Making Marks – moving forward

2010, combined techniques, Haverhill / /

Today I worked between several different pieces just making marks. I try to let the judgments and negative conversations in my head just roll off. Today I got a newsy email from the Massaschusetts Cutural Council about events and deadlines. It gets me thinking about applying for grants and other ways to bring in some money in this field of art.
I have been tossing around the idea of combining my images, plates and things. I think I just have to do it and see what happens – stop thinking about doing it. This week I made 4 or 5  plates. How could I combine or print them into a complete expression? www.linda-germain.com

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Printmaking, Drawing and Walking

2010, mixed media printmaking, relief prints / /

This is a soft block print of Rye on the Rocks, our family cottage at Rye Beach. I have wanted to do a series about the cottage, my grandmother, the weather, the emotions and mistique of the tiny place. Today I used a speedy cut block and it was very easy to carve with inexpensive carving tools. That is very satisfying.
On another note, the state of our country is getting me down and I usually live a very “protected” live – something is changing. I feel relationship to the chaos and crisis that they talk about in the news. Movement that is what I am using to get me through the day. I started with a walk this morning and in the studio I am moving from piece to piece, moving on, moving through just moving. My walk took me past the Spatial Relations exhibit @ the ArtSpace @ Bentley Library. It looks great.
I have several drawings of Kip going and I am just making the marks, letting things flow, letting stuff out. I came across a book by Fred Babb last week. “go to your studio and make stuff” that speaks to me. I like the open endedness about is. It is freeing. It feels good. But I get to my studio and I start to impose restrictions and expectations on the stuff I make. That is no fun and stops the flow of anything good.

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Prints, Puppies and Discovery

2010, Haverhill, mixed media printmaking, relief prints / /

It was a fine day on the farm today. I worked on cleaning perenials for the winter. This drawing of Kip has been evolving over the last few weeks. It is fun to work on it as the moment moves – or as she moves. I do like these colors. I played with the idea of self-portraits and simple printing plates. I did a very quick sketch. I cropped the image to fit on to the plate, and then transferred the image to a styrofoam plate. I think this will be a great process from the class that I will be teaching at the Newburyport Art Association this winter. It is fast, flexible and satisfying. For this process less is more and gesture drawing work wonderfully. You can experiment with colored papers, multiple ink colors, masking certain areas and it is so fast and easy that you could make several plates from one drawing depending on how you crop it. I am hopeful that the kids with like it as much as I do. I have tried printing these plates as intaglio plates and have varied results. I think that I will try this with the presses at New Hampshire Institute of Art next friday. http://www.linda-germain.com/

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Puppy Love – soft block relief print with an eraser

2010, relief prints / /

Today I played with the image of the puppy and came up with a small eraser sized stamp that I am happy with. I experimented with rice paper, sulphite paper and book pages. I like the book pages the best. I used Daniel Smith water soluble relief ink.
I realized that I am looking for a printmaking process that is compatible with loose scribble like drawings. I think that Pronto plates may be my best bet so far. So I am going to play with some pronto plates and see what happens. Only thing is I have to use oil based inks for that process and my can of litho ink is very soupy. I learned this week that for me it is best to create an image that is mostly shapes for a block print. Also that I do not like to struggle in the creation of a line or image. Carving linoleum is a struggle for me and there is always the fear of removing too much. One goal I have is to figure out what printmaking process is best for what kind of image.

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