"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.

Collagraph: "Raven"

I just wrapped up a four day, four week, collagraph workshop at Josephine Press. You can see examples of some of my student's work on the JP blog, here. Collagraphs are pretty fun, especially for someone new to printmaking. The plates are made out of all manner of stuff, much of it just garbage, and all glued down to a simple, cheap substrate like chipboard. I tore the back off an old calendar for this one. After gluing all the pieces down to the substrate, the plate is sealed with a couple of layers of acrylic medium to protect it from the ink and solvents applied to it. I made two demo prints for the class. The first was a little house print, and the second was this raven collagraph. The plate is made with modeling past on a chipboard substrate. I cut the chipboard to the shape of the raven and then messed around with acrylic modeling paste to get the feathers and other features of the bird. Below are two prints, the the raven printed in conjunction with another plate, and then the ghost print of just the raven.

La Sierra University, pt 2

A few more pictures and prints from the presentation Christian Salcedo Ward and I did at La Sierra University on collagraphs and monotypes.

La Sierra University, pt. 1

The printmaking professor at La Sierra University in Riverside, CA, invited Christian Ward and I to come out and do a demo on collagraphs with monotypes, and to do a brief Powerpoint presentation on our own work to a combined group of classes.

Here's a portrait of the student Kiyomi, who I've hung out with before.  It's done with Akua ink and monotype, then I printed the ghost with a collagraph plate.

Print Jam at LA Art Show 2011

For the first half of my shift at the LA Art Show, I worked with Linda Lyke. We collaborated on four prints, and this one is my favorite of the four:


It's collagraph, monoprint, and relief.

2D vs. 3D

This print is in a suite of 8 that are apparently my break out hits of the semester. Three people want to buy this specific one, but I haven't told them the price I'm asking for it, and another would like one from the suite donated to a permanent collection. I think I'm going to shoot pretty damn high and just see who stays interested after that. Mind you, pretty damn high for me is probably rather low.

The prints in this suite are one BFK white with a first run with a simple collagraph, and then a few subsequent runs with inked plate.

Here's an example of an inked up plate prior to printing it:



The half of the suite that are 2-dimensional:


The half of the suite that are 3-dimensional (and my studio mate Tyler's legs):


I've been interested in subtle interplay in processing 2 dimensional aspects into 3 dimensional aspects without being overt about it. The whole intent of some of my prints lately is to get a viewer to understand how a 3-dimensional print is made without being didactic about process.

Well, my few and mostly disinterested readers, if I were to sell my prints online whigh venue would be better: Etsy, Cartfly, or Big Cartel?

Girl Twice

I will share a secret with you. The persons in the plate below are actually the same person twice.



Another collagraph, this one with fabric making up the background and my ubiquitous carborundum grit painting for the faces. I was uncertain about the fabric, it being so much taller than the rest of the plate. The embossing could have been overpowing, as could have the texture been. In the first inkings of the plate, the fabric was just way too obvious, but I think it worked out pretty well in the end.

The press at school is giant. I do big prints just because I can now, eating through paper with great rapidity, and seeing my savings dwindle in $2.50 increments with each print.



The image itself is 14 by 20, which only seems big because I'm a printmaker. Painters scoff at the miniaturized images in printmaking, the dictates of paper size and press ever present in the artist's considerations when working on a print.



I included this print in a portfolio for a grant application from the Los Angeles Printmaking Society, along with five other prints, three of which were three dimensional. So far, I only know that one of the graduate students in the program recieved the grant, but which one is still unknown. I hate hate hate waiting to find things out.

Men, print 1

Holy crap, I'm back!

I'm working slowly on a series of portraits of men I'm friends with. This is the first finished one, and it's a collagraph of David Bessent. There are loads more prints besides this one, but I'm going to try to stick to a schedule of posting a new print, and a pretty ok one at that, every Friday. I'm back in school as a graduate student at CSULB, so it really shouldn't be hard to keep up with.

Here's the plate:


and the history of inking before I arrived at the top image as the final print: