Happy 4th of July! Well I am inspired by other artists work and accomplishemens. I came accross the work of America Martin today. I love the bold, expressive black line. Funny how we find things on this big old internet. I am going to to make some bold expressive black line drawings. Enjoy.
Would you consider gelatin printing with old gelatin? Don’t throw away your old and decaying gelatin plate. I love to use it when it starts to get all the little holes and cracks in it.
I can’t control how it falls apart. So sometimes it decays in a beautiful way and other times not so much. I like to do a lot of newsprint pick ups to absorb the slime and to get the plate ready for printing.
In the print above I used Daniel Smith water soluble Block Printing ink, blue with some black. I made the circles and the lines by “stamping” into the inked plate. Stamping lifts off some of the ink. I think I use a dress pattern wheel to make the dotted lines.
The white grasses where created by placing the grass on the plate. Notice that the grass is very thin and creates interesting negative space. Then place the paper on top and print with hand pressure. All the little holes, the subtle changes in blue/black color where created by the decaying gelatin plate.
If you would like to explore making and working with a gelatin plate over time, then you may be interested in the next session of Make Monotypes. Check out the details here.
This print shows the great detail that I can get with the gelatin plate printing process. The texture in the background is created by stamping the surface of the inked gelatin plate with a collograph plate. The collograph plate is simply a cd covered with bits of masking tape. The image of the girl is simply a paper stencil. I coat the stencils with matt medium so they last longer. More gelatin printing information. Enjoy!
After working on the farm on this rainy day, I get to the studio and check my email and blog and happily find a post by Susan Kapuscinski Gaylord She has a great webstite Making books with Children and has several books on the subject. So I just had to try this folded flap book she calls the I am….book. I grabbed some papers and followed her great instructions and discovered why I might be working with birds in my latest series. Fun Fun Fun.
So I just joined a critique group at the Essex Art Center and my thoughts are spinning. The whole process is designed to support each artist and to give the artist control over the form structure and focus of the crit. We have a great facilitator, Cathy Mclaurin and a committed group of artists. I am excited. Each time I start a class or group I am reminded of how much that kind of support helps me to get in to the studio and do the work. My goal is to create a series of black bird prints. I am going to do the work and ask questions after. I think I will research birds and art a bit too.
