Mom

This is my mom laughing and whipping her hair back and forth.

Upon GSI request, I'm getting in gear on the carving of my mom. I got a good, much-needed push from them and came home this weekend to take a picture of my Meem. I have this gut feeling to not do a simple straightforward portrait of her like I did with my dad. Envisioning my final piece, I kept seeing her looking a little to the side, maybe slightly distracted by my dad. I think I just wanted to show a little bit of character and relationship. I want to create a little activity and chemistry between the mom and dad portrait so they are not just static.

Despite having "shoveled snow that made all my mascara come off" I convinced my mom to do a little photoshoot. I'm not a photographer in the least, so it is a little strange to me that the beginnings of my woodcuts rely on a photograph I take.

I'm still working on my pattern block and tractor block. I have carved and proof-printed each, and am carving back into them. They don't have a real direction, but I am liking them. I will continue them along with my mom's portrait.

This is a little off-topic, but I got The Family of Man for my birthday after Janie spoke so highly of it (holla Janie!). (I also asked for Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman, but apparently now that I'm twenty-two I only get one book for my birthday) IT IS INCREDIBLE. I wish I was a photographer now. its so good its so good. I especially love the quotes that are included with the photogrpahs. they are never cheesy like quotes often are. its making me start to think about included block-printed text underneath the portraits. i would need to play around a lot before decided to print anything on the actual portrait print- probably printing on other paper and just layering on top of the original print to get a look. i'm going to make the print of my mom before i delve into any text though.

The quote from the book "We two form a multitude" made me think of my parents a lot.

This weekend I joined with Buzz and Janie for the Mid-Michigan PCAP art selection trip. It was incredible. To be honest, before I left I was worried about losing time on my project and schoolwork and not having a little time to relax-but the trip grounded me again. I met so many great artists, good people, and a lot of broken people. I'm still digesting everything and re-entering the real world college-scene.

I've worked 2 more hours on carving

more iterations of the face

i'm starting to see a lot of things now in this portrait that aren't a face...kind of like when you look at a cloud for a long time and you start seeing things in it...

here are two more iterations i did. the first has the second to last layer printed in black and the last layer printed on top in a lighter shade of gray. the second has the last layer printed over the first layer. i don't really like it, but i guess its something.

i'm also starting to think of the backs of prints. i have always thought they were beautiful. i'm thinking maybe i will be able to install the prints in some way that the back won't be flesh against the wall.

timekeeping: carving tractor-4 hours

printing tractor and new iterations of faces- 2 hours

i call this "green tractor series"

jill and i have been burning the midnight oil in the print studio lately- having some good conversation, and giving feedback on carving, etching, and final or not-so-final prints. its a good way to work- I'm glad she's here.
so i finished carving the tractor. basically. but i want to carve into more now that i see it printed. the first is printed with a bright green layer underneath and dark green on top. the second is printed dark green on top of the first very light layer of my dad's face. its almost unnoticeable so i don't know that its important- but i kind of like knowing that it is there. the image printed kind of fuzzy un-intentionally, i think maybe the shalaq quote i put on the wood hadn't finished drying so it wasn't taking ink? but i kind of like it. the print reminds me of my dad which i like.

weekend of jan 20th

5.5 hours carving final layer

2 hours printing

January 19th

On Tuesday evening, I printed the 3rd layer of the reduction. The portrait is really looking like a portrait now. Although, I'm having this weird thing where I can't really see this portrait objectively or even subjectively anymore. I've been taking too much time on it. I am still in love with the process of carving and printing, but the actual image doesn't have a lot of what I used to see in it anymore. I will be excited to have it complete (which I plan to have done for my crit on Monday) and to begin another carving. I think the portrait of my mom will maybe help to re-activate the portrait of my dad.

I also printed this third stage on its own like I did with the 1st stage. The image on this third layer is resolved enough to stand alone as a portrait, and its an interesting print. This is starting to remind me of one of my favorite parts of printing...kind of experimenting...printing layers in ways I hadn't planned, and also printing other images on top of these. I plan to print some stages of my mom's portrait over some stages of my dad's portrait...just to see what it looks like. I also want to print (with lots of trans-base to make the image more translucent) some of the images (tractor, wheels) over my dad's portrait.

I've loosened up after my review, and am working at a much better speed. I think I was able to vocalize things I had been thinking that had been making me tentative about my project, and have since been able to look at my project objectively.

Printing: 2.5 hours

forgot time keeping

timekeeping

carving-8 hours

new blog resolution

my new year's resolution...to blog more and eat sugar less. i'm not doing well so far...

my review was a real eye-opener, as i've heard it was or many of my peers.

because i'm telling narratives through portraits, i should have thought more about the narratives the portraits would tell together, placed next to each other. janie kind of told me from the beginning that i couldn't successfully tell stories of unrelated people together. And now I'm really understanding that.

I'm beginning to accept that m project has become about my dad. its not what i was setting out to do. but its where i'm at now.

but i also want to tell my mom's narrative. and i want to tell my parent's narratives together. i think that including my mom in the project will take this theme of human suffering and add love and strength to it. thats what it needs.

during my critique, jim said that i am incredibly attached to the portrait of my dad, in an only natural way, but not in a good way. that comment hit me hard, because i realized how true it was. and how its stunting my progress and artistic experimentation. but i'm concious of it now, an its a limitation that i am going to work past.