Similar to Longitude. I’ll be adding some (subtle and not so subtle) text layers in coming days. I’ve decided that’s it’s much better to work on a bunch of prints at the same time than just focusing on one at a time. This way I can’t mull over the same print for weeks on end. If I get bored or stuck with one, I can play with another one. Hopefully it won’t all turn into an organizational nightmare. I remain optimistic about it.

In-progress monoprints I am working on:

Today I started the first part of this monoprint series. I had already planned on making some monoprints for a show in October (to break from the cycle of constantly burning and reclaiming screens and inject something more tactile into my practice) and I knew I wanted to incorporate type / the idea of language, but apart from that, I had no clue what these prints were going to look like. The majority of the summer, thus far, has been spent brainstorming and sketching. I finally had the “A-HA!” moment on Saturday, as I was walking through my house. I found some old, yellowing paper from a brief childhood stint at Chinese calligraphy and it so perfectly fits into the theme of this show (tentative title, “Lost in Translation” relating to the difficulties that I’ve had in communicating to my family, no intentional relation to the movie of the same name) that all the pieces quickly came together.

So long story short, I am now making my own alphabet / set of characters from structural shapes. In the future, I’d like to combine specific parts from the Roman alphabet and Chinese characters, but for now the shapes are mainly organic swooshes and geometrics that I freehanded. After this first chunk of printing, I’m really satisfied. I’m definitely going to add more layers (probably too many) and there’s always the possibility of hand drawing or painting shapes. Whatever strikes my fancy.

Here are some notes:
– More spray adhesive / more burnishing to adhere the calligraphy paper to the printing paper. No access to a press = being more attentive to this chine collé business. There are corners lifting and little bubbles scattered throughout, but I’m hoping it won’t completely peel off in the future.
– All of these shapes were made by drawing on the exposed screen with watercolor crayons (water soluable) and printing over it with clear base.
– Color choice definitely needs work. It’s difficult because with the watercolor crayons I’m using, I’m limited to 12 colors. Blending doesn’t work spectacularly and ends up looking more striped than anything else. I chose to use the watercolor crayons because it would be an immediate and tactile way to add texture to these shapes, so I’m in no way looking for them to be completely smooth. But I am also not looking for them to be striped. With more time and experimentation, I’m sure I’ll find the right balance.
– Instead of clear base, print with very transparent colors/tints. Add pigment to the base?

There’s not a whole lot to nitpick about at this point. Tomorrow there will be more!

Print number two in this yet unnamed series is finished. The print is titled “Black Sheep” which is either too corny and obvious or completely random. What do you think?

The finishing of this print didn’t come with the same fanfare as the last one and I am still skeptical about all of these elements coming together. I’m just not convinced it works yet. Not sure that the white scribble actually belongs in this print at all and the text/scans feel too minimal to be purposeful/intentional. At the same time, I like that it’s more airy than the last print (which makes more sense, really because “Great Wall” is so much more…heavy than this one). 

Probably could have used a little more time in deciding the colors for the last few layers. Or at least I could have saved myself some time and combined some of them. I mean, two layers of the same brown that barely overlap? Two layers of black that don’t touch at all and could have been printed at the same time? And the random purple almost invisible layer that I printed four times on top of itself? I can do much better than this. 

Blerg. I just need to give it more time, right?

Part of today’s work. I actually finished the CMYK, but neglected to take a photo before I dashed out of the shop to refuel with coffee and snacks from the new kabob place. After laying down the yellow layer and still having that shape look completely strange, I had a temporary moment of panic. Had to keep telling myself that the image was originally from a pack of Polaroid film that I’d left in my car for months and that it was unnatural in color to begin with. Printed the black and everything looked alright again. At least a lot more like the mock up. Which by the way, looks like this–

This mock up was in no way complete before I started printing today and I’ve since made some changes. For instance, the whole image is shifted more towards the top left corner. I was originally going to encorporate a landscape element to this print (similiar to the lithographs I did last year), but in the interest of time, I came up with something else that actually makes more sense. I spent the better part of my evening working on these last remaining layers. They will include –

- chine-collé graph paper (I think I am slowly giving up on this remaining completely archival. I think I crossed the boundary when I used the scraps from that old dictionary…)
- portions from an old math textbook
- scribbling! preferrably from a soft lead pencil, enlarged a bit so you can see the anomalies from paper grain
- portions from notes I’ve taken while at MICA. perhaps litho notes, specifically. I still can’t decide whether or not it’s too cheesy…

Could potentially be another twelve color job. I’m becoming very indecisive about the colors. I keep wanting everything to be gray or a variation of gray, but I know I’m just defaulting to the first thing that comes to mind. Which happens to be gray. And boring. Might go with a pastel. Purple to match the lines of my graph paper or pink to match the colors in the old math textbook. Hmm. I just can’t picture it right now. 

I’ve got to get an early start tomorrow, but before I head to sleep, I figured I’d post a couple of things I’ve been reading…

For those unfamilar with my astoundingly routine music related habits, I’ve been reading some recent and old Spoon interviews. This always happens to some degree after seeing some good live music (just went to a Spoon show on Sunday). Music is so powerful I always have to wonder about it’s composed, how all of it’s individual parts get put together in just that perfect way. To be frank, it’s awe inspiring. So, I get very preoccupied with reading about the creative process from a musical standpoint, because it seems so foreign to me. I get even more preoccupied with reading about Spoon (mostly songwriter Britt Daniel) because of the attention to detail, their ability to remain within a certain sound but not be limited by that sound, etc. etc. So many things! Going to stop rambling now and just post those links–

Austin Chronicle article, “Drake Tungsten and His Boy Skellington” circa ’98 or ’99 – very interesting to read comments from the band when they were going through the toughest part of their career. 

Interview with Jim Eno from threemonkeysonline.com – in all these years of article reading, I think this is first I’ve read with Jim Eno as the subject.

Houston Chronicle article about Britt Daniel & the Bee Gees – correct me if I’m wrong, but I feel like talking about influences in music is easier than art. or at least more entertaining?

I have more, but in case anyone actually reads this, I’m going to try and seem less crazy.

Ok, sleep.

In an effort to keep up with my posting, I am writing this with utter exhaustion. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good day of printing. However, lots of standing on my feet and having a body that hasn’t been terribly happy with me lately has left me feeling not so awesome. Gotta carry on anyway and you bet your ass I’ll be back in the shop bright and early tomorrow.

Apologies for the camera phone pictures, but it didn’t really occur to me to bring my camera today. Overall printing went pretty smoothly. Here are some of the issues/thoughts that I had:

- Totally snafu’d the registration on this one! Printed out all the registration marks on the film, crop marks, etc. Basically anything to help me line up all of these layers. And then totally negated all that work by placing the film on the screen in such a way that none of those helpful things exposed. Haha. I think I managed ok by eyeballing it and using mylar as a back-up, but it could certainly be tighter. 
- Idea for registration next time: make the document in Photoshop roughly two inches bigger (all around) than the image, then print films with registration marks. This way the film isn’t so awkwardly large. And it doesn’t waste paper.
- This is the first time I’ve printed with TW-Graphics ink before for my own project. Well, partially. The process inks I mixed were Speedball colors and TW base (a 50/50 mix as I have been taught). It makes all the difference! The resulting print isn’t so…chalky and flat as typical, all Speedball prints. Not to say that the TW base makes it glossy. But it definitely has a slight sheen and it seems…denser? Still searching for the right words to describe.
- TW base makes the ink much more runny. Which is still manageable, but I think it might be contributing to the dot gain. (This is something I’d really like to tighten up in the future) It’s nowhere near as bad as the CMYK prints I did last year where I threw in too many complicated factors – artwork too snug on the screen, improper squeegee length, impatience (surprisingly better at this now!), not to mention my general inexperience. 

Overall, I’d have to say I’m pretty happy with how this came out. I think what makes me feel really good about this, is that I can tell that I’ve actually improved as a printer. Not to say that I am a master, far from it, but it is good to look back on old prints and see that I’ve learned from my mistakes. Here’s hoping the next few layers turn out equally as well! Now for some much needed sleep.

- The old photograph of my parents will be a cymk halftone and the color will probably look nothing like the digital version
- The tan shape on the bottom is just a placeholder for some chine collé French Dur-o-tone newsprint (yay, archival “newsprint”)
- I have no idea what color(s) the text is going to be. I’ve made five separate layers, but I have a feeling I will need more. Or I’ll possibly need more torn paper shapes behind them. Or both. 
- I was originally going to include a black litho layer into this print, but I think it might be too much. And to be honest, I think I wanted to include it because it’s been a long time since I’ve printed a litho and that worries me. However, the more I think about it, the contrast between the oil based and the acrylic ink would be nice…
- Tentative title, “Great Wall.” Cheesy, yes, but it’s relevant, I promise. And not just in a “Ha ha my parents are Asian” way.

Almost forgot to mention that this print is a reworked/rethought version of what this painting was supposed to be–

I tried to finish it when I was home, but I should know better than to rush things. It usually takes me a ridiculous amount of time to finish paintings. I need to leave them alone for a while before I can work on them again. Otherwise I start nitpicking and the next thing I know I’ve painted the whole thing white again. Most of the time I don’t really feel much like a painter anyway, so it ends up being a “if the mood strikes me” sort of a thing. 

Promise I’ll be better about posting progress pictures, thoughts and such. Writing this post has already been pretty helpful.

A few detail shots of cards I’ve been printing. See more on flickr.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been as diligent as I’d like. Which doesn’t leave me many excuses for not blogging. However, a new suite of prints is on the horizon, meaning many sleepless nights for me but also bountiful eye candy to the (maybe) two people who actually read this and are not in Baltimore. I’ll be posting a digital mock up soon.

I can’t start printing until my ink gets here (sometime next week?), which is frustrating. A terrible time to be impatient.

New work! A ten-color screenprint, 10×10″, that I just finished last weekend. It’s mostly for the Studio Remix print exchange, but I have a bunch of artist proofs that are for sale at Art Market right now. Whatever is left over will be on the etsy shop on Sunday. 

I think I’m going to encorporate more hand drawn elements into my work. Maybe knock back the color a little bit, use more transparent colors or softer colors with small pops of brights. And definitely encorporate collage elements. I’ve been working on some small collages in my free time and they’re really helping me get back to making art on a regular basis. It’s just so natural to me to cut, tear, arrange and glue down elements. 

I’ve been thinking about how emphemeral memories can be, that sort of fleeting, “better catch it while you can” feeling. I’d really like that to come across in my work. Little moments that form a greater whole, a brand new space/place. I know it’s all very vague right now, but it’ll come to form and hopefull make a lot more sense. I suppose it wouldn’t hurt for me to write a better statement either. Big plans in the near future!

Surprise, surprise. I’ve been working in the shop lately! MICA has its second annual Art Market coming up next week and I’ve made some holiday cards for the event.

And hopefully more exciting…I’m finally opening my etsy shop next week! I know, I know, it’s about time, right? I have no idea what took me so long to get it going, but I think I just needed a little pressure to get me going in the right direction. You can find me on etsy here– http://electrofervor.etsy.com. I’m hoping for a Monday launch, so keep your eyes peeled!

Just to keep your mouth watering, this is a little peek at what I’m currently working on. I am the teaching intern for a class at MICA this semester called Studio Remix: A Dolphin Press Collaboration. It’s technically an illustration class, but it’s taught by a printmaking faculty member and students are actively involved in the editioning of Jon Rappleye’s work. In addition, they are taught how to screenprint. This piece is for our last assignment, a 10×10 print exchange. I’m hoping to print the edition tomorrow. 

Sorry about the questionable quality. I’ve gotten in the bad habit of leaving my actual camera at home, so many of my photos come from my phone. Some photos are better than none?

I leave Tulsa on Monday and there’s more work to be done than I have time for. This always seems to be the case, though, so I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve been trying really hard to find a job in Baltimore (or even DC), but it’s slow going right now. However, I have two workshops lined up for the fall, which is incredibly exciting. Staying positive is the way to go.