Off to the Beach

            It’s finally spring break and I’m actually feeling pretty good about the status of my project.  I was able to make a lot of headway this week and I plan on being very productive over the break.  I have finished two prints of my wood blocks on the wood that was finally delivered.  I am very happy with the way the first one came out and am less thrilled with the second.  The second one printed to lightly on the wood and I may decide to print it on the back of the second block.  There is also the possibility of fixing it with sumi ink, which I discovered yesterday.  This will make my life a lot easier as it dries the same color as the black ink and will help me fix small mistakes from printing.

            I was also able to print two new pictures on Mylar and plan to make the plates and print those over break.  By the time we have our critique next Thursday I hope to have at least five blocks to show next to one another to see if the project is ultimately working well.  I talked to Mark Nelson about where the blocks should hang and I we both agreed that the audience will need a large amount of space to see the project as a whole.  Therefore, my ideal space would be in Slusser, the viewer could then see the project close up and from far away.  In my opinion both the blocks look better from a distance and I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing.

            I am looking forward to this break, to getting out of the cold, but I am also looking forward to finally making large strides in my project.  We only have a few weeks left and I have a lot to do so from now on I will be in overdrive.  So far things are running smoothly and I just hope that they continue on this path (knock on wood). 

            Hope everyone has a great break and I’m sorry that there are no images, but I am no longer in Ann Arbor and can’t take them.  I will try and update my blog as soon as possible to show you one of the finished blocks.

Developing

        

    I will be in New Orleans this weekend interviewing and I thought that in order to get ahead I would concentrate on making my photolitho plates for the coming week.  The large 16 x 20 blocks will not be arriving until today or tomorrow and so I will be unable to print on them until the beginning of next week.  I am pretty sure of the way in which this should be done.  I have checked the pressure on the etching press using a scrap piece of wood and will only need to shellac them after the printing is done so I am all set.  I am very excited to begin printing on the blocks and start experimenting with this new process.  I am happy with how the plates themselves were exposed and I think that they will hold the ink very nicely. 

            This week I was also fortunate enough to meet Jenny Schmid, a very respected printmaker who happened to go to undergrad at the University of Michigan.  She was a visiting artist for Endi’s print class and I was able to talk to her for a long time about her process of creating photolithos.  She was very interesting to talk to and I learned a lot about the mixing of inks and rolling up my plates.  It was also nice to talk to someone who focuses mainly on photolithography and is really excited about it and its possibities.

The Pathetic end of Machismo
Jenny Schmid

            I have finished two plates that are going to be printed when the blocks arrive.  I printed one of these plates in a light blue on Rives BFK in order to see whether color would be an option.  I choose the blue color because everyone seemed to be attracted to the images on the plates themselves and I thought this would be a nice compromise.  It was the first time that I worked with mixing litho inks and I’m glad Amanda was there to help because I would have never known to included magnesium carbonate.  This made the ink a lot less greasy and actually made the rolling up of the plate much easier.  I really like how the prints turned out and I’m glad even if they are just for my own collection.

           

           I plan to print on the blocks as soon as they arrive and I hope to have a couple done by the beginning of spring break. 

(30 hours)

Finally

This week was a very important week in the life of my project.  I was able to pin down important specifications, order my final wood, and actually articulate my final piece.  I have been really lost the past few weeks trying to figure out exactly what to do for my project and how to let go of the woodcut idea.  I was disappointed that I was no longer working in the medium that I was so comfortable in, but somehow I had a break through last weekend.  I was thinking about photolithography and the possibilities of printing on wood and I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to be proud of what I put on the gallery wall at the end of the semester, I had to make a decision. 

So this week was dedicated to making important choices.  First, I experimented with printing a photolitho plate on wood.  Ana told me that the only way that this was possible was to use the etching press, when normally you would use the lithography press.  It was a very fun day figuring out how this would all work out and in the end, I’m happy to say that the print on the wood came out very nicely.  After realizing that printing on wood was possible, I ordered fourteen 16”x20” pieces of birch plywood that I plan on printing my final pieces on for the show. 

I then turned to mapping out the layout of my show, which pieces would fit where on the wall, from at what height they would hang, and how far apart they would be from one another.  I did a quick sketch of them on illustrator just to see how much room I would actually need. 

For the rest of the week, I then proceeded to start printing my photolitho plates.  It has been an interesting process and after talking to Amanda yesterday, I am considering playing with blocking out pieces of my images while exposing them. 

I look forward to continue exposing my plates and my blocks should come by next Thursday!  Finally, I am on my way to completing my senior thesis.

PS Possible Postcard Image

The back would read Play: Lost Memories of a Childhood

The Beginning of the End...

This week was really devoted to my exploration of photographs.  Last week, I decided that I was interested in learning the techniques of photolithography and the possibilities of the medium. The first step was to stat with a solid base.

I began sorting through all of the photographs that I had taken of my building blocks when I was at home in New York.  I played with the lightness, contrast, cropping, possibility of color and the size of each image.

 I figured the best way to go about this process, is to create as many photographic images as I can, and then see the amount of photographs I will actually be able to reproduce by the deadline that is fast approaching. 

I also began to look into the idea of printing on wood and am going to discuss this possibility with Ana further, when I go to purchase paper and plates from her today. 

I seem to be really drawn to the images that have the highest contrast and I hope that I can transfer them well enough into the medium of photolithography.

This weekend I plan to make at least three photolitho plates and hopefully print some proofs of each.  I would like to have a solid amount of work by the end of next week because I feel as if I am starting from nowhere, which I am.  I am excited to begin working and always enjoy printing in the studio.