A very busy week in Artlandia...(I know I say that a lot, but it's especially true this week O:) ).
Work continues on the seven deadly sins as represented by (faux-)consumerist garbage. This week I started and printed (!) "Avaritia," "Greed."
Just like with "Gula," I made the logo, printed it with a polyester plate, this time directly onto the bag, making the object that is in the print. The I photographed it, edited, made a polyester lithography plate, and printed that plate onto a block. Then I carved the block and printed it.
It was a lot of steps, but in the end, I think it worked well, because the texts is truly integrated, and they feel like representations of real things (because they are representations of real things - sneaky, sneaky ;) .)
My favorite thing about this print is that, like printing Gula on metallic paper to mimic it's real material, I printed these on a translucent paper. The prints are see through, just like an actual bag, and that's especially exciting (to me) because I can put stuff in and behind the bag in collages. (Fun! :D )
The only down side - I dipped into my limited supply of my favorite-no-longer-produced blocks. I cried after I printed these (1) because I was probably pretty tired by that point, and (2) they really are so much more awesome than any of the replacements I've tried. There's no way I would have gotten this print, much less been able to move it from start to finish this week on any other material. I miss them so, so, so much. 
On that note...trying to learn to love some of the substitute materials...I also finished carving and printed the tracery block from last week.
I also moved into the next phase of work on the aedicule block. When I printed it last week, I also printed one that was a mosaic of computer sized paper, so that this week I could more easily scan them and then put them back together on the computer. This gave me a very high resolution image of the 12 x 14" block.
Now that I have it...I'm ready to start expanding off of it by using it as a unit in a system. (I think pictures may be better than words here to show what I mean):
I tried different things, multiplying it, changing the proportions, changing the central boss by adding another block over it.
This idea to look at it as a unit in a modular system comes from studying Medieval art and how it's made, particularly manuscripts and tapestries, for example:
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| Book of Hours for the use of Rome, 230 x 150 mm, printed by Philippe Pigouchet for Simon Vostre, 22 August 1498, Nativity, designs by the Master of the Apocalypse Rose of the Sainte-Chapelle (Jean d’Ypres?) IB 40341, f. c.v. verso in the British Library |
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King Arthur (from the Nine Heroes Tapestries), ca. 1400,
South Netherlandish, Dimensions:Overall (King Arthur (2a, f)): 168 × 117 in.
(426.7 × 297.2 cm) Overall (Hebrew Worthies (2b, c, and h)): 168 × 250 in.
(426.7 × 635 cm), Munsey Fund, 1932; Gift of John D. Rockefeller Jr., 1947, Accession
Number:32.130.3a; 47.101.4, Metropolitan Museum of Art
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| Ahhhh, and then there's one of my old favorites, - the Klosterneuberg Alterpiece, by Nicholas of Verdun, ca. 1180 |
It's a little funny (? Is funny the right word?) I had the idea for this block back in April/May 2014, and looking back at the blog, I even did the research and took photographs for it...but then didn't make it. In retrospect, that was probably the right decision, because it was a good idea, but I just didn't have the technical skills to do it at the time (I was just learning to carve in relief and hadn't figured out how to maximize the computer and use polyester plates as intermediaries.) For comparisons - this is the tracery block I carved around that time, about 4 x 4" and below is the one now at 12" x 12"
...progress...but still a ways to go before I have a true system of modular parts...baby steps :)
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| still one of my favorite blocks :) |
I printed up some of the elements this week, like the raptor head, and started to arrange already printed parts on the magnet board. On the one hand, it's coming together, on the other hand - Eeeeeeep! (fingers crossed!)
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| When I'm nervous, I bake - big pumpkin bread, little pumpkin bread |
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| Christmas sunrise |
