2nd Layer of Love, color, and wheels

In the process of carving my dad's portrait I've gotten a little bored. I need to integrate different images and work on a few carvings at one time-to keep myself interested and to explore various aspects of my project instead of being so narrow. Along with the use of silouhettes to tell the narratives, I am going to use singular object in the collage to assist in expressive story-telling. I think these objects will help with the concept and asthetic.

Some objects I am thinking of to tell my dad's narrative

Wheels

Tractor

Architectural structure of some type (house)

a floral pattern reminiscent of wallpaper

The presentation of these images will be in the form of large-scale collage. Generally speaking, I am planning to have all my images carved and printed by the middle of march, leaving me a few weeks to cut-up, play around, and find a comprehensive way to present the images in a narrative fashion.

Here are some images...

finished carving 2nd layer-total 7 hours

Drew three wheels as my first set of objects to include

Drawing-1 hour

Preliminary Carving-2 hours

The wheels symbolize a lot of things to me-motion, progress, innovation, revolution

they also relate to my dad's narrative- he is an engineer and has a few patents. for him, the wheel represents invention, a mechanical and fluid way of thinking

I started incorporating more color- printing my dad's face in color and also printing color with my wood blocks. i'll use these to print on top of with other images, or keep them to cut up for the collage

printing dad's face and blocks in color-3 hours

I've been working on some small collages- experimenting with figure form, expression, placement, and repetition. also seeing them with blocks of color and with other images and architecture

collage time-4hours

1st Layer of Love

Here are some images of my first layer of the woodcut. There is some variation in the shade of gray in each print. I would say there are about 4 distinct shades in the total of 20 prints. I don't mind this, I think variation makes each print feel individual and hand done. The challenge now is to register the print correctly so that the second layer prints precisely onto. I'm not really into precisness. (When I first typed that, I accidently said preciousness. I am into preciousness!) I think that even if some of my prints are slightly off registration-wise, it will be a good thing. (Sadashi agrees!) A series of prints that are all exactly the same may be good for selling editions, but to me it seems a bit robotic. I'm also starting to think about eventually displaying many of the portraits next to each other (not Andy Warhol style). In this case, I think slight nuances will give the piece character. I'm really into repetition with slight nuances. I'm trying to figure out why...

Shooooot

I know I haven't updated my blog in awhile. I am going to be so good about it from now on! Although, my picture taking is not quite up to par. Two weeks ago, I have to admit, I was wrapped up in applications, and didn't make a lot of art progress. I have put in a substantial amount of hours since. I also feel like I have some bedrock to stand on project-wise for the first time. My two main themes that I am certain that I have stuck with and will stick with are; telling the narratives of people whose stories are never told, and humanizing these people who have been through a dehumanizing situation through my art about them. I have decided to use the process of reduction woodcuts because it is a delicate process. It is largely labor intensive to carve wood. Once that intricate work has been done, I'll carve and forever lose that layer on the block, making it precious and one-of-a-kind. I feel this is similar to the narratives I will be telling; in both the lives of the people, and the act of their telling. I plan to carve portraits of the people I meet, but collage them onto a larger piece of Rives paper and continue to tell the narrative with painted expressive but simple silouhettes (on the same paper). The stories will not be understood in a sequential pattern, but they will evoke a feeling that the person experienced.

So ANYWAY...here is how I have gotten started...

Meet...my dad

Whatta guy! He is my first narrative. He has been battling metastic liver and lung cancer for the past few years. He is humble and quiet. There are so many people like him who spend days in the hospital and no one hears them. He is also one of the foundational reasons I want to to this project.

So to begin thinking about how to turn this photo into a reduction, I did a lot of planning. I did a few studies of black and white paint, as well as drawing on the photo to divide the colors into segments. I've decided on a five block print printed in a series of 15-20.

I did some small studies on how the silouhettes would look and act on a large sheet of paper.

I went and purchased some real nice wood, sanded it and shalacked it.

Then, I started carving. This is the first of five layers

I did 4 test prints, figuring out press pressure settings, heaviness of inking, registration, and mixing different shades of light gray. I definitely took time doing this. I am very nervous about getting everything right because this is my one shot at this layer. This whole process is a bit anxiety provoking actually. I haven't done a realistic reduction before, this is a challenge.

I have since completed 13 final 1st layer prints....only 7 more to go! Then I can carve my next layer! I wish I was handprinting these, but I just don't think time will allow for it.

Time Keeping

Studies and planning for reduction: 3 hours

Wood Prep: 1 hour

Measuring and Sketching image onto wood: 1.5 hours

Carving first layer: 4 hours

4 Practice Prints: 1.5 hours

13 finalish 1st layer prints: 4.5 hours