Print Your Heart Out!

Wanted to give you a head's up on a class I am going to be teaching at my new studio. It's not the biggest palce on earth, so I am limiting class size to 5 students. That will enable everyone to get the attention they need and enough space to spread out. The class will be an introduction to photopolymer plates. Price is $180 and it will include all essential materials needed in the class. Classes will meet on Tuesdays from 10am - about 1pm, depending on how people get done with their work. I chose polymerplates to be my first class, since it is fairly easy and students can continue making them at home after the class.
During the course of the class we will briefly look at the different types of printmaking, students will learn how to prepare, expose and print with polymerplates and how to continue with the process even after the class has ended. Students will have a chance to see original prints from artists around the country and be inspired by the multitude of expressions that printmaking offers. Since space is limited, I wold advise to sign up for the class early. To do so, please email me at mirka@mirkah.com, payments can be made through paypal or check. I will add this course to my website front page in the next couple of days.

I was able to go to the Seattle Wayzgoose this past week which was held at the School of Visual Concepts. They have a really nice print shop and have some awesome classes you can attend. The wayzgoose was a blast, and I actually remembered my video camera now, so I could take some pictures from the steamroller printing of giant linocuts:

Three tips for Lincut Printing

Howdy folks! I have been having a long break, spending time in Finland with family and enjoying the summer. I made a little picture diary of things that I loved there. You can find it here. As far as intaglio printing goes I am out of commission until the semester starts back up again at TCC on Sept 28th. I was silly and left my materials in the studio, thinking I would not need them. That's ok though, it has given me time to make some linocuts.
Remember the age old game of telephone? As part of my new theme of animals conspiring against us, I am working on a linocut series of animals passing a message along to each other. I was trying to make them look a little like vintage illustrations. I don't know if it worked or not. Here are the first two I finished so far. It's supposed to be 9 little prints when it's done.

I was using the speedball watersoluble block printing ink to print the last prints. Since the plates were so small, I just hand burnished them. Below is my print setup at home. I have always had problems with this ink drying up and becoming gummy after about 10 prints. Since I am thrifty and don't want to throw out ink I paid for (I have 5 different colors of this stuff), this is the solution to work with it. I took my small atomizer bottle meant for watercolor painting and misted the rolled out ink surface lightly in between prints. That enabled me to print indefinitely with the ink. Also- don't squeeze out too much ink on the plate for rolling out at a time. I am still not crazy about these inks, they are watersoluble like watercolor even after at least 5 days after printing and drying. But because of the same reason, they are easy to use at home (which we are renting) for easy cleanup.

Tip #2: Linocuts curling up on you? If you work on smaller sizes, the plates always curl up after they are washed. Bigger ones flatten out with weight but not these ones. If you dry them in between phone books with a weight on it they will flatten back out. Here is a before after photos. Oops, the plate is different in the photo, but you get the point.

Below is a print that I was working for a comission. A friend wanted a print of a chickadee to give to her father for a birthday present. I figured that since it ties in with my other animal prints, I would make a whole edition of them. Here is where the tip #3 comes in (afterthoughts kill me). I tried to do some watercolor on top of the print (before I knew it would run) and of course it bled all over. I also printed them on Rives light weight since I was hand printing, so the paper warped a lot when it got wet. To fix these two problems, I had to get a little crafty.

I used Krylon crystal clear spray on the print and let it dry thoroughly. Then I added wheat paste to the watercolor to keep it from soaking in immediately. This helped me apply the color more evenly and kept the paper from wrinkling up. In the end, it turned out great. She loved it. I had to turn it in as soon as I got it done, so I don't have a picture right now, but I will color the other prints as well so we'll have a picture in a couple of days.

Hope those are some helpful hints to someone out there. Just chuggin' along here.

Tweet tweet

I have been working hard to print some of the plates that I have been working on. I had 4 plates, but no prints, so yesterday, I made a couple of hours time for myself to pull a couple of proofs off of each to at least start the edition. I wanted to have some ready to go for our reception at Grand Impromptu tonight and for a fair tomorrow. I still need to go back and take the time to properly finish printing each edition.

I have some fun and exciting ideas for the blog in the future, so stay tuned for those. I am on twitter now too, so you can follow updates there from all my sites.
Here are some pictures of the new prints:

The Eavesdroppers, I also worked on this in watercolor. Etching with chine colle.

This is a partner piece for the little mezzotint Scout I. Also a mezzotint on copper.

I wanted to still play around with the Scout I plate, so I scraped in some background. I like both the prints, but for different reasons. I'll only print a small 2nd edition of these.

I have also worked on some more watercolors. Finishing my second more serious one this week. They are both the same subject as the prints. I just wanted to work in water color as well, to see how the ideas change as I work in different media. Here are some steps in watercoloring and the finished piece underneath.

The little mice are the Sneaky Suspects.

This is a little mini etching I wokred on just for fun. I wanted to make a little etching in a shape of a house. i ended up drawing a little cat on the inside. I think I'll make a couple more with different animals in there. This is about 2" wide and 2 1/2" tall.

New Prints, Watercolors and Events

The days seem to have less minutes in them every day. Its been over a week since I last stopped by the TCC print studio, even though I have been carrying supplies with me every other day, thinking that I might have some time to swing by and get some work done. Semester is only 2 more weeks, and with family coming to town this weekend, it's not looking so good for the rest of the month either... I am trying though, maybe tomorrow before I have to go sit the Grand Impromptu Gallery.

I did have a chance to print a couple of weeks ago, finished two prints a large etching and a small mezzotint. (Both above) It was my first ever mezzotint to rock, scrape and print, and I was pretty happy with it. Theres a picture of me rocking and another wiping a plate at the TCC print studio. I am rocking my second round plate at home, and hope to finish it at some point in the ear future. The imagery has shifted from my factory farming theme to a George Orwellian animal takeover. Lots of imagination and humor is involved. The investigation is revelaing how animals are quietly scheming to take over. One can see them eavesdropping, having meetings and planning right now.

The two watercolors, the birds still in progress are also part of that series. They show the suspects that were caught and who to look out for. Below a picture of my mess at home.

Lastly but not least, I am taking part in the Tacoma Ladyfest June 6th at 1pm. Ladyfest Tacoma is an event celebrating, encouraging and showcasing the talents of female artists and performers. They give women the space to create, share, shine and hold an event that gives back to the community in support of women. All proceeds from the event will be donated to DAWN, a South-Sound non-profit organization whose mission is to end domestic violence by empowering survivors and fostering communities where abuse is not tolerated. I hope you can come, for more information please visit their website.

Spring Buzz

So many events so little time! Exhibition, spring cleaning, meetings, being stuck in traffic- when d I get to make some art. There are so many exciting things going on right now.

I got asked to do a show at Patriots Landing, which is a retirement community here is Dupont. They have a lobby area with empty walls and no art to put up. I got a couple of other artists together and the reception will be on April 25th. I first thought I could make some new non-shocking work, but now realize, that it's not going to happen with everything else going on. I did finish two presentable pieces, the black horse drawings, that I have ready frames for. If I can handle it, it would be nice to have a couple more new drawings, since I have a lot of frames from an old project that I never intend to show again. We are also doing a spring botox for the gallery- sprucing it up a bit. We finished painting the walls, and half the floor, and by the end of the week it should be mostly done. We had a good time, I put some photos on flickr, click on the picture below to see those. The next show goes up next week, with reception on friday, I'm sad it'll be the same night as the reception at Patriot's Landing, so I can't make it to both. Tomorrow I am going to TCC where I am signed up for the independent printmaking class, to teach one of the other independent students about etching aquatints with chinamarkers. That should be fun. Maybe I'll try to take some photos about it. It's been a week since I last made it down there... I am working on a new plate, which I am not sure how it will look. I guess I'm in a transitional phase, where I'm not sure how the art is going to look yet. I do have a theme though. It's been on my mind for years, and I am finally getting it on paper! More on that later.

What I've Been up to Lately

.
Well, it's been busy busy busy lately. But I guess thats a good thing to keep me out of trouble. I went the the SGC conference a week ago, and had a blast. I took some photos and video, that I mean to post, but haven't had the energy to edit them yet. I have cool videos of a foiling demo and a panel talk on new technologies in printmaking.

I have been making some illustrations and a logo so I am not completely sitting on my hands. A long time project, that I've mentioned before is Fabians creatures, which is a novel being written by Joshua Goldfond. So far I've completed 6 or 7 illustrations of all sorts of creatures, which has been great fun since animals are fun to draw. Josh is hoping to finish the book this summe, so keep your fingers crossed that we get it published.

My husband asked me to make a logo for his detachment in the army. Their mascot is a scorpion, I know-how cuddly, so he wanted the logo to be a skeleton riding a scorpion with their company patch in it somewhere (its the flag with the fleur de lis...). Anyways, completed that too tonight, so I thought I'd post it here for all to see.
Stay posted for those videos to come soon...

Blog Feature

.
Rosemary Ponnekanti of The News Tribune in Tacoma has featured my work on her GO Arts blog. Visit http://blogs.thenewstribune.com/arts/2009/03/29/up_now_on_the_walls to see her article.
.