Printmaking Lino and Woodcut

"What Awaits"

Project #1 Dichotomy

2 5x5 Linoleum plates

9x14 Prints

Inks: warm black-left, cool black-right 

Edition of 5

First of all, I'm not a fan of having a concept behind every piece of art work that I do. And so far, this class is ALL about a concept. Here's a quote from my professor, "I'd take a concept over quality any day." That killed me a little bit. Yes, concepts are important, but if you don't have the skill to pull it off, the concept won't matter (but kudos for the people who try anyways and are able to talk their way around their piece without ever actually putting any effort into it.) I am a firm believer in talking the talk AND walking the walk.

Now for this project. I struggled with the concept. The theme was dichotomy (who even knows what that means, seriously?!) Of course I researched topics, definitions, words, examples, etc. and finally came up with a design that I didn't absolutely hate with a passion. Figuring out a design was the hardest part for me, and I definitely think that it could have been pushed a bit further if I had the time to do it. When coming up with ideas (these were all late night adventures, of course) I had an 'ah-ha!' moment of adding an anatomical heart (to match the EKG line) and to give life to the tree, which definitely helped the design (and also makes me a bit giddy since I love anatomy and and that jazz) 

If you can't tell I chose to portray life and death, through common symbols of each. The heart beats life into the tree; life is pumped out and eventually fades to where death awaits us all. For the assignment we were to use a warm red-black and a cool black (cool as in a cool blue color, not as in "Hey man, your jacket is really cool!" type of thing :) ) to help subtly portray dichotomy in an even deeper level. I put red on the left (red-blood, life) and blue on the right (cold, empty) to help emphasize life and death. It is hard to see the difference in the picture, but it is there, I promise. The end. :)

"Tainted"

Project 2: Social Issue
Wood Cut relief carving with color
8x10 woodblocks
10x14 Print
2 Plates (black key plate, and a red-orange/grey rainbow roll)
Edition: 4


I enjoyed this concept more than the last one. I was either going to do pollution or homelessness. I probably should have gone with homelessness since I now know there are 2 other people in my class that did theirs on pollution. I wanted to focus on air pollution (just like everyone else apparently) but also the effects that air pollution have on us as a society. Pollution creates extremely beautiful sunsets because of the particles in the air, but it is also creating health problems.We cause harm to the environment and it turns around and bites us right back (take that humans!) The other pollution carvers in my class did cityscapes with air pollution.

I wanted to have more value and depth in this project than I had in my last project, which wasn't much. I knew I wanted to do a sunset-y color behind the city, but I also wanted to show dirty air, so I left the rainbow roll ink a little bit dry to create a patchy texture/show the wood grain and also I faded it to gray to bring out the purity of the paper that the print was on and also portray a more dirty feel. If the figure in the front was white, he would look more healthy. No one has a fleshy pink/white color when they are sick. To create a sense of depth, I created a foreground and a background. I brought the person up close and personal and pushed the buildings into the back by making them smaller. Imagine if the person was smaller and the buildings were bigger so they would be about the same size-not quite as effective, I think.

Carving wood is a bit more frustrating than carving the linoleum, that is for sure. You can't get as small of detail because the lines that you want to appear in your print will 'pop' out and you have to carve according to the wood grain which can be frustrating at times.

Oh and the best part of carving Linoleum and wood (Imagine this in a sarcastic tone, mmmkay?) My nerves in my wrist would get pinched, leaving my thumb, index finger, part of the middle finger and hand, tingling/pins and needles and numb for HOURS! Carving took me a really long time and it was painful and frustrating because of it, but ART IS WORTH EVERY BIT OF IT! :)

This print shows the dryness of the ink in the rainbow roll a little bit better than the other one.



As always, thanks for checking out my blog and don't forget to follow the blog and comment. I love to hear from ya'll.

       

Here are just some Progress Pictures