The Anatomy of a Print

I've been storing a bag of dried bulbs, waiting for inspiration, which came the other day. The following five pictures show the bulbs arranged on white paper. Such beautiful lines, shapes, and compositions.

This grouping suggests a nest, which gave me an idea for a screenprint to add to the Memory Loss series.

Using photoshop, I turned the nest-like image into a high contrast black and white image on transparency so that I could burn a screen.  Above, you see the resulting image printed in a dark brown. 

A variation of the nest image became layer two, seen by itself above.

Here is a third variation.

The edition of screenprints began with  the three layers printed on top of each other, as you see above. A final layer in black was added to give the nest image more clarity. The stencil used for printing the black layer was built from a pencil line drawing. After completing the nest, I handprinted a poinsettia leaf on each print and added watercolor to it. The poinsettia leaf has been used as metaphor for memory loss throughout the series. Finally, I'll add encaustic to the surface. This will yellow the paper a bit, give it a leather-like surface and make it look old. I have to wait a few weeks before completing this step because the waterbased inks I've used throughout the image building process will smear if they are not thoroughly dry.