So I went back to basics and revisited my interest in collagraph techniques. I also did some more exploration of digital printing on fabric.
Meanwhile, The Edge of the Forest travelling show is working its way across Canada. It's currently in Newfoundland, then heads west in 2016. Details at edgeoftheforest.ca.
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| Edge of the Forest in Toronto, April 2015 |
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| Really like the postcard! |
My notebooks, showing results of various collagraph print tests. And a teaser at top left, where I'm collecting images relating to hawks and falconry for an artist's book idea that is slowly percolating...
Contributions to good causes are always a fun challenge. The Bruce County Public Library does an annual "Reel Art" competition. Artists purchase a pre-cut wood fish form, decorate it and then return it to the Library to be juried and then auctioned. Entry fees and proceeds from the auction help fund the distribution of early literacy kits for each baby born in the county. As I was focusing on collagraph, I made 2 print plates from my fish. I used a mix of plaster and acrylic medium to create the plates. After pulling off a series of prints from the plates, I touched up the residual ink left on the plates, added some silver and gold leaf, sealed everything with varathane, and voila: GoldFish and SilverFish!
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| SilverFish GoldFish 2 collagraph plates created for "Reel Art" 2015 |
Some of the prints I pulled from these plates had various flaws, so I didn't want to keep them for future framing. Instead I cut them out and glued them front and back to foam core, then strung them on a fish creel ($5.00 at Canadian Tire). They are now hanging in my sun-room.
Preparing for upcoming shows:
The Comfort/Discomfort series is going to be at Quest Art in Midland, Ont, March 18- May 14, 2016.
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| Comfort/Discomfort at the Durham Art Gallery, September 2014 |
And this quilt is currently part of Hard Twist 10, the annual juried show at Toronto's Gladstone Hotel:
Back to printing. Here's the result of some tests of digital printing on fabric, using different digital grounds and various colour manipulations via Photoshop CS5. The original images come from photo's I've taken over the years at the summer cottage built by my grandparents. It will turn into a small quilted hanging that points me in the direction of more layered and nuanced photo/fabric manipulations. Stay tuned...
