Weekly Stitching

It is time to get caught up with the weekly stitching project.

Weekly Square #17

Weekly Square #18

Weekly Square #19

I like the direction this last one took.  I still haven't ventured beyond horizontal and vertical lines yet. But there are still a lot to do.

Jordan Craters

We have been having perfect weather for this Memorial Day weekend.  Yesterday, we decided to do a day trip to explore Jordan Craters in Oregon.  There is vehicle access at Coffee Pot Crater.  The lava field, crater and spatter cones created an otherworldly landscape.

From a distance, the lava field and crater are the dark areas.

Those little shapes on the horizon are Anna and Frank exploring the lava field.

The lava field looks relatively flat, but as we walked around we would find sunken areas.  And on some areas of the lava, we could hear, if we stomped on the ground, that there were hollow areas underneath (but the rock was strong enough that we weren't going to fall through as we were stomping).

Frank walking down one of the lava chutes.

Even though it appears like a landscape of gray, there is actually a lot of color to be found if you look closely.

And some life.  Can you see the lizard in this picture below?

Coffee Pot Crater

It was a very interesting place to explore and we were grateful for the light cloud cover as it would have been a little bit too hot if it was a clear, sunny sky.  Unfortunately, we were there right around noon, the worst time of day to take pictures.  (Despite that fact, I still took over 300 pictures.)  I guess we will have to go back another time at a different time of day.

Thought of the Day

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" 

- Leonardo da Vinci

Kitchen Corner Series

I have one more linocut completed in the Kitchen Corner Series.  That is all I will be doing for right now.  I'm going to take a break from the press and get back to fabric.  I might revisited this series at a later date.

This fourth piece in the series is called Drink Me.  And I did some in black and brown ink again, since that was what I was doing for the rest of them.

Kitchen Corner Series

The Kitchen Corner print series started with the two prints I did for the Leftovers exchange.  I liked how the first two came out so I kept on going.  The third print in the series is called Mix it Up.  I also did black and brown ink on these, but I didn't care for the brown ones as much on this print.

Mix it Up

linocut

Image size 2-1/2" x 4"

Paper size 4-1/2" x 6"

©Lisa Flowers Ross

 $20

I think this one is o.k., but it is my least favorite of the group.  I think I cleared out too much of the linocut material.  I like the measuring cup and the eggs.  But the Kitchen Aid mixer stand seems not as timeless as the items in the other two prints.  The background wall has a regular pattern and is not as organic as the leaves out the windows of the first two prints.

On its own, the print is fine and I like it.  In the series, so far, it doesn't seem to fit in as well.  What do you think?  I have one more to share with you in another post.

Gallery Five 18

There is a new gallery in town.  It is called Gallery Five 18.  A new concept from the Lisk Gallery, this one is located on the fringe of downtown at 518 S. Americana Blvd.  It is similar to a co-op gallery in that artists pay a monthly fee.  But that is where the similarity ends.  The artists get to keep all the proceeds from any sales and they do not have to spend time "manning" the gallery, an employee is there during business hours.

The building was formerly used as working studio space for several artists.  The Lisks have been remodeling the space and it was ready for the opening last Saturday night.

Outside view.

Anna and I went to the opening and it was wall to wall people.  Everybody was excited to see the new place.

You walk into the open spaced gallery on the main floor.  This picture above was taken from the upstairs where there are a couple of small spaces for artwork, a computer and a bathroom.

As you enter the front door, there is a small intimate gallery just to the right which is a good place to show smaller works that need to be viewed up close.

Work by Mark Lisk, Pat Kilby and Mary Meyer

At the opening, drinks were being served from a small bar area.  Out the back door, there is a small patio area with outdoor sculpture where there were a couple of food vendors set up outside for the event.

Artists will rotate to have solo and/or group exhibitions throughout the year in the main gallery.  The artists in the gallery are:

Anne Petersen Klahr

April Howland

Carl Rowe

D'Arcy Bellamy

Erin Pietsch

Jerri Lisk

Jerry Hendershot

Karen Bubb

Karen Klinefelter

Kay Seurat

Mark Lisk

Mary Meyer

Matt Grover

Melissa Osgood 

Pat Kilby

Rachel Tennalach

Randy Van Dyck

Sue Latta

Swede Lisk

This exhibition will be up for the month of May.

Kitchen Corner

In the last post, I shared the linocut print I did for the Leftovers exchange.  Since I was so happy with that one, I decided to do another one.  It is the same size and I got it finished before the deadline as well.  Therefore, I have two sets of prints for the exchange and I will get two (different) sets in return.

And a series has been born.  I am calling these little linocuts the Kitchen Corner series.  This second print is also a varied edition as I did some in black and some in brown ink since that is what I did on the first.  Not really having planned to do another print, the brown inks don't match because I mixed each of them by hand.

Oops, I just noticed here that I was in such a hurry to get them in for the exchange that I forgot to put the E.V. next to the number of the print.  I'll put it on the ones I have remaining.  I have a few in the black and a few in the brown color and they are available for sale.

Ready

linocut

Image size: 2-1/2" x 4"

Paper size: 4-1/2" x 6"

©Lisa Flowers Ross

$20

Stayed tuned for more in the series!

Leftovers

Happy May Day!  It's hard to believe the month of May is already here.  April was a busy month with a few deadlines to meet, the biggest being taxes.  But a more pleasant deadline was that of the Leftovers V print exchange.

This is the fifth year that Wingtip Press has hosted this exchange of small prints (less than 5" x 7" in paper size).  The intent being to use up the leftover pieces of paper that printmakers often have after tearing the paper sheets down to size to create a print.

So far, I have participated in the exchange every year.  This year I wasn't sure I was going to make the deadline.  My first attempt at a reduction linocut print was a complete failure (which you may have read about here).

With the deadline creeping up on me, I decided to go back to basics, a simple linocut.  I carved a 2-1/2" x 4" block and got them printed up.   I decided to do some with black ink and some with a dark brown ink that I mixed up.

Here is the print in black.

At Home

Image size 2-1/2" x 4"

Paper size 4-1/2" x 6"

©Lisa Flowers Ross

From the writing on the bottom of the print, you can see that I made 28 prints in this edition.  E.V. stands for a "edition varied".  In this case, that means I did it in two different colors.

Here is the print in brown.

I thought it was hard to portray the transparency of the glass jars with the linocut.  But I am happy with the print.  I purposely left a lot of the chatter, especially around the trees because I wanted it to suggest a little bit of movement like a wind blowing the leaves.

I turned in 14 of the edition for the exchange and still have some available for sale.

I was so happy that this print turned out o.k. that I decided to do another one.  I will share that one in the next post.

Weekly Project

Here is last week's square.

Weekly Square #16

Failure is an Option

It seems like, in general, most people (including myself) share our success stories on our blogs and in our social media realms.  This is fine and nice to let others share in our joy or to be an inspiration for somebody else.

But how often do we share our failures?  Why would we want to do that?  Failure in our society isn't seen as a positive thing.  But aren't we suppose to learn from our failures?  Then, how can we learn if we never fail?  What if someone else could learn something from our failures?

"I have not failed.  I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." - Thomas Edison 

You have probably heard this quote before.  Edison must have learned a lot from so many attempts which eventually led to something that did work.

I am going to share one of my recent art failures with you today.  As most of you probably know, I have been getting into printmaking for the past several years (thanks to the local printmaking studio, Wingtip Press).  Wingtip hosts a print exchange every year (this is the fifth year) and I have participated every year.

This year I wanted to attempt a reduction linocut.  I have just done a few of these in the past.  You can see the one I did last year here. This time I wanted to do a four color reduction.  Starting with the lightest color, I printed yellow.

As you can see, there wasn't much I needed to carve out of the block.

Printmakers also call the reduction linocut the "suicide" print.  This is because you continue to carve out sections on the same block for each color.  If you mess up, you cannot go back and print more.

I started with about 26 prints hoping to get 14 that would turn out o.k.  Here are all the yellows printed.  So far, so good.

Then I carved some more and printed the second color, orange.  Already I had missed the registration of some of the second color as you can see by the middle one on the bottom row.

More carving and the third color was green.  

On one of these, I actually printed the plate in the wrong direction.  I guess I wasn't paying attention. The registration is also off on many.  At this point, I pretty much knew I wasn't going to get enough good prints, but continued on.

Finally, the last color was black.

They don't look too bad from afar.  But take a closer look.

Above you can see that the registration of the colors is off from the edges and the stems in the middle.  The extra lines on some of the leaves are what printmakers call "chatter" from the block. Often I don't mind the chatter, but I don't like it for this piece.

Out of 26 prints, I got zero that were acceptable to me.  A complete failure!  I was so bummed because the Leftovers deadline was looming and I now had nothing for it.  (I did manage to do another print for the deadline and will share that in another post.)

What I learned from making this print:

1)  Reduction linocuts are hard!  I already knew that but they get even harder with more colors.

2)  I need to figure out a better way to do the registration.

3)  Thin lines don't work very well with this technique.

4)  This design probably should have been in a different process altogether.  I'm thinking maybe as silkscreen print (or hey, how about fabric!).

5)  I think I liked this design better with just the three colors (yellow, orange, green) but couldn't just stop at that point as the design wouldn't have been complete.

6)  Practice, practice, practice will probably never make it perfect, but it will make it a lot better!

7)  I need to figure out a way to repurpose failed prints into new art (collage?) so I don't waste the paper.

And here is an artist that really knows how to do it - Stuart Brocklehurst.  He shows the progression of steps of the pieces he is working on, on his blog.  He prints his by hand (without a press).

Weekly Project

Some more weekly squares completed.

 Weekly Square #14

Weekly Square #15

And here is what I have so far, all together in order.  I'm thinking that in the end, these will be put together into several different pieces instead of one big one (if at all).

Earth Day Inspiration

This week I sent out my monthly newsletter.  In it, I shared that nature is a big inspiration for my artwork and that taking care of the environment is very important to me.  I also announced, and would like to share it here, that in celebration of Earth Day this month, I will donate 100% of the sales amount of any artwork I sell during the entire month of April (shipping and tax for Idahoans not included in price or donation amount) to The Nature Conservancy.

I'm putting my money where my mouth is, so to speak.  You can view artworks I have available on my website in the Artworks section, as well as the Artist-in-Residence Gallery.  This applies to any artwork purchased.  Just contact me if you would like to have a nice piece of artwork for yourself (or for someone else) and help the environment as well.

If you would like to receive my newsletter, you can sign up for it in the side bar to the left.  I often have announcements, special sales, or share new work that doesn't always get put here on the blog.

Our flowering cherry tree in bloom.  

A Roomful of Metal

Last week I found myself in a roomful of metal.  What was I doing there?  I was at the Enso Artspace to view Metal, an exhibition with works by Michael Cordell, Sue Latta, Susan Madacsi & Dennis Proksa.

Enso Gallery

I have been to many exhibitions over the years and have seen metal artworks before.  But as I was in gallery, I was thinking that I haven't really seen many metal works massed together in one space unless it was outside in a sculpture garden.  So just the idea of a gallery exhibition with only metal artworks seems unique in itself.

It seemed like there was a little bit of a circular and linear theme throughout the gallery although I don't think that was necessarily planned, just the nature of the artists' work.

Wall pieces by Susan Madacsi. Sculpture by Dennis Proksa.

As you enter the Enso space, Sue Latta's A Lifetime of Them greets you on the left.  It is a work with steel, resin and screen printed rice paper.  There is an interesting juxtaposition with the resin coated rice paper that seems very light and ethereal and the heavier metal structure that holds them and, perhaps, the meaning of the piece.

A Lifetime of Them by Sue Latta.

Before looking at the list of materials used, I thought the prints on the rice paper were actually made from rust.  Maybe the artist intended it to look that way to tie it together with the metal structure.

I was already familiar with all the artists except for Susan Madacsi, whose work I was really taken with.  She, like Dennis Proksa, is an "Artist Blacksmith".  Many of her works in the exhibition make use of colored circular forms grouped together.

Sapphire Square, Ruby Square, Emerald Square and Green Monster Wabi Sabi Vessel by Susan Madacsi

Here is a close-up of some of those shapes.  I am guessing that she hammered the edges with different tools to get the variation in pattern.  Although these are metal pieces, the added color brings a lightness and depth to the work.

Detail of Small Confectioner's Vessel by Susan Madacsi.

If you live in town, you only have one chance left to see these magnificent metal masterpieces.  Enso is open on Thursdays only from 3-8 p.m. and this Thursday is also the last day for the exhibition.

Altered View by Dennis Proksa

Spring Break - Misc.

There is always so much inspiration to be found everywhere, especially on trips.  Here are a few miscellaneous pictures from our spring break trip.

 A sign in Flagstaff.

 Santa Cruz boardwalk.

 Beach at Santa Cruz.

Beach at Santa Cruz. 

 Sign on Santa Cruz wharf.

Saki factory in Folsom.

Spring Break - Wildlife

We didn't encounter much wildlife on our spring break trip.  But here are a few pictures.

 A deer on the UC-Santa Cruz campus.

 Sea lions at the Santa Cruz wharf.

Guard dog in Folsom.