Well, I was pretty much on track to complete one a week until a wonderful cold bug swept through the household. Consequently I had to take a day off last week for myself, another for my grandson, and even when I was in the studio working it’s hard to cut detail between coughs and sneezes! Anyway, pretty much over it all now, but the third of the series, ‘Humor’ (below) has run into this week to complete. It didn’t help when the inner monologue in me suggested giving one of the guys in the piece a striped shirt!
So, one more to go (Wisdom) and then hopefully the fun part of printing over the next week or so – although my paper hasn’t arrived yet 🙁
Two of the four ready to print and the third in the series about a third cut. I want to print the whole set together to ensure a consistency, so another week or so and they should be good to go – exciting! Still an issue with my over detailed compositions. I really should have reduced them more than I did, but as I’m over 50% through them, I’ll just persevere!
Nothing really new to show here, although the angle and light of these two shots of #1 (Ignorance) and #2 (Knowledge) does really emphasize the gouge marks nicely.
One and a third out of the set of four cut. Such a lot of detail in each one (my fault, I know!) that they are taking a lot longer to gouge than I initially thought. A combination of not always being clear where exactly I need to cut, a sore neck from leaning over, and procrastinating…. sorry, I mean researching 😉 anyway, here is a photograph of progress. Now back to work, I suppose.
So here is the first (work in progress) 9″ x 12″ lino from a series of four studies of ‘the barfly’. I didn’t want to use specific individuals as the focus of attention in case they offended anyone. Instead I opted for fictional characters, but all loosely based on observations from a collection of people. The four prints are titled Wisdom, Knowledge, Humor and Ignorance – but their narration is actually interpreted as the old barfly, the one who thinks he knows everything (the one in the photo), the comedian and the one who invariably drinks his troubles away every night.
I figure it’s going to take me a week to cut each of the four pieces. Then I can print them all together. What I wasn’t prepared for was the neck ache while I’m gouging! I can just imagine coming back off this sabbatical with chronic neck pain!
One way to ‘force’ my students to have to put ideas down onto paper before reaching for their beloved computer is to have them produce a Creative Process Book as the final brief of my Editorial Design course. Essentially the content would be all their idea development from the other three projects of the fall semester. They then collate and lay out, editorially, in a clear, hierarchical, creative way. So, simply put – if a student has ‘winged it’ with any of the previous projects (in other words, minimal evidence of thought process), then it comes back to bite them with this one because they will be short of content – consequently, a low grade!
Okay, so after a lot of visual research and a couple of ‘on-site’ background photo-shoots, I finally developed four compositions I was happy with, focused around the observations of the ‘barfly’ character. All fictitious, but also with hints of individuals from my life and social circles. The concept of the series is that each piece loosely narrates pseudo-traits associated with them; knowledge, humor, wisdom, and ignorance.
My aim is to transfer onto linoleum next week and then start cutting, but then the problems start because 1. I think I have initially included too many details on all four compositions. I won’t know for sure until I try to reduce each one, 2. unlike my last relief print series, I’ve been far more vague on where to cut with these pieces – just hoping that I can figure it out as I go! Still, it’s all part of the challenge I suppose. And 3. I usually feel more comfortable working on one thing at a time, however in this case I want to be cutting at least two of the four at the same time (no, not literally with a gouge in both hands!), so this goes against my comfort zone way of doing things. Anyway, here is a shot of the four pencil comps ready to be traced down onto the linoleum (next week), *the bottom right one has already been turned over and taped down.
It seems an age away, but I am already promoting my London based Creative Strategy (Graphic Design) course for January 2013. Why so soon? Well, deposits (and a commitment) are due in April, so not much time to save up or ‘convince’ whoever is paying that it is going to be the best experience they’ll ever have as a student.
Finally decided it was time to let Christmas go and get on with 2012 (before it ends abruptly on December 21st…. not). I picked up all the equipment, odds and ends etc. I needed from my office at BU and headed down for my ‘home’ for the duration of my spring sabbatical – A residency at the Prairie Center of the Arts.
My studio space for the spring
I have a few projects lined up, a mix of course updates and art pieces. Hopefully, I will remember to post about their progress (or about my procrastination) frequently. First up is to design a poster to promote my London course for J Term ’13. It sounds a long way off, but the students need to pay a deposit around April time, so I need to market the trip pretty heavily in the next few weeks. In addition I want to do the initial research and image sourcing for my first art project – A series of relief prints titled ‘Barfly’ and (very) loosely based around the visual narrative of the Last Supper.
A third project sitting over the top of everything else is my trip to the Brazilian Amazon. The team meetings are getting more frequent now as the March date gets closer – very excited about it but I need to get more familiar with my Panasonic digital camera before then, so will use the Prairie Center and it’s occupants as my ‘model’ to practice photographing!
So, day one of my sabbatical is pretty much over. Just focused on getting settled in my new surroundings. Looking forward to having the opportunity to (hopefully) make some art, sort out some much needed syllabus updating, and generally just ‘chill’ for a while.
