March. April.

04/02/2012

I finally got around to uploading my photos from March and today!
Below are photos and captions on some of what I managed to photograph during this month. When I figure out how to fix my phone's USB connectivity, I will show photos from the results of my woodcut for the food bank print exchange and photos of a dremmel tool drypoint/engraving self portrait I started working on!
  

I got an easel for Christmas and haven't put it together until now!

Naturally it didn't come with very clear instructions, but I found a video online that went through the directions step by step.
Despite that, I still managed to put a few parts on backwards and had to dismantle and reassemble it.

Ta Da! Finished Easel! Yay!!! It only took me 3 hours!

Lucy had to check out the new easel right away! (Easel is left in shadow)

I sketched Michelle one morning on a McDonald's napkin. I made her head a little big, but I wasn't really measuring either.

I started to make a painted version in black and white, but it puckered too much and I eventually gave up on that piece, but I saved the work, so maybe I'll continue it later. It had been a while since I painted, so I started with just plain black and white acrylics.

Grad school Updates! Today I heard from the last school I was waiting for. Rejected. But I don't feel too bad, because I was accepted at PAFA and RISD.

I was accepted at RISD for the MFA in Printmaking program, so before I decide(d) to go there, I felt I had to check it out just to make sure it's somewhere I want to go before I (well, my parents) invest in it. Naturally, my dad and I visited on the one day in March in which it's 80 degrees and beautiful, but I tried my best to imagine the city grey and cold, and I think I'll be fine there in that weather as well! I also got to meet up with my amazing Big from NKE and meet her fiancé during my trip!

View of the capitol in Providence from the hotel!

Totally awesome wallpaper in the bathroom at the RISD Museum of Art. It took me by surprise! I wasn't sure I could photograph the work in the museum, but I figured I could take a picture of the bathroom. Ha

RISD Museum of Art!

The main printmaking building! At least three floors of awesome! It looked great to me! I can work with it!

The Hirshhorn! Song 1. For I Only Have Eyes For Youuu!
I thought this was very interesting, I think I want to go back and watch it again before it goes away. Maybe on my own.
It was mesmerizing! I love the idea of projecting film on buildings. I think I've seen it before a couple of times. It was funny that after this Hirshhorn show, I noticed film on buildings in The Hunger Games in their version of the Capital. I could see more film on buildings in the future. Whether it would be art or advertising or some kind of brainwashing propaganda, I cannot predict.

My boyfriend took a picture of me in Old Town Alexandria, because I told him to, ha ha.

Ducks in a fountain in Old Town Alexandria!

I started an oil painting today! I've been itching to paint ever since plants and flowers have started to bloom, so here's a start.

(Shiny sorry). Definitely have a long way to go, but I blocked in a lot. I can't wait to add in the blossoms! The sky isn't that blue, although I like the color a lot, but its not natural. Maybe I'll scumble it back with some other color? We'll see! It's no masterpiece, but I'll keep at it, give it more love, and who knows.

In this image, you can kind of see a green blotch in the sky above the yellow-green-ish tree blob. That happened when the wind blew the easel straight towards me, right when my brush was loaded with that yellow green color. I've got to figure out a way to fix that blob. Or I'll just turn it into a tree, or my parents suggested a hot air balloon, ha.

This piece also reminds me of the painting I made last summer, kind of in this long horizontal formal.
Also, I got a really bad sunburn because I didn't think to put sun tan lotion on. I'm currently slathering on some aloe vera! At least I wore a hat. I can see where part of my glasses, t-shirt- and apron strings were. My family joked that I just need to paint in the opposite direction soon to even out the tan.

On a random note, 60 minutes had an interesting show yesterday (that I only saw today). Not only did it talk about how sugar is toxic, (timely for me, considering this is the third week on the Atkins diet for me! I've lost at least 10 pounds (yay!) and got a gym membership to get strong and healthier, just in case I'm asked to lug heavy litho stones around, or try engraving, you never know!) but the 60 Minutes show did a story on the contemporary art market and talked to Tim Blum of Blum and Poe and later Larry Gagosian. I read the book 60 days in the Art World last summer, and that's where I first read about them.

*edit: I totally had a whole paragraph here before, and when looking at my post again, it's gone! 60 Minute's reference to Hans Christian Andersen's Emperor's new clothes is an apt comparison or metaphor to this art market of today.

Anyway, here's a link to the art show, entitled "Even in tough times, contemporary art sells". A link to the segment on sugar should be on the side as well:  http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7403948n&tag=contentBody;storyMediaBox

Enjoy! I think I'll look for the 1993 show "But is it Art?" that they refer to in the video. I think I've seen it before, but I could probably stand to watch it again.

Experimenting...

02/29/2012

So recently (as of last Friday, I believe), I've been working on an edition of prints for the GMU Print Guild's Share Print Exchange, of which what is left over is going to be auctioned off as a fundraiser for the Arlington Food Assistance Center food bank. So this edition is going to a good cause! Here's a link to the AFAC's website: http://www.afac.org/

This edition had to have a theme relating to the not-so-dark sides of hunger, sharing, and food or anything in that genre. I'm not too original, but I knew that I wanted to do something bright, colorful, and relating to food, so I did a still life of what I found in my house: bananas, pears, oranges, baby carrots, and apples. I set up a still life I liked and photographed it and I based my print off of my photographs. It wasn't until late I realized that it kind of looked like a smiley face. Wow. Hopefully it will be subtle enough that it's not a blatant smiley, but then again it's supposed to be a bright, happy print, and if sneaking in colorful shapes that make up a smiley face will do it, then so it shall be!

Quick pastel sketch of the still life with my initial color idea I washed over with a brush.

My translation of it to tracing paper. It was at this stage I realized how... happy... this print is.
Also I like how this looks on it's own.

At first I was thinking of constructing this composition with a tetradic color combination, but as I was using yellow, orange, and red, I started leaning towards having an analogous color scheme and making the shadows and last layer a red-violet. Although I imagined using a purple at first, but then I remembered this ghastly colored print I did a couple years ago that was yellow and purple, which I assumed would work as complements, but it was too jarring, so I'm hesitant to use purple for this print, but maybe with the orange and red, purple wouldn't be as bad.

Naturally, I've made this print way too complicated for myself. I initially thought it was a smaller edition size, so making 5+ layers was no problem given the timing. But then the edition size was upped to 30 and then deadline moved from April 1 to March 12. So I got moving! I transferred the drawing to the block with sharpies and then shellacked it. The shellac naturally made the sharpies bleed (I expected that much), but also I'm reusing a block I had initially drawn on at school and decided not to continue with, and painted over that with a grey or white acrylic wash, so the texture was already strange. The layer of shellac I put on was thicker than I thought, or could see in the dim lighting of my garage, so after propping it up before it was actually dry, the shellac dripped down and dried, kind of creating an additional texture I didn't expect. 

Here's the block with the drawing pre-shellaced!
You can also see the grid of lines I drew for registration purposes!
Those lines are very, very useful! Especially with my stencils!

In planning this print, I knew I didn't necessarily want to build it one layer at a time since I figured that would take longer to dry and carve. So I decided to make a series of stencils that I would use instead. So I made stencils for a white layer (I was using BFK Rives tan paper), a yellow, an orange, and a red layer, too. I coated both sides of the stencil with matte medium before I cut out the stencil, which, thank goodness, has helped it be a much stronger stencil, and by coating it before I cut it, it's less smoother and less sloppy than if I coated it after I made the cuts, and it made cutting it out easier.


The white layer! You can see that some of the paper ended up tearing. Mostly because I painted the medium on it directly with the table under, so now my table has a ton of medium/paper stuck on it that I mistakenly tried to use a razor and denatured alcohol to remove it. Whoops. The lessons I learn from this!



The yellow stencil! Yay banana and pears!

So here's my leftover shapes from the stencils. I'm really considering making something from this, I love the assortment of curvy shapes!

Another decision I made was that I wanted to hand print this. Mostly because it's a hassle to print my thicker woodblocks at GMU since I was told not to use their press blankets but mat board, which I found left odd impressions on my prints with my print, Angie at Night I showed on my blog earlier. So I printed the white layer there! I'm only printing 36 and I'm keeping my expectations low on having a "perfect" edition, since I'm not only hand printing, but I've also decided to mix my colored inks using oil paint. Which brings me to even more experimenting (beyond stencils!)

Set up for my first layer. Unfortunately the white layer came out much fainter than I wanted and so for my future self, I advise myself to put plate oil or something in it so that the ink spreads a little more and appears more evenly opaque, if that's the effect I want.

After the white layer I painted another layer of shellac on it to smooth out the surface, and I carved out what I wanted to remain tan and white!

Carving! You can see the shellac lines on here more clearly. It showed up prominently in the white layer. I went back with sandpaper and steel wool to try to make it more even for the colored layers, but because its in that first white layer it will show through. At least it kind of looks wood-like and goes with the grain so it doesn't appear completely out of place!

Set-up for my yellow layer!

So I decided I will print the yellow, orange, and red layers at home. And I don't have yellow, orange, nor red printmaking ink. I tried to research online if I could use oil paint (I mean, I've used oil paint for monotypes before, I'm only guessing I could use it for relief!). A quick google search led me to a website that suggested mixing the oil paint with a transparent base to make it more usable for reliefs. Also a side note: I'm not sure if I would ever use oil paint for my ink if I hadn't shellacked my woodblock first; it may soak into the wood or something! Which could be interesting, too.  

I needed the ink to be less oily and loose, for oil paint is even looser than color etching ink. (Hmm. there's a joke in there somewhere.) Anyway, for some of the pronto plate lithographs I did at George Mason, we mixed in magnesium carbonate to make the ink stiffer, which, I don't understand the chemistry completely, but I figured that this pure white powdery substance both absorbed oil and worked as some kind of additive or binder that didn't detract from the ink's properties too much. I looked at the price of the magnesium carbonate they sold at Plaza and decided it wasn't worth investing in yet, so I just bought the transparent base and the cheaper Plaza oil paints so I don't use my nice Gamblin oil paints for this potentially risky ink. Also, I think when I went to buy these supplies I figured I'd print the edition at GMU which has magnesium carbonate, but then I didn't think to get some while I was there printing the white layer.

Sorry, the last paragraph is just leading to this: I decided to add baby powder to my ink. A quick google/wikipedia search for the chemical properties of talc vaguely gave me the sense that baby powder is very much like magnesium carbonate, and in fact, talc sometimes comes from magnesium carbonate, depending on the grade and how it's extracted, since it comes from varying geological sources. But mostly Talc, or baby powder, is a magnesium silicate, and is apparently not soluble in water, and is apparently used in paper making, paints, and cosmetics. So I figured this could still work for what I wanted, although I'm nervous that about the "fragrance" ingredient in baby powder and I wonder if that will effect it.

Unlike the white stencil, in which I used to block white ink from getting on the paper, I rolled the ink on top of the stencil to ink part of the block. I think this in itself looks neat, with the carved lines, sharpie lines, and the staining from the prior drawing/staining I had.

At GMU I initially used a brayer and paper/plastic to roll over the paper. At home I'm using a rolling pin over a piece of red craft felt I've had for years, which I think has been helping. It's a little squishy and more flexible than paper so I think It can sink into some of the carved out areas effectively. And then I've rolled my rubber brayer over just to be sure, and it's been working!

Some of my prints from yellow layer. I don't have a drying rack so I just set it out on my table and bed. I've considered stringing ribbon across my room and using clips to hang dry them, but I haven't figured out the best place to do that yet.  

So I'm also nervous about using oil paint because I know the oil has the potential to spread out from the inked areas as it absorbs into the paper over time to create a darker halo of sorts. It's kind of like when you first learn about how lipids, or the grease in greasy food, get absorbed on a brown paper bag, it's the same principle.

Orange stencil after I was done!

Several of my prints after the third printed layer! It's starting to come together!

So, using oil paint also means that it takes it longer to dry. So, waiting 24 hours wasn't completely long enough, hence, the yellow ink residue on the block, but at the same time it didn't look like it affected the prints too much.

After the orange layer! You can also still see stripes on the table from my mini matte medium disaster. Hmm "Mini Matte Medium Disaster" sounds like a really artsy band name, and oxymoronic.

So I finished this print before dinner. When my family and I got home, I came to find that one of the cats must have gotten in my room and laid on my bed near my pillow... on top of my prints. Four of my prints were dented! And had cat hair in the fresh ink. I'm convinced it's from our cat Sherlock based on the hairy evidence.  I shall look for ribbon and clips, but I fear the cats would try to tear that down, too.

There will be more pictures to come when I finish the print! Two more layers to go! Must finish it before I get my wisdom teeth removed next Monday and figure out when I'm going to deliver them! 

Also... for those of you who read to the end, I have heard back from two grad schools: one rejection, and one acceptance with a little $. I'll share more later!

Recent(ish) projects

02/20/2012

I believe in my last entry I mentioned that I got first place in the Washington Printmaker's Gallery Excellence in Printmaking juried show! Here is a link to their blog about the awards:  http://dcimprint.wordpress.com/2012/02/09/excellence-in-printmaking-awards/

At the moment, I'm still unemployed, but I'm waiting to get my wisdom teeth out so that I won't have to get a job and then say "whoops, I need to leave for a week or two". I'm keeping busy with two commissions and practicing my viola for the upcoming MSO concert on March 3. I've also been going through all the papers in my room and organzing them. Having lived at the same house and having the same room since I was 3 years old, I keep finding all sorts of things I can't believe I've saved all these years! It's definitely been a trip down memory lane, what I can remember, at least!

Here are pics of recent projects:

I made my boyfriend a valentines card again this year!
I got some new stamps recently and crafting cardstock that was on sale!

At least this year I remembered to write something in it and sign it!
And I purposely hand-wrote a lot of it and made it look imperfect because last year I had to convince my bf I didn't buy the card and hand it to him.
Also, Its a pop-up! Book arts class taught me something! Ha
P.S. I love bone folders. They make creases so much more crisp and fun!

I forget if I showed this on here recently or not but I started a painting on one of those warm days.
I'm not sure I like it enough to want to continue working on it,  but I don't want to leave it in this state! Because I started off with a lemon yellow gesture drawing, everything looks kind of acidic or citrus-y, especially that sky with yellow still in it... anyway, I'll get back to it... eventually.

So my boyfriend took me on the perfect date to a BYOB 3 hour painting class in Old Town Alexandria he got a good deal on Group-On!  I didn't bring a picture to work from.... so of course I painted him painting! It was fun, but I definitely reached a point where I had too much "inspiration" and felt unmotivated, that was until I heard there was only so much time left.
I need to go back and round out the head and clarify a few areas,  but for looking like a blobby mess at first and the three hour time-frame, it turned out suprisingly well, as others in the class just had to tell me because they had doubts on whether it would work out at all!  Don't get me wrong, it looks pretty messy, sloppy even, but it was also BASIC acrylics, so it had a lot less body and was drippier than I had gotten used to with oil paints.

The other week I was like "OMG, I've been depressed and haven't made anything good lately"
Which, I know, it's false, but I haven't made enough of anything to be happy with myself and my lack of production.  So, naturally, I set up a mirror and hung up a patterned skirt behind me (the swirls), and made a self portrait woodcut!
It came out suprisingly dreamy and contemplative, kind of the state I've been in as of late.
I had some errors I attempted to correct with putty (trying not to be afraid of using it!). I even built up the putty at the bottom which gave a nifty grain for the table!  Maybe it's about time I attempt some collographs!

So I took the woodcut to GMU print shop the following day and attempted to hand print the blocks. This is one on this shuji gami paper I had. I also printed some on tan BFK Rives.  It came out much cleaner-looking and crisper if I over-inked the block and soaked the paper for a little bit. I also mixed a brown-black ink so it's not just straight-out-of-the-can black. 

Recent Pics of Recent Projects

02/10/2012

Recently I almost tossed out the backing of a large sketch pad and I thought I should find a use for the spiral/
All of the sudden I had an idea to use it to hang necklaces. So, I just pinned it and its worked ever since.
And of course I organize them by color!

Last weekend I won first place at the Excellent in Printmaking exhibit at the Washington Printmakers Gallery!
Four of my prints are in the show that is there for the month of February!

On a completely different note more to myself, if this kind of thing ever happens again I should take off my coat and put down my purse.
And lose forty pounds but that's another thing all together I'm trying to do before grad school, if I make it, that is. 

A re-shoot of some of my work for grad applications. That's a bunch of print outs of my work on the table I was using to figure out the order of presentation for my portfolio slides.

I used this kind of sectional frame for the first time. For that larger piece in particular I was nervous that it was too flimsy once it had the mat and glass in it, however, I don't expect it to fall apart any time soon.

I got a print rack for Christmas, which I have turned mostly into a blank canvas rack.
I also got that sweet polka dot robe for Christmas, too! Win!

During a visit from my boyfriend a month or two ago, I started this drawing of him.

Naturally I took pictures of the piece along the way to see the progress!
Sometimes I feel as though using photographs is cheating.

But then again I don't really think it's cheating too much. It's a tool.
Although, there is that danger that it will look too much like a photograph...

Well, I made a few more changes after this state, but this is practically it.

I did my best to leave lots of markmaking to make it distinct from a kind of photographic copy of any kind. It's more fun to make that way anyway, aside from the expressive autographic or calligraphic kind of qualities.

Also, I know, the chair is super uneven, but I kind of saw it that way.

While I made many self portraits  in college, I discovered my eyes are uneven. And if I close one eye, then switch to use just the other, everything shifts diagonally. And I see color slightly differently.
That may be why I kind of see space differently and have a bothersome time with drawing in-proportion, on top of my astigmatism.

While cleaning out my room two to three weeks ago, I found my first woodcut from High School!
The week before I had found the HS orchestra t-shirt design based on this, too!
And then I proceeded to pull my back muscles by carrying that full box beneath it from my room to my basement, and couldn't really move for about a week!

Woohoo!

01/20/2012

My grad school applications are complete!
Hopefully I will write a new post on recent art and crafts or what I've been doing around the house. Hopefully a post on the books I made last semester.

Also, time for a job search. Praying I get in to grad school, I'm just going to try to get a short-term job, either temping, waitressing, working in retail, or substitute teaching. We'll see!

Also, I'm super excited that I got four prints in the Excellence in Printmaking exhibit at the Washington Printmaker's Gallery. The show is during most of the month of February!