The NHIA Minumental Exhibition

Every year my college-The New Hampshire Institute of Art- does an exhibition of 2"x2" artwork- this year I did a cute little relief print- I hand painted and printed each little one so they are each unique and different. I think they look cool together in a triptiych, there are several that I like. The print is a little Echeveria plant that has gently rouged leaf tips. The colors and rose-like design remind me of vintage type tattoos a little bit. Sadly, due to snow and a not-so-public rain date to drop off submissions these little guys didn't make it into the show. Maybe next year!



These little prints coincide with my current body of work focused on my beloved house plants, of which I have at least twenty. I am going through a phase of life where, bereft of pets, I have taken on plants as a kind of overt obsession. I own many succulents and know how to take care of anything from a tropical pitcher plant to grass. I know when to plant and fertilize black eyes susans, and I know when it is time to begin watering your lithops in the spring. I think the first little relief print is my favorite for its subtle pink and changes in green.
Check out some plant related paintings and in progress work at the Painting tab above, or if you too are a plant hoarder check out my blog- occasionally updated with new plant facts I have found scouring the internet, updates on how mine are doing and new additions/the occasional death.

More Old Prints

There was once a mailbox theme.

This is a lithograph.



Lithography dates back to the mid 1800's and was extremely popular for advertising uses through the early 20th century. Your Newspaper of Choice is still printed this way.

The basic principle behind lithography is that oil repels water. The technique involves a great many steps, especially if you use a Litho stone (which I did not- litho plates are a lot more portable however, do not erase like a stone) so I will not go over them here. Just know that in essence, you put oil-based marks down, then magical steps later put ink on the oil marks you made, the ink sticks only to the oil marks, then print those onto a surface (paper, fabric etc).

This process really drives home what museum docents and cave enthusiasts everywhere have always told you- your hands and fingers have oils. And when you touch things those oils transfer from your hands to whatever you touched. In that same way those guys on CSI pick up finger prints off of wood floors and wine glasses, you too will be amazed when you roll on the ink to find that your print has perfect fingerprints or the classic (!) hand-and-wrist-resting-to-draw combo right in the middle of your glorious portrait or landscape.So don't forget! No touchy.

Revisiting Old Prints

This first print is a relief print.

A relief print is made by carving out or indenting areas of a flat surface-commonly used are linoleum, materials such as EZ-cut and different kinds of wood- and then rolling ink or pigment on them and pressing that ink onto a paper or fabric. The resulting picture or marks is a mirror image of the picture/marks carved out of the flat surface; only the ink left raised up on the platform of the flat surface will show when the paper is pressed to it. In this type of Printmaking, it is important to either plan meticulously and carve meticulously, or to go with the flow of your mistakes. It is sometimes difficult to fill in your accidental gouges.

Below is an example of what a reduction relief block looks like after the final layer has been printed. In a reduction relief, a block is printed, then carved, then printed again as many times as desired. wherever you care out the previous layer shows through. This is my favorite method of printmaking so far.



This is the print from that block. The final layer was the red on the tips of the mail chutes.



Here they are together:



See how the print is the reverse of the block?