Art Production

Once a year our Pugwash Art Collective is having an art-show. We meet, we talk, laugh, and eat but finally we vote on a theme. 

Usually we write down nouns and verbs on different papers and put it together in a hat. We each draw some and read them out loud. Hopefully inspiration strikes us and we come up with a great title. This time we came up with 'Lore'!

I don't work with title's the best of times, but ' Lore'. Well, it had me stamped. Nevertheless, I set out to work. 

While listening to my favourite music I am creating new artwork.

 Recently I have started to explore with mono-prints and woodcuts. I like the intensity that woodcuts give me and the unpredictability of mono-prints. I think of myself as an artist that likes to uncover emotion hidden underneath the surface and the medium of woodcut and mono-print fulfill these requirements without me having to dissect the subject on the canvas.  

I always thought I would create more art in the winter but the opposite is true. Summer is my time to create art. My spirit sings when the sun is blazing through the window and I am sweating while cutting into the wood plate. 

 After having worked on cutting the image into a wood-plate, I do a first cut, roll ink on the wood plate and make the first print on inexpensive paper. I am examining the result and decide if I have to cut more or if I have to compensate with ink something I have cut away by accident.
 

Drawing and some cutting

First print

Woodcut plate

With the mono-prints it is different, I am still using for the first prints inexpensive paper but the mono-print is one of a kind so even though, I am doing numerous prints as a warmup at some point I will switch to better paper. For this show, I have decided to do again a print by wiping the ink of the plexiglass and printing what is left on the surface. It may be hard to understand. Let me explain in more detail. 

I have a photograph of the object I want to print. Further, I have a plexiglass plate and ink. I am mixing the ink with a slower drying medium (which makes the ink dry slower, not right away, rather than, in a couple of minutes). Then, I take tissues or cotton swabs and start wiping the ink of the plexiglass plate. Basically I am drawing with the tissues and the cotton swabs, till I feel I have the desired result. I have the paper ready and put it on top of the plexiglass plate and rub with my hands the paper so that the remaining ink prints on the paper. 

These two are done the way I decribed it up top. You can see the difference. 

In this blog I will not reveal my new artwork which will be shown starting with an opening on August 15 at the Fraser Cultural Centre in Tatamagouche at 7 pm. Hope to see you there!