Curtis Bartone - Interview

Photo Red Davis

I hope you are having a great summer so far. Its time to talk to a friend of mine from Savannah, GA- Curtis Bartone. We met about 7 years ago when I stationed down there with my husband. We were both working on intricate animal etchings, so of course we hit it off from day one. I admire Curtis a lot, and wish I could be as fruitful in the studio as he is (and have access to great etching and litho facilities).

I wanted to interview him after the Abecedaria portfolio that we were in together, and ask some questions that I didn't know the answers to. Here is what he had to share:

Curtis, can you tell us a little bit about how you got started in printmaking and why you chose printmaking?

My MFA is actually in Painting. I took lithography in undergraduate school--but that didn't get me "hooked" on printmaking (even though I learned A LOT from my Tamarind-trained teacher, James Weigle). Lithography at that time was just an inferior way to make a drawing. Then, in graduate school, at Northwestern University, I discovered the sexy medium of intaglio. After graduating and losing my access to a printshop, I started printing at the Evanston Art Center with Audrey Niffenegger (better known these days as a bestselling author). Her quirky group of "outsider" printmakers formed my art kin. None of us considered ourselves  "printmakers" because we all worked in other media and none of us were too keen on editioning our work. For me, printmaking was another way to make images--an extension of drawing.

I've been printing off and on for 25 years. Printmaking started as a "side" fascination and has now evolved into most of my artistic output. The last solo show I had was my first all-print exhibition. The next one probably will be comprised entirely of prints as well. I now "think" in terms of etching and lithography--those distinct qualities stain every concept, every idea that enters my brain.

Three pieces that Curtis printed for the portfolio
Gabon Viper/Gas Explosion, aluminum plate, 3 color lithograph, embossing
Hornet/Housing, aluminum plate, 3 color lithograph, embossing
Iktomi/Incinerator, aluminum plate lithography, chine colle, embossing

What are your inspirations (people, things, places...)?

Since my overall way of working is to compress anything that interests me into the illusion of a single moment, it's hard to pinpoint where my inspiration comes from or where it may come from in the future. Artmaking for me is about paying attention and being open to everything around me. While I'm always looking at other artwork, illustrations and photographs (both hard copy and digital), I find more and more that  I am inspired by non-visual, non-art sources--ideas that I come across in literature, science, travel writing, even cookbooks. I am inspired by my surroundings: industry, manicured lawns, golf courses, gardens, the  displays and dioramas found in Natural History Museums. Lately, I have been drawn to images from the news of explosions, pollution, waste, and destruction. They seem to exemplify, in an accidentally beautiful way, the hopeless times we live in.

Stylistically, my work owes a great debt to the past: artists of the Renaissance, especially Albrecht Durer; Chicago painter Ivan Albright with his overly-active surfaces; Mexican artist Remedios Varo, who creates finely-crafted, ethereal worlds; and early 18th- and 19th-century renderings of flora and fauna, especially the work of John James Audubon and Thomas Bewick. The Netherlandish still life and hunt scene painters--Frans Snyders, Rachel Ruysch, and Willem Kalf--have probably had, and continue to have, the strongest influence on my work. I have always been drawn to the technical/formal aspects and seductive beauty of these paintings.  But more than that, I find many societal parallels between the 21st-century United States and 17th-century Holland--both societies being comprised of numerous wealthy consumers able to import food, objects, flora and fauna from all over the world.

Iktomi/Incinerator, aluminum plate lithography, chine colle, embossing (not seen in picture)

What is your favorite medium?

My favorite medium changes frequently to fit the way I am thinking at the time. Recently, this works the other way as well. I am attracted to some visceral quality inherent in a particular medium and that drives my ideas. That being said--as the years pile up, I find that etching feels like home. I always come back to it. Like visiting home after being away for a long time, etching makes me feel a mix of familiarity and unsettledness. When I return, etching is the same, but I have changed. However, I am being lured away more and more by the magical properties of lithography--especially traditional stone lithography. What could be better than drawing and scratching on a very old rock?

Your comments on the prints that were in the Abecedaria portfolio?

The work in the alphabet portfolio was exceptional. The prints were humbling, to say the least. What an exciting portfolio to be a part of! I made it a goal to use litho techniques and color palettes that I almost never use and, like any uncomfortable undertaking, I made mistakes and fought most of the way. In fact, I spent more time and swore more making these tiny prints than I did making huge etchings a couple months back. Oddly, the pieces I end up liking the most are the ones that I struggled (sometimes even hated) to make. Maybe I feel like the prints and I went through something together.

Any bits of wisdom that you have learned over the years?

--Make the work you want to make and then worry about the "career" stuff. There are better ways to get rich. There is a word for someone who goes into artmaking as a way to get rich, and that work is "moron." Piles of money will make you happier if it comes on your own terms, without compromise.

--Have career goals, but don't take them too seriously. This is a sure recipe for depression. We all  spend more time in our studios than we do schmoozing or accepting awards. Fame and fortune are fleeting, nebulous and ultimately disappointing, but our studio/laboratory experience can be as fulfilling as we let it be. It's the wisest cliché of them all: live in the moment!

--Don't censor your work until you put it down on paper. Some ideas sound stupid or overdone, but become original or ironic when realized visually and vice versa--a brilliant idea may become dull and boring when put to paper.

--Learn everything. If you get a chance to learn anything, take it--even if it doesn't fit your "style."

--Never lower your prices to fit a certain demographic. People who bought your work in the past don't like to think that someone else is getting the same work for cheap.

--If you have to make a complicated contract with the gallery who handles your work, get another gallery.

--Never pay to show your work. Think very hard about entry fees and high commissions. How badly do you need that line on your resume? Never seem desperate--even if you are.

--Don't donate your work to museums for free. It ruins it for everyone. Again: how badly do you need that line on your resume?

--Use even the smallest group show or trade portfolio as motivation to make new work.

Well, that's surely something to think about. Thanks Curtis! I only posted pictures of the pieces that were included in the portfolio in this post. If you want to see more, you can find more information and images on Curtis' website of course. 

Thanks for reading, and thank you Curtis for sharing. In the next post, I'll share what all has been going in at my studio in the last months.  

Smells like Summer... Finally!

Hi there! I am so glad that the weather is finally warming up and we are able to get outside a bit. Apparently this has been the grayest winter in Germany in over 50 years! We've paid for it by taking turns with Aila being sick since January it seems like. I have a little bit of a cough and runny nose left, but I think we are almost done with it all. Whew. I've been trying to play catchup with work all spring, and have gotten several pieces finished and done. My first wallhanging print is watercolored and waiting for some signatures- hopefully tomorrow. I'll write about that process later. Now before I run too far, I wanted to talk about the portfolio. We showed it at the MAPC conference in Cape Girardeau, and it was recently accepted into an exhibition in Finland in Tampere, but since they have not made the official announcement yet, I'll have to hold my tongue. I'm very excited about it though, and am currently matting all the prints, so they can be framed when we go to Finland mid-May.

I mainly wanted to post a lot of images of the prints in the portfolio and talk a little about each artist. I'll interview a couple, for some more in-depth stories. The theme of the portfolio was animal ABC's. We wanted to do a small portable set with artist working in different media, so that it would also function as a teaching tool. Each artist also contributed three prints, so that you can better see the style that they work in. I love multi functionality- our portfolio is like a little Swiss Army knife! Lets introduce our artists:

Letters A, B & C - Mirka Hokkanen

Hi, you know me. I chose to do wood engraving for my media. The images were engraved on resingrave blocks and printed on a proofing press. The artists that we chose for the portfolio all work with animal and nature themes, so printing animals for the portfolio was no leap for any of us.

The titles are Ant Eater, Bees in Bluebells and Cats.

Letter D, E & F- Seiko Tachibana

The titles are just the letters d, e, f. The media is drypoint and digital. Seiko is from Japan, and has completed degrees both in her home country and in the US. She currently works in California, and balances Asian traditions with minimalist modernity in her prints. 

Seiko writes: "I like to compare the marks, lines, shapes, colors, and textures that are the basic language of my work to living cells, and in the context of an individual block or panel, those cells come together to comprise an organ. When I assemble several individual works together, the blocks and panels then become like organs in a body, a body that is the whole of an artwork. In contemplating the similarities between biological structures and my work, I have discovered many different connections between ourselves and the universe in which we live."

Letters G, H & I - Curtis Bartone

Gabon Viper/Gas Explosion - aluminum plate litho, polymer plate 3 color litho and embossing

Hornet/Housing - aluminum plate litho, polymer plate 3 color litho and embossing

Iktomi/Incinerator - aluminum plate litho, chine colle, embossing 

I have interviewed Curtis already, and will be posting that for you shortly. Big fan of his work, and hope you'll love it too! So here's just a sneak preview.

Letters J, K & L - Chandler O'Leary

All prints are linocut, watercolor, cut out with calico fabric in the back. Here is a closeup of the letter J. All the paper inside of the image have been cut out and you can see the light blue flower fabric peeking through. 

 

Chandler works as a designer, illustrator and letterpress artist and I was so glad she agreed to be a part of our portfolio. I think we work from very similar inspirations and I love how she's able to incorporate "high" and "low" art in these beautiful accessible pieces. I always wonder how to do the same without  being too crafty. I have wanted to feature an interview of her for a long time and this will be a reason to finally do it. Before I get to it, you can go and visit her website here.  

Letters M, N & O - Inari Krohn

Morpho - etching, chine colle

Narwhal - etching, chine colle

Owl - etching, chine colle, wood cut

Inari is an established graphic artist in Finland and around the world. Her works are inspired by Finnish forests and the rhythms of tree branches against the changing skies. She is equally interested in the luminous painterly textures of Japanese woodcuts and the precise, delicate lines of intaglio. The quality and combinations that I see in her prints always capture and surprise me. I love seeing her work in galleries that I visit. Being moer established and having worked for so long, she has built the most amazing home studio which gives me something to aim for when we are done moving around. I look up to her in so many ways.  

Letters P, Q & R - Leo Lee

Pangolin v Polyp, Spotted Quoll v Queretaro Desert Snake, Rock Rat v Red Squirrel v Raccoon - all screenprint and watercolor. We asked Leo to make her set using screen printing. I was a little afraid of what you can do with screen printing on such a small scale, but she did not disappoint. These images are so intricate its hard to believe from afar that they are screen printed. They make an amazing example of how you can push the media. I love that she also incorporated some humor into our portfolio with her combinations of animals battling it out. 

Letters S, T & U - Sari Bremer

Snake and Tiger are three plate etching and aquatints and Unicorn is two. I learned about Sari's work from Inari. I had mentioned to her that we were looking for an artist who works in animal themes and uses acid etching techniques in her prints. Sari was the perfect fit, and it was nice to have another artist represented from Finland in our portfolio. 

Here is what Sari writes about her work: "In my pictures I'm showing places where I've never physically been. The images are allegorical. Yet I wish them to also function on a purely visual level, each whole & complete in itself; tales that need not be interpreted. ... I want the viewer to experience through the images strange places, situations and phenomena. ... The subject matter changes and shifts freely from the stormy sea to the impenetrable jungle."

Letters V, W & X - Lari Gibbons
Vulpes Vulpes, Watersiphora Subtorquata, Xiphophorus Hellerii - all etching, letterpress and mezzotint. 
Lari is a friend whom I met when going to graduate school. She both teaches printmaking and directs the P.R.I.N.T. Press at UNT. I don't know how she manages her own time in the studio, but she is amazing and makes it work. 

We asked Lari to be in the portfolio, because she is well known for her intricate little mezzotints, and we wanted that technique to be in the portfolio as well. Lari helped us out even more, by adding letterpress to the prints, which no one else was featuring. Here is what Lari said about her pieces in the portfolio: "Because few common animal names begin with "v," "w" and "x" I looked to scientific names for a broader range of options. I also focused on invasive species--especially those that relate to the north Texas region where I live--so that the subjects would explore this overarching theme in my work. Lastly, I made reference photos and drawings at the Elm Fork Natural Heritage Collection at the University of North Texas. The labels that I incorporated in each design provide the common names of each species. 

I drew the subjects in a linear style that references technical drawing and illustration. I used mezzotint sparingly, adding subtle drop shadows around each of my subjects. Adding letterpress allowed me to show the relationship of each letter to the entire alphabet and to have a repeating visual element in each print. " 

Letters Y & Z and the title page - Jon Lee

Both prints are hand made paper with watermark and woodcut, title page is letterpress. 

Jon Lee was the co-curator of our portfolio. We came up with the idea about 2 years ago while I was visiting San Antonio for the visiting artist program at Southwest School of Art and Craft. Jon is so creative and talented in a multitude of ways. He has excellent craftsmanship and I love visiting and seeing all the things he has made. His skill as a master craftsman is integral to the creative artist work, as you can see in the prints. Even though his work looks minimal, so much has gone into it in thought, labor and skill. It is very beautiful to behold. 

On another interesting note Jon is active in papermaking and printmaking research, adapting age-old traditions to contemporary uses. He is a native of South Korea and has worked as a professional printer for eight years, both in Korea and in the United States. Upon completing his Master Printer Training at theTamarind Institute of Lithography, he moved to Iowa to earn his MFA in printmaking at the University of Iowa. He currently works as a printmaker, papermaker and educator and is an Assistant Professor at Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas. 

I'm so happy to be a part of the portfolio. It was a great experience putting it together. I have Curtis' interview already in my mailbox and will post it shortly for you to enjoy!  

February- Already!

It feels like the months are flying by one faster than another. Since my last post we moved to a new house and have been travelling almost non-stop. I've needed January just to recoop and collect my thoughts for a fruitful (winter and) spring.

Before November I was on a crunch to finish three engravings for a portfolio that Jon Lee from San Antonio and I were organizing. The theme for the portfolio was animal ABC's. We selected 9 talented artists who worked in different media from around the world who worked with nature themes and asked them to create three letters. It turned out so great I'll have to write a separate post on the whole portfolio and introduce all the artists and their work. Below- Lari Gibbons and me posing infront of our portfolio at the MAPC conference.

The portfolio was exhibited at the Mid America Print Council conference in Cape Girardeau, Missouri in November. I was able to participate to see our beautiful portfolio on the wall and speak in the "Craft and Collaboration: Printmaking Outside of Academia" panel. It was great to share my experiences with students through the talk, get a chance to connect with friends and be around people who shared my passion. Living in a country town in Germany is not giving a lot of opportunities to hang out with printmaking peers. BTW Pinteresting has a lot of great articles from the conference if you missed it. If I get a chance, I'll try to post some thoughts too, even though it will be waaaaay late.

News- several prints are featured in a couple of ongoing shows. First the Wood Engravers Network exhibition has moved to Westville Gallery in New Haven, CT. It will be up until Feb 22nd, and then move to Seattle Visual Concepts, WA from 2/20-6/5/13 and Randolph County Community Arts Center in Elkins, WV from 7/1-8/22/13. One of my pieces was accepted into the Mid America Print Council Juried Show which is up at the McDonough Museum of Art at Youngstown State University, Youngstown, OH. That exhibition will be up until March 15th. If you're around go check them out. I am also working to update the Etsy store with the three new ABC prints.

During Christmas break we took a trip to Finland to see my family. We stayed for two weeks and I was able to squeeze several interviews after the holidays were over for the wallhaning project. I was able to listen to first hand stories of how life was before the wars from a elderly lady and talk to people about handcrafts their mothers or grandmothers had done. The project was also featured in a newpaper article and through that I have had about five contact requests with people who have old wallhanings and have memories about them to share.

In January my 16 month daughter started part time day care, which frees up some hours each week for catching up on printing and sewing. I am working on finishing up the editions for the ABC portfolio and some graphic design work for a friend in Finland. As soon as all that is finished, I look forwards to heading up with the first prints for the wallhanging project. My goal is to finish at least three prints for it this year. The first one is a little daunting to begin since I am still playing around with ideas how to translate the old handembroidery tradition to printed form. I'll just have to jump in and adjust as I go along.

I promise it wont take half a year to write again. ;) The ABC portfolio is still fresh in my mind and it was such a success- I can't want to share it with you. Have a great week!

The Bather - Story of a Reduction Linocut

Summer is finally here with a wiff of ink and rustling of paper from my studio. Aila has done a great job at keeping me busy, but I managed to sneak in some time in the studio and finish this lovely bunny print. I've been working on it since before she was born 9.5 months ago, and feel so accomplished to finally have it done. Whew!

Since it was a long time in the making and reduction prints are generally more complicated, I wanted to share with you how it was printed and some tips how to make your life easier when printing reduction cuts. It's not the first reduction linocut post I am doing, but you always learn new tricks to solve problems. I managed to even put together a two part video of the whole process! 

  

 

Just a quick update on whats been happening in our lives before we jump into printing. Aila has been a great source of joy and laughter to us even with ear infections, heart surgery and keeping me up every night for a month now. She had surgery to repair a hole in her heart and now that it is done, she has been very active and curious and even learned to crawl yesterday. 

As far as studio news, I wrapped up shows in Seattle and Turku and have an ongoing show at the Asheville Bookworks- Wood Engravers Network Juried Show. The next opening will be at Galleria G on Jun 27, 2012. The exhibition runs until Jul 20th and offers a great selection of contemporary Finnish prints. On the illustration front- I completed watercolors for a children's book about a little singing wren several months ago. The book is finally being printed this week and I should have copies at our house in a couple of weeks. So exciting! I'll post some images of that when we get back from our trip to Finland in August.  

And now for your daily dose of printmaking.

I got the inspiration for the print from a photo of a rabbit grooming itself from Wetcanvas.com (great resource for candid copyright free shots). The round shapes, red color and jutting ears were irresistible to me. They just begged- print me, print me! Incidentally, I had also aquired a new press, the Korrex Stuttgart (just Stu between friends) and wanted to test the limits of what I could do with it right off the bat. The size of the paper is the largest I can fit through (11.5x15") and getting large flat areas to print evenly were a challenge too. The printed area measures about 12x9".

Here is the first video that shows carving and printing the first color:

The biggest issue I had with te first color was that it was printing horizontal rollermarks on the paper. Since it was the first color and most of it was going to be hidden under the successive colors it was not a huge issue, but it needed to be fixed for the next colors. The fix was rolling forwards and then back a little bit before going all the way to the end. You see me doing it every time I print. It only took me about 40 prints to figure that out! I also had a lot of issues with the plate not printing evenly, but that was fixed in general with some strips of paper under the plate. I find that a lot of times when printing linoleum and resingrave plates attached to this kind of board the plates change during printing and need to be spot-filled with paper underneath as I go. Guess there is just a little bit of give in parts of the wood that is squeezed in during printing. Here is an image of all the first color prints drying pretty after a night of printing.

Here is the second video with the rest of the steps to complete the print. I hope it is fairly self explanatory. Please let me know if you have any questions.

The first two colors printed.

The first two colors went over pretty well. I had a booboo in the middle of my run, where I had originally adjusted my plate and forgot to push it all the way to the right. So half of my prints were 1/8" to the left compared to the other half. This caused several misregistered prints before I figured it out... It should go without saying, make sure your plate is in place before you lock it up after you've been stuffing the underside.

Since reduction cuts are a tricky business and I did not want to ruin any nice prints by proofing successive colors on them, I had to figure out how to see what the next color looks like on the print without actually printing on it. Thanks to a large piece of mylar that I normally use to register my etchings with, I was able to solve that problem. I rolled up the plate with ink, and printed it the mylar and then was able to fit the mylar over one of the prints to see what it looked like. I was glad I did that, since the plate needed some more carving.

Below is the third color being proofed. The first state is on the left. You can see how much darker it is in areas, and after proofing, I went back and carved some more areas out. At that point I also resolved to make a 4 color reduction cut instead of 3. The Black was too harsh on the first two colors and the image needed another middle brown to soften it.

Why am I so stingy with my prints? When you do a reduction cut, you destroy the plate by carving it a little bit more every time you print. So I started by printing about 90 images, and every time one was misprinted, it was one less for the final edition. I can't go back and print the first colors any more because the plate for it does not exsist anymore. In the end I had about 50 good ones left. 

Rolling the last state up by hand for mylar proofing.

Last color on mylar by itself.

Fitting the mylar over a print to see how it looks. 

All done and ready to print. It was really exciting to shuffle the mylar on the image and see how the final print was going to look.

For the last color, it seemed like every other one of the prints were slightly off register. (Thanks to my booboo in the first round and insisting on printing on deckled edge paper.) To fix that, I cleaned the mylar off and printed the final color on it again but this time well registered. So now I was able to position the mylar on the feedbed and the printable paper underneath it. Register the prints there, remove mylar and then print. This was more time consuming, but after all the hard work I put into it, I did not want to mess up half of the remaining prints. Next time I'll be sure to have clean edges and make sure the plate stays in one place...

Here are the last two colors side by side. You can see how the extra layer of black really punched it out.

The final state and a detail underneath it. 

I hope you enjoyed seeing how the print was made. I love the way the fur turned out and the colors too. I find carving *very* therapeutic and look forwards to working on some engravings and more problemsolving as printing commences. Miss bunny is titled "The Bather" and prints are now available for sale on Etsy. Have a great day!