Intersecting Methods 2016: Reveal Continues

I bring you two more prints from the Intersecting Methods portfolio. Today, we reveal the editions of Heather Parrish and Andy Rubin. Click here for Heather’s bio post and click here for Andy’s.

Heather wrote this statement for her print.

“Dystopic Solutions: Bio-remediation,” Inkjet print and Screenprint on Mylar, mounted to stonehenge paper, 14″x18″, 2016

The research interests of artist Heather Parrish and Dr. Elizabeth Hénaff intersect in a shared fascination with the mutually-creative relationship between inhabitant and environment. While this has taken them both down various investigative pathways, they chose to focus their collaboration on the Gowanus Canal – a stream-turned-industrial-waste-depository in Brooklyn, New York. With around 10 feet of toxic sludge resting on the bottom, the accumulated off-casts of decades of paint, pesticide and coal production (to name a few), it has been designated a ‘Superfund Site’ by the Environmental Protection Agency. As a simultaneously beloved and feared central artery of the Gowanus neighborhood, it is also the focus of Hénaff’s current research project. She is part of a team analyzing the microbiome that resides in the toxic sludge, discovering their metabolic functions and survival adaptations for this extreme environment. Finding organisms that work to break down the human-produced toxins, Hénaff hopes to foster their colonies and harness their evolved and natural remediating functions. Parrish spent one month in Brooklyn with Henaff exploring the many facets of the canal and Hénaff’s research. The image for this portfolio was a made with a hand-crank 35mm film movie-maker camera. The text is derived from a sampling of both the toxins and bio-remediating microorganisms found in the canal. This print is the genesis of an on-going, multi-modal, collaborative body of work centered on the Gowanus Canal.

Dystopic Solutions: Bio-remediation by Heather Parrish and her collaborator, Elizabeth Henaff

Detail of Dystopic Solutions: Bio-remediation

Here is Andy’s statement.

“Xtal Omics Fractured Fairy Tales,” Lithograph, 18″x14″, 2016

Brian Fox is a professor/scientist in Fermentation and Biochemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Andy Rubin is a Master Printer and currently visiting assistant professor in Art at Indiana University in Bloomington. Our mutual concern, ( scientifically and artistically)  has been the human environmental impact/damage from climate change and our consuming need for , and use of, fossil fuels.

     Brian’s research  delves into the nature and structure of proteins. His main research is probing the active residuals of protein substrates and how it interfaces with the oxidation of hydrocarbons. This research breaks down proteins and investigates what they eat, how they grow, and how they can be manipulated to achieve a positive solution to a ongoing problem with our planets environmental dilemma. 

     In going through visualizations of this process,  I had the idea of stacking the images he sent me into a human form ( the enzymic snowman) to illustrate the dilemma of how we look at (environmental )information .  This figure then examines the world of natural science (the pile of Rocks) to look for clues in how to understand its elements. This starts the scientific inquisition/research needed to solve the problems created by our unquenched desire to pollute and destroy the planet for profit.

     The third panel is a mis-representation of the “Golden Mean”. This symbol of Universal perfection is included to remind us all that inquisition into the nature of science, starts with a pre-possessed image of how we understand the world.  Science , like art, builds upon a culmination of knowledge and  information. Whether this information is right or wrong  depends on circumstances and time.

      Brian’s research may indeed , one-day, change the world. The break down of the proteins he is studying may develop a petroleum eating enzyme that can clean the oceans of oil-slicks. In illustrating this potential (of “humankind’s“ questioning and inquisitive nature through science), Brian and I have created an image where science steps back and reflects on what is needed to solve the problems facing our world today.

Xtal Omics Fractured Fairy Tales by Andy Rubin and his collaborator, Brian Fox

Detail of Xtal Omics Fractured Fairy Tales

Check back in a week for another set of prints from the Intersecting Methods 2016 biennial portfolio.

Snowed In and Resting Up

For those who read this, but are not on the East Coast, we were hammered with around two feet of snow in the past 36 hours. It is one of the heavier snowfalls we have had in my life time, similar to the blizzard of 2003 when I had a week off of school. But, being snowed in was a good way for me to rest up after three weeks of heavy work to try and get my Intersecting Methods 2016 print complete.

It is not done yet, but the major processes are complete and I only need to drop some screen print layers to finish it off. As long as I have access to the studios, hopefully in the next few days, I should be able to knock this out by the end of the coming week. Especially now that the first day of the semester, aka tomorrow, has been cancelled due to the snow.

Four blocks for IM 2016 CMYK first process.

Kozo Natural torn and ready to print

I started off by cutting the four laser engraved blocks for first process. The blocks were printed in MYCK order on Kozo natural.

Magenta ready to roll

Magenta layer of a larger CMYK test

Yellow ready to roll

Small preview of the yellow IM 2016 block

42 MY printed and ready to Cyan

Personal test MY sheets

As I was printing the IM 2016 laser engraved plates, I was also printing a larger CMYK test of another image to make sure my previous CMYK test worked.

MYC colors blending in the border

MYC layers of my larger test

Comparison of MYC and MYCK test. Image looks good.

Close up of MYCK layers

I got through printing all four layers of both CMYK plates and its looking good. I will post the rest of the processes and the final print once completed in two weeks. In the meantime, here is the final image for the larger scale CMYK test.

More to come in two weeks and once we get out of this snow.

 

CMYK vs MYCK?

For the past two weeks, I have been undergoing initial tests into the idea of figuring out a CMYK laser engraving process to be able to reproduce images with a close to full color range and allow the wood grain to interact and enhance the image. This post will show my initial results and discuss my initial conclusions. All images were created on 1/2″ birch plywood from Home Depot using the standard settings for our Epilog Zing 40 watt system, printed with Hanco Process Litho inks and most are on Rives BFK, some Magnani Pescia. Each plate was inked in as consistent of a regimen as possible. Three rolls, then charge, three rolls, then add a little ink, three rolls, and print.

Here are the initial tests:

Cyan Layer

Cyan and Magenta Layered

The blocks so far

Cyan, Magenta and Yellow Layered

CMYK final

CMYK Layers Separate

Initially, everything looked good, but also slightly off and I was unsure of the issue as it looked good. I was just really surprised at the result of the magenta. So I started on a test of printing them in the order of MYCK from a suggestion of Shelly Thorstensen of Printmakers Open Forum. I printed the magenta and then the yellow, but as I was about to start the cyan. I show the earlier results to an interested student and show her the files. As I was pulling up the original files, I realized I had forgotten to invert the magenta layer creating the resulting extreme sunset-esque look to the sky.

With that realization, I began again and completed a full set of tests of both CMYK and MYCK last night. Here is the result:

CMYK on the right/MYCK on the left

For those of you who follow me on Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, or Facebook. You will know that when I finished last night I posted a picture asking which was CMYK and which was MYCK. Well, there is your answer. But, as you can plainly see, there are minor differences between the two outcomes. The only significant difference I found, and it is somewhat noticeable in this digital form, is the CMYK has a slightly more intense yellow hue as compared to the MYCK and that is probably from the yellow being the second to last layer printed with only the black key image to tone it down.

I will continue experimenting to try and find the optimal result, but I feel as an initial test, it looks pretty great. Next I will be testing out the idea of printing them KCMY as suggested by Nicolas Jenkins, a printmaker in Philadelphia, because that was the layering used at an offset printing plant he used to work for. I am curious as to how that will interplay with the traditional litho inks compared to offset inks.

Once I have tested all my theories and possibilities without altering the plates, I think I will try carving in to highlight certain layers in specific areas, i.e. carve out all of the sky on all blocks but the cyan to get a full blue sky.

The holidays are coming up so things may slow down for experiments and posting, but come the new year the Intersecting Methods 2016 editions will start rolling and they will be posted soon after. I look forward to seeing them and sharing them.

Post SGC International Conference Report

The SGC International conference was last week in Knoxville, TN and it was a good time as always. Plenty of things to do that were printmaking related, but so little time for the few days that it is all jam packed into. A brief synopsis of the weekend goes like this: Great keynote speakers, lots of panels, but too little time from board obligations, a wonderful ASU reunion commemorating John Risseeuw’s time there, some very cool work seen in the open portfolio periods, and a 9 hour drive home.

Okay, so there were some great keynote speakers; Hideki Kimura spoke about Contemporary Japanese printmaking, Sarah Suzuki spoke about contemporary printmaker in the use, and Ruth Weisburg and Walter Jule gave inspirational talks about print and teaching.

There were panels about collaboration all over the schedule, but specific the first one, The Collaborative Sphere, had Douglas Bosley speaking about his prints through his time collaborating with scientists at UW-Madison. I had to miss the teaching panel and some others for helping during the Mentor Sessions but I was still able to take in quite a bit.

So, for those of you who have not heard my praise of John Risseeuw, he is an amazing printmaker, book artist and professor. John was the chair of my thesis committee during my time at Arizona State University. He is a powerhouse in letterpress, papermaking and book arts. I have seen multiple printmakers drop their jaws at the mention that I learned from him, so he is an impressive man. This year it was announced that John was retiring from teaching at ASU for 35 years.

On Saturday, there was some amazing work being shown during the open portfolio sessions. Talking with a few friends, we all commented on how we were having a hard time telling who was an undergraduate, a graduate, and a professional. There was also a wonderful balancing of the processes throughout the sessions. What I mean by this, is that in the past few conferences the portfolios have leaned heavily towards screenprint and woodcut, sometimes specifically dirty, sloppy work. But this year there was a good deal of intaglio and lithography on display as well and a lot of the work being shown was much cleaner and more professional even if the imagery itself was punk/anti-mainstream in its style.

All this being said, it was a great conference for its content, but also for the number of people I talked to about the portfolio and the interest that is being stirred up. I put out and handed out around 200 of the postcards that I had printed for the conference. Many were simply picked up from the information table, but I and previous participants handed out quite a few to specific artists that we thought might be good for the exchange. Now I am not going to drop any names yet, but I can say I thoroughly hope they each apply and that I am forced to make some very hard decisions about the final 9 participants.

The only update that I will give is that I have received a few applications already and they are looking good so far. For now, I will post two images from the conference as motivators to those on the fence about whether to apply. As I wrote before, Melanie Yazzie and Tom Christison have already been accepted to the portfolio for participation. Both Melanie and Tom participated in portfolio exchanges for this conference and I took pictures of each ones work to try and motive people.

A print by Melanie Yazzie for her portfolio, Dog Head Stew 2

A print by Tom Christison for a portfolio exchange coordinated by Anita Jung, his wife.

Hope this motivates a few more of you to consider applying. There is a little more than a month left for application. So email your reason for participation and images soon.

First Edition Completed and For Sale

Today, Stephen Evans joined me in the UMD print shop to title and sign his edition and complete the process. It has been a wonderful process working with Stephen and I look forward to creating some more editions with him when he completes his MFA program at the University of Iowa. I know the rigors of graduate school and would not want to add to that by producing more editions while he is there. For the time being, I am pleased to show off this print and create new ones with future collaborators like Stephen. Check out some images of Stephen looking over the print and signing them.

Stephen checking out a print.

Beginning with the title, “Pass Over”

And continuing to sign and date the prints.

And here for its first full viewing is the first edition from R&D editions by an artist. This print was created in an edition of 34 and is for sale. Contact me at rndeditions [at] gmail.com for price inquires or other interests.

Artist: Stephen Evans
Title: Pass Over
Medium: Pronto Plate Lithography
Size:16″x12″
Year: 2014
Printer: R&D editions

Future posts about new projects and experiments coming soon.

Solid Two Weeks

It has been a solid two weeks of work and such for the studio. As of last Monday around 3 pm, the first layer of the current edition was complete. Stephen and I were in the shop Sunday and Monday printing for 5-6 hours each day to get the prints ready. We ran into some snags along the way and lost the plates eventually, but in the end we had 50 prints done before the second plate started to strip and I called it.

To elaborate, pronto plate printing is not the best process for the recreation of photographic imagery, but conceptually it was the best process for the Stephen was thinking about in designing the imagery. He was very concerned with the actually process and how the paper and plate were run through the press, specifically wanting the press, the main top barrel to push the plate into the paper and not vice versa. This required us to use pronto plate as its the only process I know of that transfers the image well when stacked in that way, ie. newsprint, paper, plate, newsprint, blankets. But pronto plates will breakdown over time and the toner or sharpie used will strip away and start to leave open white spaces.

I found with the black layer, I was getting about 20-25 prints before it became too much and I had to reject the plate and switch to the next. This is why I called it when we got to 50, otherwise I would have had to create a new plate and take much more time. I found today when I went in for my second attempt at the 2nd layer, that the sharpie started to breakdown too and at around the same point as the black because of this I feel confident in telling future students and collaborators, you will need multiple plates of the same layer if you want to create an edition larger than 15-20 with pronto plates.

Here are some images from the process.

Layout of the inking area.

NEW clean sponges!

I used a frame of newsprint to protect the paper around the image from scumming on the plate.

Printed image with frame protecting the paper.

Prints piling up on the rack.

All 50 on the rack.

 

Some of you really reading and paying attention, may have caught that I wrote second attempt at the 2nd layer in the previous paragraph. This is because last Friday I came into the shop to try and start the second layer so that I would not have to do a long single day, but there was an issue I came upon and had to deal with.

In a nut shell, the black ink was not completely dry and embedded in the paper from the 4 day break, so when I went to print the red layer on top, the first attempt stripped ink from the paper onto the plate and caused a large transfer ruining the plate and bringing things to a stand still. After some contemplation, I stacked the prints between sheets of news print, to protect and possible pull off some of each prints ink. This did nothing, so today as I printed, I ran each sheet through the press with extra newsprint to strip away excess black ink from the paper’s surface. This caused there to be little to no transfers and allowed to clean printing of the second layer. Below are images of the fire red slab before the first print on Friday and after, and two proofs to show what transferred and through a monkey wrench in the works.

Nice clean fire red slab.

Nasty dirty fire red slab.

Top is a proof after the first print on the previous layer, compared to a clean proof from right before.

You can see the big difference and why I let them rest further over the weekend and then ran them through to strip ink before I printed the second layer. Now I will go back to the studio this week and curate and tear down the prints to their final size. Curation in printmaking refers to fixing small issues in the prints to get them closer to each other for the final edition. You can use little bits of colored pencil to fill in misprints or thinned out ink with a brush, and you use an exacto and white eraser to remove ink in the border areas to get them as clean as possible. I hope to complete this and have the prints ready for signing and numbering this coming Monday. Stephen will be joining me in the studio again so that we can have him go through and do a final approval before we call it complete. Hopefully next Monday there will be a new post with images of the complete print. Until then, check out the full rack of prints.

Full rack of complete prints ready for curation.

Final Proofs and Commission Work

I got quite a bit done today and over the previous week.I am putting this out there now for all those interested in the print publishing process and collaborations. Typically, when you go into production the artist or collaborator is done and its the printers job to finish printing the full edition with help from assistants and such. I am quite comfortable and capable of doing that, but Stephen has expressed interest in the process and wanting to help. So we have scheduled the next few weeks out to print the two layers and curate the edition before he leaves for the MFA Painting program at University of Iowa. He and his wife are planning to leave in mid-July and I would like to be able to spend him off with his prints complete.

So for most editions I publish and post about I will be the sole person working on them in production mode, unless I get assistants or interns in the future. But when an artist or collaborator expresses that they want to help out and be a part, I will never turn them down. Not only does it help me by having extra hands, but they learn new things and I get to practice my printmaking teaching skills.

With that said today we printed final proofs of the Stephen’s idea and got some great results. We tried a few things on multiple prints to try and get just the right pressure and cleanliness for the paper and I believe we have the process and our roles down for creating the full run. With a starting stack of 60 sheets for the edition, I am hoping for an outcome of 45-50 from the edition with a few Artist proofs and my Printers proof. An artist proof is a print that is close to being good enough for the edition but not quite there, typically there is a small registration malfunction or a color is a little off or just a little too much ink in the border, etc. A Printer’s proof is the copy a Master printer keeps from each edition as his/her copy for their own records and archives.

Here is a view of some of the proofs on the rack.

Along with completing the proofs and creating the BAT for the edition today, I made two test proofs of the commission work I was hired for by the Experimental Printmaking Institute. I had a roll of 44″ wide Hahnemuhle William Turner laying around and needed to get at least one or two out for my meeting with Curlee tomorrow, even though I do not have the project paper yet. I tried two proofs with two different Epson profile settings because I had some trouble loading a Hahnemuhle profile into the Harddrive of the computer I was on. I figure I will print from my computer from now on, so that I can have better control over the system and profile the paper if its needed. I did that last week with one of my papers and was quite happy with the result. Check out the proofs from today below.

On the left Epson Enhanced Matte settings, on the right Epson Textured Fine art

A Proof of the inkjet imagery on Willam Turner paper with Epson Matte Paper settings.

Shop Talk and Color Proofing

Been a busy few weeks. I have been able to get full access to the printmaking studios for the summer and its looking like I will be in 2-3 days a week to work on projects and experiment with techniques. Right now, I am playing with photographic collograph which I first learned about in Beth Grabowski and Bill Fick’s book Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials and Processes.  Along with that I am going to go into researching and experimenting with some photographic etching processes and see what results I can start getting for future possible editions.

But this past week has been quite busy and a lot has been done. Last week, I was introduced to Curlee Holton of the Driskell Center and the Experimental Printmaking Institute. He is a master printer and continues to create editions at EPI while he has been working with the Driskell Center to bring in new artists and shows. Currently, he has been commissioned to create an edition for an artist through their gallery. As part of this a large section has to be printed inkjet and areas around it will be screen printed. Curlee has hired me on to coordinate and print the full editions inkjet layer because they do not have the equipment at EPI. This is a great opportunity for me to connect with another shop and for possible future work.

Then yesterday, I was a part of a Shop Talk session as presented by Printmaking Legacy Project, a 501(c3) created by Susan Goldman of Lily Press at The Old Print Gallery in Georgetown. Susan has started this organization to create documentaries about older generation of printmakers and to record their thoughts and ideas before they are lost. She is creating her first short documentary on Evangeline J Montgomery. EJ is a mixed media artist and curator who Susan has been printing with since 2010 and has quite a history, check out the trailer for the documentary.

My part of the session was to discuss the Intersecting Methods Portfolio and laser engraved relief printmaking. I was able to lay out and discuss some of the images from the portfolio and brought along a few plates and prints that showed off some of the possibilities of the process. There was quite a bit of enthusiasm and interest in the process and how it could work other substrates. Here are two images from the afternoon.

Myself with Erwin Thamm, EJ Montgomery and Susan Goldman. Photo credit: Thomas Petzwinkler

Me describing the laser engraving process and some of the works.
Photo credit: Thomas Petzwinkler

And earlier today, I met with Stephen Evans  to proof some colors and run some tests for the final edition. I purchased some Hanco Fire Red after we meet two weeks ago and looked at swatches. Today we mixed it up with some tint base and pulled swatches on scrap tests to see how the different ratios of fire red to tint base would work with the black layer printed underneath. Those the variations were small, we did find a combination that he felt work better than others. So we decided to do some test prints some not so great test prints from previous sessions. The result looked great minus some scumming, which I will clean up for the final. Stephen was very pleased and excited to be able to be in the shop working with me to create it. The current plan is to meet next Monday and with a new plate and proof a BAT for the edition. Then I will work on getting bigger batches of the inks together, tear paper and trim newsprint before we start the edition on the 22nd or 23rd. I hope to have it complete by July, so that we can meet on last time to sign and number the edition before he leaves for Iowa. Here are some images of materials and today’s work.

Materials coming in.

100 Sheets of BFK, not all for this edition, but eventually they will be used.

Multiple swatches with different ratios of tint base.

A test pull in the general area of the final color.

Proofs from todays tests.

New Collaborator and Current’s Update

It has been a busy two or so weeks since the last post. The weekend before Memorial Day, my wife and I were in North Carolina for a wedding of two of her college friends and the few days before that and afterwards were full from finals and grading. But, this past friday and today were productive days in the studio working towards the final product for Stephen Evans and last Tuesday I met with my next collaborator.

It is looking very likely the next edition will be produced in collaboration with a friend, Stephen Lambert. He is a friend from high school that I reconnected with once I moved back to the DC area and he works for a local security software company as a computer engineer. We met and discussed the needs and possibilities of an edition and what could be the outcome of the process. He seemed very interested and already has a bit of a creative side with his programming and own drawings. Stephen has for the past few years competed in a few limited time game programming challenges and has always had an interest in seeing how code becomes visualized with different programs and processes. So though it is not definite, it is likely that will be part of the direction we go with the work. As for process, that is very much up in the air, but I am personally interested in seeing what can be done with programming and controlling the laser cutter or CNC router.

As for the current edition, I met with Stephen Evans today in the studio to go over the color swatches I pulled and see what reds he was interested in for the second layer. Along with checking out the colors, Stephen drew out the image on a pronto plate for the second layer. This red will be printed over top the initial first photographic image, creating a conceptual impression into the original image and paper with the next layer of ink. I ordered aper and inks today with the intention of being in the shop in the next week or two to mix up a batch of red for printing and then to finish off the edition. With this edition possible ending in the next few weeks and the next scientist edition possible taking more time to get started. I am considering asking another artist to create an edition this summer, as I will have the time to invest in it verse during the school year. I’ll post as soon as I know whether it will be on or not.

Check out the images below of the swatches, proofs and Stephen drawing the second plate.

Proofs of the plate for test printing the red.

Stephen Evans, working on the pronto plate

More of S. Evans working on the plate for the second layer

Swatches of red for the second layer.

Success!

This week was a little rough but turned out in the end. Like I described in my last post, we have altered the direction of the process for the print. Pronto plates are a polyester based plate that was developed for different offset print presses. These plates can be sent through a laser printer and heat set to allow the toner to apply and become ready to accept ink. For a full explanation of the process, check out Kathryn Polk’s blog Non-Indigenous Woman.On the 25th, I went forward with the pronto plate direction and printed a set of proofs on newsprint and Rives BFK. Initially it didnt seem like it was inking up well, until I got to the 6th proof on Newsprint (see below)

Images of the 6th proof pulled on newsprint

Following this I tried the image using the same inking sequence as the 6th proof and the rest. But I seemed to have lost a lot of detail between the newsprint and the BFK. This could happen for a variety of reasons, but the main one I suspected was a combination of less ink on the roller and less information for the ink to attach too for printing on a textured paper. Below is the BFK proof and a comparison image.

Test on BFK paper.

Comparison Image of BFK and Newsprint images

Its pretty easy to see the difference. So two things were done this week. First I mixed up a large batch of ink for printing to try and keep the ink as consistent as possible for as much of the project, if not the whole project. Secondly, I printed a new version of the plate and went about coloring in the blacker areas with sharpie. Sharpie works really well with pronto plates, better than any other drawing material I have tried. I created a makeshift light table with painters tape and my window. The images are of the starting and finished sharpie.

Beginning the sharpie fill in.

The finished fill in of the black areas.

I also suspected that the image that I was using was not producing the best plate because of its high contrast range. Some may say this seems like a incorrect assumption, but I felt the image could get more out of it than what I was receiving. I was unable to print on Friday because of some other printmaking obligations taking much longer than was expected, so I went into the studio on Sunday. I had great success on Sunday and am very happy with the initial test results. From the new plate, created from a different image manipulation sequence, I not only got a deeper black, but I also got a much better value range for the image. Here are some of the proofs from testing.

Newsprint proofs and initial BFK test

You can see the four stages of Newsprint proofs that I did before I then ran a print on BFK. Here is a close up of the first BFK test.

BFK inital test

The image is much better than I expected and a much larger value range than the previous plate. My only issue was the small areas in the blacks that didnt seem to be inking up quite enough. To try and fix this I add two more charges to my regimen for roll-up. There were specific areas that seemed to be getting the short end of the stick from the sequence I was using. The result was awesome!

The second test on BFK with a new sequence of inking.

Closer picture of the second BFK test print.

As you can see, the image did a lot better. I got a lost more of the black out, more of the details and a better value range. I sent the image to Stephen and he was thrilled. He couldn’t believe how solid the image looked and the range received. I am extremely happy with this result, but still feel I may be able to do a little bit better. So this week, I will be testing a new plate printed the same way as this one, but with the black areas darkened with Sharpie for a richer, solid black. I still have plenty of ink and look forward to seeing what I can produce next Friday morning. I will be printing at least 4 of them on BFK for creating the BAT, bon a tirer, for Stephen, but before that can be printed we will have to meet in the studio to mix and created some red tests for printing the second layer.