Print Making 1 -- Relief

A relief print is made by cutting an image into a plate, rolling ink onto the surface, putting paper on top and running it through the press. Where the plate has been cut away, the image will be white. Where the plate has been left intact, the image will be the color of the ink. Wood block prints are relief prints. In our class we used linoleum plates and the prints are called "lino-cut prints". I liked this process a lot. I did two prints, "Flight" and "Hall of Mirrors". I'll return to print making classes next year.

Print Making 1 -- Dry Point

A dry point print is made by scratcing an image onto a copper plate using a carbide-tipped scribe, applying ink to the plate, heating it gently and then rubbing the ink off where you want the image to be light. Paper is placed on top of the plate and it is run through the press. The image may be rubbed out and a new image scratched onto the plate. Sometimes portions of the previous image may be retained for and/or show through the next image. I did five images for this series but will only post three: "Stone", "Ladybug" and "VW Beetle". I liked this process a lot.

Print Making 1 -- Lithograph

Traditionally a lithograph was made using a very high quality sandstone. The chemicals used in that process can be quite toxic so we use polyester plates which are better for the environment. To make a lithograph an image is separated into its component colors and a separate plate is made for each color. The design may be printed onto the plate using a laser printer or it may be hand drawn using a special pen. Each color is printed separately and the print must dry between printings as the plate can pull the ink off of the print. During printing, the plate is sprayed with water and ink can be rolled onto the plate since ink and water do not mix. The process can be a little tempermental since the paper tends to stick to the wet plate and that can make it difficult to line it up perfectly. This print, "P is for Poppy", is make with six colors: yellow, red, green, blue, cream and orange.

Print Making 1 -- Collagraph

A collagraph (like "collage") is made by gluing things to a plate, inking it, adding paper on top and then running it through the press. These collagraphs, called "The Enormous Room", were inspired by e. e. cummings WW II autobiography with the same title.

Print Making 1 -- Monotype

A monotype is a print where ink is applied to a glass plate, paper is placed on top and then run through the press. The print may be dried and new color layers added. This print, "Balloons in the Sky", has three layers of color: yellow, red and blue.

Photography 1 -- T Rex

Perhaps your newspaper did not cover the story of the T Rex that attacked the new business school on campus. There are some people on campus who suggest that the art department had something to do with the attack. It may have had something to do with the art department getting the space that it really deserves but I wouldn't know anything about that. This is from roll number ten.

Photography 1 -- Wire

Here is an abstract image of some wire found in the Hyatt Nature Reserve. I took quite a lot of shots there but liked this one the best. It generated a lot of discussion in class. It is from the eighth roll of film.

Photography 1 -- Campus Trees

Here is a landscape from the BSU campus looking out toward the green belt. This is from the fifth roll of film.

Photography 1 -- Power Sweep

Here is a still life from my garage. When the other students in the class saw this, they really got a kick out of it. It is from the fourth roll of film.

Photography 1 -- Portrait

This is a portrait of my photography professor. When he saw this he said, "Oh, that's a good portrait, even if it is of me." This is from the third roll of film.

Photography 1 -- Grape Vine

This is from the second roll of film. This photo is taken in my back yard.

Photography 1 -- Dead Iris

I enjoyed this class much more than I thought that I would. I especially enjoyed working in the darkroom. Watching an image appear is almost like watching magic. I took about 400 photographs during the fall semester, but will post only about six or seven. This was from the first roll of film.

Sculpture 1 -- A Walk Around Hyatt Nature Reserve

Film is sculpture. According to our professor. Once you accept this idea and move on, making a film can be lots of fun. Our assignment was to include some artifice or deception in the film. It had to be (exactly) 90 seconds, plus title and closing page. Mine is called "A Walk Around the Hyatt Nature Reserve." I hope you can spot the deception. This was the final sculpture project for the semester.

The film is uploaded to Vimeo. You can watch it here:
http://vimeo.com/26178830

Sculpture 1 -- Full of Life

For this braised, steel wire sculpture, we were to make it site specific and the site needed to be within a five minute walk from the class room. This work represents a space on the BSU campus between the administration building and the liberal arts building containing seven trees. It is called "Full of Life." It is approximately 20 inches wide, 18 inches deep and 14 inches high. The width and height of each tree is relative to the actual trees. The work was sand blasted and painted with a clear coat finish to inhibit rusting. It took a while for me to get used to braising wire, but once I got the hang of it, I really enjoyed it.

Sculpture 1 -- Dice House

This sculpture, completed in plaster, was to represent two distinct ideas, that when combined, created a third idea. The title is "Dice House" and is to comment on the current real estate market. There is also the idea that life is a gamble and there are rewards for taking a chance. Plaster is fun to work with, but you have to be really fast. As it dries, it gets harder and harder to work. The final sculpture is about 4 inches by 4 inches by 4 inches.

Sculpture 1 -- Self Portrait with Fabricator

In this assignment, we were to design a self portrait to be fabricated in wood. We then would turn in our designs and the professor would hand them to another student for fabrication. We were not to speak to the fabricator during fabrication. This self portrait represents six of the houses that I have lived in. The floor plans are in a 1:48 scale and the height of the structure scales to the height of the house. I was very lucky that my design was given to a very, very competent student. The project came out great. The smallest structure is about 4 inches by 4 inches. The largest is about 7 inches by 10 inches. Each little block represent a room in the house.

Painting 1 -- This too shall pass.

This is the final painting of the semester. It is about 24 inches by 32 inches and is oil on canvas. It is the culmination of several weeks of work and is to represent the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear explosion in Japan. This is the most complex and ambitious painting that I have attempted. There are some things that I like about it and I am still letting it soak in. The title is to bring to mind the Buddhist idea that all things -- both good and bad -- are transient and shall pass away.

Painting 1 -- Fukushima Study

This is the fourth study that I did to prepare for the large, complex work on contemporary issues. It is to represent the explosion at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. It is about 9 inches by 12 inches and is oil on paper. I believe that this is the best painting that I did during the semester. Some things that I really like about it are that I used extra medium to make the paint flow more freely. This made the brush strokes much freer and more expressive. I like the way the colored ground (dark blue patterned ground) shows through the image in places. I like the semi-abstraction with a recognizable image. I like the rich colors and interesting diagonals. I wish every painting turned out this good.

Painting 1 -- Japan Tsunami Study 2

This is the third study that I completed as part of preparation for a large complex work on contemporary issues. It is to represent the aftermath of the tsunami in Japan. It is a little larger painting, about 9 inches by 12 inches. It is oil on paper.

Painting 1 -- Japan Tsunami Study 1

This is the second of four studies I did to prepare for a large complex work on contemporary issues. It is to represent the tsunami crashing into Sendai, Japan. It is relatively small, about 6 inches by 9 inches and is oil on paper.

Painting 1 -- Japan Earthquake Study

This is the first of four studies that I did to prepare for a large, complex painting reflecting on contemporary issues. This painting is relatively small, about 6 inches by 9 inches and is to represent tumbled down buildings in Japan after the earthquake.

Painting 1 -- Low Key

This is grisaille, except that you cannot see the colored ground. It has a magenta ground under the black, white and gray. This is relatively small, about 6 inches by 9 inches and is oil on paper. This is the second part of the homework assignment. Both of these were fun to do and really relaxed.

Painting 1 -- High Key

This is almost grisaille, but not quite. There is a little brown added for interest. This is a relatively small painting, about 6 inches by 9 inches. It is oil on paper and was done as a homework assignment.

Painting 1 -- Combined Image

In this very interesting project, we combined a landscape painting with a still life. Our goal was to derive some extra meaning from the combination. The meaning that I was driving at was the place of traditional crafts in the university setting. The craft items were from my Peace Corps days in West Africa. The building is the multi-purpose classroom complex. This is a relatively large 18 inch by 24 inch oil painting on paper.

Painting 1 -- Fabric and Bottle

At one point while I was painting this relatively large 18 inch by 24 inch oil on paper still life, the professor came up to me and said, "Is that really the color you see?" To which I replied, "Yes, of course. Why?" She then called me closer to the front of the class. I had been painting the wrong color all the time. She then calmly said, "You'll have to be more observant if you want to paint realistic images." She is a wonderful teacher. Ah, fabric and bottles. Again.

Drawing 1 -- Pastel Bird

This drawing was a little more "craft like" and consisted of several parts. It was a 20 inch by 20 inch drawing on two contrasting colors of paper. The background consisted of negative images of birds surrounded by colored ground. The colored ground was made of two or more colors of pastel. The main image of the bird was drawn will realistic looking pastel colors and over the top was laid a cut-out line drawing of a bird in a complementary color. Getting the line drawing to stick was the hard part since the pastel had to be sprayed with a fixative first. It was interesting, complicated and fun to do. This was the final drawing project for the semester.

Drawing 1 -- Perceived Color

The goal of this 18 inch by 24 inch pastel still life was to match colors as closely as possible. We worked on this drawing for about two and a half weeks. Each class period, the still life would be set up for us with the rose, glass of water, glove and stick in precisely the same location. The blinds were closed and lamps gave us (just about) consistent shadows. We were to impost one-point perspective on the drawing so that it looked three dimensional. This was easier said than done. One of the hard parts was when things were not lined up correctly (like the post card). This was a great challenge and a lot of fun. I really enjoyed this one.

Drawing 1 -- Dream and Dreamer

This 18 inch by 24 inch charcoal and pastel drawing on colored paper was a lot of fun to work on. It is a structured drawing consisting of several components. We did a portrait of a classmate (the dreamer) using white and black charcoal and one color of pastel. In the rest of the drawing (the dream) we used only the charcoal. For me, the rest of the drawing consisted of a newpaper clipping photo (the boy swimming), a favorite animal (the penguins) and a landscape (Steamship mountain in Arizona). It was fun.

Drawing 1 -- Pen and Ink Self Portrait

Our assignment was to do a self portrait using a quill pen and ink on drafting film. The film does not readily accept ink and beads up. The photograph does not show all the beaded detail but it is very interesting. I found that I absolutely love quill pens. Once I start, I just want to scribble. It is a lot of fun and very liberating. When I do the self portraits I seem to have a really serious look on my face, but most of the time I'm not like that. I'm just having a good time.

Drawing 1 -- Erased Pastel Portrait

For this 18 inch by 24 inch drawing we were to use two colors of pastel. (I chose dark blue and green.) And to create a rich colored ground into which we were to erase the image of one of our fellow students. We then could lightly add a few lines on top of our erased image to enhance it. We spent three (90 minute) class periods on this. During the first period, my erasers were not working at all. I got new erasers for the second period and they were not much better. By the end of that class period I thought, "You are going to fail this class." For the third class period, I tried one more eraser and finally got it to do something. I added my line on top and got something that I was really pleased with. I thought it was the best drawing that I did during the semester and proved to me that sometimes I can draw.

Drawing 1 -- Bust of David

We spent about two weeks drawing the bust of David. This is done in graphite on white Strathmore drawing paper. It is about 9 inches by 12 inches. The other students in the class were very, very good at this and I struggled with it. I can say that I finished it on time and was able to turn it in.

Drawing 1 -- Modified Contour

In modified contour drawing, we do not get to lift the pen from the paper until we are done. Hopefully there aren't too many spots where the ink has spread out. This was my second try on the shoe. There were some other contour drawing that we completed, but they did not photograph well so I won't add them to the blog.

Drawing 1 -- Blind Contour

I really enjoy blind contour drawing. We did several of these in class. This is the one that I like the most.

Painting 1 -- Color: Abstract

For our final painting, we tried abstraction. The process was interesting. We chose an object and wrote down things that described it. We then did word association with those things. We found common themes and connected them together. From these we came up with images to represent those connections. We developed our compositions from these. It was a very interesting process and I 'm glad we tried it. I'm left wondering how to evaluate abstract paintings. Perhaps we'll get more of this next semester.

Painting 1 -- Color: Self Portrait

It is a funny kind of experience to try to paint yourself. You have to be sure that you are wearing the same clothes, have the same expression, are sitting in the same spot and have the exact same background. In this painting I finally felt that I got fabric that looked real. I liked the geometrical nature of the background. It contrasted well with my image of myself. I'm not sure where that fierce look came from. Normally I'm really happy and smiling in class. Perhaps it is a look of intense concentration. The painting did end up looking like me except that I could not get my nose right. During critique one student suggested that I change the pose to have more of an angle; it would be easier that way. Next time, I am going to try that.

Painting 1 -- Plein Air: Friendship Bridge

We went out painting in the early morning on a very cold fall day. The sun was out and leaves were falling everywhere. I painted friendship bridge with leaves and walkways all around. It was my first experience painting on masonite. The surface is quite slippery and paint has a tendency not to stick very well. My hands were so cold that I could not make very good marks, but I liked some things about this painting. I especially liked the top part and the leaves toward the bottom where I was in such a rush to get finished before my palette froze. I think those marks were more accidental. Next time, I am going to wear gloves.

Painting 1 -- Color: Orchid and Shadow

I loved this composition. I like the idea that the background is as interesting as the foreground. I loved the sweep of the shadow and how it lead the eye around the picture plane. I liked the little hints of objects here and there. I like an open composition that gives you the impression that there is more than just what you can see in the painting. I still struggled with the fabric and making the glass appear solid, but this is my favorite painting from the class.

Painting 1 -- Color: Bread Basket

After two monochrome paintings, we were introduced to color. Color is hard. Some of the things that make it hard are that our palette was quite limited. We started with just eight basic colors and mixed everything from them. In doing that, one of the problems I had was not being able to mix exactly the right shade that I wanted. Second, I often did not mix enough of the color so that when I ran out, I'd have to mix again and quite often have trouble mixing exactly the same shade that I just mixed. The mixing did improve over time.

Painting 1 -- Grisaile: Fabric and Cylinders

This was my second painting. It was again limited to monochrome paint in black, white and shades of gray. The composition included gray fabric and objects in various shades of white and gray. This painting was a little easier than the last one, but still very difficult. During the class critique of all of our paintings one student commented, "You get extra credit for at least trying the gravy boat!" That made me feel better about it.

Painting 1 -- Grisaille: Fabric and Objects

This was my first oil painting. At the end of the first day of class I thought, "I am going to fail this class!" I could not make oil paint do anything I wanted. I did keep working at it and eventually got something that looked like a painting. It was not a good painting, but it was a painting. The composition included very dark red fabric, white fabric, and white, black, gray and orange objects. We could paint in black, white and shades of gray and had to finish in two class sessions. I was glad when it was done.

Ceramics 1 -- Garden Teabowl

This was my final project in Ceramics 1. It is a small teacup with a strawberry glaze. For some reason, this is the cup that I like and use the most. The glaze is a little thin but doesn't seem to detract from it too much. I'll use this glaze again. Here are the details:

Project: Garden teabowl
Method: Wheel thrown
Clay: Recycled
Glaze: Strawberry

Size: 4 inches (H)

Ceramics 1 -- Ancient Chinese Teacup

For this teacup I chose an ancient Chinese glaze and design. I especially like the fuzzy image and will use this combination of glaze and copper again in my next ceramics class. Here are the details:

Project: Ancient Chinese teacup
Method: Wheel thrown
Clay: Recycled
Glaze: Chun with copper carbonate design of flowers

Size: 4 inches (H)

Ceramics 1 -- Sen no Rikyu Teacup

This is a simple teacup inspired by a 16th century Japanese teabowl called "Kogan". It was the kind of teabowl that Sen no Rikyu, the great master of the tea ceremony recommended. I used the same glaze and a similar design to Kogan. Here are the details:

Project: Sen no Rikyu teacup
Method: Wheel thrown
Clay: Recycled
Glaze: Shino with red iron oxide design of grasses

Size: 4 inches (H)

Ceramics 1 -- Abstract Landscape

Our assignment was to do an abstract work. I chose an abstract landscape. To get all of the different clays I went to the recycle barrel, pulled out handfulls of different colored and different textured clays, put them on plaster slabs, dried them out and wedged them into workable balls. I then used these in the construction. Notice that the work did break in the kiln. I made it too thin. I am mounting it on plywood so it can be used. Here are the details:

Project: Abstract/enigmatic landscape
Method: Coil/pinched construction
Clay: Various clays of all colors and textures
Slip: Chrome and red iron oxide slips applied and scaped away
Glaze: Applied with brush: Lefever Black, Zeller White, Utah Red, Golden Yellow, Shino, Salt Lake Blue

Size: 17 inches x 17 inches

Ceramics 1 -- Narrative

Our assignment was to do a narrative. I chose "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and represented three scenes. It was a lot of fun. Some other students had no idea what I was doing, but others picked it up right away. I'll do more of this. In the kiln the three pieces were side by side on the same shelf. Notice how differently they came out. This is one of the interesting and wonderful (and frustrating) things about ceramics. Here are the details:

Project: Narrative – Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Method: Slab construction with relief
Clay: Soldate 60
Glaze: Zeller White
Colorants: Red iron oxide, cobalt carbonate, copper carbonate, yellow ochre, rutile, manganese dioxide, black iron oxide

Size: 8 inches x 6 inches