Next Up: Wood Panel Addiction.

A better photo of the piece I finished yesterday. The color is a bit more green-y than this, but it still conveys it better than the last shots in yesterday's post. I poked the bubbles with a needled yesterday evening -- and this morning, everything had settled nicely, barring one edge. More wooden panels are on order.

That is all. Back to re-watching Jude Law and Scarlett Johansson in Matchpoint.

Reclaimed, part two!

Surprisingly, listening to Soundgarden hasn't lightened my mood. Nor does the prospect of being cold for the next six months or so. But there we are: Happy Fall. On a happier note, I wound up making some good progress on the Reclaimed piece over the weekend and aside from some unfortunate bubbling issues, I'm pretty excited. So, let's take a gander, shall we?

So, we left off with a bunch of charcoally images, right. This continued along, but was joined by the demon/spirit figures, re-purposed from "The Demon You Feared Has Already Found You." 

There was liberal fixative spraying. I was aghast to run out on Saturday -- which means I blasted through an entire can on this project. Oi.  If the backyard raccoons are still hanging about, there could be three-eyed raccoons in the near future.

So I was initially geeked about the long demons and the nice dark red color pop, but this gave way to a frustrated sense that things were not hanging together and compositions were suffering a bit. That'd bring us up to the despondent post on Friday.

However! On the next day, it occurred to me to try out the old woman from Regret and the border from an ancient garden print and this got me going again.

 Of course, a lot of the border would be cut off when I fit it onto the wooden panel.

So! Back with the excitement and hands blackened with conte crayon.

Sunday was more colorful.

The woman came out entirely too dark. Am thinking of stencilling gold stars around the top of that one. 

After they were all hanging about, I was torn between five of them. I only had one wood panel to place it onto and they only want one piece from me. I kept wandering down to the basement, thinking that this time would settle it. No dice. Luckily, Maestra was about, refinishing her dining room table in her family's driveway. Any time I mention studio time, or talk about a printing press, it's her studio and her press. Aside from being a talented artist, a way cooler Mom than her adolescent and teen children realize, she's a spectacular high-energy blend of insight, nurturing, wicked humor, zen calm (hee! sometimes) and the ability to kick your ass (really. she has a black belt.) So, with that lead in, really all I want to say was that she helped me out. I laid them all around her studio and she walked from one to the other, pointing out merits and detractors. She thinks the gold stars would help the woman. She underscored my fear that a couple lacked focus and picked out which ones struck her as the strongest. Bolstering! I wound up opting for one of two with the garden border. 

So the exercise is, for all intents and purposes, done. If I can rectify the bubbling issues, I will probably go through a wood panel phase, in which I'll slap all manner of prints onto them before slapping myself on the back. Huzzah!

Lodi Cemetery: Twice the Lentils at Half the Price!

Another packed work day, where it felt like I only had access to a few brain cells by early evening. A bit too tired to call people, too sick of watching bad TV to mold into my couch; I knew it was gorgeous outside, but was (/am) still avoiding my lawn mower, which was not working the last time I checked.

Self, I says, why don't you go back to the cemetery? That doesn't take too much thought. So I said, sure, I can be tired for that. And I did, it was not mentally taxing; it was, in fact, lovely. The short drive out through some countryish parts was done properly, with all the windows down, the music loud but barely understandable. The breeze whipped my out-of-tune singing/crowing out onto the road, and likely into a ditch, where it should be. I am a huge fan of solitary car singing.

I approached the headstone rubbing a bit better this time around: papers cut closer to the needed size (but don't you worry! Still totally unwieldy!), more drafting tape, fresh two-packs of conte crayons, a cardboard to tape finished papers onto --and finally, my last-minute point of pride: partially used bags of lentils and dried beans. You know, like bean bags! I was quite pleased with myself on that score. And they were certainly needed, as the breeze toyed with me anytime I held a piece of paper.  Next time: handy wipes, for all the blackened fingers. Which, let's face it, I should probably just carry all the time, in my car. Who needs a child to buy such things? Apparently not me.

But the day, the early evening: glorious. Beautiful clear sky, warm sun, lush grass. If anything, I should have brought a picnic. I pulled 6 or 7 copies of this one headstone, which had caught my fancy from a couple weekends ago. Maybe the proper term is a stele? It's four-sided, with inscriptions on each side. I originally assumed it was in honor of one person, but 6 family members are listed. With the exception of one five year old, all lived at least 60-70 years, with lives collectively spanning from 1780s - 1880s. 

So I think I mentioned this previously, but I intend to use at least one of the rubbings for the Reclaimed show, to be somewhere in Wyandotte (invite from Perfect Laughter). The parameters were pretty loose, so I opted to go with reclaimed imagery, both through the cemetery and through woodblocks I have carved at earlier times. I already mix up snippets of older and more recent prints, mainly through cards -- but at this point, I have never really attempted a full-on mixed media piece. But here we go! I bought mediums to mess with acrylic paint, a wooden...structure? It's like a canvas, but wood. I don't have the lingo down. I peppered the Utrecht guy with many more questions than he had probably anticipated when approaching me. And now I have several points of attack! Of course, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing and it could all wind up looking liked an addled* after school project, but I have high hopes.

*high rotation word this month! Fifty bonus points.

I have a couple framed items which would certainly fit in with the show's theme (like so ), but
it's almost like someone gave me permission to try out all these new things. I *had* to buy all these mysterious art supplies, it's for my homework. It's an assignment. And especially since I was a self-imposed "good student" since an early age (but damn that Mrs. Sudler from third grade, I never liked her) and since I didn't have the art school experience of dipping into every media and her sister, thank goodness for requests.

So, no cemetery shots from today, but here are a few rubbings/woodblock snippet exercises. Please keep in mind this is the doodle stage, as it were:

 

 We'll see what comes of it. Good to play around a bit~~