Forest Surfaces 6

As I work the studies from my textural journal I am experimenting with a variety of fibers and surfaces. Forest Surfaces 6 (7" x 7") started from another composition recently completed on Yosemite Falls. I took that piece apart entirely to rework it, I just didn't like it. That artwork appeared in another post on December 3, 2007. Currently I am reworking other parts of that same artwork.

Expanding the surfaces I am working with is inspiring. Next year I will be teaching a workshop in printing on uncommon surfaces with an ink jet printer, at the Surface Design Association Conference. More on that soon……

Forest Surfaces is composed of several layers:
Twigs are seen on the top, they have been tied into strips of fiberglass screen. The digital prints are on the following surfaces- canvas, organdy,tyvec and lutradur distressed, with dyed canvas and dyed cheesecloth mixed in.

Adding to my textural journal

Working in my studio the last few days, I have been setting up some new artwork. My first choice now is to go to my textural journal after I have printed several surfaces and working out the layer order in my journal. I make changes until I get what I want from the materials I am using. I now have the start of 5 new pieces, it will be sometime before they are all finished. I am working on the makeup of the layers such as dying canvas and crocheting hemp, also getting the twigs in one of the pieces tied with hemp. When the digital layers aren’t exactly what I want then I reprint what would work better.

I did finish a piece that I will add to the blog by the end of the week. It is made with digital prints on canvas, organdy, and tyvec. Tied fiberglass screen and twigs along with cheesecloth, one of my art quilts cut up and recycled into the composition. It is about an inch in thickness. Later for that one. Here I have several pages from my textural journal with trial makings for other work.

Forest Surfaces 5

Tane Mahuta is a kauri tree in the Waipoua Forest on the northern island of New Zealand. It isn’t just a kauri tree, it is the most massive kauri known standing today. The age of Tane Mahuta is between 1250 - 2500 years old. Forest Surfaces 5 is from a photograph I took of the top of the tree in 2005 while I visited the forest. Waipoua Forest is an unusual and incredible place and has been inspiring my work for the past 3 years. The barks of the kauri trees are luscious to see.

Forest Surfaces 5 is 29” x 19” and made up of layers that are bound together with florist wire and attached to hardware cloth. There are 5 digital surfaces in the layers.

Layers from top to bottom:
*Digitally manipulated photograph printed on lutradur that has been slightly heat distressed
*Digitally manipulated photograph printed on white matte paper
*Digitally manipulated photograph printed on tyvec, heat pressed to warp slightly
*Dyed burlap glued to the back of the tyvec
*Twigs
*Heavy weight hemp crocheted into 2” squares
*Digitally manipulated photograph printed on both sides of rice paper
*Twigs
*Dyed Cheesecloth
*Dyed canvas
*Digitally manipulated photograph printed on dyed canvas

The detail of the piece was photographed with a white background so that you could see the inner detail.

I will be finishing another small piece this week and have 2 more in the works. Thanks for looking.

Forest Surfaces 4

This piece is 16” x 15”. It is composed of 10 layers that are bound by wire and the attached to black hardware cloth..

From top to bottom here is the make up of the various layers:
Digital print on airiel paper
Dyed canvas
Twigs
Crocheted jute twinr
Digital print on both sides of canvas
Twigs
Dyed cheesecloth
Dyed canvas
Dyed Pimatex cotton
Digital print on matte paper
The layers are by steel dark annealed wire. The print came from a photograph I took in the Waipoui Forest on the North Island of New Zealand. The picture was manipulated in Photoshop before printing.

Textural Journal

It has been over a month since I last wrote. I have been working on some of the items I needed to make for my daughters wedding and then also creating things for the new baby. Won’t be long now, the wedding is in a month and the baby will be here when she is ready. Either late April or early May.

The pictures here are of my new textural journal. The idea around this journal comes from something an art professor told me over 20 years ago. In creating 100 drawings the first 25 are things you have already done, the second 25 are things you have already seen, the third 25 are things you have already thought about and the last 25 are new ideas. Since I don’t draw I am working on textures in small creations. Well I am not doing 100 at one time, but I wanted to give this idea a go. On March 1st I made a new journal in which I hand dyed and digitally printed 140 lb watercolor paper and made a dyed canvas cover. I then started doing 365 small compositions knowing that as I work through all these little texture ideas I will find some that I would like to do in larger work. The journal pages are around 9” x 10”.

Every day I work one small composition that corresponds with my forest surfaces work. When I skip a day I catch up. Today I am right on schedule, but last week I was behind 10. Since I started the journal I have created 3 new pieces that are new ideas for me. In the next week I will publish the 3 pieces and what I used to create each of them. For today I have published a few pages from the inside of the journal and the outside cover with a side look. The journal is quickly getting very wide. Some of the compositions are thick and most are more 3d then I usually work. In the midst of this yummy journal are some great ideas for a installation corner I will be creating in one of my upcoming shows.

So here is a look at my new textural journal. Stay tuned for the work that has been initiated from this project.

Forest Surfaces 3

I’ve been really busy – new happenings! I will be teaching a 5 week workshop in Surface Design at Yavapai College in Prescott, fall term 2008. We will work with dyes and then digital surface design. The class will meet on Tues and Thurs nights at 5:30 – 8:15. My intention is to teach basic techniques and allow students to push a technique to see where it may lead. Should be a great class! Yavapai is a fabulous school and I am delighted to be teaching there.

As for this artwork, Forest Surfaces, ३ is my latest piece. It is composed of around 7 layers. These layers include a substrate I created from gel media, dyed cheesecloth and inkAID printed, printed tyvec that is sewn to crocheted steel wire and heat distressed, printed lace paper, printed dyed canvas, copper mesh and aluminum screen mesh. All the layers are attached together with steel wire and copper wire on copper mesh.

El Capitan 2

     It's been a busy week.  Lots of family happenings this year.  Our oldest daughter is getting married in May and that same month our other daughter is having a baby.  This will be the first grandchild and we are all excited!!!  The baby is a girl, so I get to make girl stuff.  Right now I just finished knitting a huge blanket and I am busy working on the babies first hand made journal.  The journal will be a preparation record of shower presents and furniture and all those fun things on the way to the due date.  This book will also have room for the babies first days.

     As for the bride to be, I already made her a nice size dyed watercolor paper journal for her to add all the stuff she picks up on the way to the wedding.  Collage has been used all over the journal flat and in standing up texture. It is becoming truly quite a nice book.  Now I am working on a hand made journal for all her gifts and shower parties, etc.  I will be traveling to both of our daughter's houses for the showers next month.  Busy, busy, busy!!!

     Which brings me to my latest mixed media work.  El Capitan 2 is 15" x 15".  This piece is backed by hardware cloth.  There are several digital prints of an abstract that I created from a photograph I took of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.  One of the digital prints is on water color paper (Fabriano Artistico) that I hand dyed then coated with inkAID semigloss precoat.  Another print is on Velum paper that is ready to print from Creative Papers Online. The last print is on a substrate I created from gel media, dyed cheesecloth and inkAID semigloss precoat.  

     The velum print is attached to copper mesh with sead beads and quilting thread.  The watercolor print is layered on the top of the hardware cloth with the mesh and velum layers over the watercolor print.  mesh.  On top of those surfaces my substrate is attached with beads and some more copper mesh.  To attach all the layers I used brass wire and then crocheted brass wire over the top surface.  

     Velum is one of my favorite surfaces to print, I just love the look and the feel of the surface after printing.  This piece came about because of a velum print I wanted to use.  The textures of all the surfaces are very different and become an interesting combination.  

     Hope you all have a great weekend!

El Capitan

My focus continues to revolve around texture. This piece, El Capitan, is part of the Forest Surfaces series. Textures for the piece are built from various digital surfaces including tyvec, organza, handmade papers and a substrate created from gel media, dyed cheesecloth and semigloss precoat from inkAID.

The digital print of El Capitan is created from a photograph taken in Yosemite National Park. The photograph has been broken into layers in Photoshop, then the layers are combined with colors and shapes from some of my previous artwork. Once the layers are altered and assembled in, the main print is created and the prints are finished on the various chosen surfaces.

Depicted are the main piece and details.

Forest Surfaces 2 Beginning

Spent pretty much all day working on this textural book yesterday. The cover is in the beading stage and will be finished in the next couple of hours. This book contains digital prints on most of the surfaces, beading, textiles, lutradur, dyed watercolor paper, dyed burlap and canvas, lace papers, hemp among others. This and the new wall pieces I am working on clearly explore the surfaces of the forests I have visited.

Depicted here are all the pages stacked together and a couple of details of open pages and single pages. Depending on how today goes, I will photograph the finished piece in the next day or 2.

Creating Surfaces

Well the month of January is almost over and this is my first post this year. Mostly my mind has been on creating and working on textural surfaces. I am currently working on a small book which will be small compositions created with my digital designs using textures. Tomorrow I will start to picture pieces of the book. Today, I am posting one of my wall pieces that is done with hemp, canvas, dyes, digital prints on twill, canvas, lutradur and silk to name a few. Mostly playing with an overall surface that is multi textural.