Can't forget about the elephants

These paintings were done by elephants in Thailand, evidently if you go there you can buy one for $15.

Humans are so egotistical

We so often forget that we are not the only ones who paint. Chimpanzees enjoy painting. In fact due to the construction of their arms and their massive strength they are capable of producing brush strokes that a human just physically cannot duplicate. These two paintings are by Congo, who produced over 400 drawings and paintings in his lifetime.

Emil Nolde

Prior to New York and abstract expressionism, the hot bed of the art world was in Germany in its own expressionism. There were a few different groups going on at this point in time, die Brucke, die blaue Reiter, and Bauhaus ( actually more based on Dadaism). The members of die Brucke through experimentation made several breakthroughs in printmaking technique. Emil Nolde was one of those members. He made lithographs, woodcuts, and is perhaps better known for his paintings, but by far his intaglio prints are what stand out. Out of the entire die Brucke group he was the only one with prior experience in intaglio, and he kept his secrets to himself. It is known though that starting in around 1907 he switched from using copper plates to iron. Reputedly because he liked the shine of the iron plates.

This is based off of a story I had heard the last time I went home. Evidently in times of war our military has the policy of paying people who bring in the fingers' of the enemy. Usually it is not our soldiers who get it though, after they do the work mercenary types who are sitting by watching everything come through and collect the fingers.

Bookbinding

Alright, well decided to try bookbinding. This is my first book I made it under the guidance of Aldren A. Watson's Bookbinding: A Manual of Instruction. He's a stickler, but his writing style and instructions are very concise. The paper used is all paper that I made last semester. The gray paper is made out of lint processed in a blender, the other is cotton rag with some silk thrown in. I kind of like the lint paper its got all kinds crap in it from hair to bits of yarn.

Revolutionary Buttons

Well here is a rather obscure fact about color intaglio. Shortly after LeBlon's invention of multiplate, after Newton's discoveries about optics, miniature multiplate images became quite popular in France in the form of men's buttons. The prints was bezel set under glass, and frequently they depicted scenes from the French revolution or more lascivious activities. The top button is an example of one of these print buttons.

Print Zero Print

Just playing around with color layering on this one, this is done with one plate (errr... two, top and bottom). I would like to do some more runs on it and am still considering trying it, but my paper was getting ripped apart. I ended up cutting the printed areas out and chine coleing them onto a different support. I learned some stuff on this one. Hopefully the Print Zero people won't mind if it's a little rough around the edges.