1000 Woodcuts: woodcuts

Showing posts with label woodcuts. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Conversation With a Canyon I is done!

The Inky Stuff

Finished print I on the two-part series of canyons. Now that I'm "in" the canyon, I have to carve my way out. Here are all the printing photos of Lure Me In

Decided on the color scheme
now the real stuff, all Daniel Smith (RIP)
oil based inks

First proofs
the stripes are done a la poupee
another way of saying applied free-hand
with a tiny roller

The block inked and assembled,
ready to print

There we go, about 55 or so
paper is Rives BFK tan

Key block with all
the definition

Overprinted the key block
in umber-purple-red-more-umber

Final prints, "Lure Me In"

Stay in touch!

1000woodcuts Website: https://1000woodcuts.com
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

Friday, April 21, 2017

The case of the case

A little something for my Baren friends

I am coordinating Barenforum.org's Exchange #72 and decided to make some glorified paper holders for my fellow printmakers. This way all the prints are nice and neat in a "keepable" folio. Why not?!

Incidentally coordinating an exchange is most exciting and probably a lot of work but the good kind of work. The coordinator gets to see all the images first hand and often gets extra prints and cool cards and notes along with the prints.

Anyhow, here is the case construction in pictures for anyone who wants to make their own. I got the design from a book-binding book I own (one of many) and modified it to hold the 30 prints of this exchange.

neat linen paper

start out with clean sheet

a couple of prototypes

winning design cut in matboard
serves as a template

31 times cut along the border

cut pattern

few folds with a bone folder

folding

all ready to glue

I buy glue by the gallon!

some inserts to stiffen up the folder

covered up in matching paper

burnishing with bone folder

back finished

another insert for the front flap

brushed glue with sponge brush

folded and burnished

inner pocket for the prints

final touch!

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

Friday, February 17, 2017

Back to the Ghost Town

The Red Barn (Part I)

Once upon a time (2008) I went to Rhyolite, a most fascinating Nevada ghost town. My quest was to complete a residency kindly offered by the Goldwell Open Air Museum. The setting was the Red Barn, a spacious studio set amid silence and ghosts in the town of Rhyolite, just East of Beatty Nevada, home to the Museum.

Orienting myself with a compass
I built with native rock at basecamp

Sanding my precious cherry blocks (en plein air)
by the Red Barn

Every day I would set off in one cardinal direction, sketching along the way directly on one of 20 little blocks. I would walk one, two, perhaps three miles off into the desert, mountains, washes and canyons and at the furthest point, look back to the amazing Red Barn.

A Simple Formula

My quest was to portray (in woodcuts of course!) the Red Barn as the Center of the Universe and so I ended up with four larger woodcuts (24x30 inches), four smaller (12x24 inches) and twenty tiny ones (4x6 inches). The larger four are views FROM the Red Barn looking out toward the four cardinal points, the smaller four are views OF the Red Barn, each from a natural "window" located at the four cardinal points. The tiny woodcuts recorded random observations along my walks.

Sketching the South
old ice house by my shoulder

Inside the "studio" sketching larger blocks
from reference photos

The eight larger blocks

Tiny Observations

And so I have (finally, finally!) begun carving the smaller woodcuts. There is a narrative too; I wrote a diary of my musings as I walked and later in the perfect silence of the desert nights. Once I have all the woodcuts carved and prints printed, a book will come together...this year, I'm feeling it!

Here are some of the sketches, 5 East, 5 West, 5 North and 5 South, for a total of 20 4x6 inch blocks.

The West, looking toward some of the ghost town

The North and the mysterious open mines

An old post office, looking at the red barn through
the window

Two of the medium "windows" blocks 24" x 12"
Left Red Barn Viewed from the North
Right Red Barn Viewed from the East

Top Bank building in Rhyolite at dusk
Bottom View of Rhyolite from the South

More to come as wood chips fly.

Stay in touch!

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Tribute to barenforum.org

"We must, indeed, all hang together,

or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Printmaker Benjamin Franklin

Between traveling to festivals, making art, destroying my bathroom (see my facebook page), smelling the pines and all other activities that compose my very busy life, I delight in participating off and on in this rare creature we rare birds collectively call "baren". I just took great delight in catching up some of the online galleries of prints provided by the membership.

Baren or barenforum.org, is a loosely organized web-group of woodblock printmakers founded with these words: Chromoxylographers of the world - Unite! uttered by David Bull, our very energetic founding "father." His website can be seen here: http://www.woodblock.com/

See the info page here: http://barenforum.org/intro.html
Mostly we are a bunch of artist-printmakers who delight in the woodblock/woodcut process and enjoy exchanging prints. We (about 400 of us give or take at any point in time since 1999) have now exchanged prints 69 times and any one of us owns an astounding collection of more than 2,000 prints from artists all over the world.

We do this simply for the love of art, woodblock and each other. Many friendships have formed, many colleagues have come and gone, many side projects, some reunions, collaborations, exhibitions, a Facebook group, always the forum...list goes on and on.

Print Exchanges http://barenforum.org/exchange/exchanges.html

Aside from the exchange of ideas and images now taking place mostly in our Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/121864389055/
the highlight of our happy barenforum.org group has been the exchange program. We basically sign up, we make as many prints as we have participants and we all end up with a nice portfolio of woodblock prints from all over the world. We do this stubbornly again and again since 1999, four times a year.

Some wise quotes by our members:

"Honest effort and honest communication, that's what counts;

given that, anything goes." - [Baren] member Bill Mixon

"It's in the doing that questions are answered." - [Baren] member Phil Bivins

"Cut! Print!" - [Baren] member Dave Bull

"If you like doing something, isn't it better if it takes a long time?" -

[Baren] member Dave Bull

"Jûnin Tôiro (Ten People, Ten Colours)" -

Japanese proverb

"... I consider this discussion about ... what art is, appropriation, editioning, if digital prints are or not fine arts, the deathly sin of using a laser or any other modern tool, etc. ... a delightful waste of time." -

[Baren] member Horácio Soares Neto

Again, here are the galleries of prints, we hope you enjoy browsing:
http://barenforum.org/exchange/exchanges.html

Stay in touch!

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Happy Season Giveaway!

Time to Give

Last year I had a holiday giveaway for some of my woodcut cards and enjoyed it very much; I mailed out near 230 cards. The way I see it, might as well send cards to people who want them, right? Right!

So I printed yesterday and today and I'm ready again for the big mailing. I made some pinecones, reference to seeds. When I find myself not caring enough or not giving enough or simply not having enough empathy or compassion for someone else, I always think of that: "you reap what you sow."

These are engravings on Corian which allows me to get very fine detail and get crisp prints without "tiring" the block. The image(s) are called collectively "Tesoros de Mami" or "Mother's Treasures". My Mami went to the mountains with some friends, she travels all the time. This time she brought me some pinecones to make woodcuts from and also took some lovely pictures for me. Just that she thought of me and my art was kind of touching.

But wait, there's more! Scroll to the very bottom picture if you live in the EU

The slab with mixed ink, smells soooo good

First print, blocks are Corian (the countertop stuff)

Want one? Just message me!

through Facebook or Twitter or email me your snail mail address and you get one. Oh joy! Let's get it going. Links to Facebook and Twitter at the bottom of this page and if you know my email you can send it through there. Last year I had a grand time and my phone ding dong ding dong with Facebook messages so much I thought I was listening to Carol of the Bells.

Anyhow, here are some close ups, I'm ready...

Oh joy! tiny pinecones everywhere

Closer

Much closer, the Corian allows me to get fine detail

Almost ready to mail, I have to sign them as they dry

BONUS! Wait what? Free money will come to some of you in the European Union.

The story goes like this: in the Utah Arts Festival there was a cute little young girl from Ireland on vacation. She loved one of my works but didn't have enough US$ left and her credit card maxed out. But she had 100 Euros! So she asked me what the exchange rate was and I saw that she was looking at a woodcut that was $225 so I said, I think it's about 2.25 US dollars to the Euro. She bought it of course. (It's a miracle I EVER make any money...but she was so happy!!!)

So anyway, my bank wants an outrageous exchange rate to deposit them and besides, I remember the story and smile everytime. But it is now time to return them to the European Union so these will make their way into some of the cards. Maybe yours?

Stay in touch!

Monday, April 20, 2015

Back to peaceful endeavors

Report on my road trip!

I took a little trip to the great Northwest so I could visit my aunt and a couple of good friends in art. The road, passing by like a river, has a way to calm troubled minds and renew the beauty of the world outside and inside. All is well everywhere.

One trick I use in order to get right back to work is to leave something unfinished; rather than having to start a new project I can get right back to work without much thinking.

So here it is, one block to be cleared and then I can start on my next task, laying out the colophon/book. For that I will have to fix my ailing computer, but that's a frustrating story nobody wants to hear. Sigh, electronics...

Last block to be carved, top right
the LOVE block!

Artist's info link

Don't forget as you finish and mail your images to send in your information via this page:
http://1000woodcuts.blogspot.com/2015/03/peace-puzzle-information.html

Three more blocks

I had three blocks waiting for me that had arrived last week while I was soul searching. And amazingly enough, all three blocks were nearly adjacent to each other! Two from the US and one from abroad, all three came in the same week and belong adjacent to each other, I had to repeat that! Wow, the hands of destiny at work. Here is a picture of all three blocks in place. I will give the artists their own blog post in the next day or two.

Three blocks in the middle, arrived last week
The Peace Puzzle is getting filled!

Stay in touch!

Friday, August 22, 2014

OXS Gallery Exhibit prep work!

2014 Break Out Year

This has been a very busy year and I am grateful for all the invites and acceptances from galleries and venues in Nevada. I have previously exhibited quite a bit in various places across the US and across the globe, but this year I am proudly being shown in Nevada!
Aside from feeling good about it, I am also working like a madwoman! Getting artwork ready for an exhibit takes much excitement, preparation, time and money.

Exhibit at OXS

First two prints finished!
Maze, left and Struck, right

So later this year, November 10, 2014 – January 23, 2015, the Nevada Arts Council has invited me to exhibit along with a fellow artist in the OXS Gallery space in Reno, Nevada. Details will come later as to location and such but for now, I am happily working to get the chosen works prepared.

Maze block ready for cleanup

I will be showing 5 woodcuts along with their blocks. Now, as a background, in the past I have only printed a few of each edition as I finished an image. Two reasons for this, one is that I usually have several "irons on the fire" and simply can't take the time to spend three days to a week printing 100 or more prints. Second reason is that I very rarely am I in a position to be able to afford the required paper. I guess a third reason would be that if I had printed all the prints in every edition of all my images so far I would need a few more flat files!

Printing Marathon

Maze print on Daphne Nepalese paper

So in order to show the blocks, they have to be cleaned up and in order to have the block cleaned up I have to be finished with the edition printing. As soon as the curator for the OXS Gallery show decided on the pieces to show, I got busy with a printing marathon! I am now finished with two out of the five blocks and taking a breather until next week.

A fresh batch of paper arrived yesterday and I have the third block all ready to go. My press-cranking arm is getting a workout!

Baile del Sol, block ready for press