Aloha, it's been a minute. Due to technical difficulties and a simple refusal to blog from my phone. Maybe it’s being Gen X but if I can't write by hand, I at least need a full size keyboard. This post is brought to you by the desktop at my mother's Art Gallery at which I now work (barely) part-time. I will tap out sentences between customers. There is no website but there is an Instagram Kohala Coast Fine Art. It's apropos I type this from an art gallery as that is what I have been up to these past couple of months. A-R-T
I've been reading, studying and doing a carving and relief process known as block printing, or linocut. My first experience was actually in Hawaii during my junior year of high school. A 4x6 piece of battleship grey linoleum, an x-acto knife and my selected colors of hot pink and green. I think I simply created a border to write notes within. I don't remember much instruction. Lo and behold I found myself drawn to Mid-century Swedish/Danish artists who created in this format unbeknownst to me that it was the same medium. I had another intro to the medium when I lived in the art village of Holualoa in my twenties. Studio 7 Gallery was a short stroll, where there were always woodblock showcases.
I've composed with a camera since I wore two braids in my hair. When I painted, it was abstract...always. Partly because that's what I like but also because I didn't think my drawing skills were anything to put down on paper...or canvas. Since I've been working in the Gallery, I've heard something said on a pretty regular basis. "I love art but I'm not artistic, I can't draw". As if you easily tap in or it is simply missing from your skillset.
EVERYONE CAN CREATE ART.
If you are alive, you can create art. That is really the only prerequisite. I'm carving my little blocks meanwhile my little brother paints masterpieces like this wave!
So if I'm not intimidated, you shouldn't be either.
Exhibit A: This is my attempt at sketching a beehive ginger, looking at a photo I took of a beehive ginger from our backyard.
Now, I felt this was enough for me to be justified in my statement that I can not draw. However, I refused to give up and tried again. This time I noticed there was a pattern in the flower and tried well...mathing it.
Better but no...and it doesn't look real, it looks like a math flower. Next I tried drawing freehand. And freeing up the restrictions I put on my hand gave me this.
Looking at the 3 of these images is wild to me. Especially since they were not done by 3 different people, nor by one drunk and two sober people. Au contraire, they were drawn only about 20 minutes apart with the same pencil in the same hand. Drawing just takes practice. Lots and lots of practice and the ability to let go of what you think it HAS to look like. I have a theory that those amazing impression artists actually paint that way because they think they are bad at drawing. Those are their "abstracts". If it doesn't have to be something realistic and specific, you are not committing to the comparison of what your eye sees vs what is on you paper. Comparison kills creativity.
Apparently I had a lot to say about that. I haven't even gotten to what I'm making....=)
When I began this adventure with my learners block, vintage lino cutter and black ink I realized that I LOVE LOVE LOVE the carving part. I found myself getting a composition on the block quickly to begin the carve the same day. As soon as I finished one, I began another. Sure I love coming up with the composition and choosing the color scheme and mixing the colors...all enjoyable parts but the carving is a whole other world. It's both soothing and electrifying at the same time. This process is so many art forms in one which I think is why I enjoy it so much. Plus it's art made in reverse and backwards. Which is just weird enough for me.
The two carvings of beehive ginger and the experimenting of inks and layering.
In Block printing, you transfer your image to the block. You begin carving out what will not be inked. What is not carved will be inked with a roller. Your paper is laid on top of the inked carving and put under a printing press or if you are like me, you burnish it by hand with only your weight and a handy tool like a brayer or a big spoon. You then carefully lift the paper for the reveal.
I carved a single block of my parents lanai. There was a sky but it was total crap so I carved it all out. Single color tests:
Title: "Rockin' Lanai"
I am still experimenting with this one and am currently finger painting and roller inking various sunsets to go beneath this block so there will be a Variable Edition, like this one with 7 colors.
And after I got a few single block carvings under my belt, I blew some savings on professional swiss tools and tried my first Reduction Relief. The Reduction process is more complicated and uses the organizing part of your brain. I have this part in spades. =) It's not frustrating to me but incredibly challenging in a very satisfying way. You really never know what you are going to get with reduction. And each one is an original. No two will be exactly the same.
Reduction refers to the continued carving away of the block after each color layer beginning with the lightest color and working to the darkest...revealing more and more detail of the composition. Therefore you can not go back. Any mistakes made will forever be a part of it. Unlike a single layer carving, there's no making more. How many you choose to start with and that make it through the whole process is your edition size.
Here I've carved out for the first layer of color.
My first reduction print was created with 3 colors. Color One..
Initially this composition was going to be a peachy-nude, a cherry pink/French rose and Black. I loved the first two layers but hated the black. I think my lines were too thick for black and it took over. I then tried a mossy green which looked great with the other two colors but another caveat of reduction prints...you are stacking color. So the next color is on top of the previous color and therefore mixes and the hues change. You have to consider color theory when you are both mixing your colors and choosing layers. Organizing Brain engage! There's no going back with reduction and I could have gone though most of my run experimenting with colors so I decided to mix up a darker pink.
I made a point to do what's called a Suite of each one to show the layering steps. I also wanted a record for myself of the process ever since I saw one Picasso did and it was just so super cool. Unfortunately, the first layer was on my desk and I forgot to put it away before the daily early morning Jackson Pollock reenactment done by my Mastiff. So he added his mark to my first ever reduction relief block print suite. :/ another reminder there are no do-overs in reduction.
I currently just finished my 5th reduction relief and I've gotten up to 7 color layers. All tropical flowers so far. I documented like the mad photographer that I am. There will definitely be a What a Relief:Part Two. Come back soon for "In Florescent", "She Carried a Torch" and "Marcia Marcia Marcia". Naming things is also my favorite.
