Last week of mission learn green intaglio (part 1)!

Final week of the Green Printmaking Certificate at Zea Mays!

This was my final print - happy with this one!
I started on this version of the tarot card - Justice a few weeks ago by drawing it on a polyester lithography plate and then
printing it onto a prepared plate as an under drawing. Then drew it little by little over the course of 3 weeks.
It's a Baldwin Ink Ground hard ground on copper, with an aquatint over the whole thing and areas stopped out, then a selective aquatint with burnishing. Printed with Portland black and transparent base ink on Hahnamuhler warm white paper, 6 x 4.5

this is the plate before the second aquatint with
areas stopped out ,
- just liked the way it looks :).

for comparison - the polyester plate
from 3 weeks ago

I think the toes are so cute and I'm happy that I even got the
little shine on the (very tiny) toe nails

But that wasn't the only tiny-tarot joy of the week. I also made a tiny print of the Tower

triple etched with copper sulfate on aluminum, then spit etched. Printed with bone black on Hahnamuhler warm white paper. 3 x 2.25"

I paid tribute to one of my favorite artists- Master of the Playing Cards 
by including a deer in the background after one of his prints
(also, you can see my very inky thumbnail- included for scale)

Master of the Playing Cards,
engraving, ca. 1435-55

I kid not - this is in
the backyard of the studio -
life imitating art imitating life?

And there's more...

I also made this version of the Hermit with the same process at the tower.

I also re-inked the Termperance with Akua ink and then selectively wiped it so that it became a monotype.

all the prints stacked together

all the plates

Me, on graduation da,y, looking extremely happy.
haha - and notice, the scope in the background.

Throw back to May 2014 - I took a new picture with the broom
for scale (and also because I'm mid-studio-cleaning ;) )/

It's sort of funny, for someone who says "I'm going to make big things! with soft materials!" I've spent the last 3 summers working with metal under a scope...I guess there's no denying the satisfaction of the tiny...

And yet...I don't think I'm totally off base either - Looking at the new Justice print, it reminded me of the life-sized+ version of Sophia that I made over a year ago in May 2014 and has been on my wall ever since...

Maybe I left it up for so long because I've been (sloooowly) working out the technical issues before going back to these. I like this, but the figure is drawn in charcoal, so it's not iterative...now, if I were to make it as an intaglio print...(we see where this is going, yes? ;) ). Also, I've needed to figure out the support, so there were a lot of issues to think about (for a year - oy!)

A detail of the
figures in the side panels -
they're relief prints, but they
look an awful lot like the new
aluminum prints - like I wanted
to make intaglio prints but didn't know it yet,
so I carved in the inverse and printed them in white
ink on black paper

It's a different card (High Priestess), but still my feet look
about the same as in the new Justice print

On the topic of flash from the past and life imitating art imitating life...

I saw the most beautiful electrical towers I've ever seen:

And thought, gee, they sort of look familiar...

That's a detail of "Invisible Carousel" from March (which coincidentally, is also a time when the Sophia was on my mind in relation to the Zeigarnik effect - since coming home from Zea Mays, I finally finished the piece.)

And in more-art and para-art news

Lucky to have so much color in my life!
- at the Akua demonstration with Joyce Silverstone

Flowers on the campus of Smith College

flowers to greet me at  home :)

Um...and some weeding (that's a wheel barrow under there ;) )

And last, but certainly not least!
Wishes of much joy and happiness to my beautiful and accomplished sister!