Oxbow Press Opening Gala

The opening gala of Oxbow Press started last Friday, June 4th. We had a good turnout of people to come and view our new workshop and art studios.

I was demonstrating some relief printing and running one of the presses. A fellow resident artist, Isadoro Leon was printing T-shirts with one of his designs, the shirts are awesome and looked a lot of fun to make. The evening was a lot of fun and hopefully word will get out about Oxbow Press.

Saturday was an open studio day, I worked in my studio for a while starting a painting ready for Nada Dada which is mid-June.

Sunday

I attended a Printmaker's Conspiracy meeting in the studios where there was a mini critique of work and a general update on what the members have been doing in the last months. The group show will be up in Carson City all Summer. http://www.wnc.edu/news/2010-06-01a.php

After weeks of preparation, the printshop is now officially open and the presses are ready for action, yay!

Comments

A Sort of Artist's Statement

This is a sort of artist's statement, but far more boring and long-winded. My current form of blogging is to limit the text to as little as possible. I am lazy when it comes to writing and the blog tends to trickle off when I feel the pressure of having to add words to the pictures. I hung my exhibition yesterday, so today I will ramble a little about the reasoning behind it (and to help me get over the guilt for hardly writing anything in the last couple of months). Please feel free to skip the words and look at the pictures! For a long time after moving to America, I found it difficult to process who I had become and the new meaning of home. I was English, yet found the American "English" language a challenge. This culture that in many ways was similar to my own, is in other ways completely opposite and confusing. I still often experience a shock by a sudden feeling of otherness and a perhaps a reminiscence for the past, yet I relish the possibility of ne...

Blockprinting

One of my favorite forms of printmaking is relief carved blocks. I generally use soft blocks such as linoleum, for the simple reason that it is easier on my hands. The last time I carved wood I ended up with 3 herniated discs, so I might make wood a special occasion choice! Carving wood can be an almost spiritual awakening of sorts, as the consious mind is on full focus of the task of the hands and the subconsious is resting on the creative nature of the image being formed. Once the block or blocks are carved, inking and printing requires a rhythm of motion that brings a level of peace. Here is a Japanese master printer at work printing, just watching him at work in his studio has me taking deep mediative breaths!

Victorian Influences

My head is buzzing with the Printmaker's Conspiracy's upcoming exhibition title. The exhibition is to be called "Secret's Revealed". I am thinking about Victorian Burlesque figures, peep shows, showgirls, keyholes and movable parts on the print to see through the keyhole. I also have another related thread of thought about fortune tellers, maybe the machine "Zoltar" type or an old gypsy with a crystal ball. I like the idea of printing then folding one of those playground fortune tellers (coolie catchers???). I will start some sketches to see what happens. I am halfway through a drawing that I though might translate well in a solarplate etching.

Cricketts Inky Art Blot

Search This Blog