Hand Pulled Prints, Books, Drawings and More


Saturday, May 28, 2011

Studio Changes and Stone Lithography

my messy new space
 Oxbow Press has become Oxboo Press. After a lot of hard work and difficult decisions my studio will no longer be pursuing a non-profit status and has become a private studio space. Mostly this means that I will have to get a business license in order to continue teaching but I will still have access to the workshop and my own private working area.This is going to be a change, but not a bad one. We will still be hosting many events, both social and creative, during the local Artown and NADA DADA festivals this summer. More info and dates will come soon for those events.

My Closeable Door and I!

In the mean time I am in the process of moving (again) to a slightly different studio space. Candace moved out of her office and I moved in! The space is perfect for me because it allows me to be in a social environment without being approachable if I need privacy. Vicki's giant piece of cork broke apart so I carved some stuff out of it to use myself. I'm pretty happy with the design I achieved - what do you think?

some of the litho stones resting
this one is backed with slate
Over this past week we were lucky enough to hold the truly amazing, talented and amicable Kathryn Polk. Check out her inspiring website - Non Indigenous Woman. Kathryn's specialty is stone lithography, an ancient and beautiful printmaking technique which has enthralled me for years. I was very lucky to be asked to create an image on one of our recently acquired stones as well as treat and print the stone! It was a truly fantastic experience which has re-awakened my love of printmaking in new ways. Kathryn was very generous to allow myself and a few others to observe her and Ann Hoff printing as well as allowing us to print ourselves. My heartfelt thanks go out to her. I had dreams about sponging stone after the first day!

my images after printing and etching
closeup of one stone
Traditional stone lithography teaches artists to use the LAW - Lithotene, Asphaltum, and Water - to achieve the "etch" that adheres an image drawn or transferred in grease pencil to the stone. However the genius George Roberts, who created many fantastic new non-toxic printmaking techniques including polyester plate lithography, and others discovered a way of using a certain kind of paste wax in place of the LAW. This was a monumental step forward from traditional chemicals which required respirators, ridiculous ventilation and were linked to cancer in artists who routinely used such substances.

No comments:

Post a Comment