Happy New Year 2021

 Besides continuing to do experimental work as I decide what I can and can’t teach online, I’ve been doing some more etchings lately. Here are some proofs of recent etchings:

Here is another in progress:

I grained my last lithograph off the stone last summer, but had limited access to the KIA studios since then because of Covid restrictions, and have not been able to start my next one. With the studios open again, I hope to get a start on it soon.

Covid 19 updates

I’ve been working on personal projects since the Covid 19 crisis, but also on a lot of projects for online classes for the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. In addition to teaching Basic Drawing online, there have been workshops on gel plate monoprints and kitchen lithography.

I’ve been posting most of my personal work on Instagram, also at gunplainpress.

Current Lithographs

I’ve finished this lithograph drawing on the stone, I’ll just have to process it and print!

I’ve also been working on a small accordion book, a series of small self portraits that fit into an empty make- up compact. The portraits were done on a plastic lithograph plate, a small edition of three.

The book is a response to environmental damage and “throw-away” culture, and out personal responsibilities regarding those concerns.

Current Projects

This is the lithograph I’m currently working on, a rural scene on Miller Road. The stone is one of the largest at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts; the image area is about 18” x 24”. This is the same stone I used for my Josephine Butler poster, which is currently on view at the KIA faculty exhibit.

The quote reads “God and one woman make a majority.” Josephine Butler was a Victorian social reformer whom I admire.

Autumn Projects

       Some photos from the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts wrapping paper workshop this November.

Works in progress... baby shirts for the KIA holiday sale.

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Gifts from Laura

My daughter, Laura, made me these great items with the Gun Plain Press logo! She used a Cricut Maker. Thank you, Laura!

West Michigan Area Show

I was honored to receive the Kalamazoo Art League award for Border Police, my entry to the West Michigan Area Show at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts.

The image was inspired by a conversation I had with one of my students over print borders. Printmakers are traditionally very particular about having large, very clean borders around their work. The student asked me if there are any hard and fast rules regarding print borders and I said "No, there aren't any border police," to which she responded "I wish that were true in real life."

It's hard to see in this photo, but the outer border of this print is covered with smudges and fingerprints that are "walking" around the wall, and one set of fingerprints has breached the wall at the lower right side, to the offense of the guards. The entire image is meant to be a tongue-in-cheek comparison between printmaking and "real life."

Thanks again to the Kalamazoo Art League for their recognition.

Printing Fabric

Last summer I bought Jan Hewett's book Print Pattern Sew. These are photos of my first project using her methods. The image is drawn from some sprigs of rosemary from my garden. I printed about 2 1/2 yards on cotton muslin.

I think I'll use this to sew one of the blouse patterns from Hewett's book. It's a great opportunity to combine printmaking with my sewing hobby! It's not the greatest color but I was just trying to mix a quick green tint from the colors available in the Print Studio.

Prints at KIA Holiday Sale

The Kalamazoo Institute of Art Holiday Sale is next weekend and faculty are asked to put work in a "Collector's Gallery." Below are the prints I'm putting in. The first is a new four-color intaglio print based on some photos I took of my friend Laura Pitts' garden last summer. I intend to do a series of these.

The second is about a year old; it is a wood lithograph of  a tree growing up through an abandoned windmill. I saw this on Indiana Route 13, driving down to visit my son at Manchester University.

Barbara Nohinek workshop

A monoprint from the Barbara Nohinek workshop I attended last Saturday at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. We learned a lot of layering techniques using Akua inks, printing woodblocks on paper and acrylic.

Steamroller print day

These are some photos from the Under Pressure steamroller print event at Western Michigan University at the end of October. Participants carved  60" x 40" woodblocks which were printed with the aid of a steamroller.

The theme of the event was "Call and Response." This the print I did with the help of fellow printmaker Donna Groot. In this shot it's drying on the floor.

And here are some of the many prints hanging in the atrium of the fine arts building at Western.

Reformation Broadsheet

This is a large (36" x 16") etching I did to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. The artist's statement reads:

"This is a copperplate etching commemorating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. It is inspired by a Reformation Centenary broadsheet produced in Leipzig, Germany in 1617. As a printmaker, I've always been cognizant of the role printmaking played in the modernization of society when it was still a new technology in the 16th and 17th centuries. Most scholars credit the success of the Reformation in part to the use of this new technology to disseminate information. 

Reformation era broadsheets were complex, crowded, compositions filled with historical, political, and sacred figures, and my broadsheet follows this tradition. It is based on the Biblical passage Matthew 25: 31-46 (Christ's separation of the sheep and the goats) and the social justice issues implied by this passage. The 'do -it-yourself'' sheep and goat masks at the bottom of the composition invite viewers to contemplate their own place in the scene."

Below is the 1617 print that inspired my work.

The etching is currently at the Battle Creek Center for the Arts, in the exhibit The Reformation Remembered- Artistic Expressions of Faith. I was honored to receive an award, "Best Interpretation of Theme." Here's a  link to the Art Center: http://www.artcenterofbattlecreek.org/exhibitions.html

Allegan County Historical Print Shop 2017

Here's a shot of me working at the Chandler-Price press during the Allegan County Fair this year. The Allegan Historical Society Print Shop is open during the Michigan FiberFest in August and the County Fair in September. Every year we have a few more improvements and another piece of equipment functioning.

Updates

I was very honored this spring to have Shingebiss included in the West Michigan Area Show at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, and to receive the Southwest Michigan Printmakers Excellence in Printmaking Award.

It's also been a busy winter and spring working on the Alchemy collaboration. My broadside with Elizabth Kerlikowske's poem is in a previous post. Below is the piece I contributed to the book and the Kerr Gallery exhibit at Western Michigan University.

And here's the linocut broadside I did for the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center Poets in Print series:

I've also been doing some experimenting with wood lithography-- I'll upload some images with my next post.

Alchemy broadside

Here is a scan of the broadside I did for the Alchemy suite; part of a collective project of local (mostly Kalamazoo) writers and artists. Elizabeth Kerlikowske wrote the poem and I was trying to capture the sense of humor within it with this illustration. It's an edition of 40, an etching with letterpress text. I set the text last summer at the Allegan County Fair as a demo and printed it a few weeks ago at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center. The element abbreviations on the roulette wheel are placed so that their atomic numbers match the traditional roulette wheel number placement. The exception is gold, (Au)  placed in the traditional 00 winner's spot. I'm not a gambler so I had to do some research on roulette wheels. All the Alchemy broadsides will be signed by the poets and printmakers and we'll be having a number of exhibits over the next few months.

New activities

One of the highlights of the past summer was again working at the Allegan County Historical Printshop during Michigan Fiberfest and the Allegan County Fair. This year the motor on the Chandler-Price platen press was fixed and the working press was a great addition to demonstrations.

My next project this fall was a linocut for the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center illustrating a poem by Rochelle Hurt. She will be reading at the KBAC's Poets in Print event November 12, 2016.

And currently I am doing etchings for Alchemy, a writers/printmakers book and exhibition project to be finished in January. I'll be posting photos of these projects as they're finished.

MFA Graduation

My MFA Thesis show opens today at the Fed galleries of Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Graduation is this Saturday! This is the film clip that will show as my contribution to the graduation presentation.

It's been a long winter and it's such a relief to have Shingebiss: An Ojibwe Folktale finished.

Working on Shingebiss

Here is the frontispiece to Shingebiss, my MFA thesis project. I've been printing the etched illustrations at home and the text at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center. It's nerve-wracking (I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about it) but I'm making progress, and I'm on schedule.

More work in the Allegan Print Shop

I spent some time with this CMC Jobber platen press last Tuesday, and it is working. The proof press and little "Sho-Card" press are ready too. I'll be doing demos at the FiberFest this coming weekend, and at the Allegan County Fair next month. Both events are held at the Allegan County Fairgrounds.

What's set up in the press here is a "Shopping List", a whole list of various groceries with little check-off boxes next to each item. And there is also a chase set up with a pinochle score card! Who knows how long they have been sitting, waiting to be printed again. Two others are empty; one I will set up as a "Welcome to the Allegan Historical Society Print Shop" bookmark, to print during the fair.

Print Shop, Allegan County Historical Society

This is just one corner of the Print Shop owned by the Allegan County Historical Society. Today was my first day cleaning up and organizing, helped by my son Carl. We'd like to have it ready for demonstrations (even a small demo!) for the Allegan Fiber Fest and County Fair. Amazing vintage equipment has been donated to the Society, it just needs to be cleaned, organized, and in some cases, repaired. We had a lot of fun doing an inventory and starting to clean up. It was an amazing afternoon.