Reduction Cut Workshop

After working on reduction cuts earlier this year, I thought it would be advantageous for me to enroll onto a 2 day reduction cut workshop held by Wendy Willis at Oxbow Press.

The reduction cut technique is one that I have not heard of before, so I am very interested in the process and what there is to be learned from this technique.

I have been looking at different images that might be suitable for the process, but not having experienced it, it was difficult to choose what would be best. I looked at expanding the story of Lady Penelope, but I think her stories are best narrated in intaglio rather than relief.

I have settled on a peacock image, mostly because the greens of a peacock tail are probably my favourite colour. It is also refreshing to make an image that I am not emotionally connected with to any great extent.

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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

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