The Mystery of the Sharpie Revealed

Alright, well maybe somebody else has already figured this one out, but here is my best stab at it. Lately I have been reading Gabor Peterdi's truly masterfull book on printmaking. In it he mentions using india ink directly on plates to serve as a resist. My guess is that they use india ink in sharpies, and what is india ink (although it's actually chinese, damn imprecise Victorians)? If I am not mistaken one of the traditional main ingrediants of india ink is lampblack, which seems like it would be able to block acid, and also to state the obvious yet again lampblack is the pigment that makes the ink black so it would stand to reason that the red and orange sharpies would not hold up.

Bad Timing

Alright, well considering the banter that just went on in the last post, this one is probably really inappropriate, but I figured as long as we are on the topic of alcohol to just go with it. This post is for a guy back home, who loves beer, no not in the binge drinking sense of this will solve my problems. Rather he enjoys trying different brands and savoring the differences and highlights in the brew. Well if you are not still upset with me and are keeping up with my blog, the beer in PA is Yuengling, and this brewery is in fact the oldest in the country. I do not think that it would agree with your more sophisticated beer palette, though. Although maybe you have already tried this one.

Richard

Well there is an older gentleman in the graduate printmaking studio class, who goes by the name of Richard. I'll admitt it at first I did not quite know what to make about Richard as he always seemed to be expounding to me about the merits of gloves, and to Hoffer about the hot plate (at which Hoffer would roll his eyes). Well upon the advice of the painting MFA's I sat down and engaged Richard in conversation, and all I have to say is wow. Richard is currently working as a curator at the Steamtown Museum, and is also pursuing his MA in spight of failing eyesight. As a younger man he had lived out west, and freely traversed the art circles out there. In fact he even spent a year working for Richard Royce out in Oregon. Royce was a master printmaker hailing from the Atelier 17 crowd, and had had the title personally bestowed on him by Hayter. Royce was in fact the printmaker that artists such as Judy Chicago, Rauschenberg, and Jim Dine called upon when they needed such services. It was kind of hard to find, but this is one of Royce's prints. It is called Vortex (1980) it is a carborundum etching and measures 28" x 30"; the asking price for this piece is $4500.

The Invasion of the Blue Hairs (and the public debut of the Friday Night Pokemon Band)

Salut et Bonjour mes cheris et mes ennemis, well it was alumni weekend here at Marywood these past couple days. And these past couple days have been spent trying to dodge alumni demanding to see their old dorm room, and demanding to know what printmaking is and what all of the equipment is for. Oh yes, and also trying to find a space to eat in the cafeteria, as the main sitting area was quarantied off for them. It was really rather unfair, on top of all of this they were serving alcohol at the little alumni gallery show that they were having in the studio building. Now the thing that you have to understand is that Marywood is a dry campus, even if you are 21 you cannot have alcohol, and residents don't even think of coming back home to your dorm if you are drunk (even if you are 21). Well we had been very good sports about dealing with this invasion of alumni, and we felt that we deserved beer. We were however denied, so we decided to try to persuade with a little song. It was at this critical point that we finally learned how to crank the volume on the electric organ (my mistake before about calling it a piano). We went all out, two people playing the organ at once, with beats ranging from samba to disco, and belting out Pokemon as loud as we could. We still didn't get any beer.

Guerilla Girls

Alright, I have not read any of their books yet, but all female artists should take a look at their web site (just click on the title). No I am not going Feminazi, but it doesn't hurt to be aware of some of this stuff, and they approach feminism through humor anyways. We read about and probably will eventually discuss this group in my art criticism class. To their credit they have actually made the Guggenheim reorganize an exhibition that was originally to be entirely male. Besides print beast... guerillas, do I see a potential conection here.

Actually we compromised and met in Philly

The New York Society of Etchers

Well I was just nosing around on the Internet when I happened to come upon this web site. Their roster consists of some very fine printmakers, and it is definately worth a look or two.
For instance these are pieces by Judith Anderson; the bottom one is The Centre Cannot Hold 18 x24", and the top is Bone Woman also 18x24". If I did this right, you should be able to just click on the title of this post to get there.

The Newest Dance Craze

As of last night I am now a member of the Friday Night Pokemon Band, the other two members are a painting MFA and a guy who works at one of the local museum/galleries. We have decided to put the electric piano thingy sitting in the lobby of studio building to good use, and try to roust our more sober graduate compatriots. Thats right Pokemon, our hearts' are true!

Alright mes cheris, I finally got these scanned and uploaded. All I have to say is that Macs are not my friend, and that in the end I had to admit defeat and go to a lab with IBMs. The image to the left in the corner is my first wood engraving, and is a possible image for a book Simcha and I have been talking about. The image below is my first run through with the ferric chloride as an etching agent. It's not too bad; you actually do have to stack your plates upside down with this stuff, or else you have to shake the bath like every 5 minutes. This is due to the fact that this stuff doesn't bubble like the acid does, so the copper that is being eaten away will just settle on the plate and block the ferric chloride.

A Guest Demonstration in Ebru

Today proved to be a fullfilling day; not only did I meet several of my fellow grad students, but in the process I also got to hear about a demonstration by a gentleman from Turkey. Not being entirely clear on what it was he was going to demonstrate, I opted to go. The mystery deepened upon entering the room and seeing a tray with water, and paints all around it. The demonstrator had been brought into the US by Syracuse University, where he is doing a guest artist thing, and he does not speak a word of English. By now you may be asking what exactly this man's specialty is...well he is a master of Ebru, or Turkish Marbling. Ebru is a technique that was utilized by the Sufi in order to teach patience, and also as a sort of way to get closer to G-d. The paint used is all natural, distilled straight from the earth, the water that is traditionally used is rain water, and somehow cow bile fits into this equation (parts were lost in translation). Anyways how it works is he gently drops some of the paint into water, where it floats on the surface, and he then proceeds to manipulate it into the desired image using a metal awl type tool (didn't get a very close look at it). Then he places a piece of paper on the surface of the water, and gently runs his hand across the back. Of course the image is then on the paper, rather like a monoprint. He also gave a brief demonstration in calligraphy.
If you would like to see or learn more his web page is http://www.geleneksel-ebru.com/

Discovering the City

Evidently I better behave here. The picture really does not convey the massiveness of this structure.



I've been walking around a little bit, trying to see what the city has to offer. I would have to say that the architecture here is absaloutly beautiful, and there are some very impressive structures in this town.
The image to the left is the Scranton Public Library, and the building to the right is the Scranton Cultural Center at the Masonic Temple. You can't really see it at all in the picture, but the space above the door (sorry I forgot the term) is carved with a chinese dragon and the Masonic compass; they also shine different colored lights on it. Evidently Staind played there, and Samuel Adams hosts their Oktoberfest celebration from here as well. I'm thinking about seeing if they would be interested in hiring an experienced janitor.

Wood Engravings

Alright, I'm being really slow about getting my own scanned but I thought that I would post a couple from the masters. This first image is the work of Leonard Baskin, who died rather recently in 2000. He was a Jewish atheist; he didn't believe in G-d, but deeply loved and believed in his Yiddish heritage.

These next two are by Barry Moser and are from his Bible series. I believe that he is still living, and other work to his credit are illustrations for Alice in Wonderland and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde.

I should also add that most wood engraving blocks are quite small. This is because the carving surface is actually the end grain of the wood that is piece together into blocks. So a block is usually only around 1 1/2"-2" wide by about 3" long. If the artist wants to make images that are larger then they have to lock several blocks together for their image, then carve the individual blocks, and then lock them back together for printing. Unfortunatley I am not sure what the sizes are for the images above.