phase 3 redux - develop thoughtful algorithms

All 14 together!

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:30Klosterneuburg.JPG

Finished all 14 angels and demons! I'm planning to display them vertically, but arranged this way for the photograph, they remind me a little of the Klosterneuburg Altar (which I studied but have never seen in person ...yet ;)).

Klosterneuburg altar by Nicholas
of Verdun, ca. 1180

Of course, true to form, once I finished all 14, I decided that they needed just a little something more...another layer of internal framing? So I carved 2 new blocks of ornament for the corners and printed them in gold ink on gray paper...


 Now, seeing the photo, I think that the paper is about 3/4 too wide (oy.)

\with my index finger both for scale and to help the camera focus - 
I added highlights in the eyes using the tip of a needle dipped in ink - fun times

I bound the two books I've been working on 

as a student in a pop-up book class at the 

Columbia County Art School!

 (Now what to fill them with...)

But it wasn't all angels and demons this week. Over the weekend, I went to Zea Mays Printmaking studio in Florence, MA for a workshop with Nancy Diessner on photopolymer printmaking!  

Thinking about algorithms - bookmaking and printmaking are both algorithm (a repeated series of steps with several options structured as "if-thens".) 

Throw back to mini #27 - from the Power in Precision Project
When I made this, I used digital prints for the 
cityscape and figure, but wasn't satisfied with the image 
quality of those areas...2 years later, I think I may have 
finally solved that issue, haha. 
Coincidentally, I made this the week the tiny press came
into my life :)

Photopolymer printing is a process I've been wanting to learn more about as a way of translating some of my digital photographs into a more manual process. 

I'm going to have to think some more about this, because on the one hand, it's complex and requires specialized materials and equipment (so there are lots of stages along the way where I could make costly mistakes - eep). On the other hand, it produced the results I was looking for... (so, to be honest, I've already decided that it's for me and am thinking through the logistics of how to make it work ;).)

photopolymer prints based on my photographs :)

I think my love of Chuck Close
is coming  through in this photopolymer print

I'll have time to think about it because it will take me some time to work through what I have - I pulled as many prints as I could (dozens in a single day - I can be efficient when I want to be ;)). Not all of them can be finished pieces, but, thinking of my work like beloved pets, the piece that aren't "show quality," will find happy homes as the starting points for collages.

Like the creepy instance of finding the Greek
coin that matched my work in the Met a few
weeks ago,
there were aedicules that match almost exactly
the angel and demon's houses everywhere in the
 building including in the stained glass.

In para-art news, I went to "Troy Night Out," in nearby Troy, NY. I was an artist resident at the Contemporary Artist Center in Troy in Summer 2012 and I like the area and enjoy visiting. Little did I know - there's a Tiffany church, St. Paul's in downtown Troy! Almost the entire interior is Tiffany (windows, lights, stencils, architectural ornament!) Seeing it, I had one of those "I'm so excited I might faint" moments.

this is a picture from wikipedia,
mine didn't do it justice:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul's_Episcopal_Church_(Troy,_New_York)