In My Head I Call This One Something Like "carried Away By The Bluebird Of Happiness" But That Is A Bitch

in my head I call this one something like "carried away by the bluebird of happiness" but that is a bitch and a half to write on an edition of 36. so I titled it Joy.

if you turn your head you will note that it works in every possible orientation of the paper. but this is printmaking, and bitches need titles, edition numbers, and signatures. so Christine picked this orientation and I went with it.

it was created for a print exchange and exhibition put together by a classmate of mine, in conjunction with other students and alums of WWU and UW's printmaking programs. I was asked to not participate by my professor because he was worried that I would slap together something horrible and messy at the last minute and disgrace him and his printmaking program. considering my track record, a not unreasonable concern.

luckily for me, I had already paid my money to Drew, and started work on my print before Ben decided I would be a liability, so I felt I had to do my best to show him I was capable of putting together something that would  show my capabilities and my worth as a printmaker.

of course, I then decided to hand color the whole edition.

I didn't color three that I used with my exclusively black and white works in my BFA show. one of which is shown here. carving printing and coloring this edition took around two weeks in total. which admittedly involved a lot of drying time.

I like hand coloring. it's easier for me to control than multi-block processes and if I use an oil based ink and a water based paint on high quality paper the color stays between the lines with water tension. but, it introduces inconsistencies to an edition. which is a cardinal sin in printmaking. so I painted every one of them in layers, using one batch of paint at a time on all of them one by one, so they would look exactly the same.

it's still considered a lazy and unprintmakerly technique.

of course another friend of mine got flak for doing a no-color black lino cut. and of course, after we got the packet back with everyone's prints in it, UW had done a bunch of sloppy abstract bullshit anyway and the best stuff was done by WWU alumni who I assume didn't even get yelled at a little.

storal of this mory being that you can't win against other people's anxiety problems.

and if you want 25 near-perfect prints, start with 40.

Today I made a Christmas ornament. (and also did muh nails)

it is a snowflake made out of felt. I stuffed it with the little scrappy bits of felt that I had leftover so it's a bit of a little pillow. it looks good and is now hanging on my tree.

Yes, I copied the design off something I found on pinterest. because I am a hack. you'll note I didn't do as good of a job of it as Jody Bishel does, so I don't feel too bad about it.

Pisces, edition of 16

I finally carved this super cool clear linoleum sample that Nick gave me and printed on one sheet of BFK which I ripped into 16 bits. (which would be funnier if this was pixel art, but alas)

Damn I love the clear linoleum so much. it is beautymus.

image is drawn after these little soy sauce bottles I have. Done to do something silly. Start to finish a couple of hours out of today put to good use.

Cascadia flag patches.

done by me in cotton DMC thread on post-consumer polyester felt.

I'm feeling derivative tonight. so sue me.

also, these are Christmas presents, BUT FOR WHOM??

my little kitchen studio set up. I roll out slabs on that pane of glass, and I use acrylic ink for the easy clean up and relative non-toxicity (hard to be unsafe with a boring color like a carbon black I have to say) anyways, I have a small speedball roller and am using dickblick's black acrylic relief printmaking ink. works pretty good.

second picture is a table covered in some of the prints I made today. So Many Prints! I should list them on my etsy after the show goes down considering I think I may have a few left over. my main intention with these smaller prints is to make a thing at a lower price point so I can entice people to buy them and support me, even if they can't afford the larger prints, some of which I am going to price higher than others. (the complicated ones) I am not doing a closed edition on these (so I can always make more) and I might hand-color some of them.

acrylic ink is water soluble though, so we'll see how well that does.

Intaglio Print, black ink on white paper.

another one I will probably slap on a scanner later on, as unlike a lot of my stuff it's small enough to be scanned.

you know what, no explanations on this one, and no title. I've been talking enough on my other stuff. just look at it for a bit and figure out what you think is going on. that's just as valid as anything I have to say about it.