Start of a New Class

Hey! Just poppin' in to post some pics from the first day of class.

Remember previous posts about my first class? I was so worried about my 13 yr old liking the class and struggling with the materials. Turns out he loves the class. He's back for the third time. I have two other students who want to come back but because of scheduling conflicts, they can't make it. So far it's just the two of us in the class. Private lessons, woooo!

Since this is his third class, I'm mixing it up. We're going to make sculptures which we will be pasting prints on the surface. I think it will be a good challenge to think about creating textures through the relief mark making process as well as constructing a 3-d object. I'm taking a lot of inspiration from Dennis McNett.

I'm also planning on collaborating with my student to make a piece for the upcoming Exquisite Corpse Show at Water Street Studios. It will be awesome!

Darius Hurley, a resident artist, popped by to check out the class. He very much likes the WolfBat hat I brought in as an example. I must give credit to awesome dude, Marco Camacho for his masterwork construction of this righteous hat.

While I'm on the topic of complimenting solid work, I am loving the Big-O OST by Toshihiko Sahashi. Big-O is an interesting anime as it is, think giant robot anime meets batman, but the music is quite amazing.

G'night, ev'rybody!!

To Frogman's and Back

Pro's is ready for our arrival

I have not posted in a while, but I've got a doozy of an event to introduce and explain. Imagine two weeks of Printmackin' and having a damn good time. That was Frogman's.

I had heard about it from many of the grad students at NIU and it sounded great. I got some help with funding from the Illinois Arts Council. It was a blast and I highly recommend going if you really are serious about printmaking. There are workshops every year and Jeremy Menard and the faculty do a really great job getting excellent printmakers from different backgrounds and skills together to teach their art. Frogman's is actually a printshop in Beresford, SD and the workshop takes place at the University of South Dakota.

There are many classes offered. I signed up for Wood engraving and Metal engraving. I know, a double dose of engraving, but the process of creating a plate or block and the printing process is different. Deborah Mae Broad and Jim Horton lead the wood engraving class. We had a large class of about 25 people. Deborah Mae and Jim are really nice people, and they were so good at showing us the technique and process.

Wilbur Whateley, 3x5" cut from a maplewood block

The second week was metal engraving taught by Oscar Gillespie. It's crazy how he puts these really gestural, flowing lines into his work. The burin has to be pushed hard through the metal. It's not hard to do but it takes some muscle to get the hang of it.

So, I had amazing teachers, and my fellow students were really interesting, hard-workers and very talented. The other half of the workshop is very much social. I hung out with some pretty awesome people. First, my suite-mates: Tessa Shackelford, Sun Young Lim, Laura Drapac and an honorary suite-mate since he spent much time with us Douglas Bosley. I think we all clicked very well. I hope they all come to Frogman's next year. No, I'm wagglin' my finger at y'all, You Better Come Back to Froggies Next Year!!! or I'll miss ya...

Group picture before our costumes fall apart dancing so hard at the Masquerade Ball

The evening social events were not without their shenanigans. Below are just a few of the crazy things from the Bowling Tournaments. Mmmmm, costume contest! I love it.

On the weekend between workshops, a large-ish group of us went out for some antiquing!

Did I mention earlier that I want to come back next year? 

Cause I do. 

This was awesome.

Double Posting - All the way

Here's a little peek at an etching I'm currently working on...

Needs to be darkened in some places. More drawing needs to be done. Maybe some aquatinting too. Scrape and burnish the edges.
When printing, I'll do some a la poupee and chine colle with some nice paper, ooooh!!

Class Work!

A few photos from the Relief Printmaking Class at Water Street Studios:

Super Blur

Ahhhh! It's the middle of May?! What happened to April?

My class has been going really well. I offered a two week extension for my Relief Printmaking class. All of my students have signed up for it! I think after the upcoming class in August, I'm going to offer the class in the Fall for 6 weeks from 4. The August class is already set in the books. I'll offer the extension right away to those students. Yes, I already know that I have people who plan on taking that August class.
My current students are doing such great work. These people who told me at the first day of class, that they can't draw. HA! Now they're making really cool stuff: taking on complicated, detailed imagery.

A few weeks ago, Water Street Studios juried the upcoming Summer Show. Lisa Gloria was the guest juror. It's an interesting process. I put a ton of prep work into it, stopping in everyday to take care of a few submissions at a time. We had over 50? 60? applicants. A lot. I spent 3 hours after my class working on applications, finishing them early. There was no panic, rushing. Real easy!

What I found the most interesting about the jurying process is the politics. I'd say that jurying is about 60% politics, 40% good art. Maybe I'm being generous?
Maybe it's not a good idea to cater your work to a juror like I've heard. Lisa is a very technical still life painter and she was knocking painters on technique and therefore, I believe that fewer paintings got in the show. She has less experience sculpting, printmaking, photographing etc which I think it was easier for her to like the pieces because she had no technical experience to seriously criticize them.

I probably shouldn't be talking about this because the drama is a thick fog in the gallery, and it will be around until after the opening. Maybe longer for some. People get upset when they get rejected from a juried show. Sometimes, there is hate mail. Oh boy, I loves the hate mail. Nothing's more interesting to read than an adult throwing an ego-sized tantrum! Entering in a juried show is a gamble. Some people understand the risk and handle a rejection notice maturely. Personally, I see it as either my aesthetics didn't jive with the jurors or I have to seriously reconsider my work.

I honestly have not been happy with the work I am making. I think that part of the problem is I am not making enough. I have a new series in mind, and I'm already writing a few ideas for it. I'm also doing a little photography project that has nothing to do with art shows or a body of work that I'd count in my portfolio. In fact, I have to get back to it, because it is a nice day out. Hopefully the light meter decides to work again!

The Nagging Thoughts of a First Time Teacher

I have just finished the third week of my printmaking class. Right now, I'm feeling a bit bummed.
There are two real young students in my class ages ten and thirteen. Ten I admit is way too young, but I figured if the parent is okay with their child handling knives then I'll allow it. Thirteen is the minimum age I set for the my class, but I wonder now if that is too young as well.

The main goal I have for this class is to simply have fun. Also, among many other things, I want my students to learn about printmaking and to gain an appreciation of it. I've gotten very flattering complements about this class that have really made me so happy.

For example, one student who happens to ask lots of good questions and a lot of advice told me today that he now understands how to use to line create an image. In the past, his linocuts were basically cutting out an outline. Today, he's using contour line and varying the thickness and quantity of lines to create these flames and skulls with depth. He made his huge leap from his first intro block to this second block.

What's got me down is I feel like my younger students are not enjoying the class as my older students do. Maybe the wood (MDF) is too hard? Maybe the tools are too big? Maybe I'm not giving them enough attention?

I show everyone how to use the tools and print. I treat everyone on the same level. If I see anyone struggle, I help them through advice and demonstration. If someone asks a question, I'll work it out with them.
I'm not going to stop the young students when when I see them place the knife blade perpendicular to the block and twist the tool into the wood. It made me cringe inside, but I know that they should be free to make these creative choices in their work, regardless of the number of teeth a u-gouge may grow.

The ten year old enjoys the hack and tear aspect of cutting wood so I'm not worried about him. He's making a big, horned battle helmet decorated with battle axes and hammers. However, the thirteen year old cuts out most of the details he draws. He takes frequent breaks to relax his wrist, checks the clock a lot, and sighs. I feel stuck!! I've given him advice on cutting several times like: don't force the tool, make small scoops, cut with the shoulder not the wrist, etc. I'm worried my thirteen year old student is not having a good time or worst of all, dislikes printmaking. Well, I have until next Tuesday to think of something to help him out.

Despite some woes, this class has been great. I'm going to offer an extension on my class because many are still working and some want to continue working on more projects. And promise I'll remember to take pictures!!

Gettin' My Teach On!!

Ah, first week of my first time teaching is done. It went from good to even better.
The class is a four week Relief Printmaking class that meets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings for an hour and a half.
The first day of class, I was so nervous. It put me into some kind of energy high, bouncing everywhere.
The second day, no nervousness here. I was in something of a zen mode. Maybe it was because we were printing. That's when the magic happens.

I'll probably talk about my students like parents talk of their kids: All the time and always so proud of 'em. They really get into their work and want to make good prints. We don't even realize how quickly the hour and a half passes. I casually check the clock and see that class is technically over, but I invite my students to stay late if they wish.

Yesterday, during my printing demo, I showed them the nice paper they use to pull final prints. One asked how much a sheet cost, and I explained it was about $3.30 for a 16 x 20" sheet. I saw jaws drop. So none of them wanted to print their first blocks on the Kitakata paper until they made something they felt was worth it. I thought they had stuff worthy of nice paper.

I'm excited to see what their creativity endeavors them to do. I promise to take pics! I brought my camera last night but totally forgot to snap photos. Oh well, I have 6 more next-times before this class is up.