Print Survey Class First Assignment Demo: Monotype

Friday, I did my first demo for the Print Survey class I'm assistant teaching. Luckily for me, last week I spent hours making monotypes in front of a crowd so I was prepared to do it for the 26 or so students in the class. Though the crowd at the LA Art Show was significantly more enthusiastic, I still think I did a pretty good job.

First print: flat of color, reductive monoprint using oil based inks with a stencil made from torn paper and talcum powder.


Using the ghost of ink from the first print, I made an additive monotype with oil based inks and chine colle for the shirt:


Roxanne Sexauer, the professor for the class, showed the students tracing and then printed the traced plate. Finally, I showed the class an additive monotype using hydrated watercolors (the kind which comes in a tube) and aquacrayons:

Using waterbased materials is useful if you can't spend a lot of time in the studio. Since you have to wait for the watercolor to dry before printing anyway, you can make the painting on the plate at home and then bring it to school to print it.

Then, we let the class go, and while I was cleaning up all the inks and rollers and such from doing the demos, I made this final print using the ghost from the previous plate. I think this one is the most successful of the day.

Monoprints from the Show

A selection of the better monotypes I made at the LA Art Show:


1. mono14, 2. mono15, 3. mono13, 4. mono12, 5. mono11, 6. mono10, 7. mono9, 8. mono8, 9. mono7, 10. mono1, 11. mono2, 12. mono3, 13. mono4, 14. mono5, 15. mono6

This one is my favorite:

I mostly used sample paper that I've collected from various product fairs from when the economy was better and companies gave away all that stuff for free. I've run out now, so I need to stop being such a cheapskate.

LA Art Show, 2010

I returned again to the LA Art Show with my wee press, and did LIVE! printing of monotypes at the Los Angeles Printmaking Society's booth.



My little didactic speech about the process I mastered, and repeated the same set of jokes over and over. Thankfully, the only people who heard their repetition were the poor people staffing the booth with me. I didn't bring any referrence material, so some of the monotypes I made are rather poor as I figured out the right pressure for the plate and paper and got used to painting in front of people, but perhaps it's good to get used to embarrassing myself in front of of a crowd of people. It's practice for teaching.



This was my second year in a row doing this at the LA Art Show. Perhaps next year I'll plan ahead better and see if we can sell the prints I make for charity or something.

The Irritant

I also made it a gif, but I think it looks better as a video.



My knees hurt from crouching on the ground. Next time I'm going to do something on a table top instead of on the floor. Making something fall slowly is surprisingly the most difficult part of this.

These fellows are from my old series "Invisible Coterie," and I'm selling some of them in my website.

Panties

I drew this for the Copper Palate Press Panty Exchange. Each artist does an image and then they screenprint them on a variety of panties.

I was going for a vagina dentata feel, because all of my other ideas I thought were too phallic.

The Panty Exchange takes place Friday, 15th, at Copper Palate Press in SLC from 6-10pm.

Spin

My first stop motion animation! Made using the little dolls I make. I want to make an animation using much bigger things that is longer, so this is my practice to see if I can actually make a stop motion at all.

I sell these dolls at Frosty Darling in Salt Lake City, if'n you're interested.

Carrot Persons in their room

I got into trouble for using this campus gallery (every department is so territorial and it serves me right for forgetting about that part of academia) but I'm still glad I did just because I'm finally happy with this piece after seeing it as I had intended it to be.

Bunching up in the armpits and waist

Time and distance push you ahead and apart. We stand in a circle holding varisized tumblers, waiting for someone else to say something after the first gulp. Children are larger, and you're less prepared for the ice and snow each time, each year owning fewer and fewer of the things which made the season bearable. Bundle up in inadequate Southern California coats, one on top of the other, bunching up in the armpits and waist.





The sidewalks are roughened, salted, and won't let you easily slide across them. The air is thick from the atmosphere above it pushing it down, bowling it into a mass, refusing to allow it to waft away. The poison gathers up, bunches itself, falls to the ground with the snow and re amasses. Conversations are awkward and littered with self corrections--cuss words unsaid, recollections of what particular detail is appropriate or not--and suddenly an entire year was spent doing nothing worth mentioning.



I've added some old pieces to my shop.