gelatin prints

I've been gone from my blog far too long. Time to start posting again. I thought I'd start with this...photos of my students' work in a workshop I gave yesterday. We were printing monotypes using gelatin plates and acrylics. We had lots of fun experimenting and came up with some beautiful results as well. Thanks to Sascha, Jeanne, and Arlene for a great day!













And notice the difference between the prints and the ghost prints below (both overprinted)

surface design on paper

Haliburton seems a lifetime away at this moment but I have rallied to post on the classes I took while I was there. The first class titled "Paper Sculpture & Collage" was all about surface design on rice and mulberry papers, which we then used to create other work. We used washes, textures, wax stamping techniques, and all kinds of media. My fellow classmates were fantastic and we had an energetic instructor (Suzi Dwor) who attempted to get us out of our heads and into action. There was lots of creativity happening and it was a very stimulating and enjoyable class. Below are some photos of our workspace, our processes, and some fragments of the papers that I produced.

My workspace. It was a challenge for me to work in a messy space. My OCD tendencies had to be put aside. The stimulation of the class was good but it was also nice when a few of us worked late in the evenings when it was quiet and the space was more manageable.

Lots of stuff and lots of stuff going on! Monica and Julia contemplate what to do next.

Our classroom in a quieter moment while everyone was at lunch but me and Janet.

Creativity happening. This was early in the game while our work stations were still relatively neat and before our papers started to take over. Patricia (in foreground) made the most lovely of papers!

My neighbour Amy managed to create such fresh pieces with her washes, while I was a deft hand at the muddy look!

Janet, Amy and Bev at the wax station. We made wax stamps and stamped our paper in a similar manner to the batik process. We soon had to move this station outside as the intense fumes of beeswax bothered many of us.

This was my wax stamp design, which you will see in some of my finished papers.

We borrowed one another's stamps and this was one of my favourites! Very musical.

We also just painted the wax on our papers using a paintbrush and a tjanting tool. Where do you think this image sprung from? Go here for a hint!

We used our papers to collage our sketchbook covers. The outside covers were supposed to represent our spiritual side while the insided covers were meant to illustrate our wild side. These are the inside covers of mine. Perhaps not quite finished and not colours I ordinarily use. The outside covers will appear in another post.

Paper fragment: mulberry paper with wax stamp, acrylic washes and oil pastels.

Paper fragment: washi with acrylic washes and oil pastel over textured surfaces - as washes were applied the paper balled up into a lumpy surface which I like.

Paper fragment: mulberry paper with wax stamp, acrylic wash and oil pastels.

Paper fragment: rice paper with painted wax and acrylic wash.

Paper fragment: Washi with oil and chalk pastels over a bamboo mat and then a light silver wash.

vulnerable fragments

Now that I have exposed my vulnerability by showing you my very dull shoes, I will reveal another flaw. I am a procrastinator extraordinaire, cursed with the terrible affliction of not being able to make art unless I have some sort of outside commitment like a show. One of my great joys is making art but I can't seem to do it without a looming deadline. I'm sure it has something to do with fear of failure, fear of success, frozen by perfectionism, or some other common human neurosis. Anyway, the bottom line is that I do well with a nice tight deadline. And today I've got one. This weekend Hudson is having their annual street fair and some of the artists at Mouche Studio Gallery will be doing demonstrations in their media. I will have a table showing my process of cast paper and perhaps some sewing on paper. So I thought it might be a good idea to make some cards to sell. I was hoping to go into full production mode this week and produce some cards but for three days I was struggling with a migraine. So yesterday I headed into my studio and made a start. And I'll be there again today. What gets done gets done. Pictured above are a few fragments of some old work (acrylics and collage)that I will incorporate into some cards. Tomorrow I will post some of the cards that I plan to make today. Wish me luck!