uses a laser beam on wood, metal or even stone to make super sharp and exact cuts. I also figured I could do some printmaking and show my face in the studio again.  I had taken few classes at the AS220 print shop before, and vowed to book some studio time, but I never did find the time even though I can see the shop windows from the building I work in. Paying for a class forces me to show up though, so last night I completed the first run of my block.

Since I've never used this method before, I don't think my drawing was quite appropriate, so I had to manipulate it on the computer, something I don't like to do with my work. It has to end up in the computer eventually anyway though, to be sent to the cutter, so I broke the drawing down into black and one shade of gray for a 2 color reduction print. This is the gray plate. After printing I'll send it through the cutter again to cut away more, then print it again in black.

I'm not sure how I feel about this method. The block printing I've done before has been laboriously cut from pine planks, which dictates the type of line and detail you can get. The laser cutter can do virtually anything you can send from a computer, without regard to the grain of the wood. I think it might be good for a look of it's own, so I'll see how my print comes out and what it suggests for future work.

The plate looks kind of cool though, almost too pretty to cover with ink. I'll post more about the method after my next class.