Horse printed and Craft fair

Greetings from rainy Dupont. Its been one of those on again/off again weeks with rain. We even had a nice little snowstorm a couple of weeks ago. It's been pretty amazing that every time I have taken our dog out for a walk, the weather has always been nice. God's pretty cool in the little things he does to bring sunshine in our day.

After arriving home from TX I had the Tacoma is For Lovers craft/art fair the very following weekend. I had time to sew a couple of things for one half of my table, and then I had prints on the other half. Here are a couple of shots from the very Valentine's day themed fair:

Here is what else I spied from around me. If you live in Tacoma area, the TIFL fairs are really worth making it to. The wares are affordable and there is so much variety. I will really miss going to them after our move. My table was next to Laurie Cinotto's. She has the most wonderful things made from paper. As a printmaker, how can I resist! Of course I did not take a picture of her table, but you can see her beautiful things at her website. I already had one pin, and had to splurge on another one as well. I also ended up getting a pair of earrings from Maija McKnight, who does equally beautiful jewelry (and who, of course, I did not get a picture of either...).

So after a busy week of sewing for the fair and unpacking after the trip, I got a chance to print the horse plate at a local high school with a small printshop. The press was a nice Conrad Machine press. Mental note, the day when I save enough money for my own nice press, make sure it has gear reduction drive in it. I was breaking a sweat and growing biceps like Paul Bunyan cranking the plate back and forth though the press 40x !

As you can see from the picture above, I was using a sheet of mylar for registration. That always works well for me. I have dried my prints by now, but am hesitating signing them, because I am not quite sure if I want to add watercolor in the effect of chine colle, and have a light yellowish background for the whole print area. I like the effect of setting the print apart from the border that way, but its a pretty big area to cover uniformly, so I can't decide if I can handle the agony of trying to manage it. Should have thought of it before I printed... We'll see.

I also took down the last exhibition I had in Kent last week. Now I have two more classes to teach and 10 more illustrations and I can finally pack my bags and move. We are having a lot of trouble because of Army bureaucracy, but I hope it will be ironed out in the next couple of days before it gets too late. I am still waiting for the interview I've been promising, but in the mean time I have a guest writer share some tips on polymerplate printing (intaglio style). Excited about that. Have a great week, Nappi (our dog) wishes you a happy early spring!

Video Interview

I was interview by the local station a couple of weeks ago about my exhibition in Kent. They did a great job editing my talk down and inserting images while I'm talking about the artwork.
This is the next best thing if you can't make it to the exhibition.

A photogallery of the exhibition is here.

Honored in Kent

I was part of the City of Kent juried summer art exhibit this year. The show opened last week with a busy reception. I was so happy to see friends from as far as Bellevue and Lacy and make new ones from all around the area. I'll put some pictures from the exhibit. The level of artwork was high, and I was happy to be a part of it all. You can still go and visit until Aug 27th, 2010, at the Centennial Center gallery (400 W. Gowe St, Kent, WA). Gallery hours are 8am-5pm during weekdays.

This exhibition has been so special to me. My work has been honored in so many ways. My image of a bullfinch made it to the front of the exhibition card and I received two awards in the show- a purchase award to be included in the City of Kent portable works collection and the Gallery Award to have a 2 month exhibition next year. And to top it off, most of the work sold by the end of the night. I feel so very blessed (James 1:17). I am so excited to have a show opportunity in Kent. The space is great, with lots of traffic, so it will be possible to reach a wide audience.

I just wanted to mention at least one other artist who is in the juried show with me. Maria Coryell-Martin has her work right next to mine on the wall. You can see her work on the second picture from the top. Her work is exciting through how it is created- bringing together art, outdoors and science- to raise environmental awareness. Maria makes color sketches in the field in freezing environments and then develops them into large watercolor paintings in her studio. Here is a short excerpt from her website: "As an Expeditionary Artist, I travel to remote regions and paint environments vulnerable to climate change, following the tradition of traveling artists such as Emily Carr in British Columbia, Thomas Moran in the American West, and Edward Wilson in Antarctica. Since 2005, I have focused on polar and glaciated environments, including Greenland, Antarctica, British Columbia, and the North Cascades mountains in Washington State." Currently she is getting ready to head to Greenland for an expedition. How exciting is that!

Well Blog Me...

The bird linocuts are finished with some color. I have 10 done, and have 10 more to go. Did have time to post one on Etsy. I took a "fancy" picture of it this time in frames. I should do this for all my prints for sale on etsy. I love it when people photograph their art (for selling purposes) with props, it always makes me want to have one.

My little mousy mezzotint and bird etching got featured in blogs. RE-Read Design wrote about things inspired by Finland in the beginning of the summer and the mouse was featured at Melissa's blog. It makes me happy and encourages me to go on when people enjoy my art. :)

Oh, and one more thing, I finally got my website front page updated so that it shows info of my upcoming class.

Blog Feature

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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.
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PLU National Print Exhibition

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Above: Patrick Merrill, 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse, woodcut, 1st prize; Robert Schwieger, Bob's Workshop, screenprint on glass.
I had a chance to visit the closing reception of the Pacific Lutheran University National Print Exhibition on Friday Feb 11th. The wonderful exhibition, organized by master printer Craig Cornwall, was juried by Tacoma Art Museum curator Margaret Bullock.

Below left to right: Tom Baker, Beacon, relief, silkscreen; Karla Hackenmiller, Liminal Deploy, etching; Andrew Au, GLNrUD, etching, silkscreen, 2nd prize; Jenny Freestone, Vessel, Recycle, drypoint, etching.


The exhibition was a joy to see offering such a wide variety of beautiful prints and combinations of techniques from established and up and coming artists alike. Ms Bullock said in her statement that her criteria for jurying pieces into the exhibition were well thought out compositions, mastery of the techniques, and intriguing combinations of materials and processes.


Some of my favorite surprises were Robert Schwieger’s screen print on glass, Patrick Merrill’s large woodcut triptych (which also won first prize) and Kathleen O’Connell’s etching, drypoint and coffee print. Mr. Cornwall was also doing a printing demo with students during the reception for visitors to see how the intaglio process works.

Above left to right: Kathleen O'Connell, Cities and Names: Cristobal, etching, drypoint, coffee; Chandler O'Leary, Versailles, letterpress; Ann Schuster, Collateral Damage, woodcut.

Please enjoy some of the pictures from the exhibition.

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Beef and hedgehog- unlikely couple

I had the wonderful opportunity to work on some copper plate etchings at Savannah School of Art and Design these last 2 weeks!!! Thank you for Jennifer Jenkins for that opportunity.
The two prints are not at all related, and I barely got the second one tolerable. The first print was a bull and rider titled Refined Beef and the second one was a round plate with a little hedgehog all curled up. I'll post a picture of the bull and rider for now. I am submitting it to the AASU faculty exhibition in September.

I have to mention a great exhibition up currently downtown Savannah. Curtis Bartone's etchings, drawings and paintings adorn the walls of the S.P.A.C.E. Gallery on the corner of Whitaker and West Henry st. Works will be up until Sept 24th. Curtis uses very detaild linework in his etchings, so they are fabulous when viewed in person, but pictures do little justice for them.


Curtis talks of his works: "I view the act of art-making as a way to explore and to question man's attempts to tame, control, and consume his surroundings." "My paintings and drawings, filtered through art history and mass media, attempt to make sense of seemingly disparate elements and create connections and order in what appears to be disharmony."

If you have a chance to check it out, it's well worth it!