Thinking Outside the Box

Recently, I was given the opportunity to create cover art for an upcoming issue of Mathematics Magazine, which is published by the Mathematical Association of America. My brother, Walter Stromquist, is the current editor of the Magazine, which might explain why I got the project (pure nepotism).

My job was to create an illustration related to one of articles featured inside. Working from summaries Walt sent me, I had to come up with an idea and then bring it to life in visual form. All this meant working in a way I don't normally and with unfamiliar subject matter. Quite a challenge!

Here's my illustration that will appear on the April cover. It refers to an article discussing how to draw an hyperbola using a pencil, a straw, and a string. The pattern on the male's sweater refers to another article about spacing checkers on checkerboards. 

Because I'd never worked in a comics frame style, I needed to research that particular kind of drawing. I studied a variety of comic strips to see how heads attach to bodies, how people are portrayed in profile, how depth is shown in such a simplified format, how mouths look open and closed, and facial characteristics. I realized that the special challenge of the comics style is to reduce complex visuals to basic lines, patterns and compositions without losing information, clarity of message and expressiveness.

It was a really fun project and I learned a lot! 

And Life Goes On...

I'm pleased to have been asked to contribute work to an upcoming group exhibition at Golden West College Fine Art Gallery. The show will include a wide variety of print media and visual styles by ten Southern California artists including Roxanne Sexauer, my former excellent teacher and one of my favorite SoCal printmaking artists.

You all are invited to the opening:

Opening Reception: Thursday, March 3rd, 7-9 p.m.

Golden West College Fine Art Gallery

Golden West College

15744 Goldenwest Street

Huntington Beach, CA  92647

call 714-895-8772 for more information

And A More Modern Take

Hearts for You, 2003

screenprint

Have a great Valentine's Day!

Announcing: Mid City Studio Tour 2011

Time for our biennial event! YOU are invited to my studio and 16 others in Long Beach on the weekend of June 4th and 5th. A rare opportunity to see the private work spaces of artists working in a variety of mediums. Save the date. More details to come!

A Great Studio Day

I'm working on an idea for a new series of screenprints about my garden. The technical part will focus on making transfer drawings by hand on paper and then translating them at the computer into stencils for photo-emulsion screens. In the picture below, you can see a sketch for my first one.

Transfer drawings are challenging because, by nature, the results are hard to control and unpredictable. Even though it usually takes many attempts before arriving at a good one, a successful transfer drawing is always much more interesting, to my eye, than a straight-forward one.

In the picture above, I've used the brayer to roll out a thin, even layer of ink on my glass topped work table. Next, I'll lay a sheet of paper over the ink and draw on the back. The pressure of the drawing implement pulls ink up on the other side. Along the way, ink transfers unpredictably in other areas, too, creating an atmospheric effect, which is the beauty of transfer drawing.

There are examples of transfer drawings on my website.

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

Website Updated with Newest Work

Six by Six: Meditations (1), 2010

collage, screenprint, graphite, 6" x 6"

Six by Six: Meditations (2), 2010

collage, ink, watercolor, pastel, 6" x 6"

Six by Six: Meditations (12), 2010

screenprint, 6" x 6"

My excellent webmaster, Karyn L. Carpenter, has uploaded images of art I've completed in the last two years - 40 works, including 32 collages, 8 mixed media works on paper, and one screenprint. I hope you'll check it out, by clicking here!

Three Exciting Exhibitions I'd Like to See

Gerhard Richter, the German artist, is known primarily as a painter. But the Drawing Center is showing fifty graphite, ink, and watercolor works on paper made between 1966 and 2005. They are terrific! Here are three  examples:

 Gerhard Richter

watercolor on paper

Gerhard Richter

ink on paper

Gerhard Richter

water color on paper

And then there is Dan Colen, whose show at Gagosian Gallery in New York is reviewed in this morning's NY Times. He is interested in how randomness can transform something, which is one of my interests, as well. One of his large works on canvas was made by "drawing" with grass stains. The stains were acquired by dragging the canvas across a grassy field. He also likes to work with chewing gum as a medium, like this:

Dan Colen

chewing gum on canvas

The third show I'd love to see is in Milan, the work of Roland Flexner discussed in this month's Art in America. I am drawn to his ink and bubble drawings, created by a process he developed inspired by the Japanese marbleizing process call suminagashi. He works by creating a structure for uncontrollable processes.

Roland Flexner

ink bubble drawing

I, too, like to work with processes incorporating accident and chance. Most of my mixed media works on paper are exciting to me to create precisely because of those elements.

Now, I am headed to the studio to continue working on an intaglio project. I am putting the image on this plate in the traditional, very controlled way, although I usually like to apply methods of chance to intaglio, too, as in this example:

Two Hearts, II (self-portrait), 1993

intaglio with chin colle

18" x 18"

The plate I'm working on now in the very controlled, traditional way will be printed using the viscosity method (see August 13th post). I'm finding, with delight, that the viscosity method can be adapted very nicely to incorporate chance. Oh boy!