Playing in the Studio

The last couple of weeks have been long work days in my studio.  In May, I will be sharing a show with 2 other artists at the Yavapai College Gallery.  The 3 of us won Artist Project Grant awards from the Arizona Commission on the Arts last year.  We were all invited to show our work from our projects.  I have 2 pieces to finish which are pretty much labor intensive. These pieces will be among the 10-12 pieces for the show.  One of the new work contains around 350 printed beverage cans that make 1050 pieces to be assembled and hung in 20 - 24 piece strands.  The can pieces have 6  holes punched in each can. Pieces of hemp are attached in each hole.  The center holes have a piece of printed amate baek paper wrapped around twigs before the pieces are attached to hang.

The other unfinished piece is crocheted hemp that is 25" x 83". The crochet piece is the base and the top layer is composed of printed lutradur, heat distressed and torn, then layered.  Some of the layers are in place with several sheets of lutradur to be added.  You can see the yellow tops of the pins anchoring the piece in process.

Detail beginning of lutradur layers

Tomorrow I fly to Greenville New York to teach a 5 day workshop, but when I return to the studio, my main focus will be to finish this new work.  I will be taking all the work to the gallery to hang on May 17th and the opening will be the 28th.  It will be great to see these new digital pieces in a gallery setting where it can be photographed.

In the meantime, I also printed some beverage cans this week.   I used my Epson R2400 to print the larger sheet of cans you see below.  I also used my Epson PM 260 to print individual cans you also see below.  (This is the printer featured in my online workshop from last month)  This is the first time I used my little 4" x 6" printer for beverage cans and it worked great!