Fierce Friday

There was a time when Friday was a day of morning crit, come library work then a tour of current exhibitions in Limerick  -  gone, totally gone!

Now we are self-directed on a Friday and I would say we are putting in more work than on any other day - printing, drawing, proofing cutting assisting, graining, cleaning -  its actually just great - and thank you to tutors who come in when they don't have to be there - its much appreciated.

Here's something of what's happening:

 

First layer on the stone  in liquid tusche;

 

 

 

 

First proof  - non-drying - the colour block came out good and solid

 

The stone being covered with rosin

 

 

 

 

The ink mix

 

First layer on Fabriano - some marks but these should be covered by the drawing of the second layer; however that'll teach you to be careful where you put your greasy fingers on the stone!

 

The drawing has continued too:

 

Sources and development of various drawings.

 

Contextual studies have not been anything lie as deep as they should be due to workshop pressure but I have a few interesting pointers to follow up in my pursuit of organic and inorganic and I will update when there is something to say.

 

Meanwhile I will just leave you with this sight that I met in St Johns Square on my way to the station last Thursday:

 

 

The Path of Me

The ego has landed!

Time to stop being precious, so here is a run-down on what 'I have been doing.

First a selection of photos I made at home using extracted teeth , modelling clay and various bits ironmongery  - as rusty as I could get it.

 

I was very keen on this last image...

 

 

 but it was rightly pointed out to me that when made into a print the central object ie the tooth  -would rather disappear, so I looked again at what I had made and selected this one:

 

 

and I began to do drawings of it:

 

 

This one was not great so it was suggested that I should use just one medium, ie a pencil, charcoal and so on:

 

 

 

I then decided to adapt the first one by means of collaged card:

 

 

And I feel that that is the sort of effect I would like to try for in the litho, Here is the stone ready for first colour:

 

 I will follow up as the process goes on.

 

Here is the wall - harmless compared to last years histrionics:

 

 

I have been thinking a bit about artists who interest me and whose work relates albeit elliptically, to what I am doing. The present project has the air of a monumental landscape so that brought me once more to the art of Andy Goldswothy and Richard Long:

 

 

This second one particularly reminded me of the teeth in the clay, And the following fissures equally recalled the fractured clay.

 

 

 

Today I had an very interesting tutorial with Kieran Cashell and he suggested an artist I had not thought of but whose work had always fascinated me;  I will delve here and see if this can take me in another direction. I am happy for now to use  the teeth but I don't think I wish them to be more that a station on the way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Two -Lane Blacktop

This title might seem a bit esoteric but it refers to a back road used in drag-racing in 70s America - there were three cult films at the time - Two-Lane Blacktop,  Electra-Glide in Blue and Vanishing Point, and I saw in obituaries over the weekend that the director of VP died just last week -he was only ever known for that film.

Anyway.. the reason I use a road title rather than the customary path is because everything has instantly moved up several gears and I am already at the stage of trying to figure out timings and how many different things can be fitted in.

Last week we began litho and I have, under instruction, returned to serious drawing, something I now realise I haven't done for quite some time. I am working on a group of teeth which I have set up as a landscape:

 

It certainly fulfils the ideas of structure, system and space, but it has been requested that the drawings be serious, rather than sketches of ideas which is what I certainly have been doing for a while. I am working on variations which I will show later.

 

The other concept of teeth and steel, rust and decay I will defer for a bit , but I intend to return to this area.

 

I should say that this is Sunday and the first part was written this morning -I have been doing a lot of drawing and some interesting results ensued......but not yet.

 

Thursday night I went along to Limerick Printmakers to do some screenprinting with Derek which for one reason or another I didn't manage to finish ( I had put my car in Arthurs Quay and they were closing at ten - I should really have gone back but I was just too tired and I had a long drive home. I have collected what I did and I will get the second image and finish the work in school.

Thanks Derek for all your help and you are missed.

 

Some pics of people you might know:

 

 

I think we should have this in the printshop

 

I just love this  and I remembered it from my first visit to Printmakers

 

Where we worked

 

My images

 

 

If and when I manage to finish them I will post.

 

The other interesting visit was to Damer House in Roscrea to fulfil I promise I made the previous week .:

 

 

This is part of an international print show that sadly finished last Friday and was being shown in a well-hidden gallery upstairs in Damer House.

 Here area few print together with some of their stories:

 

 

I put this one in at an angle to show the blind embossing which I love

 

 

 

This will give you some idea of what the theme of the show was and here are two with their stories:

 

 

 

You may recognise this woman as the author of one of very valuable print manuals -

 

it will move you.

 

 

Therry Rudin is one of the Roscrea curators and I had met her and Patricia Hurl in Thurles the previous week and I had said I would see the show - I hope a lot of of people did see it.