Newly Etched

I've been working with a saline (copper) sulfate etching solution on steel plates recently - I was surprised by how well it works considering I was introduced to it as a zinc etch. You can etch steel and zinc in the same bath (at the same time!) with no adverse results to either metal. It's also more environmentally sound than traditional acids, with less fumes, and very reusable. 

Two new plates I etched with the saline solution:

"Birdcage Study"

Steel plate etching

6" x 4"

"Sisters"

Steel plate etching

6" x 4"

These two etchings were included in the annual Artworks fundraiser, Secret Artworks!

MAPC Conference 2012

Last weekend my good friend Rachel Heberling and I attended the Mid America Print Council 2012 Conference in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  There are quite a few really good write-ups on Printeresting but of course who would I be if I didn't opine?

Thursday, November 1

Of course as a working woman I was unable to leave Cincinnati until noon on Thursday. After a long drive which took us over into the next time zone and thoroughly confused us, Rachel and I passed over the Mississippi river just as the sun was setting. Every sunset in Missouri was like this and it was the most beautiful part of the trip. We could see it from our hotel room every night over the leaf-filled, half-drained pool and the many fast food billboards that surrounded us.

Introduction Two

My second Intro to Screen Printing class at Tiger Lily Press just ended (at the end of October)! It was a smaller class this time with three students, but that provided a very intimate and focused dynamic to the class. Here are some photographs from the last class: printing!

Trying out a multi-color pull.

A nice vignette of my three students - printing, looking, contemplating.

Everyone came away with quite a few prints, and experimented with color and paper type.

It happens to the best of us!

Everyone with their favorite prints!

All in all it was very successful. That is my last class for the year but I will be starting up again in March with an Intermediate Screen Printing class. It will be an open studio-style class with intermittent demos on different techniques. 

Have suggestions for techniques I should show? Leave me a comment!

Hundredfold

This weekend I spent a good 4 hours printing my page 100 times for the biannual Tiger Lily Calendar! 

(With help from my clean-hands person, of course.)

Every other year, Tiger Lily Press members turn out a calendar of original hand-printed woodcut prints.

Check back on the Tiger Lily Press blog for updates on the 2013 calendar!

A short list of the long last few months

1. Joined Tiger Lily Press, a Cincinnati-based professional print studio

(photo by Rachel Heberling)

2. Taught a class at Tiger Lily Press - Intro to Silkscreening.

(photo by Rachel Heberling)

3. Got a cat...

4. ...Who grew up.

5. Worked at Buck's Rock Camp again as the head of Printmaking and Silk Screening

(photo by Aaron Jacobsen)

6. Didn't change too much at heart.

(photo by Ross Dener)

Now I'm back in Cincinnati and back to work - more updates to come!

35mm film

Construction at the Cincinnati Art Museum, photographs taken in probably December/January.

Cincinnati from the safety of the trees

35mm film

Et cetera

35mm film

Western New York has some surprising parallels with Southeast Ohio.

Print Shop Blues

35mm film

Mindy

35mm film

Since graduation I've made myself at home.

New Year, New City, New Post

"Gilded (II)", 34" x 29", monoprint and silkscreen

Sorry for the holdup in posting; it's been a wild season.

You may have heard that I had a BFA Thesis show coming up; you would be right! In early December I graduated from Alfred University with my BFA. The works that went into the show can be seen on my website (under the BFA Thesis Exhibition tab).

Since then I've relocated to lovely Cincinnati, Ohio!

Obviously, without the university facilities on my side (and real-life responsibilities knocking at the door) the work that you see on FIFS might be a little different and more sporadic. I am primarily working with collage right now, although my mister and I are trying to get a small darkroom for silkscreening set up in the closet. I am also going to be trying my hand more at photography.

Roundup on cool stuff in Cinci coming soon for all my little ones back in the great Empire State!

P.S. I debated over whether or not to leave the old handle behind and move on to a new blog, but I think for now I'll keep it up. There are a lot of good memories and some good work in this blog, so I would rather see it evolve than leave it as a dusty old archival tome that no one will see.