Bat: The first print

Today, I printed the first print on my new Takach press.  Well, to be honest it's on indefinite loan not really mine, but it's as good in that I get to use it.  It's a table top Takach, but will accommodate up to a 30" x 22" paper, and anything much bigger than that I can print at work.

The move was not quite as epic and demanding as I had expected given that the press is mostly aluminum, so it was doable for only two or three people to move it, though very heavy. My boss helped us move it out of Josephine Press, and then my partner (Jason), my friend Tim Musso and I moved it up into my loft.  Luckily, we have a freight elevator in our building.

 

Our cat, Mulcifer, immediately inspected the new addition to his domain and found it satisfactory.

The first print, a wee little linocut of a bat, is something I could also have printed on my other press, a wee tank of a thing that has served me well in the past, but I really wanted to get started on the Takach and not put it off until I had something really impressive to print.

The bat is printed on Arches 250 cover with rubber based ink, and paper size is 5" by 7", and I watched Poirot on Mystery! the whole time.

Many little skulls

My boss sort of volunteered me to donate some artwork to yet another charity show.  I think people are beginning to believe that I am far more charitable than I actually am.
Anyhow, the theme of this show is seasonal, Halloween, and they specifically requested that we price our items low.  At the printshop where I work, we recently printed an edition of intaglio prints for the artist Aron Wiesenfeld and had stacks of narrow strips of Arches paper.  So, inbetween being a helpful instructor during my monoprint class, I made little tiny skull monoprints.  I started with reductive style monoprint inking:  I inked the plate with a solid layer of black, and created the image by selectively removing ink.  After printing the first skulls, I reworked the "ghost," the residue of ink left on the plate.

The charity show opens this Friday, October 26th at Pop Gallery.

I made these two little prints on the same day as part of the demo.  The witch is by request from one of the students.

"Donkey" Collagraph Print

"Donkey"
22" x30"
Carborundum Grit Aquatint Collagraph on Rives BFK

I finished this collagraph last week, just three days before its intended unveiling.  It was made for an auction, raising funds for the Obama campaign.  I had an impassioned speech that I gave at the request of the hosts, but I will spare you it, readers.

This collagraph is a carborundum grit aquatint: this style of collagraph involves painting with sand and glue, using a drawing as guide, onto a plate and then rubbing ink into the surface.  The sand holds the ink and the glue is slick so it won't adhere.  The plate is then run through a press transferring the ink from plate to paper.

Here's a picture of the plate while being made, with help from my cat Mulcifer.  You can see the drawing that I used as the guide while I painted on the glue and carborundum.  While I work, I have three separate bowls of glue and sand:  one just glue, one with small amount of carborundum, and one with heavy carborundum.  I also use a separate paint brush for each mixture. 

Here's the actress Jennifer Lewis auctioning off my piece.  She was hilarious and amazing for all 2 hours of the auction.

And a few more making of photos, this time without a cat.  I printed an edition of 5 with one artist's proof at Josephine Press.  To get a really good print, I should have done primarily handwipe on the plate, but wiping the carborundum is like wiping sandpaper so I used tarlatan followed by tons of paper wiping.