The Show and The Aftermath

 
In the last three and a half months I have: 1. Shown my work in my final BFA show; 2. Graduated college; 3. Moved into a new apartment; and 4. Gotten a full-time job (not in my field, but it's just temporary until grad school, so I'm okay with that). Needless to say, things are changing, and that's both exciting and a little scary. The next few months promise to be nearly as hectic, with the Mid-America Print Conference happening in Minneapolis the end of October, applications for grad schools coming up, and having to make artwork to -put- in those applications.

Going back a few months though, I have a few pictures from the show to share. The overall theme of the show was the explore the dichotomy of children- maturity and innocence, cruelty and love- cruelty either conducted by children or inflicted upon them. Many of the pieces were inspired by stories from others' childhood experiences, or drawn from my own.

The gallery manager pretty much allowed us complete freedom when it came to the set-up of the show. I had requested three separate walls because I had three different collections of work- my linocut series, my lithographs, and my 3-D wheel piece. Luckily they were able to accommodate my needs, which was great since cohesion was the main concern that kept coming up in my critiques.

On the left wall was my series of three lithographs of the two boys with the cats. The back wall had my four multi-color linocuts, and the right wall had two other lithographs, and a small wall to bring forward the 3-D wheel.


The whole thing went beautifully, and tons of people came out to support us all, which was great. My family drove up from the twin cities to see it, and my other brother surprised me by flying out from L.A. which was amazing. Needless to say seeing him was a joy, and I got so excited by everyone showing up that I forgot to take pictures... Oops. So the only photos I have of the whole thing are during set-up, which is why it's a little dark, and a little empty. :)

I realize I haven't talked a lot about my non-linocut works, which is funny since I really think lithography is my go-to medium of choice. Not to mention that it's half of what this blog was supposed to be about (Blocks and STONES). Oh well. There's still time. :) Anyway, further posts will go into more detail about my lithographs, but basically I print on a semi-transparent vellum and combine it with drawings underneath. What I love about working like this is the starkness of the black on the vellum versus the softness of the drawings underneath, especially when using something like chalk pastel which already gives such a rich softness.