Chicago Printmakers Collaborative Small Prints
It's that time of year again. Just sent in my acceptance email to:

The 19th Annual International Small Print Show and Holiday Open House.

The hours have been expanded this year:

Grand Opening Party: Saturday and Sunday, December 6-7, 2008, 11am-7pm both days
Preview the exhibition November 23 and 29, 12-5pm
Extended Holiday hours: Tuesdays - Sundays, through December 21st, 12-5pm

The show will be up until February 1st.

Need I say, yes, there will be robots?

More later, I'm sure, with postcard image and everything.

Labels: art, lithography, printmaking, robots

- posted by Cynthia @ 4:42 PM | | | Link |

 
Back from Studio
And am tired from graining off the litho stone with the hand on it. Yes, friends, the hand is no more, one of the sad things about shared stones. Am thinking about doing something with robots on it.

One of the printmakers, Sarah, is a teacher and is working hard to get everything she wants to get done done before the new school year starts. They tell me that after the big storms the other day, power was out for half of the print shop. Only 2 lights and the acid tanks had power. Sarah sat and drew on her plate and tore paper by the light of her cell phone. Best story I've heard in awhile.

Labels: lithography, printmaking

- posted by Cynthia @ 2:00 PM | | | Link |

 
Tree Heaven
In honor of my elm tree that will be slaughtered soon (still haven't gotten the final, official word from the City), I wanted to draw a vision of tree heaven for it to go to. The alert viewer will note that there aren't any elm trees here. This is because each death is unique and new. I want my elm to know this. It will be the only one like it here, just like people.

No trees were harmed printing this, since the paper is Somerset, 100% cotton rag (I think). I apologize to my cotton plant readers.

It's also pretty much the first "art" I've done in maybe a year, other than the Darkdevil County game drawings. It's a stone litho. I want you to admire a few things about it: 1) the placement on the page is perfect. No trimming or tearing down or scraping of little shits needed. 2) the ink balance is nearly perfect. I can't think of the last time I managed to print something so well.

Even though it's hot and we have no air conditioning in the studio, the stone printed well, and didn't scum until I was nearly done for the day. I may have overdone the etch a little, burning out some of the detail, but our big bottle of nitric is maybe 10 years old now, and I don't know how good it is. Luckily our studio is in the Chicago area, so getting fresh supplies from Graphic Chemical isn't that hard -- I believe they no longer ship some items. Am not sure whether nitric gets stronger or weaker the older it is. (Yes, I know you're supposed to check the PH, etc., but in the real world, who does?)

Anyway, big build-up for what's just a simple drawing. Which is what else I like about lithography -- you can just DRAW:

Labels: lithography, printmaking

- posted by Cynthia @ 5:58 PM | | | Link |

 
Lithography Video
I love this:



It always surprises me that the way you do lithography doesn't vary at all regardless of where you do it. This is exactly what I'll be doing in the studio tomorrow. Only the images are different.

Labels: lithography, printmaking

- posted by Cynthia @ 9:50 PM | | | Link |