I’ve been intrigued by cut-up plates and especially so after seeing Romare Bearden’s hacked-up plates at the exhibition “From Process to Print: Graphic Works by Romare Bearden” at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. (The description of the exhibition includes a pretty good Gallery Guide that you can download.)
I saw my chance yesterday when I had [...]
These prints were made with a much larger agar plate that sat around for two days. Its edges started to crack, but cutting them off was a simple matter (and if you are experimenting, don’t forget that all gelatin-plate scraps go in the garbage, not the sink).
I was surprised that the plant material I placed [...]
On my own I worked out a recipe for a gelatin plate based on agar agar (bought in the form of seaweed, not flakes). I learned that although the gelatin is firm it will break with the least provocation. I provoked it plenty and the gelatin shattered.
Undaunted, I rolled on some acrylic paint and got [...]
With many thanks to Anne Garland and Lou Lipkin, I had a wonderful afternoon of printmaking with a gelatin plate. We experimented with water-based relief inks from Speedball, Daniel Smith, and Akua. Some of the inks rolled out beautifully, others smeared (like melted butter on a metal sheet), and yet others were sticky and stretchy [...]
I ran into a post of Mail Art by Sue Angebranndt a while ago. Then for Christmas the book she discussed arrived from my friend Cathy. Not a coincidence, I suspect.
I have decided to try to start mail art exchanges with a few friends while I am meeting the demands of a chemotherapy. I will [...]
Another chance to embrace Beginner’s Mind!
April Vollmer (standing in the foreground of the first photo) came up from New York City to give a weekend workshop at Peregrine Press. She gave the members a thorough introduction to Japanese woodblock printing (moku hanga). We carved our blocks and printed an edition of ten (samples shown below). [...]
Watch this animation. It portrays the formation of chromosomes and the production of proteins. If you studied this stuff in high school or college, it’s a great knitting together of information. If you haven’t studied this stuff, here’s a good place to start.
We are planning work for Fall 2009.
Was it the foggy rainy weather or a July 31 deadline that fueled the work?
Phil Isaacson, an art reviewer for the Portland Press Herald, hits all the right notes in his piece on the Peregrine Press show at the Saco Museum (Oct/Nov 2008). Here’s the text of the review. I’ve added a link to a PDF of the article, which includes images of work by Allison Hildreth, [...]