Going with this

Well, I pretty much committed to these lines today. I think they are all right. I snuck a sliver of a little finger in so the guy's hand wouldn't look odd. I hope it works! Tomorrow I'll try to get the shadows on the fingers in and start replacing the chalk with a thin wash of color. 

   I so wish I could work faster. It takes me a long time to see what I should do next. That is exactly the reason I don't like a whole lot of the work I did in grad school; because a lot of the time, getting finished was more important than making the work right, or what I wanted it to be. I guess I should try to remember what a luxury it is that now I don't have to rush. 

It's Always Something

   Well, this is my struggle at the moment. There are lots of good reasons to keep this the way it is, both in terms of form and content. But I know it is a little jarring because of the hidden finger. I'm not really sure what to do about this. In every project, there is always something that isn't easy.

    Most of the color you see here is pastel. I don't know much about oil painting, but I am familiar with the direction of "fat over lean" meaning the under layers should remain very thin so that (in an oil painting) the upper layers won't crack as easily. But it also has an application in acrylic paint, because if the paint gets built up in only certain areas (like in trouble spots like this one) the surface becomes uneven because the texture of the canvas gets more filled in in those areas. It happened in the veil painting I finished a little while ago. I don't feel too badly when it does, because I've seen it many times in old master paintings. But still, I'd like to avoid it if I can. So, instead of trying to figure out the solution to this problem with paint, chalk pastels allow me to experiment with fewer risks.

     I guess tomorrow I'll move to a different spot on the canvas and let this sit for a while. 

     Who said working from photos was easy?

So far

I spent the last couple of sessions working on the hands on the left, and a little bit on the robe. In the photo, the father's little finger is covered by the mother's hand, and her thumb is covered by his. I like how they are sort of an invisible puzzle piece, locked together, but his hand looks odd (so far) with only three fingers. I've penciled in another finger. We'll see how it looks in the morning.

Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope you are all as lucky and blessed as I feel.

IF: Family

    Illustration Friday's new prompt is "Family". There are lots of people in my life who are family, and some have earned the title not by blood, but by being close to me. This is a portrait of those intertwined relationships, old and new.

Center of the Universe

    Here's what a few hours with everybody out of the house will do : ) I missed going to the new Star Wars movie, but it was totally worth it.

  Yesterday, I went down to start drawing and at the last second, held the canvas up to the light. And wouldn't you know it, I saw light coming through. So I hauled out the gesso again (why do I have to do everything twice?) and put on a another layer. I'm glad I had to, because I wasn't a fan of that heavy opaque blue/purple. I like the transparent layer that you can see here.

    Twice in my life, I've had the privilege to photograph pregnant women. Even though I rarely work from photos, when I ran across this one recently, the possibilities were really intriguing to me. At this point, it is pretty undeveloped, but I can see exactly how it I going to look. I'm kind of excited :)

The Eternal Return (to the studio and the holidays)

    It happens every year: I burn my candle at both ends to finish grading, and then, right after, it is time to make Christmas happen at my house. But, before shopping and putting up the tree, I decided to get myself back on track in my studio.

    It ended up taking me an hour just to get this blue undercoat done. The heavier canvas fooled me into thinking my first coat of gesso was enough. But, as soon as I brushed on the beautiful blue/purple I mixed as an undercoat, it soaked right through the canvas and faded before my eyes. That meant the gesso was too thin and was not creating enough of a barrier for the paint to sit on top of, so it is likely that all of my colors would soak in and be transparent. This was not a problem I was prepared to deal with for the whole duration of painting this piece. I'm no Helen Frankenthaler.

    Since I already had some color on the canvas, I decided to try to add some gesso to it rather than just putting on a new white layer. I've never tinted the gesso before, but lots of painters do it. Another solution would have been to use a coat of gel medium before the gesso, but it tends to smooth out the canvas and I like more of a heavy texture to drag my brush against. We'll hope this step takes care of the problem.

     It's probably not all that visible in this photo, but the basic structure of the painting is already there. Assuming the canvas is sealed enough now, the next step will be to draw the image in with chalk. Stay tuned!

A New Litho Buddy

    Well, there are 8 exams, 32 drawings, 23 lesson plans and an assortment of extra credit to grade between me and my studio.
    But, good news: I have another litho student. To make a long story short, she broke her leg (ei yi yi) in a rugby match and had to take an Incomplete for my class. Since she'll be working independently anyway, I offered her the option to do litho and she is interested in trying it. Yay for another graining partner.
     I've been waiting for the can of Senefelder's all this time, since November 12! I was just about ready to cancel the order, because I did another search and found the same ink at Takach, who would ship it in 1-2 days. I really wish I had shopped there before. But, it turns out that Graphic Chemical has been held up because they actually make the ink, and they have been waiting on a varnish they need to do it. So we've all been waiting on someone. I wonder how far back that goes.
    Anyway, here's the bright side: I know the ink will be fresh when I get it.
    And by the time I do, maybe I'll be re-charged and ready to tackle printing again. Only 63 things to go...

Something Completely Different

Well, I spent all day grading and writing an exam, so all I've been able to do art-wise is wish I could get into the studio. Pretty soon, I'll get my wish.
     On days like today, when I have to keep at the work of school, I sneak in little things like this video to re-energize myself.
     If you can, listen to this with headphones. The beautiful old tune, Over the Rainbow, arranged  and performed by Robert Oetomo is played on a five octave marimba, which means the low notes are deep and gorgeous. My marimba is only a 4.3 octave size, so this piece is out of my league. But maybe someday I'll have one. I'll have to sell a lot of paintings first :)
    Enjoy it:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnmXmi4fb-8

SO much better

  I had a lovely text chat with the woman who posed for the image that will go on this canvas last night. We talked about how easy it is to get lost in duty and responsibilities and lose ourselves in the process. So, even though I'm swamped with all that, I snuck down to my studio to finally get this canvas right.

     

 My students never want to do anything more than once, but it is the secret to success. Besides being too loose, the canvas I used was pretty thin. This canvas is much thicker, and I broke out the stretching tool to make sure I was getting a tight fit. 

 

    It took some time, and some hand strength, but now I'm happy with it. It is pretty tight, and it reminded me of the ol' bouncing quarter trick. This is actually a Canadian dollar (I splurged), which I promptly lost on the floor. Think it counts?

   Next up: Gesso and the underpainting. I'm thinking of leaning toward the purples in this one.

Mourning the trees and painting leaves

 

   I live by a small section of pines, and those woods have been a friend to me for many years. This month, the owners of the land, a 'farm', they call it, came in and cut 90% of the trees. I could see those trees from both my studio and my marimba. I know that they will re-plant and in a few years they might even be as tall as me. But I really wish I hadn't read an article about how trees have heartbeats that move their sap around:( I miss my friends.

   Anyway, now that they are gone, this background is a lot closer to what it really looks like now. Except the real thing isn't so thick. The upside is, it is helping me work the background in this painting. Posting it here helps, too. The last time I did, it helped me see that the front trees needed texture, and so did the middle ground. This is how it has changed since then. The right side is overexposed because guess what? Light is flooding in from my dear, empty woods.

See what I mean?

Litho news

   Well, I tried flying by the seat of my pants today and did not get off the ground. The ink I am using should be a mix of an extremely stiff kind of litho ink called Senefelder's, which is named after the guy who invented the process, and roll up ink, which is very viscous. At the moment, I don't have any Senefelders, and I tried to compensate by substituting Charbonnel ink and changing the ratio of the two. The ink has to be very stiff in the end, but I ended up with what amounts to ink soup. So, I just blew $50 on a can of ink, and I'm hoping the 2-3 day shipping doesn't cost another 15.
    I did get my asphaltum replacement mixed up, though, and my stone is etched. As soon as I get the Senefelder's I'll be ready to see if it worked.

A False Start and a Middle Ground

Well, this is what happens when you leave a fresh canvas under a leaky skylight:

     I don't know if you can see it, but there are a couple of water stains and plaster bits from the skylight. It's not a complete disaster, because I had decided to re-stretch it anyway. These stretcher frames are much thinner the ones I usually use, but since they were in my closet, they got the job. I don't know if their depth had anything to do with it, but the canvas didn't get tight enough during stretching, and no amount of coaxing with a spray bottle and a space heater worked. It got tighter, but wiggles a bit too much. The plaster and stains were just the final push I needed to say, oh well. Try again. 

In the meantime, this one is back on my easel:

    I decided to add some underbrush to the middle ground area. I added some washes back there, and now I'm trying to figure out how much texture to use. This whole painting has been a balancing act of value. It's not there yet, but that middle ground is really helping to reconcile the dark foreground with the light background. 

   Who knew that the background would be almost as much work as the foreground? And now that I see it here, there is a lot of work to do. It's funny, because I always think I'm doing the easiest thing, and one thing leads to another until I have a full plate to reconcile. This one has been a bit of a pill. They all have been, lately. If I could figure out how to speed up my process, I would certainly do it.

     When I first started this one, I was thinking about the hijab that my Muslim friends wear. They seem to feel protected by it, in a way. (I could be completely wrong about that.) But I was also thinking about the invisibility it can offer. And that the act of unveiling, even for Western women, is an act of autonomy and independence. I like not knowing which she is doing: veiling or unveiling. 

IF: Brain

    I hauled this one out recently to show my student who is doing litho with me, because he had never seen a real litho before. Today, the new prompt for Illustration Friday is 'brain', and so what a happy coincidence that this one sort of fits! 

    When I made this one, I was thinking about how much the time I spend working on a computer plus the social media influences that bombard us every day make me  feel like my thought processes are ordered by an outside mechanical process. Good thing there are things like art and music to give me a break from all of that. I'm hoping that in the long run, those things are the secret to helping me stay human.

Litho News: Etching Chart

                                    

       Ta Da! My etching chart! The numbers at the top refer to the hardness of the crayon used to draw the column. Number 5 is the hardest and lightest and 00 is the softest. They vary because of their grease content, I think. #0 and #00 are a different brand of crayon from the others, which accounts for the abrupt shift from #2 to #0.

    The gradations looked pretty good to me when I took this pic, but now that I'm home and can't look at the stone directly, I'm not so sure. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. If anything, the top values are a bit too dark. But I swear, I was barely breathing on the stone with those crayons. I think it is mostly the photo balance here, and also because the stone itself is beige. So, the gradations might be less noticeable in this photo because the lens is picking up and blending in the color of the stone. I hope. Because going lighter is a no hoper.

      I also got the etchants measured and mixed. The strongest ones will etch the darkest values. 

      Next, I have to mix my roll-up ink. I don't have exactly the two kinds of ink I need, so I suppose I'll have to fly by the seat of my pants a bit. What else is new?

You know what this means, right?

Days of Leaves

     The leaves were coming down like rain this weekend, and to match them, I spent most of my studio time painting them into these two pieces.

    I very nearly painted out the ivy on the tornado painting. I'm kinda glad I didn't. I went through a couple more ideas, but extending the vines seems like the best option so far.

     Also, I haven't been happy with the scarf painting since I said I was done. There was something about the top of her head against that light sky that bothered me. So again, leaves to the rescue.

     I think the main problem with both of these pieces is that I have been ignoring the middle ground, (ha! typical artist!) and the leaves are helping to solve it in both cases. I like them better. So far.

A good day

    Today, I was able to paint for two and a half hours with only one small interruption. It was bliss. 

In that quiet, I realized I was tired of my indecision about this painting. I've been researching ivy, which is a symbol of strength, especially when we join forces with others. I like that idea, as well as how tenacious they are.

    I guess I'll brighten it up and then live with it a while. Decisiveness is all well and good. But we mustn't be too hasty :)

   

Changed my mind

You kinda knew it would happen, didn't you?

I've this little one on a shelf for a couple of months now, and I've never felt like it was really done. The landscape needed a little something. Last week, I was looking at a pair of older paintings, both sky pics like these, and way down on the ground in one of them were little buildings like these. I sketched some in and liked how they anchored the painting and brought some much needed balance. I'll probably fuss with it some more, but I think it is nearly complete. I've been borrowing from myself quite a bit lately. I like the partnership :)

    I'm still trying to solve the same sort of problem in the tornado painting. I keep trying solutions, but so far, none have really done it. The poor thing has suffered for my indecision, too. I hope I can settle on it, soon. At least I have the luxury of not being in a hurry. I never make good work when I rush.

    

IF: History

   This week's Illustration Friday topic is History, and it took me a while to decide that this image fit the description. Weaving has a long history as a metaphor for the fabric of life and culture. And often, the stories of history are told with patterns of thread that miraculously combine to illustrate them. This weaving has a history too, because it once had little figures within it. But they took the spotlight off the weaving itself, so I painted them out. On the way to repairing the surface, I liked this in-between stage in which the figures are gone, but evidence of their presence remains. Kind of like how many people remain with me long after they are gone from my daily life. The title of this one is Tapestry.

Three Level Stones :D

This makes me very happy.

   After the last time I grained, with no success, I was convinced I was missing a piece of the graining puzzle. It turns out I was, but it was only a matter of seeing the problem from the other side. I think I have the gist of it now.

   I'm so lucky because my excellent teacher Rebekah from my class at Zygote last summer is willing to help me long distance. And I'm talking really long distance, because she is currently in the middle of a two month long artist's residency in Taiwan. So bless her heart twice.

    I wrote to her with my questions about graining and she sent back three whole sets of drawings that detail graining patterns and which one to use under certain circumstances. That was my ticket.

     Today, we started fresh with two different stones. I now have a student working with me who is a true problem solver. That is another piece of luck, a couple times over, because he can think and he is tall and strong, two things that I am not. Litho takes quite a bit of muscle, and it sure was nice to have someone to take turns with. And to help carry heavy tubs of water.

     Admittedly, the stones were pretty level to begin with. By the time the previous images were grained out of the stones (one of them was very dark, so it took a while. I'll have to remember to keep better track of the cycles so we know what to expect), the smaller stone was level, but the big one on the bottom was low on the edges. I was kind of discouraged, because it wasn't like that when we started. We had made the stone worse! My student had to go and I sat down with a thump to think about it.

   Then came the aha moment. Instead of thinking that the edges were low, I should be thinking that the center was high.

   If you use two stones that have the same problem as graining partners, like two convex stones or two concave ones, used together they will even each other out. One of the stones I grained last time was convex, so I hauled it out and used it to grain Fred, the bigger stone on the left in the photo. I did three cycles of 100 grit, dried it off, and yay. A level stone.

     We'll polish them next week, and then we can start drawing. Two of the stones will be used for etching charts, one for crayon and one for tusche. My student gets to draw on Fred.

    It's slow progress, but we're getting there. I just need to remember to look at things from the other side.

Look what I got :)

     Well, I'm being held captive by a mountain of grading, but I'm being kept alive by sneaking to my easel or marimba for a few minutes during breaks. Two classes to go and then I can get some work done.

     In the meantime, look at this! Our excellent student assistant 3D printed this for me after I mentioned that if I ever get a stone grained to level, I would probably draw the knot as a first litho in the shop. I've been turning this over and over in my hands to try to get it to match up with the first one, but now that I see it here, I think it is a mirror image of the simpler version. I love the complexity of it; I could get lost in all of those negative shapes. Plus, the cast shadows are amazing. I think I'll grain that stone with the ultra fine #5 grit (which makes no sense, because all the other grits are numbered in the 2 and 3 digit range, but whatever). It's fun when you can imagine how something will look before you even start it.

    I've also recently realized a mistake I made in drawing the first one, which is that I based it on a cube and it isn't one. I haven't actually measured the proportions yet, but my guess it is more like half a cube. What do you call that?

The tree is out and the pots are staying

    It's been a long week of school and administrative work. I still have another pile of it waiting for me. But, I snuck down to my studio to see about the tornado painting. 

     Last week I drew the tree in along with a couple other elements and left it alone. I've been having misgivings about the tree idea ever since. Plus, I like the pots. I like the scale difference between them and the tornado. 

     I guess I needed to live with the possibility for a while before I knew it wasn't right. Like so many other things.

     Anyway, I have an idea for a new element, so we'll see how it goes.

     In the meantime, I'm working on this little one, too. It comes from a dream, and it was so simple the image stuck with me. It's hard to see, but there is a cord with a knot at the top drawn in. We'll see how this one goes, too.

IF: Dream

  Dreams have always been a source of inspiration and pleasure for me. I've kept dream journals for much of my life, and many of my images are directly derived from them, When my son was just beginning to talk, I would ask him about his dreams when we woke up every morning. For a long time, he didn't have an answer. But one day, he offered up that he had dreamed about his toy trains, which were a big hit in our house at the time. I'm glad for this opportunity to relive this lovely memory with my contribution to Illustration Friday's topic of the week, Dream. The title of this one is Dreamer in Training.
     I am also glad for the chance to show it again, because I recently corrected a minor mistake in perspective in this piece. It was a small error, but it has always bothered me. So here it is in its new and improved form.
  

You win some, you lose some

   The good news is, the portable graining station works just fine. I found a tray with a lower profile lurking in a cupboard, which suits me better because I don't have to lift the stones so high to get them out of the tray. 

     The bad news is, after about 2 hours of graining, I still don't have a level stone. And the worst part is, I think I might have a wedge shaped stone on my hands. 

    These two are my fifth and sixth experience with graining. It is has never been an easy task. I'm hoping that practice makes perfect.

    I'm considering using a much smaller stone to grain these next time, instead of using them together. Maybe then I can focus on the areas that are high and stop reducing the low areas. 

    I'm also thinking about offering extra credit to certain students (ones with muscle, stamina and a knack for detail work) in exchange for graining labor. Would that be fair?

What I am thinking

Maybe I'll do this.
Yup, the pots will have to go.
Maybe we'll see if some crows would work instead.

Update

I may have figured out what to do.
See? I told you posting it would help.
I might have to lose the pots.
This painting might take longer than I thought. I sort of wish it was bigger :/

A little too soon

  I found this little guy on the ground next to the other pumpkin flower, poor thing. We had a tornado warning last week, one of the handful times I've ever been herded into a safe place for that reason. This little one must have been blown off in the storm.

As far as my own tornado is going, I'm kind of stuck. As you can probably see from all the residue white charcoal marks, I'm struggling with the hopeful element I promised to add. I'm sorry for posting this with just a few changes from last time, but sometimes it helps me to see what I should do if I post it here. I hope it works this time.

A Volunteer

Here is one of my guilty secrets: after Thanksgiving, I roll the season's pumpkins and gourds down the hill, and that is that. Sometimes, I get lucky and something volunteers to grow where they land at the edge of the woods. I noticed this beauty down there about a week ago. I'm not exactly sure what it is. It could be a pumpkin, or it could be a swan gourd. It is so late in the season and the sun is getting so weak, it probably won't amount to much, but it is a lovely thing to find.

The Start of the Hopeful Element

    I only had a little studio time this week (it's going to get better, right?), but I thought I'd post where I'm at with this little painting. I spent a longgg time last night and this morning trying to get the ellipses right on those little pots. I'm not lying to my students when I tell them I still have to work hard at things like this.

Here are the ellipses, during the construction process. I'm not sure they are spot on, just yet. After this, there is one more element to go. My next job, besides truing up those pots and working on shading everywhere, is researching the final element. Doing that is one of my favorite parts :)

Litho News

   It was another busy week. There is a surprising amount of paperwork that comes with the beginning of the semester. That is kind of new. I used to be able to count on coasting with no grading for a few weeks. Assessment duties have made that less true.
    So, I've only made meager progress this week, both on setting up the litho shop and at painting.

   Starting with litho, this is our stone library, minus Jabba (size discrimination!), temporarily housed on a counter in my classroom. I have two picked out to start graining, named Lilly and FeeFee. Both are 11"x13". Because they will both be grained at the same time, against each other, I'll end up with two stones ready for drawing. One will be used to make an etching chart and the other will be a drawing of some sort. I might do that torus knot again. We'll see.

   My other bit of progress was that I got my grits in order. We are so lucky to have so many of the traditional materials on hand that are still used in the Green Litho process. The grits are iron filings, ground to different levels of fineness. The lower numbers are more coarse than the higher numbers. The #100 will be used first to level the stone. That is the most time consuming part. After the stone is level, it is just a matter of a few cycles at each grit to polish the surface. 

   I'm not crazy about these shakers, but, I got the lot for $2 at the Dollar Store. I'm worried they will be a bit tippy. They'll get us started, but we might have to invest in something a little fancier for the job.

    I've never gone past #220, but I saw a litho this summer in Cleveland that had a texture like velvet, it was so fine. The #5 on the end is much finer than the others. I'm looking forward to seeing if I can get a texture like the one I saw at the Cleveland Museum of Art. I sure with I had bought a print of that litho.

    Tomorrow, one of my jobs is to see how level Lilly and FeeFee are. Then on Tuesday, we'll see if my graining setup works.

    There have been times when tornadoes were a theme in my dreams. They were a big fear of mine when I was a little kid, so I guess it makes sense they would show up in my dreams now and then. I think I mentioned before that I found a little thumbnail like this in an old sketchbook. I suppose I could trace it back and figure out what I was worried about when I drew it. Lots of things worry me now, just not as much in a personal sense as it did in my past. That's why it felt ok to borrow this image from my former self. I'm grateful she jotted it down.

    It's a little rough around the edges (Ha! Literally!), and I still have another element planned.  A hopeful one, as promised. We'll see how it goes.

Stone library shelf

Well, it was a busy week. The first week of school always is, but in addition, we finally got the litho stones moved into my classroom (yay for Planet Fitness!) and we settled on a design for the shelving unit that will house them. We have 28 stones, and the unit will hold 27 of them. The last one, (named Jabba because it is so big), will have to stay on the cart it has lived on for years.
    This is a CAD drawing of the design, made by our student assistant Joel.

 My colleague and Joel designed it, and I think it will be really strong. This shows the metal frame that will be mostly welded together. In addition, there will be plywood shelving on top of the horizontal bars. There will be three sets of these units, and they will be stacked in a corner of my classroom.

    Joel is the same student who asked me, "But what is it, really?" about the grid for an ellipse a few semesters back. He is also the one who 3D printed the torus knot for me so that I could figure out how to draw it. This time, he figured out how to keep the stress of the heavy stones on the metal structure, instead of expecting the plywood not to sag under their weight. I reckon our average stone weighs about 30 lbs, so multiplied by nine for each shelf is quite a load. It's nice to hang around with smart people :)

    I think we are just about ready to start graining stones.

IF: Folklore

I know I already posted to IF this week, but I just spent the day moving my son into his new apartment and for some reason, I started thinking about this image that he and I created together when he was about 7 (he is 21 now!) for an Artist's Trading Card. We discovered that a Japanese Folklore creature called a kappa (a nasty kind of dude who can do awful things to you, but is unfailingly polite, which is it's undoing) had some things in common with a Yu-Gi-Oh character he was interested in at the time that had special properties of light. So, in honor of our one and only joint artistic venture, I am posting twice for IF's topic of Folklore.

New one

   Today, I sat through the beginning of the semester meetings. It was not a joy. I suppose public education is suffering everywhere from lack of funds. So even though I'm excited about getting the litho shop set up and sharing what I learned this summer, spending the day hearing from administrators about the state of the university sent me straight to my marimba first and my easel second when I got home. They were both sweet relief.

     After obsessing about strict perspective rules for so long, in this new one I'm easing up a bit and letting my eyeballs do more of the work, rather than my brain. I can tell I'm going to fuss with these lines a few more times before I start adding layers of paint. 

     Even though there is a tornado in this one, I promise there will be a hopeful element as well. I have a feeling we are going to need some of those in the next couple of years.

    This checkerboard pattern has always been really comforting to me. It first struck me when I saw this painting at the Art Institute of Chicago for the first time many years ago. I've used the pattern many, many times. And now, I'm hankering for it again. This one is called "Thanksgiving", by Doris Lee (1935).

Illustration Friday: Folklore

When I was little, one of my favorite stories was about an ogre who showed up at an old woman's house and was bullying her. She offered him a basket of apples, but one of them was actually a pin cushion that only looked like an apple. When he took a bite of it, the pins stuck in his teeth and tongue, and he went away howling. I love stories where bullies get outsmarted. I think I changed it into a tomato because my mom had one that looked more like a tomato than an apple. Anyway, it's a pretty old painting, done in my first gold leaf and egg tempera phase. I'm posting it here for this week's IF prompt, Folklore.

Illustration Friday: Street

This week's Illustration Friday topic is Street.The background of this painting, titled Annunciation, was inspired by a painting with a street by Remedios Varo.

Colorized Cricket

    One of my litho proofs was really light, and it reminded me of the old way of doing a value underpainting and layers of transparent color over. So, I tried out Prismacolor colored pencils on top of the proof. I learned I need to think ahead a little better and not be too hasty. Seems like I keep having to learn that one over and over.

Bless the Hearts of Those with Experience

   Ever since I got back from Zygote, and actually, since the beginning of this new litho chapter, I've been puzzling about how to set up a graining area in or near my classroom. Rebekah the Excellent, my teacher, offered me three different solutions. The easiest one consisted of putting the stones in a big, low, sturdy plastic tub and graining stone on stone with a pitcher of water nearby. This is the most attractive option, both because we can do it inside my classroom rather than out, which means we can do it no matter the weather, AND, I don't have to do any carpentry to make a grate to grain on in a sink. I am a not mucher when it comes to carpentry. I don't know if I've mentioned that before.
   
    As it turns out, all of my searches for 'sturdy' or 'heavy-duty' tubs yielded nothing that could stand up to the weight of the stones and the wear and tear of graining. I've been resigning myself to carpentry, but, on a flash of inspiration, I stopped by a farming supply store. I told the lady at the cash register what I wanted and initially, she said they didn't have anything like that. I explained a little bit about what I wanted to do and after a moment, a light went off in her eyes and she named the thing that would work! Which was a tub made for mixing concrete. Who knew that existed? And then, a contractor fellow in line confirmed that it would indeed be fine for graining. So, bless the hearts of people with experience!
    Here it is. Isn't it handsome? I'll probably put some boards in the bottom to make the stones easier to lift out, but, as soon as our Leveling Bar gets here, I think we are ready to start graining stones!

Unflappable

Well, another day, another shooting. How did we get to such an ugly place?

   I think I'm pretty much done with this little painting, although I won't swear I won't mess with the clouds a bit more. In the beginning, I had fully intended to put a leak in her boat. But, things are so terrible out there right now, especially for women and anyone who is different, I didn't have the heart to add to her burden. Besides, she seems pretty unflappable. If she did get a leak, I imagine her plugging it up straight away. Even if she had to use her hair to do it.

I have another pair of stretchers this size, ready to make another little painting.
Maybe I should do some portraits of more unflappable women.

Illustration Friday: Politician

    Today's prompt for Illustration Friday is "Politician", so it is my pleasure to pull these guys out again. In Japanese folklore, oni are like our ogres. One story I read about them was that a young woman had been kidnapped (or sold into marriage; either way it's about the same thing) and her mother came to rescue her. They got away and ran, but the oni followed them to a river and wouldn't let them pass. So, both the women lifted their skirts and scared the oni away! I'm not kidding!

    Anyway, these guys fit how I see many of our politicians today; mean and ugly on the outside and selfish and cowardly on the inside.

Zygote Press

Here is a link to Zygote's blog with pictures of their shop and our class:
https://zygotepress.com/2019/07/31/green-lithography-intensive/?fbclid=IwAR2BY45C5Rfgp8zDv39K4-PGqnCCiBYutWPyWVLVJkagfjy4M7q8TMlxHM8

The Cricket Sang

     I just realized that I had assumed a causation between the cricket singing and the sun setting in Dickinson's poem. It just goes to show you that I grew up on cartoons and fanciful interpretations!

     Anyway, here is my final litho from the Green Lithography Workshop at the Zygote Press in Cleveland, Ohio.

     Even though I had to speed through drawing this, and I see lots of things I wouldn't let my students get away with, as far as ease of printing, this is my best litho yet. And, bonus! This time, I actually started to understand the science of this process. Rebekah, an artist in residence at Zygote, was an excellent teacher. There is a definite parallel between traditional litho and the green techniques that were the focus of this workshop, so besides the cutting edge green methods, Rebekah kept dropping these little pearls of wisdom about how to solve little problems that have vexed me for years. She is an old artist in a young person's body. 

     Now, I can't wait to get back to my classroom and start graining and exploring the press. It's going to cost a little bit to get this shop up and running, but in the end, we'll have helped keep litho alive for a new generation of students, and they won't lose their teeth in the process! ;) I'm going to have to try and wring some funds from my department, somehow. There must be a grant with my name on it somewhere.

The cricket sang,

And set the sun,

And workmen finished, one by one,

Their seam the day upon.

The low grass loaded with the dew,

The twilight stood as strangers do

With hat in hand, polite and new,

To stay as if, or go.

A vastness, as a neighbor, came,--

A wisdom without face or name,

A peace, as hemispheres at home,--

And so the night became. 

Emily Dickinson

Silver Lining

    Well, the press did not get fixed in time, but lucky for our class, our teacher arranged for us to print at the Cleveland Institute of Art's state of the art litho shop. Not only did it have two Takach presses, but it was air-conditioned, which was a particular blessing on a steamy printing day like last Friday. 

    

Schizzle happens

  Well. We were on the press, washed out, rolled up and ready to print, and on the first crank, nothing moved. The press was inexplicably frozen and wouldn't turn the gears. The woman in the photo is our excellent teacher Rebekah the Unflappable, who proceeded to take apart the press to see what could be the trouble. She cheerfully proclaimed that this was a good opportunity to see what to do in case the press breaks.

    But, even though printmaking is problem solving, it is going to take more than a bunch of artists to solve this problem. Fortunately, the Cleveland Institute of Art has volunteered to let us use their presses tomorrow so we can finish our work. 

     During the downtime, I got to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art. One of the exhibits, by Lee Mingwei, included a bank of cut flowers which visitors were supposed to take with them and give to a stranger. I wish I had taken a picture of the bank instead of this, but there it is. When I approached a stranger outside the building, he clearly thought I was going to ask for money, but when I told him I got the flower from the museum and was directed to gift it to someone I didn't know, his face broke into a big smile. Totally worth the trip.

   

Cricket after first etch

   This was drawn on the stone with litho crayons and a little bit of tusche in the water area. So far so good! The image will be flipped when it is printed. Tomorrow is printing day :)