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

Eggs, Darkrooms, Crayons and Craziness

This week has been one of those "Let's try every process under the sun" kind of weeks. Monday was egg albumen, Tuesday was negative diazo, Wednesday was Dolphin litho transfer paper, Thursday was crayon making, and Friday was caran d'ache. Friday was a short day and we took a trip to Rodney's house for dinner and a chance to relax.

So... Monday! Both egg albumen and negative diazo are negative printing techniques where a negative is exposed over an emulsion base. The negative is then exposed to light and any area not covered become black. Egg albumen utilizes strained egg whites mixed with ammonium dichromate and coated on a stone as a base. Exposure can be done either out in the sunlight (for approximately 1 minute) or under a grow light (pictured) for anywhere from 10-15 minutes depending on the temperature, the thickness of the negative being exposed, the thickness of the egg coating, the strength of the bulb, etc. etc. Basically, there's a lot of variables to consider, and the failure rate is... above average.

My first attempt failed.  I had used two negatives and aligned them to make the toner thick enough and I think the tape at the sides made the negatives buckle, hence the dark/burned spots in the image. Luckily, the egg comes off easily, so back to the graining sink and time to try again. Luckily attempt number two was a success.

 

 Attempt 1= Boo.

 

Attempt 2= Hooray!

Negative diazo was similar in theory to egg albumen. Diazo coats a plate, a negative is exposed to light, and turns white areas black. The result was a nicer resolution than egg albumen, but sadly the materials are no longer available.

Rodney with the diazo on the plate (left) and the egg albumen on the stone (right).

My classmate Richard's diazo plate.

Wednesday brought with it Dolphin litho transfer paper. Transfer paper was originally used in the early days for en plein air drawings. An artist could easily transport a sheet of transfer paper, do a sketch on site, and return to the studio to transfer the image to a stone. Because there is a loss of detail from the transfer paper to the printing matrix (plate or stone) it often has to be reworked or added to. Transfer paper has a type of emulsion on the surface of the paper that, when dampened becomes tacky and releases, kind of like a temporary tattoo. The emulsion dries for a few minutes after transfer and then is gently wiped away, leaving only the drawing material. 

 

Rodney with his awesome transfer of Santa Claus and Mr. Potato Head riding a convertible in the forest. :) 

The start of my own drawing on transfer paper.

Everything was going smoothly until I decided to try a gum stop out over my crayon drawing to protect against solvent washes- I didn't want the washes to bleed into the crayon.  Unfortunately when I transferred the paper to my stone the gum lifted out all the crayon it had been protecting and left me with a big ol' splotchy mess. A little counteretching and subsequent crayon work and I had a useable image again.

 

The transfer on the stone after reworking.

Undoubtedly the highlight of demo week was crayon making. Fumes, chemicals and fire filled the air as we melted together ingredients to make our own crayons. A local artist also lent us his crayon molds, so the final product looked incredibly legitimate too. 

 

Rodney mixing together the ingredients. 

 

Richard brought in a bag of old crayons to melt down as well.

 

 

Pouring the concoction into the molds.

Finally Friday and a demo on caran d'ache. Caran d'ache is a method where a water soluble substance is drawn onto a plate or stone, asphaltum is buffed in, and water lifts up the drawing material, leaving wherever you've drawn white, while the rest rolls up black. However, the demo didn't go according to plan. Early in the semester I had a strange plate that developed "frog skin" for no apparent reason. That is, the plate speckled, and speckled bad. I ran my edition and pawned off the rest of the unused plate on Rodney so he could use it for demos. 

He used it for this demo. 

It didn't work.  

We all had what Rodney referred to as "Leavingitis" and decided it was a bad idea to do a demo when we were heading to his house so soon, instead we abandoned caran d'ache for spaghetti and meatballs.