Usually, a Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

...but since these are crappy cell phone pictures of an in-progress work, we'll say they're each really worth like 25 words each.

So I did not know until today that Victorian pornography was a thing. I love it. The 1800's, and thus public domain (my crack legal team consisting of my senior thesis advisor has informed me, after there was some question with my work in the past [ha!] that photographs prior to 1924 are public domain) reference for this particular monotype showed up in a Google image search from a Tumblr account. I've linked the Tumblr page with just this image - the main account is so completely not safe for work. Unless you work for a website that archives Victorian porn! Which I'm now faced with the decision of whether or not to buy a membership in the name of art. I've already purchased a year membership to the Thanatos Archive - this awesome post-mortem and mourning photo archive. Oh the things we need to purchase in the name of art!

Ain't No Party Like a Litho Party, 'Cause a Litho Party Don't Stop!

I began this semester starting with lithography because I thought it would be this enormous process that would take me forever to learn and perfect; and to a degree that's still not an incorrect statement. However, in the past 5 weeks, I have found so many variations on lithography and have opened up so many possibilities that I really wish I'd officially given myself more time!

While it's technically time to move on to monotypes, this isn't the end of lithography for me. There are just too many possibilities still, so many different ways to integrate it into other print mediums.

With that said, I've started collaging some of my prints together, with a dabble in chine colle and alternative printing papers.

 I'm a little torn on how I want to complete my projects for this term. I'm still really in love with the idea of putting together a book, but in my quest for alternative methods of presentation, I discovered Jane Hammond's lithographs. I love the idea of bringing the sculptural into print - they're already so related, just in the action of etching a plate or carving a block. Sculpture's not totally my field, but I do get three dimensional impulses from time to time. In a digital photo class, I'm experimenting with printing on plaster, so that it can be carved and painted back into, and there's a sculptural feel in making the work with the stitching I've been doing; so it might pop up soon!

Last week's studio hours: 12
Last week's research hours: 3

Illness =/= Art

Came down with a cold that wanted so badly to be flu (or possibly just a minor flu) Wednesday that wiped me out until this morning. I did a bit of working back into some prints while in bed, but it's really hard to balance water for watercolors on a mattress (in case you were wondering). I didn't get a chance to open my stones yet - first thing Monday!

Studio hrs: 10

Research hrs: 3

 

Stone Lithography!

Diving head-long into stone litho, and loving it! There are so many awesome resources on-line for lithography that combined with The Complete Printmaker (totally worth the $30 if you're even remotely interested in printmaking), I feel like I'm really learning a lot about all the possibilities of this process! It's funny, my faculty advisor for my thesis was trying to find a description of chine colle on-line for me today, and found a You Tube video. She looked at me and joked, "Why do we even go to schools anymore?" (By the way, chine colle is TOTALLY getting worked into my monotype work!)

Last year, another professor had sent me this excellent blog entry when I had a litho experiment go not-quite my way. A week or so ago, I found this video, also on You Tube on how to transfer photo copies onto litho stones.

I am just loving so much the versatility of this process. It's been another crazy productive week, and I've started working into some prints, stitching things together and taking the good ol' watercolors to others.

 

Busy week!

What a week in the studio! I put in double time since my Wednesday night class was cancelled, leaving me with a marathon 13 hr day! I also spent some time prepping for stone litho, and I have some links to share tomorrow for the different techniques I'll be trying. All in all, this was an extremely productive week.

Studio time: 20 hrs.
Research: 3 hrs.

Sometimes Monday Means Wednesday

Of course as soon as I set a schedule for myself, I do something silly, like leave my camera at home two days in a row!

But I'm not completely helpless. So here goes a photo litho (I think that's the official arty name for the process I've been using the last couple weeks) photo dump! A selection of prints in chronological order:

Photo litho test #1- Victorian death portrait...it was pretty clear to me from this first one that careful inking is key to this method.

 

Photo litho test #2 - Victorian death portrait

Victorian family portrait w/ dead child - This was the first time I pull multiples. As I suspected, like monotypes, each print got lighter. I love the effect.

My daughter, Rhiannon, at 2 years old (she's now 4.5)

My son, Dylan, at about 12-18 months (he's now 7.5)

Fairly recent picture of me...I took it a month or so ago to show off my new nose ring.

Photocopied from my sketchbook, from an open figure drawing session.

 This print method has been so eye opening, I'm hesitant to leave it already. But, I'm not really leaving it, since it's making quite an appearance in my BFA show and I've been given permission from my photo professor to print my images like this for Digital Photography.

Next up for me is traditional stone lithography. There's a stone I started doodling on last semester; I think I'm first going to finish that drawing to work through the stone etching process. From there, this weekend will likely be spent largely on figuring out the specifics of the books I want to produce for my semester's work.

 

I make things up and call it 'art.'

Title taken from this hilarious artist statement video that I will never tire of watching.

It is relevant though! After more copier-litho experimentation and bus-induced deep reflection, I believe I have figured out a sort of thesis for my printmaking semester, which pulls in all the methods I'll be using, including book-making.

The women on my mom's side of my family are like history hoarders. There are literally trunks and boxes filled with pictures, letters, official documents, artwork, garments, dating back to the early 1800s. And all while I was growing up, my gramma and great-gramma were always telling me everyone's stories. They both had/have this insane amount of family history committed to memory, but really intimate stuff, stuff that probably wouldn't be interesting or funny to most people outside our family. And especially when my great-gramma's Alzheimer's got really bad the last 10 years or so of her life, she would just tell me any memory she could conjure up as it floated to the surface, lots of stuff she remembered being told by her mother and grandmother (the former born about 1896, the latter in the 1860s or 70s).
Basically, I've spent my whole life immersed in intimate, day-to-day, seemingly unimportant history, much of it from around the time of the photos I've been using as references. I don't know why dead children specifically, other than I've been fascinated with death since I was very, very young and that most pictures of women with their children that I can find, the kids are dead in. But I know I'm always crazy curious about the lives of the people in the photos, and I think it stems from my upbringing. I think the reason why I like using them in conjunction with print, is that with multiples of a base reproduction, I can explore different possibilities about what their stories were.

That's originally from an email sent to another professor, attempting to figure out why I find myself drawn to Victorian death portraits as source and reference material. 

This is my goal for the semester: To combine my narrative inclinations, my obsession for death portraits, and my deep love of history into a series of books. I'm not sure quite how many yet; I suppose the narratives I create will dictate that. 

In terms of blog posting, I've created and Monday and Saturday schedule for myself. Monday postings will always occur in the morning and probably include pictures occasionally; Saturday whenever I get to a wifi hot spot and will include pictures of the week's work. My tally of hours spent working and researching every week will include hours spent from Sat. night/Sun. morning to the following Sat. morning.

Studio hours: 14
Research hours: 2
Total for 1/26 - 2/02: 16