Collaborative Prints

When screenprinting, the screen is attached by hinges to a back board, which serves as the surface on which the paper rests during printing. Back boards get stained with drips and drabs of ink over time and some have developed quite beautiful abstract images. Here are a few from our classroom:

The March to "First Print Day"

Our screen cabinet is filling up with freshly prepped new screens from the intro class mixed with the well used ones of the advanced students. On Wednesday, I'll do the "how to print" demo for the new students and then, the fun is all theirs!

Intaglio Class Portfolio Exchange

During last night's session, the ten of us participating in last semester's portfolio project completed our exchange of prints. Each of us now owns a portfolio of ten gorgeous prints:

 Jellies

Tamara Carlin

viscosity print

untitled 

Shu-Yun Shih

drypoint

 untitled

Mary Coromelas

soft ground etching

 Rose

Roger O'Leary-Archer

hard ground etching with aquatint

 Cityscape

William Kenah

linoleum/monoprint/etching with aquatint

 untitled

Lorraine Papadopoulos

etching

 Scraped Off My Knees

Bryant Schumacher

monoprint

 The Insatiable Beast

Katharine Gross

etching with aquatint and drypoint

Lone Sentinel 

Martin Salazar

drypoint

Nest

Annie Stromquist

Etching with aquatint and added watercolor

A Fresh Semester, A Ready Classroom

Here is the way the screenprinting classroom looked at 7:53 this morning. By 9:00, the tables were full of new students. Today's agenda: review the syllabus, assignments, and supply list. Like most first days. Thirty students...looks like a good group, so far.

Latest Results From Class

The printmaking classes, screenprinting and intaglio, are winding down for the semester. Two more  class periods this week before the final critique on Monday. Everyone is working hard and well, and I thought you might like to see a few of the great prints finished recently:

William Kenah

linoleum cut with monoprint

Traci Durfee

collagraph with chin colle printed in viscosity manner

Roger O'Leary-Archer

monoprint

Noah Gonzalez

screenprint

Tamara Carlin

intaglio printed in viscosity manner

Boramie Sao

screenprint

Amy Caves

screenprint

Heading into The Thanksgiving Holiday

Mary Coromelas

untitled, 2010

intaglio

This gorgeous intaglio print by Mary Coromelas seems perfect for the day before Thanksgiving. I love to watch her work: She arrives at the beginning of class with a vague idea, works it out on the etching plate over time, then prints beautiful results over and over. She also likes to experiment with various ink color combinations, the addition of chin colle, watercolor, and who knows what. Always interesting.

Here, There, and Everywhere

Joe and I are back from Arkansas after a good weekend with my parents. There, it was gorgeous fall weather, cool and breezy. Here, it is a sweltering 95 degrees today. There, the hotly contested "wet vs. dry" issue was on the ballot to determine whether alcohol could be sold in Clark County (it passed). Here, it was whether marijuana should be legal in California (it didn't pass). Here, republican Meg Whitman's personal contribution of $140 million wasn't enough to win her the governorship; there, democratic incumbant senator Blanche Lincoln lost heartily to a tea party candidate. 

Today, I'm organizing the upcoming photo etching demo for my intaglio class and trying to catch up for my screenprinting class. 

The juvenile possum still lives in our house. He successfully evades the newly purchased trap, strategically placed where Sophie's food dish once was.

Tonight's another night... tomorrow is another day.

Prepping for a Band Tour

Daniel Mayo, advanced screenprinting class member, prints CD covers for his band, Drums and Color. He is printing four at a time, a good thing since he's planning to print a total of 200 to take along when the band goes on tour soon.

Matt, sound manager for the band, and Noel, band member, stopped into class to help Daniel with production. Daniel says they'll sell the CDs for $5 each. What a great deal for a CD of great music wrapped in an original work of art!

Before Dan leaves, he'll print some posters and t-shirts with the tour schedule. They'll visit six states.
Have a great time, Drums and Color!

A Portfolio Exchange

The Intaglio Class is doing a portfolio exchange this semester. This means that all of us involved will create an edition of prints large enough to give one print to each other participant. So, with fourteen participants, each artist will end up with a portfolio of 14 different prints. Katharine Gross is the first to finish her edition of prints. Isn't it spectacular?!

The Insatiable Beast

Katharine Gross

intaglio, 2010

Creative Hands

Class seemed especially energetic and productive tonight. Here are some views of the action:

Dee's Experimental Screenprint

.

In my screenprinting class, we are beginning Project Two. It focuses on brushed stencil methods which allow you to create some great textures and painterly effects. The first two class sessions following the demo were devoted to "play time" in which students could try these methods freely without planning ahead. This lovely abstract image suggesting a bearded man's head and shirted shoulders was created by Dee Atkins in class on Monday night. I think it is beautiful!

The Results of The Monoprint Demo

I did the Monoprint Demo for the Intaglio class the other night and, happily, it was a success. Demo success can be gaged by the following: 1) When revealing the fresh demo print at the end of the press roll, the participants react with an impromptu "AHHHHH!" 2) Everyone is enthusiastic about doing their own monoprints as soon as possible.

The first monoprint of the demo, created by applying ink to a plexiglass plate with a brayer used like a paint brush and using found objects to "draw" textures and lines. Some shapes were cut out of
old manilla folders, inked and laid on the plexi surface. When the image seemed finished, it was printed on paper using the etching press.

A "ghost" monoprint created from ink leftover on the plate with a few added embellishments.

A third "ghost" with added embellishments. Everyone had a part in creating this monoprint. Sort of Lari Pittman-esque!

The final monoprint of the session, created by Traci Durfee, Roger O'Leary-Archer, and Lorraine Papadopoulos.

An Amazing Story

Notice anything unusual about the woman on the right? Like the fact that she is wearing a back brace? That is Michelle Napoli, member of my screenprinting class. Less than a week ago, she broke her back in a water accident. Christine, her cousin and the woman on the left, pulled her out of the water and got  aid. Between then and now, Michelle has had two surgeries, up and walking the day after each one. Kristine came with Michelle to class tonight to help out. But did Michelle need it? Nope. She was printing all evening with the best of 'em. Remarkable!

A Room Full of Energy

Last night was "First Print Night" for the screenprinting class and the place was hopping...

Catch a peek at Amy Caves' first layer of light green graceful stripes.

Tiffani Bowden pulls her squeegee. She printed beautifully. 

Sheri Douds begins the clean up process. She is printing a design of 

overlapping organic shapes.

Derrick Oertwig and Noah Gonzalez mug for the camera. 

Both printed like pros.

Jennifer Warren checks to see if she should add 

another layer to this print.

Boramie Sao, Michael Zaragoza and Michelle Napoli 

clean their screens.

And The Winner Is...Justin Soenksen!

See the line of pink ink on the floor in the foreground of the picture above? Undeniable proof! Justin's ink-covered squeegee did a back flip. It won't be the last time it happens in class this semester, but Justin wins the award for being first. The prize? Unfortunately, it's having to clean it up.

Screenprinting is lots of fun, but there can be pitfalls. One of them is the Squeegee Backflip, which happens when that tool's precarious balance against the back wall of the screen, a part of the printing maneuver, goes haywire.

I must say, in Justin's defense, that he is one of the first students to print this semester. And he is in the advanced section, so he knows what he is doing most of the time. We could probably even suggest that Justin did this intentionally so the new screenprinting students wouldn't have to face the embarrassment. An act of human kindness, pure and simple.

We're on Quite a Roll

for eleanor, 1964

Corita Kent

screenprint

My introductory screenprinting students are off to a good start. They are focused, productive and ahead of schedule. Next Monday is a work day, but they'll not need all that time. So, I think I'll slip in an earlier-than-planned printing demo so they can see how those "simple" paper stencils they've been working on can lead to exciting results.

It will also be a good time to share some great books of artists' screenprints. They'll love seeing the work of Jacob Lawrence, Ben Shahn, Corita Kent, and Andy Warhol.

Whew! What a Day!

Yesterday was a jammed packed day, beginning with the letterpress class I'm taking in Pasadena in the morning and ending with the first session of the intaglio and screenprinting classes I'm teaching at night at Long Beach City College. Finally home at the end of it all, I wound down by watching an episode of Hung. Seemed like a nice counterbalance to the day.

Behold above, my first letterpress print. I got to use the fabulous Vandercook 4, pictured in an earlier post. Sixty prints in about half a minute, it seemed. Here's the routine: Step on the foot lever to open the paper clamp, slip in the paper just so, take foot off the lever to close the clamp. Turn the handle with the right hand to move the roller assembly along the track. Walk beside it as it moves while using the left hand to hold the end of the paper against the roller until it catches on the tape. Listen for the click at the end of the process, stop the roller and remove the paper. Roll the assembly back to starting position, ready for a new sheet.

It was a thrill.

Total student count between the two classes: 33. A good group. I had to turn many, many waitlisted students away, as did most of my colleagues across campus. These are sad times for education, especially in California where massive budget cuts are tearing huge holes into what used to be a good system.

My Semi-Annual Tradition

Just before the semester begins, I take my freshly updated syllabi to the neighborhood Office Depot to make copies at the self-service copy machine. Today was the day.

I've been doing this twice a year for ten years and I've noticed changes over that time. It used to be that you'd write the number of copies you made on a slip of paper and then pay the clerk at the counter. Now, the machine takes your credit card, counts your copies and spits out a receipt at the end of the session. An insignificant change, probably. But it meant that I didn't get to have my usual "how are things going?" conversation with Tiffany as she rang up my bill. I looked over at her; she was tremendously busy multi-tasking at the counter and the copiers behind it. I'm sure this little change in the self-service area was a huge sign of progress in terms of her job challenges.

Other changes have happened inside the copy machines themselves. The machine now photographs your page and prints exact duplicates. The older machines, non-photographic, made duplicate copies that were just a tad different from the original, often showing random marks called "noise." I miss those machines. We artists used them like creative tools. We'd make a copy of an original, then make a copy of the copy, then make a copy of that copy. We'd keep at it until the image flattened out, blurred, and got eaten up by noise. Then we had something interesting! It could be a finished art piece itself, or could be used toward any of a number of ends. I liked turning those copies into photo stencils for screenprinting.

Ten years of changes at the ol' Office Depot. I made my copies, grabbed my receipt and headed home.