Clay Monoprinting!

Clay monoprinting is such an exciting new direction for me in 2017!  In December I took a two-day workshop, (condensed to one-day because of snow), with Mitch Lyons, the innovator of clay monoprinting.  Initially both a printmaker and potter, Mitch was the first to explore this unique method.  Unless, as he points out, you count the people who dipped their hands into pigmented clay and slapped it on a wall 25,000 years ago. 

I now have my own clay slab, so that I can do handpressing at home.  I have two unused pieces of the 'paper', or as one curator called it, the 'synthetic interfacing material.'  It has a weave to it, with one side being hairy and one side smoother.  It not like canvas.  It is not like anything I have previously experienced.  

Pigment is added to slips, which "are then brushed over the slab, one over the other, building a design with various shapes, colors, and textures."  Since I am now working exclusively with paper clay, the only slip I have is paper clay slip.  Mitch hasn't worked with paper clay, so I will give it a try and let him know if it works.  I ordered his book and don't want to use my limited supply of 'synthetic interfacing material' until I have the book in front of me.  



I plan to take a three-day workshop with him in early September at nearby Peters Valley School of Craft, and meanwhile take it as far as I can on my own.   The piece above is called "Existentialist", and was hand finished with oil pastel.  It is an extremely freeing and fun method.  As Mitch says in one of his videos, "if you're going to do something for the rest of your life it might as well be fun."








 

SOLD 2.0

This  2.0 version of SOLD is done now.  I'm not sure if I liked it better when it was simpler.  I just know I felt a need to add the 'red tape' and some iridescent oil pastel, as well as a tape measure edging.  The red tape (which comes in red, white, and mauve), is part of the batch given to the Philadelphia Dumpster Divers by the National Archives.  It was actually once used to tie up documents.

It was definitely simpler without all the red tape.  This is from my post on December 19, 2016:

"Today the electors are annointing Donald Trump as our next president, despite the overwhelming popular vote for Hillary Clinton.  The efforts at recount and the small groups of demonstrators at state houses where the electors are voting, don't make any difference.  I just finished this piece, "SOLD", as a small act of protest and resistance.  The gold in the background is genuine gold leaf.  Only the best for the international oligarchs. Much could be said.  I will let SOLD speak for itself."

Hopefully SOLD will continue to speak for itself.

Snowflake Bienniale!

I am delighted to have been invited to participate in Heavy Bubble's Snowflake Bienniale.  Thank you Marjorie Grigonis for inviting me!  The opening reception is January 14, 2017, 6:30-9:30 pm.  The closing tea party is February 25th, 4-6pm.  Heavy Bubble HQ, 1241 Carpenter St, Third Floor, Philadelphia, 19147.

My piece is called Shamans Rise Up.  Done towards the end of 2016, it points to a new direction for 2017:  integration of paper clay with found object assemblage.  I love the flexibility and versatility of paper clay.  It's all I use now.  

I love Heavy Bubble's motto:  "Heavy Bubble makes me happy."  It's true!  Check it out:  http://www.heavybubble.com /.

 

SOLD

Today the electors are annointing Donald Trump as our next president, despite the overwhelming popular vote for Hillary Clinton.  The efforts at recount and the small groups of demonstrators at state houses where the electors are voting, don't make any difference.  I just finished this piece, "SOLD", as a small act of protest and resistance.


    
The gold in the background is genuine gold leaf.  Only the best for the international oligarchs. Much could be said.  I will let SOLD speak for itself.

                                          +++++++++++++

Addendum on December 20th:  I should have said I was playing around with the idea, and this is what I had so far on the day the electors met.  It continues to evolve.  It isn't finished at all.  I'll post pictures of it when it finally is done!

Intuitive Painting as a Spritual Practice

This was the first of five paintings I did today in a workshop at Pendle Hill:  Intuitive Painting as a Spiritual Practice.  My feelings while doing it were of our post-election confusion and the foreboding sense of darkness covering everything.  It wasn't until I got home that I appreciated the vividness of the light shining through the cracks.  

The art studio building at Pendle Hill shares its overall environment of contemplative simplicity and serenity.  There was enough time over the lunch break to walk a trail, see a pond, and find the bamboo grove.

My journey over the day's trajectory can be seen in painting number five, Opening Heart:

We were a small group of seven, lucky to work with Damini as our guide.
"Damini Celebre is a visionary artist, healer, writer, a lover of the natural worlds, magical worlds, and the inner realms."  

Wow!  How did she create an experience of spontaneous painting without thinking?  I have greater appreciation than ever for the Dada and Surrealist folks and their "automatic painting"!

It was a wonderful day.  I even took my first selfie on my new phone.











 

Notecards: a new adventure

These designs are so free and fun.  I painted them on one piece of paper
quite a while ago during a play day with my friend Andrea Snyder.

Now as I'm preparing for the Bryn Mawr College Holiday Fair, I came across the sheet of paper and noticed that if divided into fourths, the pieces fit perfectly on blank notecards with envelopes.  

The next step is to see if they can be reproduced in multiples on reasonable quality note card stock, so that I can sell them to the students at a student kind of price.

 Nice gift as a set of four!

Studio Re-Organization - a great way to spend Labor Day Weekend

My flat files were sadly in need of repair, after serving me well for the last twenty-five or so years.  Bowing and shrinkage took its toll.

Things got stacked all over to empty it out,  clearing the way for my nephew Patrick to come and help out.

It wasn't completely starting from scratch, but it was rebuilt anew.

Patrick is a wizard.
 

These flat files were made for me back when I was living the San Diego area.  They fit perfectly in a closet in the room I was then using as studio space.  Amazingly, when we moved to this house in the Philly area,  it fit perfectly in this closet in my studio.

 It was such a pleasure to load and label things.  Because of this process I found several older pieces that can be updated and made new in exciting ways.  I also found several frames and plexi-boxes that can be re-used, (mostly containing old work that is dispensable,) and are now in their own separate bin.

This makes me happy.

That corner is more or less back together again.  The floor has been scrubbed.  Now I'll find room in the studio for the piano guts that my friend's neighbor gave me, which have been sitting in the mud room.

Elegua, the Afro-Cuban Santeria Orisha that I brought back from Cuba, was supervising.  He is the master of paths, crossroads, and gates.