this one will be brief, especially since i haven't actually made anything that relates to any of these ideas yet. they're brewing though and there will soon be an explosion of creative merry making that will completely take over every square inch of workable space in our house. poor cj - he desires so badly to live in a modern, pristine environment. i'm packrat and becoming worse at my house keeping skills as my time to make far exceeds my desire to clean up the house or clear off the dining room table.....
so first, i've been really wanting to incorporate letterpress into my drawings. the idea of combining multiple processes in each drawing is alluring to me to no end. every drawing starts with a hand-drawn image, then digitally comes to life with color, and finally are printed digitally.....but something is lost in the digital "outputting"....i'm a texture girl. sculptor by trade and way too many years of education and student loans repayment ahead of me to throw it all away for flatness. so letterpress seems like an interesting solution.
i met a most helpful and patient letterpressman (?) who runs dependable letterpress here in the city. he guided me through the process involved with non-text printing and suggested that i just take a class. of course, i had entertained the idea prior to meeting with him, but i wanted to know more about it before i signed up for a workshop that in the end, wasn't what i was looking for. on the contrary, i think it's exactly what i need to do and what i love about it is the incorporation of digital technology with a most exquisite and archaic craft. anyway, it's called photopolymer letterpress and it really lends itself to drawings. i'm ecstatic and counting down the days til the class which i'll be taking at the center for the book .
so preceeding that workshop, our little mom's group teh motherloded, is doing our own little workshop on gocco printing. another woman in our group is struggling with the digital aesthetic as well. i've been thinking about eliminating digital printing all together, but screen-printing doesn't entice my sensibilities. gocco - a notoriously simple and space-efficient screenprinting process has quite a different effect. so i'm thinking about multi-layered/colored prints, topped off with a layer of letterpress - probably the thicker black line drawing or the more finite lines that accentuate the edges.
i'm also entertaining ideas of sewing and textile printing. gocco-ing on fabric and finishing with an outline of thread, done with a machine, and lots of loose strings. i'm not certain about how to frame them or mount them yet, but just busting out the sewing machine would be a miracle and i'm sure i'll have lots of time to think about framing and mounting while i'm wracking my brain as to how to use the machine. surprising (to me) i made a lot of my clothes in jr high and highschool. i kind of suck at sewing by hand and my level of finish was never something to brag about. if i could combine my stylistic sewing abilities with the overall aesthetic of the drawing, then that could be interesting.
ahhh, what else. i feel like i'm missing something. ...oh, my newest friend kathryn clark. her work is exquisite and inspiring. she's an amalgam of eva hesse, ann hamilton and robin seloover (an old friend with the same delicate approach to her work). ironically, kathryn and i met through our motherlode group, her daughter is the same age as my oldest and we definitely hit it off. seeing her work and her studio kept up 2 nights in a row with dreams of an organized workspace, and a forgotten yearning to get back into knitting. she's invited me to take part in another group of artist/moms who's objective is based on drawing projects. i just received the 1st assignment which is to sketch from the refrigerator/freezer everyday until we meet in late september. all drawings are to be 4"x4" and dated. i'm excited and am hoping that i will find a new appreciation for my fridge/freezer..... i'll post the drawings in the days to come.
enough for now.
