Back to School Update: Print making

Intent Blue jay

One of the things that I appreciate the most about first year Art School is taking a sampling of different studio classes. Printing 103 was a good introduction to print making with plates. We started out with mono prints and then moved on to lino cuts - my favourite. I love the wood-cut look without the effort of carving wood (Intent Blue jay).

We also etched copper plates using various techniques. I think I must have had the plate for Prairie Sentinel in the acid bath at least 10 times.

Prairie Sentinel

Always on the Wrong Side

 Always on the Wrong Side is also a lino cut. In this case we experimented with multiple ink colours (in the end I used three). I tried two basic techniques: "puzzle cutting" the cat's head so that different inks could be applied, and reduction carving to get the light and dark brown on the cat's head.

Longingly

We also experimented with photo etching. In this technique you use a photograph to etch onto a copper plate and then go back into the plate to add further character or detail. Longingly was a photo of an Easter Lilly in a church window in Hawaii. I was really surprised at the difference in the "feel" of the print compared to the original photo. It has a much more forlorn quality.

I really appreciate what I learned in this class and came away with a great deal of respect for printmaking. Not only is there need for artistic knowledge and a lot of practical skill, but a lot of planning is necessary and yet at the same time you have to respond and adjust to what is happening on your plate - it definitely requires a lot of patience. It has also helped me to really appreciate prints as an art form - I was recently at the Victoria Art Gallery and found myself spending most of my time looking at prints, admiring the artists' skill and trying to figure out how they accomplished some amazing images.

Back to School Update - Mixed Media Fibre Course

The second year fibre course that I took last Fall focused on exploring 3D forms using traditional and experimental media. Each student also did a ten minute presentation on a fibre artist which was a great way to get exposed to and discuss different artists.

Early in September we went on a field trip to create an intimate nature project in Bragg Creek. Everyone worked on individual projects scattered over several acres and at the end of the day, we toured around to see them all. I started to build a relaxing personal space using coloured thread, grasses, twigs and found objects. However, a curious squirrel convinced me to alter the plan and I shifted to building him a play area with a diving board, tight-rope, trapeze, ring set, and ladder (a little hard to see here). I hope he enjoyed using it as much as I enjoyed making it. It was very interesting to see the variety of pieces and definitely a treat to enjoy a beautiful day - reminiscent of childhood days escaping chores.

Next came a paper sculpture project resulting in "Hidden Agenda" This is a deceptively large piece (over 10 ft long). It is made with hand-made paper laid on to a wire frame and was lit internally although this is not visible in this picture. Green silk fibres were draped across the mouth. I wanted to create an organic, plant-like structure that had both beauty and a little creepiness. My biggest challenge with paper sculpture is that the paper is extremely heavy and has little integrity when wet - it is more intent on paying attention to gravity than cooperating with me.




We also did a performance piece, not my favorite type of art for sure but interesting to learn about. Mine drew on parallels between the capriciousness of the wind and life in general. Ever tried doing origami with linens to create symbolic objects? Don't.

I finally got to do some needle-felting for the WunderKammern project. This assignment was inspired by the 16th century mania of collecting bizarre and fanciful objects. We were to create a mythical artifact and an attribution statement - as peculiar and extraordinary as possible, yet sort-of believable. I came up with Shamus, a homunculi deterrent decoy and a homunculus hoard. The concept being that homunculi are real; decoys were created to deter these territorial little beasties who have a nasty compulsion to pilfer little items.

It was fun to make someone a little nastier looking than I would normally make them.

The next challenge was to create a garment that transforms the body into an architectural or sculptural form. I have been wanting to really challenge myself with a large felt garment and experiment with different techniques. This seemed to be the perfect opportunity.

 On the left is the wool laid out for one half of my "Water Fall" garment (about 9 feet long - felt shrinks a lot). What was I thinking??? I admit that after over 40 hours of working on it by hand, I got exhausted enough to throw it in the washer and put it on hot and I am happy with the final product.

Back to School - First Year Art History and Humanities Done!

Fall semester went by so fast, was wonderful and I am now officially a second year student! I completed three studio courses and a humanities - an interesting mix. I am taking this semester off to travel but will be going back next Fall.

When I first started thinking about going back to take a BFA, I had some concerns about the non-studio courses. First, I wasn't sure if I was really up for the academic grind after so many years. Second, while I know research skills, critical thinking, and essay writing are important skills to learn for first year students, I've been there and done that as a student and professionally in another field and was reluctant to face having to go through the process all over again from the beginning.

There are two first year Art History courses that essentially cover the history of art from prehistoric times to present day. There are also two first year Humanities classes that cover critical thinking and an introduction to the art world today. Before applying to the program, I took a first year Art History class to test the waters - I highly recommend this to anyone thinking about doing a BFA. I quickly realized that I really enjoyed the academic challenges and was embarrassed to remember thinking of Art History as a "bird" course back in my science days - I learned a huge amount and spent many hours memorizing hundreds of images of famous artworks and all their related info. The essay writing process was as annoying as expected - perhaps even more so, but what I learned from the content made up for it. I decided to take the second Art History class by distance education from Athabasca University with pretty much the same impressions although this approach was very different - the flexible schedule is a benefit, but I spent far more time and felt overwhelmed by the scope of the workload without the cues provided by an instructor and other classmates in a classroom environment.

After going over the humanities course content in detail, I came to the conclusion that I had covered the content of one of the courses in my past academic life and was fortunately able to convince a faculty member to give me credit for the course. I hesitantly took the introduction to the art world today course and was pleasantly surprised - I've always thought that a key reason to go back to school was to learn the things you don't even know to think about and this course definitely addressed this. I learned about art critique and curating, went to talks by professional artists, and visited local galleries. There was emphasis on learning the "vocabulary" of the art world, which while taxing is helpful in being able to translate "art-speak". We also read a selection of readings, did some research and wrote some papers (with the same annoyances as described above).

Overall, the three first-year non-studio courses that I took were very worthwhile and I feel like they were a good investment of my time. There were some things that I would have chosen to avoid (e.g. I had to learn a third new citation approach - MLA - which I really dislike) but these build character - right?

Experimenting with Functional Art

 I have been having an enormous amount of fun experimenting with different felting techniques. I prefer to make an object rather than just a sampler and pillows and tea-cozies work really well for this purpose. These pillows were created by laying down a dark background, laying bands of lighter coloured wool over top, cutting trees into the middle layer to expose the dark layer, and adding silk, bamboo and wool surface embellishments. The wool is laid onto turban cotton to provide additional strength without having to resort to very thick felt. The pillows are created as a one piece envelope that have button closures on the back.

In this tea-cozie, vertical light bands were "woven" with yellow and green horizontal bands. A resist was used under the vertical bands at the points were they overlapped the horizontal bands, emphasizing the weave.

 Felting seems to be becoming very popular and a surprising number of new techniques and ideas are out there. In the early 1990s, nuno felting was developed and fibre artists are taking it in many directions. In this technique, wool is felted onto a fabric with a fibre or weave than enables the wool to attach itself to the fabric. I took a nuno scarf workshop from Sue Scott, an amazing local felter. For this scarf, I laid black wool onto a very summery looking shear silk fabric (the silk fabric is exposed on the right had edge in the picture on the left which creates a ruffle once the wool starts to shrink). Picking up the colours from the fabric, I created geometric designs on the surface using wool, silk, ribbon, and bamboo embellishments as well as laying on small scrap pieces of the silk (encased in the blue diamonds and burgundy squares). Before and after pictures are on the left and right respectively with a detail shot below. It was a fun and valuable workshop experience. Just to give you an idea of the amount of work that goes into felting, this piece took about 6 to 8 hours to complete.

2D Felt - The Leap to Mixed Media

Woolly Lilies

I've been experimenting some more with 2 dimensional felt over the summer. I wanted to try more abstract shapes and images as well as surface techniques. In "Woolly Lilies" I used resists to lift the flowers and leaves off the surface as well as adding silk and mohair on the surface. I liked the result but was once again faced with the challenge of how to mount it. As I've talked about in other 2 dimensional felt posts I've tried a number of different approaches with more or less success. 

Detail - Woolly Lilies

In this one I decided to create a painted canvas that incorporated mixed media and ended up using wool, silk, thread, acrylic paint, rice paper as well as different glosses and gels to create a rich surface texture. And ... suddenly I realized that I should be thinking about a unified mixed media piece rather than something to support the felt. After adding wool into the paint (a very tricky process - it either looks great or like something hauled out of a bathtub drain) I added the diagonal stitches across both surfaces. Together, they tie the canvas and felt into a single integrated piece. I can't wait to try some more but with school ramping up, it will be a while - darn.

Art criticism - for the birds!

Relaxing in the shade and hauling out water colours is one of my favourite vacation activities after a hot morning at the beach. Fred and Franny Farkle, the resident mynah birds, took particular interest in pieces that I hung to dry. Apparently everyone is an art critic!

Bragg Creek Days Painters Show

What a beautiful day at a beautiful venue! Suncatcher's Gallery graciously hosted the Bragg Creek Painters for a show and sale during Bragg Creek Days. The rain held off, the music from the community centre was wonderful, and the company was great.

The only challenge was smelling the perogies from the food truck across the road - I eventually gave in and had Brie and Basil perogies no less - the ultimate upscale comfort food! Thanks to all who came out, to all the painters who participated, and particularly to Elizabeth for welcoming us to her lovely gallery in the woods.