Skip to main content

Day in Carson


I drove down to Carson City today on the new road connecting Reno to the capital city. It is only about an hour from my house, yet the landscape quickly changes from city to countryside. I still find the mountains breathlessly spectacular and the sheer hugeness of the valley is incredible.

In Carson, I dropped in on Galen Brown, an artist of many talents. He has one of these incredibly creative minds that can build something from nothing and make crap become an item of beauty. Anyway, Galen had some sheets of museum grade plexiglass used for framing for me to use for drypoint etchings. He cut the sheets into small pieces of around 8 x 12 inches. I then left him to get ready for his upcoming Open Studio tour over at Hunter Point in San Francisco.

While in town, I drove over to meet another artist printmaker called Carol Brown. Carol specializes in Japanese Moku Hanga prints and is currently getting ready for a show in the Fall. I was excited to see her progress on her woodcut blocks as she is my wood carving mentor. Carol has studied under Japanese masters in Japan, as well as many experts in the field here in America. We had lunch and looked over her blocks until it was time for me to leave and pick up the kids from school.




The road to reno



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Encaustic Monoprint Technique

Today I visited a printmaking friend's studio. Amy is experimenting with encaustic monoprints. I have never heard of this before so I was excited to have a demo. Here is the basic process: 1. Heat up the homemade heat box. 2. Rub the beeswax pigment sticks on the metal surface of the heat plate to melt them. Create a design on the plate with one or more colors. Step 3. Lay a piece of rice or rag paper face down on the painted design and cover with newsprint. Burnish. Step 4. Carefully pull the paper away from the heat plate. Steps 5-6. Clean the heat plate with paper towels. Add more color to the heat plate and repeat the process to add patterns or more color to the print. The smell of the wax is yummy and the pigments are really thick and rich to work with. I had a little play to get a feel for what the print is like (image below). Now I want to build a heat box and play!!
5 comments
Read more

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!      
Post a Comment
Read more

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.
Post a Comment
Read more