spring

drypoint & chine colle on japanese paper,
59.5 x 19.5 cm, 1997

An old print. A mess-up but one of my favorites still. My etching press has been sitting idle pretty much since i got it. Makes me wonder that maybe it wasn't not having a press that was keeping me from making prints again. Maybe the desire was never strong enough to begin with? I don't know. I just know i love looking back at the prints that i did make and seeing the works that these artists are making - Jo, Elisabeth, Sarah...

I didn't go home for Mother's Day and wished i weren't so tired not to make the trip. i miss you, Ma. My dad called today and told me that the cousins surprised my mom with a cake at 9:30pm last night. I can imagine my mom's tremendous delight over it. I totally take back what i said about daughters being better than sons, at least definitely not these guys. You guys are really the best of the best. Sorry, Baby, for missing your birthday too. :(.

Studio work is going slow but steady. Nothing that makes my heart beat fast though. Just some re-painting here and there, making some more little spoons, and started a big one that made me realize why big can be so repulsive. Actually, i don't know why, i just want to bury it.

Spring is here but it's still so chilly on some days. like today. but nice to still be under the covers and just read. I've been reading Kevin Brockmeier's books. I am crazy for his writing. Today i came across a passage from his short story The View from the Seventh Layer that i really like:

"...The heart of every house was the kitchen, the soul of every house was the bedroom, and the mind of every house was displayed with hooks and thumbtacks on the walls. But the conscience of every house...was the bookshelves..."

I guess it doesn't make me feel so bad about having so many things around me that i like to have around.

I wish it'll get warmer soon so i can wear my new flip flops.

my paper underwear

paper and thread, 5 cm red stitched across

Have been making some paper experiments, sketches. This is one of them, made two Saturdays ago. A rough sketch, carelessly torn and sewn together, rather crappy looking. I don't know why i like it so much. Hung it by the window like it is magically suspended in the air! I like looking at it like that. Want to make more paper underwear and prints.

A print made the following day. Five Dirty Panties below:

thread and chine colle, about 3.5 cm each little panties, work in progress

I need to work on it some more. maybe some pencil drawing on top.

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To Carolina: red red prayers for finding dear *Pepe*
*

one beginning

etching, mezzotint, drypoint & chine colle on hahnemuhle printmaking paper, image size 9.5 x 9.5 cm

My first signed print in 9 years. blah blah blah. i finally got one decent wiping of the plate. Feels like i'm just starting over again, not yet picking up where i left off. Totally not like riding a bike.

I'm wishing for magic with these:





and i need to go on my trails.

more banana & grapes

For today's Blog Action Day issue on environment, i was thinking to do a post showing the process of using recycled paper to make these papier mache bowls. But right now, feeling too scattered to show more new work-in-progress, SO, more fruit prints instead. More bananas and grapes again:


[fruit series] chine colle woodcut diptych on arches printmaking paper, each woodcut image 6.5 x 9 cm, 1997


[fruits series] drypoint & chine colle on arches printmaking paper (printed from hard cardboard not copper plate), plate image 7 x 8 cm, 1997

This one above is actually a ghost image pulled immediately from the plate after it had already been inked up and printed on a different sheet of paper. So a paler image was produced from the leftover ink on that plate in the successive printing here. (It is the same plate as the one shown in the previous post Grapes.)



During college, in between meals, i was crazy for fruits, eating maybe 4-6 fruits a day at least, more if i am pulling an all-nighter. So that was how these prints got started, and before i knew it, they became connected with pieces of my thoughts, things from the senses, small details of just being.



...i think that is what a lot of my work is about...



Today i drifted off my usual redwing trail and hiked up a really steep incline. Felt really good to be so high up and be so fully aware of all these trees around me. Didn't realized how steep and high the incline was until i got to the top. Saw some broken bottles and cans scattered about that do not belong here. Pissed me off. Will have to remember to bring a garbage bag with me when i go on the trails now.

Also saw two deer with long tails that looked like nice white fur trimming. Did not know deer could have long tails. At first, i thought they were some woodsmen in their tan work jackets hunched over creepily.

Walked around some more and then suddenly came a rally of these turkey-looking birds bustling by like they got an important meeting to attend. Kept running away from me when i tried to take a closer look to see if they were turkeys or not.

But what startled me the most was this little chipmunk running right across my path out of nowhere. Will have to make John come with me to check out more of this wildlife area of the nature preserve next time.

grapes

[fruits series] drypoint & chine colle on arches printmaking paper (printed from hard cardboard not copper plate), image size 7 x 7.5 cm, 1997

peel

[fruit series] drypoint & chine colle on arches printmaking paper, plate image size 8.3 x 7.1 cm, 1997

slice

etching, chine colle on BFK grey printmaking paper, image size 16 x 22 cm, 1997

opening

etching, drypoint & chine colle on hahnemuhle printmaking paper, image (plate) size is 60.5 x 25.4 cm printed on 81 x 60 cm paper size.


The maroon dark red is the chine colle tissue paper printed/pasted onto the heavier printmaking paper (it was laid on top of the copper plate that has the etched drawing [inked up in blue] and ran through the press to be printed on the heavier paper).

grape stem

woodcut and chine collé on grey BFK printmaking paper (woodcut image size is 8" x 5" on 20.5" x 14" BFK printmaking paper; shown above is not all of the grey BFK paper)

The image of the woodcut was first hand-printed onto the cream color Japanese mulberry paper, which is like thin tissue paper. Then methylcellulose adhesive was applied to the back of the mulberry paper so that it would be glued down onto the heavier BFK paper when running it through the etching press.