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!

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Beta Testing

Recently I was invited to join the Beta Testing team for the new Photoshop from Adobe- CS5.  Like the rest of the prerelease team, I signed a confidentiality agreement, so I can't say anything about the new features or what features I used in the creation of this image, until the software is released.  What I can say is that this version of Photoshop is incrediblel.  There are new features that have so much potential for what I do that I am excited to use them in my work.  

Being on this team has been an awesome experience.  In general the software is faster and improved.  As usual Adobe's team does a great job.  Reading all the information on the forum has taught me a lot. It's just been exciting to be included on this team. 

The news will be out on this software soon, so keep watch for it. Photoshop is something I could not do without and it's always inspiring to get into their new ideas.

At the top is the image recently finished with CS5. The image at the bottom, is the original photo.  The bark photo is a Kauri tree from the Waipoua Forest, on the north island of New Zealand.  

This print will be printed 4 times, each one on different weights of lutradur. .  The base will be a crocheted hemp panel and as the lutradur is heat distressed, the print will be layered and assembled into the crochet.  The study that was done for this piece is on my texture blog. I am still not sure what the finished size will be, but at this time the proposed size will be 24" wide and 96" to 120" in length.  Size could depend on when I run out of hemp.   

Mariposa Grove 3 and this Kauri piece will be the last of the pieces for the Yavapai College Gallery Show that will open this May.  Lots of work to do by then.  All the other work is complete. Loved working with the new Photoshop to complete this image and I am looking forward to continue working with this dynamite program as I get the new Creative Suite 5

Extreme Textural Surfaces at Arrowmont

At the end of May, I will be teaching a 5 day workshop at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg Tennessee.  May 30-June 5, 2010.


This incredible workshop, Extreme Textural Surfaces, has a class description as follows:

This workshop is designed to produce extremely interesting textural surfaces by manipulating fabric, paper and other substrates.  During the workshop we will experiment with some, if not all of the following items:  found objects, metals, twigs, hemp, canvas, paint, thread, recycled items, metal mesh and wire.

Techniques in layering, embroidery, heat distressing, collage, digital printing and alternative bookmaking will be taught.  We will look at uncommon ways to use surfaces, with exercises that stretch beyond where we have been before.  Each participant will bring their special style to the surfaces created.

During the workshop we will explore the use of digital prints on fabric and specialty papers to be used in layers of textural fabric.  You will learn how to print on fabric to be used in your various projects.  We will print student images on a 4” x 6” printer during the workshop.

The materials presented in this workshop will encourage participants to come up with their interpretation of the ideas.  Some sewing techniques will be used and sewing machines are helpful.  For some of the textures we will create machine and hand work.

What the description doesn't tell you, is about the amazing work that is generated by the participants of this workshop. Everyone interprets the exercises in their own unique way, over the 5 day format.  It's a great chance to develop work at a new level.

A catalogue with information on registration for this workshop is available on the Arrowmont website.

You can also contact me, Kathyanne for a supply list and questions.  


See my textural blog for weekly textural surface posts. www.kathyannewhite.blogspot.com

Mariposa Grove 3

Recycled Beverage Can Installation

Since returning from my trip to Alaska, my new project is taking shape.  It was started sometime in February by figuring out what surfaces were going to be put together and how.  Then the print to work from.  Chosen surfaces decided on are: digital prints on beverage cans, digital prints on my hand made amate bark paper, twigs and hemp. 

The strands of the elements measure 10 ft long and around 1 ½ “ wide.  They are fragile, light and will hang in a circular configuration.  Of course that will be subject to change as more and more pieces are created.  Currently, over 400 cans have been printed.

There are around 400 of the small elements almost together, as you can see by the pictures below. Many piles of cans are ready to cut and assemble.  This is a seriously tedious process.  Let’s hope it has the end result I am searching for.  

Digital Mixed Media Fiber Journals

Only one month until my workshop at Hudson River Valley Fiber Workshops in Greenville,  New York. We will create "Digital Mixed Media Fiber Journals" for 5 days and stay at the lovely
Greenville Arms Inn.  One of the marvelous results of working on art for 5 days is the opportunity for fearless creating.  The more you work, the better you get. In a 5 day, retreat situation, magic happens with your art.

The workshop will have a digital element so the participants will learn how to manipulate fabric for printing.  We will precoat fabric,  print images and learn what is necessary to obtain a quality print on fabric.  The fabrics we print will be an added element in our journals or art books.

Pima tex cotton, organdy, watercolor paper, lutradur and tyvec will be among the surfaces printed. Heat distressing some of the printed surfaces, along with other fabrics will give a textural element to our pieces. Working with digital prints and manipulating them into collage makes for interesting journal pages.  Expand your thinking on how to use photographs and images in your mixed media art and journals by printing on these surfaces.

I will have tons of pieces from my stash for everyone to use, even some printed beverage cans.  There will be plenty of opportunity to get private instruction and stretch in you knowledge on digital printing and journal making in every aspect.

Contact Kim at Hudson River Valley Art Workshops  for any further information on enrollment and
accommodations.

If you have any questions about the workshop content please contact KathyAnne.

Alaska Fiber Festival Notes

Just returned from teaching in Anchorage Alaska at Alaska Fiber Festival.  It was amazing and an incredible amount of fun!  The work the students created turned out great!

During the Extreme Textural Surfaces participants stretched and experimented with elements, then developed textures and fresh ideas.

In the digital printing workshop, my little Epson PM 260 printed over 72 prints and all of them wonderful color.  Luckily the assistant that helped with all the printing was fabulous and was equal to the task.  (Thanks, Natalie:)

Then there was the watercolor paper journal class.  Every journal created showed the personality of the artist.

The last 2 workshops entailed freehand cutting and piecing techniques.  This way of working is always a challenge and the participants got it together on that subject..

All in all it was an exciting creative time.  Everyone involved in the festival did a wonderful job.  The fashion show and the quilt show were outstanding.  Glad to have been there.

The subject of textures appears in my work often and after spending 2 days in the classroom working with textural surfaces, I have decided to start posting a texture a week.  This will happen on one of my other blogs- www.kathyannewhite.blogspot.com  Every week a new texture will appear, setting up some of the ideas I working on for my next ebook "Extreme Textural Surfaces".  The more I explore the more I discover, so creating a new textural surface every week will assist me in pushing beyond what I have been thinking and developing with textures.  Of course digital prints will be one of the main elements, but who knows where this will take me.  Check it out today, the first post is already up.

Thanks to everyone in Alaska,  it was great!  You all rock!!!

Studio Matters

It's been an exciting week and there is so much going on in my studio.  Tomorrow I leave to teach 5 workshops at the Alaska Fiber Festival.  This caused a serious problem with packing enough supplies, etc to get my 2 suitcases under 50 lbs each:)   I would love to move my whole studio any time I teach a workshop, but that is not happening.  So I get as many things for the students to use as I can and have to walk away from the rest.

Also this week, Adobe invited me to join the expanded prerelease program for their new Photoshop CS5.  This is the part where you get to see what is coming up, play with the software in a beta version and find bugs and see what makes it crash.  Of course, I already had a full week planned, but I just couldn't resist working with CS5.  Since I signed a confidentiality agreement, I can't share anything about the program. Now my goal is to work on Photoshop everyday to contribute to the process.  The next couple of days will be tough with traveling, but there are some new images in the works and these would be great ones to create with CS5.

  Crocheted hemp, crocheted wire, twigs, textural work in progress.

Digital Printing on Wood Veneer

Wood veneer, what a great surface for digital printing.  For these test examples of the wood surface, I used a bark print designed from a photo taken in Yosemite's Mariposa Grove.  The print is textural and works well with the grain of the wood veneer.    The prints are created with 6 of the inkAID precoats: semi gloss, clear matte, type ll, pearl iridescent, silver iridescent and gold iridescent.  Who would want to cover the wood with an iridescent when the wood grain may not show thru?  I would, because I want to see what effect all the precoats have on the wood and the look of the print.  You never know what you may discover.

The iridescent is interesting since it emphasizes the texture of the wood and still shows some of the grain.  You can see from the pictures, the iridescent's look white that is mostly cause by reflection of the iridescent.  Up close they look mostly iridescent, but these precoats do lighten up the wood surface.

The differences in the precoats are hard to capture on camera, but there is a difference between the semi gloss, clear matte and the type ll.  My choice for clarity and the brightest image on the wood is clear matte.  Although my advice is to try all of the coatings to see which is best for your purpose.  It is always better to try them all and make notes while you are experimenting.  The gold iridescent is beautiful on the wood.

I worked with a cherry type color of veneer and also a white birch type color.  You will need to decide what is best for your purposes.  My suggestion again is to try them and play with images and coatings to see what works for you.

Here are some hints on coating the veneer.  If you are using smaller pieces of veneer (my prints measured 17" x 76") you will want to tape the very edges of the veneer to your table.  The thinner the veneer, the more it wants to roll when wet.  If you have the veneer rolling to one side or the other, even when you flatten it, you may have a little lift on the edge.  This lift will or edge curl can catch on your print heads and that is not a good thing.  I pressed the veneer with an iron after coating and drying, and set it under my 48" x 96" mats on my tables.  There was a little edge lift or curl when I coated the back side with white matte precoat in order to print the back.  I didn't tape the veneer to the table, but probably will the next time.  No carrier sheet was used to print.

My next challenge is the art pieces that are taking shape in my mind.  It will take a bit to get that going and once I do, the results will be in a future post.

If you want more information about the wood veneer I am working with, please contact Pat Dowlen.
He is a great guy and would love to talk to you about this product.  He can tell you how to purchase the veneer and sizes etc.  You can also contact me for any questions you have about working with this surface.  I am happy to share whatever I know.

Detail pics of printed veneer:

Polymer Clay Journal Covers

Book of Forests 6 was completed at the end of January during Winter Play in Port Townsend Washington. Teesha and Tracy Moore were the hosts for this incredible weekend.  Lots of time to concentrate and create as well as enjoy the other participants.  My focus was to use the polymer clay covers for my latest art book - Book of Forests 6.   To the left above, you see the front and back covers.  The darker is the front and composed of polymer clay, that has embedded wire mesh on the surface.  Holes are drilled for other elements to be attached with wires.

Detail

This book is composed of a multitude of digitally printed surfaces that have been assemble to make up the pages.

Printed lace paper with printed canvas accents.

Printed lace paper, printed vellum, wire mesh,

printed canvas, beads.

Printed cheesecloth skins, printed lutradur, printed watercolor paper.

Printed vellum, collaged and printed watercolor paper, crocheted hemp, printed beverage can, wire and beads.

Printed copper and bronze mesh with brass wire

Printed aluminum screen, beads, wrapped ring.

Top view of Book of Forests 6.  Pages are around 5" x 5".  These book pages will be included in my ebook in progress "Assemble Intriguing Surfaces"  Hopefully the book will be available in April.  

"Assemble Intriguing Surfaces" will document how many of my assemblages are created with lots of visuals and creative ideas.  

Mariposa Grove 2-Recycled Beverage Cans

Mariposa Grove 2 is the latest piece in my Forest Surfaces Series.  The recycled beverage cans in this piece are coated with inkAID Type ll precoat before printing with my Epson Stylus PRO4800.

Meriposa Grove measures 81" x 36" and is composed of 146 cans.

The squares of cans are pieced with 3 layers.  Each squares bottom layer is half of a can, the middle is crocheted 28 gauge steel wire, the top layer is a half of a can that is cut in 4 pieces and then wired to all the layers with 24 gauge copper wire.  The squares and other can pieces are assembled with 24 gauge copper wire.  There are detail pictures in my post of January 15, 2010-Assembling Digital Prints on Beverage Cans.

Also there is a video update on printing the cans and how I assembled them in my blog post of January 20, 2010- Recycle a Beverage Can to a Digital Print-Video Update.

Details below