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| "Tinyland" at New River Community College in Dublin, VA through December |
1) the dark half of the year has commenced
2) the feline assistant and I celebrated the one
year anniversary of our move to Hudson (!)
The first one is not so good. Even though
it’s still nice outside– I sort of feel like foliage is a conspiratorial
form of beauty to distract from the fact that each day is a little bit darker
than the one before it. (“Light” is on the “things I like” list – top 3). One of
the first things I did when I moved was add lamps and start adjusting
the color and brightness of all the bulbs. It’s kind of a weird and foolish thing to
spend energy on, but it matters to me, and it bothers me that I haven't gotten it right yet (a “space” mission for the
coming months.)
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| Reception n Virginia - thanks to the fabulous and amazing Tammy! It starts with an owl with a candle inside, progresses to cookies in the middle, and ends with diet soda with lots of ice. (Mmmmm).All on an orange tablecloth with intricate, open-cut leaves.and tiny transparent fall-themed baubbles (and that's The Scream in the background) (Perfection !!!) |
The happier thing is that I'll have a chance to work on this - the feline
assistants and I have now been living in Hudson for a year! (Well not Mini,
because she hadn’t been born yet, but she’s part of the family now J).
I can’t believe it - 10 years, 3 countries, 5 states, 12 cities - and I'm here, living in the same place for a year with lots of nice people and no impending move hanging over me(!) I'm looking forward to seeing things for a second time. I'll be like: “well, last winter…[blah, blah, blah]” haha!
But on to the concrete aspects of the
project (enough of this “reflecting,” onward to the art!) In Virginia, I gave
a workshop on tiny printmaking. I loooove tiny prints and was super happy to share. In terms of expertise, I'm not sure I'm there yet - my total knowledge could easily be condensed into about 45 minutes of lecture and
demonstration. On the other hand, it’s quick to say: “put your guide hand behind the carving hand so you don’t stab
yourself,” but it is pretty helpful
to have it explained (because sometimes, learning by doing hurts ;)). The printmaking 1 class and guests did a fantastic job! I hope everyone had fun and that (besides ways to avoid getting hurt) I was able to show that everyone can make things
with devotion of time and attention - the tools and materials for tiny
prints are about the cost of two fancy cups of coffee, and they fit easily in a sandwich container. Yay for tiny-art-making!
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| Prints from the demo used in Viriginia |
Trying to follow my own advice...I’ve had awesome opportunities to study
and learn about engraving from experts, have obtained the tools and materials, and researched historic examples.
[dot.dot.dot]
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| That whole "kitty-free-zone" idea - good in concept... (how's that working out?) haha |
For me, learning a new technique feels like
starting over, and this one may take a very long time to master (if I ever do), but then, that's not really an excuse for delaying (meep.)
I’m using
what I already know – I made this tiny print as the demo in Virginia.
Engraving is a similar technique, but more difficult because the material
provides more resistance (which is also what allows it to hold more intricate detail).
The action of carving is similar, and it gave me a chance to practice with this
image. I printed it directly onto the toned resin block so the resulting print will be a mirror image of the initial tiny print. It's pretty complicated iconography to start with (tiny horse with wings!), but even though I may be kind of setting myself up for failure, I'm going to go for it anyway (because it's not that big a deal if I mess up and better to have a bad image of
something I want than a good image of something I don’t want, no?).
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| As-yet uncarved, toned resingrave block with transfer print |
hmmmm - I’m can feel myself getting distracted haha - less
talk, talk, talk, and more carve, carve, carve ;)
