Epiphany

I didn't print a new Christmas card this year, but this is my favorite of the ones I've done in the past because of the W.H. Auden quote: "I am the star most dreaded by the wise....I shall deprive them of their minor tasks." The new year is a good time to think of the minor tasks of which one needs to be deprived. I was talking to David W. at work and he said "I'm always busy, but I don't want to be busy, I want to be productive." I think creative people have no problem of thinking of things to do, but of focusing on the important ones. Perhaps I should just speak for myself here. In any case, I hope I can make the coming year more productive than busy. This year's focus will be the Keeler Project of backplate prints; then plastic plate lithography.

I'm looking forward to this reception tomorrow-- thanks to the Allegan Area Arts Council!

Meanwhile I'm printing more Miller Road copies, though I don't think I'll be fulfilling the edition of 15 soon. I want to move on to the Keeler project, and do some experimenting with plastic plate lithography on my etching press. I bought a new, larger roller for this a while ago, and haven't used it yet.

Ready for ArtPrize 2011

Miller Road - 49080 is installed at Bethlehem Lutheran Church. (http://www.bethlehemchurchgr.org/) I've added a slideshow below of the images and text of the book. The images are also available at my Artist's Profile on the ArtPrize website, http://www.artprize.org/.

Friendly Confines of Graphic Chemical Company

We went to Chicago last week and stopped by my favorite ivy-covered place there, Graphic Chemical Supply!I just needed paper, but they have everything a printmaker needs. It is a fascinating environment; every space on the wall is covered with prints, presumably made by customers. Here is the link: http://www.graphicchemical.com/.

The website also has a blog with printmaking advice and discussion.

Yes, we went to Wrigley Field, too. Go Cubs!

Next Project

The Miller Road plates are done, so I will just be printing and binding those for a while. I'm also thinking about my next project; a series of etchings depicting images of the Keeler Brass Company, the old Godfrey plant. I have a lot of loose sketches I made while working there, of people and places in the factory. I'll be using these images, and some from old company photographs, to make etchings on old brass backplates.

The one shown above is my first experiment, to see if the backplates would etch in ferric chloride. (They're solid brass.) The image is from an old company photo of Hetzer Hartsock, who retired from modelmaking before I started there. He died about a decade ago.

The next one will be of modelmaker Marlin Signor, from a sketch I made of him in the design room. Marlin was retired and died last fall; it's still hard to think about that when I work on the etching.

In any case I intend this to be like a miniature visual history of Keeler, etched into brass plates.

I have this idea of deconstructing an old Keeler catalogue and rebinding the etchings into it.

Last plate for Miller Road book

Finished the last plate for Miller Road. This is a quick proof with too much plate tone. I actually saw this scene; the heifer and horse wondering why the cat was taking over their barnyard, sitting there like he owned the place. It amused me.

First Multiple Signature Project

I've finished binding Prufrock. These pictures are not the best; I used a different camera than I'm used to. What made the binding challenging was the thick paper I used for the collage illustrations; hopefully a lighter paper like the Somerset Book Lightweight I'm using for Miller Road will be easier to work with. The title page is digital text, I used Somerset Book Lightweight for it and the endpapers. The distressed looking red and black paper on the covers is a decorative scrapbooking paper I happened to have on hand. The homemade bookcloth worked very well; no air bubbles or problems, but I made a measuring mistake and couldn't cover the whole book with what I had as a result. It was my intent for the whole book to be cloth-covered, but I had to use the cloth and paper combo instead. The whole project was really an exercise in multiple signature binding and I'm satisfied with the result.