Bark Series Continued

Bark 9 has just been completed. This is a continuation of my Bark series that is part of Sensual Surfaces. This body of work is about the Forests of Yosemite National Park, Kings Canyon National Park and the Waipoui Forest on the Northern Island of New Zealand. These forests are incredible and have inspired this exciting mixed media work.

Bark 9 is made up of small sections that include 8 layers per section. After taking a photograph of bark in Yosemite National Park, I manipulated the image in Photoshop. Once the image is ready and sized for the output, the surfaces are printed.

Surfaces from top to bottom are:

Cream Mica Crinkle
Lutradur, heat distressed
Silver Metalic Crinkle paper
Gel media/cheesecloth/semi-gloss precoat combined to make a printable surface
Arial Paper
Canvas
Lutradur, heat distressed
Dyed cheesecloth
Dyed rug hook canvas

I will be teaching a workshop of the techniques included in this piece. All the details have not been released, but you could contact me and I will advise you when all the arrangements of place and time have been completed.

Bark 8 Finished

Bark 8 22" x 30" mixed media digital

I printed 5 surfaces with the same digitally manipulated picture. Of course each of the prints look different since every surface will give a diverse appearance. The original photograph of bark was taken in Yosemite National Park.

Materials used in the layers from top to bottom

Lutradur printed and distressed

Canvas printed

My own surface created with a combination of gel media, cheesecloth and semi-gloss precoat from inkAID

Organdy printed

Dyed cheesecloth

Organdy printed and crinkled by wetting and drying

Dyed Twill

Fiberarts Magazine Artist Profile

The new FiberARTS Magazine has a profile on me! Thelma Smith wrote a wonderful piece, which is much appreciated.

The image here is small, you will have to buy the issue to read the article! An artist friend of mine, Michael Rhode, is featured in a Q & A article about his new direction. Be sure to pick up your issue!

And...thank you Thelma for your visit to my studio and your writing:)

Details of Started Study

Layers from bottom to top:

*dyed woven cotton fabric
*digital print on organdy that has been crinkled
*dyed cheesecloth
*digital print on organdy
*surface from gel media and cheesecloth
*digital print on canvas
*lutradur that is cut and heat distressed

This piece is still on my wall for the final assembling and finishing.

Surface Study

This is the start of a study for a piece that I am planning of Yosemite Falls. While I work on the digital print my thoughts are into "what if". Playing with surfaces of another print helps me to think about what happens when...

Sufaces from top to bottom:

*canvas coated with white matte precoat from inkAID
*lutradur coated with semi-gloss precoat from inkAID
*original surface created from gel media and white cheesecloth with a coating of semi-gloss precoat added once the first part dried
*tyvec
*bark picture from Yosemite that is the start of this work.

There are 7 surfaces being used on the study piece. There will be details pics in the next post.

Lutradur Print Collage

Dyed cheesecloth is pressed into acrylic paint before the paint dries. Next a collage of materials that includes; dye for the burlap, digital print on lutradur and metal beads is put together. The lutradur print is distorted with an embossing heat tool. Once you heat the lutradur too much it can be ruined, so just do short time periods with the heat. After the lutradur is altered and the burlap dyed, the materials are put together by sewing the beads to the layers that secure the surfaces. I used small amounts of gel media to adhere the collage to the book pages.

Working with Lace Paper

This section of the journal was created with lace papers. These papers are printed after being coated with semi-gloss precoat from inkAID. Several layers of lace papers, some geometric, some random lace have been put together for all the elements on these pages.

The papers are carefully coated with the precoat and once dry, carrier sheets are used to enabel the paper to be printed.

Yosemite Falls Mixed Media Journal

In the last couple of weeks I have been working with many different surfaces for printing. This Yosemite Falls Journal was created with images that I had taken of the falls, manipulated in Photoshop and printed in many different ways. In the next few posts I will show parts of the journal and explain the different processes explored.

This first set of pictures encompasses the cover This board book has been painted throughout with acrylics. Each set of pages is then covered with other elements. The photograph was taken of the falls in April of 2005. After manipulating the photograph in Photoshop, it was printed on Arial Paper. The paper is coated with white matte precoat from inkAID. The print has been layered with dyed cheesecloth and several sheets of hand dyed paper, sewn together and glued to the front of the board book.

The smaller stack of images hanging from the top of the front cover are 24 - 2" x 3" eclectic depictions of Yosemite Falls.