Two New Works

Still of the Night

This is a pretty standard "wood" engraving, carved on Resingrave from McClain's Printmaking Supply http://www.imcclains.com/. Wood engravings in black and white are solely dependent on light in order to achieve a successful image. My own approach is to sketch with pencil first, then a thin permanent marker (Sharpie). Once I have all the shapes blocked in black marker, I proceed with the engraving. 

I use standard burins, gravers and such and on occasion take up a rotary tool with a very thin bit in order to achieve some random marks. Nearly all the disciplined line work done with a standard engraving tool, nearly all the squiggly stuff done with rotary tool.

I don't tend to proof when doing woodcuts but do use proofing when engraving. I also "ink" the block as I engrave with a thick marker and a very light touch to get an idea where the light and dark are going. I feel the light is very vibrant and always in motion and I think this engraving reflects that (ironically, despite the name: Still of the Night!).

The engraving depicts Omen, a stray cat who frequented our outside feeders for about 6 months. I learned her name, when, ironically again, Omen was struck down by a vehicle days after I finished the engraving.

Still of the Night
wood engraving, 3 x 6 inches

Old Cabin

About 3 years ago we purchased an old cabin built in 1972 that had been sitting unwanted for over 20 years. More than an old cabin, it has become a refuge, an ongoing project, a learning experience, a getaway, a delightful never ending occupation and ever present peaceful and quiet place. More irony, we said: "let's not get something that's a lot of work!"

The print is leading toward my new body of work as will be seen in a future post. This "guide" print is done with two cherry blocks. The key block carries all the information and the single color block is printed in two "rainbow" rolls, as shown in the ink slab picture. In this manner I can get all the color in one pass, in typical efficient-Maria-fashion.

I used hand-made banana bark paper, which was hand-torn rather than cut and printed damp. This poses a slight potential registration problem, so I run my fingernail along the registration guides to score the paper. The fibers of the paper have "memory" and retain the slight score, even as the paper was redampened for over printing the key block. Here is the process in images:

Print Title: Old Cabin
Paper Dimension: 7.5 x 10 inches
Image Dimension: 7 x 9 inches
Block: Cherrywood
Pigment or Ink: Charbonnel Aqua Wash
Paper: Banana bark handmade
Edition: 60

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2016 is Here! Planning, Planning, Planning...

Left Brain Kicks In

This time of the year, I look at my new calendar straight in the face. Looking at the entire year at a glance can be daunting and really drives in the thought that time is short in this life and we may as well live, do, work, travel, and make art!

Being an artist this year began last year when I applied for some art shows and exhibits; the good ones always have applications well ahead of show time. 

Like a row of booths at sunrise, the year awaits to open...

And since I enjoyed my residency here so much, I also applied for a residency at a National Park. Applying is a game of chance; jurors like what they like and at any given time, luck may strike. I always tell artists to maximize their chances by putting their best foot forward every single time. Try, anyway. Reading applications and carefully following instructions to the letter makes me squirm, but that's how the game is played. 

Frames are on the way and preparations have begun for early March, when I have an opening in Oakland California for a month-long exhibit that promises to be awesome. Here is the information:

Peace Puzzle Print (plus!) 

Event On Facebook: Opening Reception for Exhibit 

Aside from art festivals and the occasional exhibit, I really don't do much more in terms of art networking. My personal business model is rather simplistic: make art, sell art. Sometimes I like to teach art. All the while my online shops seem to have gained traction at are now producing some (amazingly) consistent sales results. I guess persistence pays off.
Once the applications are out, I don't worry about them too much and crawl back into the magic realm of the studio. 

Right Brain Screams!

All the time I spend looking at calendars and filling out applications, my right brain is flying about...sometimes an endless glide over a canyon or an ocean, sometimes a frenzied bouncing like a pinball. Eventually, I have to release the unruly beast and get back in the studio. 

Entre Viento y Sol

This year I have some unfinished business with the desert, a set of 8 blocks that have been drawn for years are now, almost embarrassingly demanding my attention. Dutifully, I will carve. 

I am also feeling drawn to the figures in nature series again, with my figures reduced to tiny proportions surrendering humbly to the awe of Mother Nature. 

Fool on the Hill

Aside from that, planning what art I will feel like making next month is like planning to fall in love--just doesn't happen that way. Art, like love, just appears and flourishes at the will of some unknown and irrepressible force. I just let it take me.

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Maria's Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/1000woodcuts 
1000woodcuts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/1000woodcuts/videos

Welcome to Studio B

Framing Studio

I jokingly call my framing/shipping space StudioB. I needed a clean, cat-hair free, dust-free area where I could have packing and framing supplies and decided to dedicate the apartment we built for my Papi to those tasks. Here are a couple of shots of the matboard shelves, small print bins and the flat files (formerly called The Green Monster until I decided to paint it a more pleasant tan).

Mat board, plexi, metal frames on lef shelves
Framing and shipping supplies on right shelves

All my tiny woodcut prints organized

Flat files for larger prints and some of my cardboard
container collection

Framing Day!

That's kind of like training day but much much harder and tedious and basically boring until everything is dressed up and ready for a show. A show! I have a show! Whether festival or exhibit, always a joyous occasion to have my art "out there" for people to see.

Today I'm framing hand-made paper so I like to "float" and avoid the surrounding mat. However, to keep the glazing (acrylic for large works) off the yummy paper and print I use a spacer made out of foam board. Trial and error with many types of commercial spacers taught me that the cheapest and nicest looking is a simple foam board strip glued to the edge of the backing board.

Here are some pics:

Mounted print Grand Canyon III on acid-free foam board
this is a 30 x 40 inch mount

The foam board strip separators and Ph neutral white glue

Glued to edges, this is  a print called Precious Waters

Acrylic glazing resting on the foam board strip, away from the print

Add a label and a COA, wire and kapoof! just like that

Just Walk With Me, ready for market or show

That about the skinny of it, my Facebook page has an album with all the framed prints https://www.facebook.com/1000woodcuts. And! you can always come see the show at the Las Vegas City Hall 7th Floor, April 1st through June 22.

Stay in touch!

1000woodcuts Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/1000woodcuts 
Maria's Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/maria.arango.diener 
Maria's Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/1000woodcuts 
1000woodcuts YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/1000woodcuts/videos

What did you do with YOUR garden?

Sit Back and Enjoy!

Our own Sonia Jensen sent these pictures of the Fantastic Garden.
"I have a low slant ceiling in my studio.  Yesterday I pinned the Fantastic Garden prints side by side on the ceiling.  It is wonderful to glance up and remember the whole project."

 

Awesome!

 

What did you do with your puzzle?

Announcement From the Shipping Department

Mail Room Stuff

After a particularly successful festival a few years back, I had to pack and mail several woodcuts, special orders, framing orders and such. A customer replied within days of my mailing asking me to please forward a note to the Shipping Department commending them for their careful and fast shipping. Funny how the web makes us look good sometimes, isn't it?

My studio is a mail room!
Stacks of prints, rejects toward the back, set ready to roll on the right.

Well, you will be happy to know that I authorized overtime pay for the Shipping Department and three quarters of the Fantastic Garden sets have already been mailed! I always start with the ones that will take the longest to get there so my world friends don't have to wait so long. Everyone should get an email with shipping and tracking/customs information in the next day or two.
With "the guys" in shipping working so hard, I predict all the prints will be mailed by tomorrow or Thursday.

I set up the stacks of prints so I can stamp the back with the official Fantastic Garden stamp. Then I turn each print over one by one, give it a last minute inspection, reject some particularly annoying ones and make a set. Roll the set between scrap paper, in this case architects proofs that I steal from the recycle stack of an architect's shop. Good proofing paper!

A bit of plastic protection in case of rain and into tubes they go, trimmed to fit the international 24 inch limit. Domestic sets I ship in USPS provided cartons, free with Priority Mail service. It's all very boring, really but I kind of get into looking at each set of prints as they go off into the world.

Tape gun (doesn't everybody have one?), scale, tubes...

Ready to fly to faraway lands!

Colophon

Prints were mailed with an information sheet. An expanded Fantastic Garden Colophon will be available as a PDF download shortly.
I will make an announcement when it is finished.

The Book!

Growing the Garden is well under construction and should be available later this year, in about four weeks. The original estimate was to finish the book in January but I'm feeling industrious...or should I say, the Publications Department is feeling good!!!

Must be that second spring we get here in the desert about this time of the year, complete with purple sage and yellow lantana blooms and a tad of spring fever.

Fantastic Garden Headquarters: http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com

Printing the Garden! Finally! Really!!!!!

All in a day's work...

Well, make that two days' work!
Some videos for you mere mortals, mwahahaha (sorry, the sweeeet smell of ink is affecting me).
Seriously, I am HAPPY to report that one block is printed! Yeah, the whole thing, all 120-some prints, hanging pretty. I am currently prepping block numero dos and I will attack it first thing in the morning.

Here are two videos, identical but the first is raw with all the music and noise of my studio. The second is edited, with stills inserted and narration (yawn! I like the flamenco better). Enjoy!





Fantastic Garden Headquarters: http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com

Finally! Prepping the Beast

Real work begins!

There is MUCH to do now and will be so for the next few weeks.
I just finished clearing out the studio to make room for clean and efficient printing of 400+ woodcut prints. Clean press, blankets of various thicknesses and compositions ready, newsprint prepared, ink and knives hanging in my magnetic holders awaiting eagerly... I even bought new clothes-pins so that I could hang them all to dry without stopping much more than to wolf down my next Power-Bar.

Prep

But first, a few details yet to attend to. Blocks have to be inspected for potential printing problems, backgrounds carved a bit deeper in some cases, lines enlarged. Tough to tell who is going to give me grief during the printing process but mostly a matter of cleaning up the backgrounds.
Then I have to finish building a "chase" of sorts to keep the roller from hopping off the block. This time I am going to actually joint a full chase to fit the blocks, front-back-side-side. Since the paper is the same size as the block, I predict nothing but smooth printing without hops and slips. Okay!

After the chase is built, the puzzle pieces are glued down to their respective matboard backings. I use a foam roller to spread a mixture of white and wood glue evenly over the matboard and then just set in place the large skeleton block and all its puzzle pieces carefully, quickly!

Subs

This year we only had a single block Missing In Action. The process of replacing the block requires a tracing of the "hole", transfer to wood, cut the new block, tweak as necessary, design and carve. Simple, but takes about a day to do it. That is my task for today so I best get to it.
Sadly our first rescued feral cat passed last Friday so I immediately thought of a memorial for our Cricket (1998-2013), now frolicking in our garden forever free of earthly burdens.

Pictures of the cutting of a "sub" block:

Tracing of the missing block, I just slip the paper under the block and draw the outline

After cutting out my tracing, I placed on a block of cherry ply and draw the outline.
The thickness gauge made certain that the blocks were same width.

After clamping the block to my cutting bench, I saber saw the shape.

Perfect fit! Now design and carve, piece of cake!

Fantastic Garden Headquarters: http://puzzleprints.blogspot.com