marbling, wing, and initials (o my!)

with a can for scale

A busy week in Artlandia!  Picking back up with the second human-scale wing, this week started off with marbling, lots of marbling...  Then printing the 18 x 24" blocks of feathers.

full sheets of stonehenge paper (22 x 30")

new block on left, earlier wing on right -
a very good match (whew!)

I don't love the slight texture on this, which comes
from the surface of the block, but I'm going to wait and
see if it's less pronounced after I cut the feathers out (hmm..)

I'm happy to say that all the feathers are now printed and the second wing is starting to come together! (Also, I finished mounting the cork panels to the wall...and proceeded to immediately fill them. Apparently, one corkboard wall is not quite enough - time to do the adjacent wall O:)?

Other missions this week - I decided I needed a block with my initials so that an identifier could be integral to the work.  I came up with a design, then got to carve it - twice.  The first block turned out great, but for an unknown reason, the surface crumbled when I inked the block for the first time (sadness).  Because printing block to block would have flipped the text, it was back to square one to map out and recarve (on a different surface this time - a precious scrap from one of my favorite, no-longer-manufactured blocks.) Luckily, the second go round, it's looking good (- thumbs up!).

The mysterious surface
damage visible on the left edge.

second times a charm :)

Other projects - I continued working on the tracery block and started mapping out a new block of a firebird. For the bird, I'm trying to combine the sensitivity I admire in Japanese woodblocks of birds with the brutality/decisive edges I see in early Germanic woodblocks. (- We'll see...I feel like the firebird is a good subject, since it seems to have an ambiguous meaning in mythology as a harbinger of destruction and/or rebirth.)   

Speaking of marbling and birds...I also made these lovely ornaments to decorate a wreathe for the upcoming charity auction hosted by the Lichtenstein Center for the Arts to benefit the Pittsfield Food Banks on Dec. 2nd - art for a good cause :).

Last (but not least!), En Masse III opened at Thompson Giroux Gallery - lots of lovely work :).

 Closing with a creature story - Junior loves (loooooves) Lucille, our press. Having claimed the press bed as her special napping spot, she's helped her human establish the good habits of rolling the blankets and covering the press immediately after each use (good Helper? :p )