The Goods

Tonight, I needed to make a new screen for the previously mentioned Darwin print I've been working on. It seemed like a waste to coat a screen with emulsion and expose it with so much unused space so I whipped up this half tone of an old photograph and put it on half of the screen. Its 6" x 7" and will hopefully fit nicely inside these wax paper bags I bought for another project. I have 1000 bags so I need to come up with ways to use them up.

In Progress

Unfortunately, I did not really get anything finished today. I did however work a little bit on this project which will eventually be a four panel, non-representational (not abstract) collage. I figured I'd just post this in-progress shot for now. And anyway, I wanted to get out my trusty old TTV rig which shoots digital pictures through the viewfinder of a vintage Kodak Duaflex IV. This is the camera I used for the entire Land of Lincoln photo project earlier this year.

In related news, I had a few sheets of some vintage blue and red tissue paper that was totally awesome. When exposed to acrylic matt medium and adhered to a collage piece, it would release some of its pigment and create a depth of color that felt, to me, like an oil painting. When that paper ran out, I bought some modern tissue paper and it just does not have the same effect. So if anyone reads this and has a bunch of old tissue paper lying around, send that stash to me pronto.

Warhellride

I wasted most of my free time today working on a joint profile of Wesley Willis and Henry Darger.

Frend

As promised yesterday, here's the fourth in this series of Mickey Mouse prints composed of a silkscreen, an inkjet transfer and a cardboard drypoint. As of right now, I'm saying this is the last one, but I'm still working the kinks out of this drypoint process and these quick prints are a nice way to experiment, so maybe I'll do a few more sometime.

Dread

I'm not prepared to say I'm definitely winding down on Mickey Mouse, because I might change my mind tomorrow, but I'm thinking about doing one more set of four in this particular style, presenting them all together as a single project, and then moving onto something different. So check back tomorrow or the next day to see another one and then sometime in mid-November for photos of the entire project put together and hung.

Unproductive

There are no new projects this weekend since I spent the entire day Saturday and Sunday in Chicago at the fourth annual Music Box Massacre, a twenty-four hour horror film festival. This year's movies were: The Haunted House, Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, The Old Dark House, Eyes Without A Face, May, Midnight Meat Train, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Dead Alive, Phantom of the Paradise, Black Sabbath, Pieces, Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, and The Exorcist. Despite all of these feature length movies, the highlight of the festival was probably a faux-trailer for Wheelchair Werewolf, which might play better in front of a large crowd rather than on a tiny youtube screen.

I have to admit that I caught some nap time during Friday the Thirteenth and Black Sabbath, but I probably got only thirty minutes of sleep at the most. Despite the lack of rest, I did a little work on a new collage piece when I got home. Unless I put up some in-progress scans, it probably won't be ready for posting for at least a few more days.

Everyone's a Winner

How much longer can this strange obsession last? In this case, a doodle from last Wednesday was rescued from its destiny in the nearest trash can and was reincarnated as part of this stupid collage. Pencil, paper, ink and stink on wood panel. 7.25" x 7.25"

Slow + Steady Part Three

In addition to the Swet-Mouse, yesterday, I also put another layer onto Darwin. I decided on switching from the traditional black layer to a dark, warm, greyish brown. I'm still not sure if I"m finished with this. I need to get some other people to look at it and offer suggestions. If you see this and have anything to offer, let's hear it dude.

Swet

Obsessive Mickey Mouse continues today with this quick one done in the same manner as the last. An inkject transfer over a cardboard drypoint over a screenprint. I think I'm in love with these cardboard drypoints. One of these days I'm going to see how many prints I can get out of one before the plate breaks down and won't print anymore.

Slow + Steady Part Three

The plan to get cyan and black layers printed today went out the window. I only had two hours in the print studio today and spent most of that time cleaning up old jars and consolidating similar colors of ink. That's perfectly fine though since it forced me to do a scan of a second in progress version of this print. Here's what it looks like with only three colors printed. Not bad I guess since I'm too paper-cheap to waste the paper needed for pin registration and therefore have to register these layers with old-school mylar overlays and nothing to really keep the paper stationary.

Slow + Steady Part Two

I'm only doing a very few of these Darwin prints so they are going to get done pretty damn quickly. So far I've printed the yellow and magenta layers. Tomorrow I'll probably get the cyan and black layers finished. Then I'll make a decision about whether or not to add more or to just leave well enough alone.

Word / Mork

A few weeks ago, I was falling asleep in the middle of a crowded room and I had a weird dream about Mickey Mouse with a long rat-like nose. Since then I've been incessantly drawing his picture in various forms. I whipped up this little four print edition over the weekend. It's a screenprint, an inkjet transfer and a drypoint incised into the backside of a postcard, a budget intaglio technique that I'm pretty keen on using more often in the future.

Then there's this little one done in blue papermate erasable pen, cut out and then stuck onto a piece of handmade, blender paper.

Slow + Steady

After first developing the concept of natural selection around 1835, Charles Darwin spent more than twenty years researching and collecting evidence that would support his theory. He was a meticulous man, overly concerned with the opinions of his fellow scientists and feared releasing his theory without absolute evidential support. If not for Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwin might have continued his research for another twenty years without publishing. Wallace was a world travelling naturalist and specimen-collector who hit upon a notion similar to Darwin's in 1855 and began spreading his theory around despite having little real evidence for it. The appearance of Wallace's theory spurred Darwin into action. He quickly condensed his evidence into a single volume and released On the Origin of Species in 1859. Rather than being upset by the scoop, Wallace bowed before Darwin's impeccable research. The two remained close associates for the remainder of their days. In fact, Wallace was a pall bearer at Darwin's funeral.

Transparent layers of cyan, magenta, yellow and black will be printed over one another to produce a full color print of Darwin. I'm supposed to be curating a show scheduled for January 2009 built around the theme of research. I need to find eleven people willing to participate and I haven't invited anyone yet.

Bizz Nazz

Yesterday's package of post cards also contained a bunch of these business cards featuring a detail from a print I made a little while ago called Jefferson's Bible. I've been thinking about how small, inexpensive reproductions like this don't have to be used only for business promotion, but could be displayed in nice frames or just used for give-aways at shows.

Plastic Menagerie

I came home today to find a package of six hundred post cards waiting for me. I took these photos a couple of years ago using a homemade macro photography setup consisting of a crappy digital camera and a collection of plastic lenses removed from old disposable cameras. I was pretty happy with the quality of the images but just finally got around to thinking of something to do with them. The awesome thing about post cards is how versatile they are. You can send them to your friends or magnet them to your refrigerator, or you could cut some mats and stick them in some nice frames and they'd look great in your bathroom or whatever.

Sometime this week I'm going to try to screenprint up a logo on some wax paper packages and then these will be for sale in my etsy shop as a set. I also am hoping to get them into some boutiques around the country and start a little cottage industry.

Fake Sleep

Today I started working on this. I don't know what it is or if it will even become anything. But here it is. Check it out.

The other day I bought a crapload of 5"x5" wooden frames so maybe this will eventually end up in one of them. Actually, now that I think about it, I should probably go back and buy even more of those frames just in case I need them. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need them. They were really inexpensive.

A Delicate Balance Part Two

My Supreme Court/Apollo Program prints are coming along. Today they were hit with a layer of transparent white screenprinting and some thin vertical pencil lines. A couple of prints got smeared along the way so I might have to go back and do a few reprints of the inkjet transfer. Tomorrow the paper gets waxed and then later in the week some litho will hopefully get done. Right now it looks something like this:

Unity Skate

A few months ago I wrangled my way into designing a skateboard deck for Unity Skateshop, a local business that I'd like to help support. I stopped skating around the age of twelve (because I was ridiculously uncoordinated and looked like a moron on a skate board) so I probably won't be doing much shopping in the store, though I might buy some shoes there one of these days.

Anyway the owner, Dana, was stoked about getting local artists to work on a series of limited edition shop decks. When I told him what I do he was interested and asked me to be one of his designers. To make a long story short, Dana wasn't that into the idea of having an old-school engraving of Benjamin Franklin on his decks. I totally get why he might not like the idea, but I want to keep some continuity between this work and the printmaking stuff I'm currently doing which revolves around historical figures. He suggested replacing Franklin with the bear or the tiger from Good Fellow in Six Parts, a print project about the Reagan Administration. I was fine with doing something similar to that, so I came up with a second design. I'm standing my ground on "our country is full of good citizens" though. I don't know what it really means, but I'm desperate to not remove it. Now I'll just have to convince Dana.

The Shuffle

The Shuffle is a new series of six collages made from playing cards on 7"x7" square plywood panels. The next step is to frame these out and then try experimenting with pouring self-leveling resin over the top of them.

A Delicate Balance

I'm working on a new print project. It is a dyptich about the Apollo Program and the current Supreme Court. Eventually it will include inkject transfers, screenprints, hand pencil drawing, waxed paper and some kind of lithograph. I'll see if I can't think of any other processes to include as I go along. Stay tuned for progress updates. So far it looks something like this:

Alley Picking

Yesterday I went out with my new camera and took some shots to add to my long-running Alley Picking project. I didn't read the instruction manual or anything, and forgot to change the picture quality settings, so while these recent shots look ok for the internet, they aren't really suitable for printing. That's a problem because I've been thinking about ending this internet-only phase of Alley Picking and moving it into the physical world. There will be a slight conceptual and stylization shift and then I'll hopefully be able to find someone that wants to show a selection of prints from the new series. The current series includes virtually every shot I've taken in alleyways, even when I didn't feel they were especially complelling. In the future, I expect to be much more ruthless editorially and only include those shots that I really like to look at. I'm sure I'll leave the old Alley Picking site up, but I don't think I'll be adding any more pictures to the gallery.

Yesterday I also took some pictures for another photo series that I'm currently working on called VERT. As a series, it isn't very clearly defined yet. So far the only real criteria for a photo being included in the set are pretty simple. 1. The image must be shot in a vertical, portrait format. 2. The image must feel right. That second rule is where things get sticky, but I think I'll just keep going with my gut feeling.

Artsfest

I spent a few hours today working on this blog layout for the annual Artsfest put on by the school I'm currently attending. I keep checking it out over and over again looking for typos or any other problems. If you want to help me out, go do some proofreading. ARTSFEST

As simple as the layout is, I get a obsessive about this kind of web design and should probably step away for awhile. I was originally asked just to get the blog registered, but once I start something, I like to see it through to the end. It would be nice if you stopped by the school on November 6th to check out the events and to let me know that my "hard" work wasn't wasted. If enough people come, it might really be kind of fun.

Situation: Normal

After all this time building and maintaining multiple websites for every stupid project I think I need to be spending my time on, I finally realized that I should have a base of operations that incorporates all of my creative endeavors. Hopefully it won't seem too self-serving to have a blog like this despite the fact that its main intention is to serve myself. Here you'll find links to and updates on all of my various projects. It's very likely that I'll copy and paste posts from other blogs so hopefully that won't be too annoying.