Collaboration 4 and Breaking Bad

Working on the limestone

So apparently there's this thing called "March Madness".  Word on the street it has something to do with "sports". Both of these things are fairly foreign to me, but I like the sound of "March Madness" and for me and my next collaborating artist it was "March Mastic Madness". That's right folks. Barnes's mastic resin asphaltum reduction once again! Not just once-but twice!

My next collaborating artist was Elizabeth Sobel, an undergraduate student from UNM with an amazing drawing style. For her previous projects Elizabeth built up her image to create rich blacks and subtle grays, and based on her past images I thought working reductively to pull out her brights and highlights would be faster than building them up. This was also the first time we had three weeks to complete a project instead of the two we had before. I knew that most of the time allotted for the project would go toward creating the image itself because of the detail and the size- a full sheet 22" x 30".

So, while Elizabeth was working on her image I started a small project of my own using the same method. This way I'd have something to work on, wouldn't make Elizabeth feel rushed, and would get to try out a few new things with the process that she could potentially use in her own image- including painting back in with the asphaltum mixture, and mixing it with mineral spirits. The end result was a three-run print with two plates in the background- a light green and a white on cream paper with the key printed in dark brown.

The completed image on the stone

All things considered, Elizabeth's image turned out infinitely better than my own. :) Here's her image on the stone before processing and rolling up in black. She was a little concerned about the image being too bright, but I assured her the change from brown to black, combined with the slight filling in of really light areas made with steel wool would result in a much richer, darker final image.

We trial proofed three different colors for the background- a light tan the color of the limestone, a darker tan the color of the limestone when wet, and a murky green. The lightest tan was on a different kind of paper that had too much of a texture, but the dark tan and the green looked beautiful.

Trial proof with tan background

Trial proof with green background

Personally I liked both and could see the edition going either way. Ultimately Elizabeth decided she liked the warmth of the tan better, and the edition was pulled with her approval.

In other news a gentleman came by Tamarind to give us notice they would be filming AMC's "Breaking Bad" next door at the Denny's last week. As you can imagine they don't do a lot of filming in Fargo, so I camped out for a bit to watch the action that day. There wasn't a whole lot to see since most of the action was happening inside, but we did spot Aaron Paul who plays Jesse, and got to see this awesome "methebago" as Richard dubbed it. No idea what's going on, but once the final season airs it'll be great to see it and scream incoherently at the TV "I WAS THERE THAT DAY!"

January and February at Tamarind- Collaborations 1 and 2

"Flying of the Bulls" by Jamie Kovach

I think I mentioned in my last post about the collaborative nature of this new semester at Tamarind. Our first three collaborations rotate on a two week basis, and our last three on a three week basis, which means in this limited time we meet with our artist, allow them time to create an image, and pull trial proofs for paper, colors, and layers until the artist is happy with the result. We limit the trial proofs to four just to stay on schedule, and because sometimes too many options just becomes confusing. Once an artist has a trial proof they like they sign is as the ATP or Approval to Print. The edition (the size is up to the artist, again, with a limit of 15 to stay on schedule) is then pulled and matched to this ATP.

So my first collaboration was with a graduate student at UNM named Jamie Kovach. Jamie mostly worked in photography and recently in painting in the style of paint-by-numbers, and while she had done some printmaking in the past, she hadn't done a lithograph. Because of this I thought it important to get her involved in the process more than just shooting a photo plate, so we transferred the image to ball grained plates, and split it up into three runs. One for the blue of the sky, one for the bulls, and then the key.

Elizabeth Sobel's print

Overall, I think for the first collaboration it went very well. Jamie was very easy-going and fun to work with, and I loved the sense of humor she had in her work. To the left is the finished print "The Flying of the Bulls." You know, like the running of the bulls. But more extreme. And with zeppelins.

To make life a little easier my classmate Richard and I have been working together, so I get to see and be a part of the collaborations he's working on as well. I won't go so much into detail, but I did want to post a picture of his artist's, Elizabeth Sobel, first print.  Elizabeth did a two run print, a tone plate in the background, with stop outs for the figures in front, and the key in black.


In between projects we still have a few demos from Rodney. Our first was on the huge Steinmesse & Stollberg (S&S) flatbed press. Rodney had us pulling flats one day, and mono-prints the next day. The whole experience was pretty cool. That press is gigantic, and a little intimidating, but very impressive. We've yet to fire it up and run it automatically, but Rodney tells us it's loud and awesome.

Richard inking up the plexiglass on the S&S

 

I missed the second day mono printing on the S&S, but luckily we had another day for mono printing on the regular Takach presses. The idea was the same- ink up a plexiglass and run it through the press.

Marvin added some Fresca, and Rodney pulled the print- clearly his finest work to date.

Back to collaborations! My second two week collaboration was with Marcos Polaco. Before we even began Marcos and I had talked about doing a maniere noir style print for the key, and I suggested Michael Barnes's method because it was easier to reduce and it was something new for Marcos to try since he had done quite a bit of litho in the past. We originally pulled three trial proofs with a blend for the sky and a blend in the supporting plate in the background, with the key on the stone. 

The first three trial proofs

After seeing the colors in the proofs Marcos decided the green was too vibrant, and didn't marry well with the areas in front where the paper showed through. A fourth trial proof was pulled with just the sky and the key, but upon seeing it and talking a little more we decided not to abandon the second plate all together and instead just create a color a bit darker than the paper to give it some definition, but not be so stark a difference that it took away focus from the key plate. This last trial proof then became the ATP. 

"Sleeping Giant" by Marcos Polaco

Marcos put a lot of time into the key, and the results were beautiful.

The image on the stone before etching and processing

Detail of some of the bushes in the foreground

Sponging away the gum to reveal the crackle effect

Semester 2 (Electric Boogaloo)

Sorry. I can't help but make a Breaking II Electric Boogaloo reference whenever possible.

A lot has happened since my last post. The year ended with a few more big projects, including an introduction to photo plates, converting those plates to waterless, and a big three color reductive stone. 

Before arriving at Tamarind I had never seen or used photo plates. We did a four color separation on the computer and printed out films for cyan, magenta, yellow and black, exposed those mylars to the photo plates and printed each plate individually. The real challenge came in perfectly registering each mylar, and printing a correct ink film- too lean and the image looks spotty; too heavy and the image feels weighed down.

Overall though, they turned out beautifully, and I felt comfortable enough using them that over the winter break I took a trip up to Fargo and did a workshop at MSUM for a few students who were still around.

However, what I really loved was the three stone reductive method. I've come to realize reductive work is one of my strengths, and I was eager to try Barnes's method again at a larger scale (nearly full sheet). For this process three primary color runs were printed and overlapped to create a variety of colors, including browns and black.



     

Yellow first, then red, then blue. I prepared a stone, reduced all the areas I wanted to keep white, and all the areas that didn't have yellow in them (purple, pure blue and pure red for example). I pulled the whole edition in yellow, then altered the stone, removing all the areas I wanted to keep yellow or that didn't have red in them (like green), and added areas that had red but not yellow and printed red over the yellow. The same was done with the blue. It may sound a little complicated, but with some planning on what needs to stay and what needs to go it was fairly straightforward, and the result was beautiful.


  

So this was the last project of the semester. Spring semester has been much different than the first. First semester focused on demos and techniques, and the second involves working with and printing collaboratively with graduate (and a few undergraduate) student artists from across the street at the University of New Mexico.

In December Rodney interviewed interested students, and seven were chosen to work with the seven of us printers. So for two to three weeks we're paired up with an artist and print an edition with them, up to four runs. Since this entry is getting a little long I think I'll save my next post for my first and second collaborations. Til then!

Tamarind

Why, hello again. For the last few months I've been trying to decide how and when to get back into updating this blog. Today, I feel, things have come full circle since my last post and it's time to brush off the cobwebs and start again.

A lot has happened over the last few months, almost all of it for the good. I finished my applications to graduate schools, got accepted to a few, and made my decision when I received my acceptance letter to the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, NM to participate in their printer training program (PTP).

For the past 50 years Tamarind has been at the forefront in reviving the art of lithography in the United States. Prior to Tamarind, lithographs produced in the states were basic, black and white lithographs created by a select few printers. Artists hoping to make anything of real quality, or involving color needed to travel to Europe. Founder June Wayne realized the need for a program like Tamarind that would train master printers to work in the US, and to restore the prestige of the medium. With funding help from the Ford Foundation June founded Tamarind Lithography Workshop in Los Angeles, and 10 years later affiliated with the University of New Mexico where it became the Tamarind Institute. This is the bare basics of the history of Tamarind, their website has a bit more on the subject and a link to a fantastic article by Clinton Adams where he writes about the early years of Tamarind.

Today Tamarind invites eight students a year from around the world to participate in the PTP. These eight students go through the year long program, with the first semester dedicated to improving technical skills, and the second semester dedicated to working collaboratively with graduate students from the University of New Mexico. After the year long program one or two students of the original eight are selected to participate in the Master Training Program for another year, after which they are certified as Master Printers. Many of the lithography workshops around the USA, and several around the world are operated by Tamarind Master Printers.

To be part of such an amazing and prestigious program still leaves me speechless.

For the past 12 weeks I have lived lithography. The days are long, have their ups and downs, successes and failures, but when all is said and done there's nothing else I'd rather be doing. The first few weeks were spent doing technical tests: crayon drawings on stone and plate, tusche washes (both with water and solvent) on stone and plate, counter-etching, flats, toner, etc. etc. To go into detail on all of these would- 1. Take forever and 2. Be redundant, as my classmate Richard has already done a fantastic job, and I'll just link you to his blog- the aptly named School of Flat Rocks. :)

Around week 7 things got really interesting. The technical tests behind us, we began working on putting them to use, and working collaboratively with other PTP students, first in black and white, and then in color. We then moved to large format prints, and Rodney (my instructor, and the education director) taught us the professional way to do a blend roll. A -huge- blend roll at that. Next came some less traditional techniques including maniere noir, acid tinting and chine colle. I was especially excited about maniere noir because it allowed me to try another stone using Michael Barnes's method of asphaltum reduction, which none of my fellow students had seen before.

 

For this stone I wanted to try a few of the techniques Barnes had mentioned, but I hadn't attempted before, such as painting in asphaltum additively, and leaving gum on the stone to produce a "crackle" effect, which I used for the background. 

Even though I would be printing this in black, I still found it much easier to scratch through the asphaltum base versus black ink (which tended to clog up) or a tint field (which proved difficult to etch without burning). Printing this stone went infinitely better than the last time. Some of the extremely delicate marks filled in, but overall printing was a breeze and I was extremely happy with the results.

The prints laid out (the last print pulled on the left, the standard on which all the prints pulled are compared in the center, and the first trial proof on the right).

 

Asphaltum Lithography Print

After the MAPC conference and Michael Barnes's demonstration on asphaltum reduction lithography I was itching to try it out. As soon as I had all the materials and a base rolled out on the stone I began work on an image. It took a little longer than I expected, mostly because it acted like a mezzotint, in that I thought I had a clean, white area only to go back to it the next day and have to "brighten" it back up. Not to mention all those damn little curls.

 

The (upside down!) stone on the press.

Since the asphaltum was fairly reflective it was difficult to photograph, hence the wonky perspective. I was a little nervous to print it, simply because I really didn't think the image was going to look as good as it did on the stone- I wish I could have just framed the stone and called it good!

Long story short, I had quite a bit of difficulty printing. The image filled in a bit, and my attempts to "fix" things just made it much, much worse. Oops. I finally converted it back to a traditional base and managed to pull an edition, but it was a struggle to say the least.

 

And the print!

 

It was a great learning experience, however, and I've already got a second image underway to accompany this one. :)