Frustration

Lately I've been feeling incredibly frustrated with art school. Part of it has to do with my program, I'm sure; I feel a little constricted by the printmaking media, and it seems like I don't have enough room to run with my ideas as I'm spending too much time trying to work out how to go about actually making the prints. Also, two of my violin strings broke on Wednesday, which is great cause for sadness. I still haven't gone out to get new ones.
With respect to all things artistic, I'm currently in the process of planning out a few paintings, which I really hope I can get around to doing. I've started the process of preparing my next lithograph for printing. Today the first layer was drawn onto the stone and I did the first etch. I also did some screen printing today. That's what I'll be showing here.

This is a print of a photograph I took and photoshopped to turn it into a halftone. Have a good weekend, folks!

Lithographs done

Hello again! This has been a fairly productive week, apparently. I finished this print on Thursday night. The results were very consistent, and I'm very happy with the way they turned out. This image is the artist proof, and the edition is made up of 6 lithographs.

A walk in the park... or the financial district

Earlier today, I ventured downtown, into the financial district with a little packet of prints in my backpack, eager to prove a point. My goal was to distribute at least three prints, and to see what value the fancy suits and ties would place upon the work of a student artist. As it turns out, not much.
Few people would even spare the time to talk to me, let alone have anything they were willing to part with in return for a piece of original artwork. One man, cornered while ordering a hot dog, said he wouldn't take it because he didn't like it. Another, after sparing me around a minute of his valuable time, wouldn't even take the print when it was offered to him for the expense of his time. One woman returned the print as payment for the print.
I found it interesting how even when there was no price tag, and the individuals themselves could determine what they would give in return, many of the people I encountered couldn't come up with anything. They were even reluctant to take the print. Perhaps they thought it was a trick.
For my efforts, I received a lighter and a pamphlet, the pamphlet being from a girl who was handing out environmental information and looking for donations.

These are the prints that were being distributed. It's a representation of Michelangelo's Pièta, executed in screen print, and placing the focus upon Jesus lying in Mary's lap. While it was rather disheartening to receive such poor feedback and have such sparse participation, it does play into my project quite perfectly.
We have a couple more trials to put Pièta through before Monday, so wish me luck!

So here we are again. Somehow it went and decided it was going to be November already. This morning I awoke, and upon looking out my window, found there to be frost on the roof. Good lord.
And of course, with November come looming deadlines, approaching exams and studio projects, and a general insane flurry of activity. Yes ladies and gentlemen, it's crunch time once again. Regretfully, I have very little finished work to show off at the present; everything currently exists in a middle stage, or as sketches. I do, however, have some prints of the Pièta at a reasonable stage of completion. That's the part where I get your hopes up. Now i dash them. There are no photos of the prints as of yet.
I do have some preliminary stages of Andy Warhol and David Bowie to show at the moment. These are just the first layers; they'll be getting plenty more ink in the near future. never fear.

Please note that the lighting isn't super. I really ought to scan these images rather than photograph them. The ground should actually be a quite brilliant white.

Canzine

Yesterday was a trip down Queen West to the Great Hall to experience the cultural event that is Canzine! There were tons of independent publications to be seen, from postcards to zines to full fledged books (one about an army of cats and pirates stands out in my mind). The event was visually overwhelming, with some fantastic artists showing and selling work.
The new venue, however, wasn't so good. The event has, to the extent of my knowledge, always been held at the Gladstone Hotel a bit further west on Queen Street. That venue has space for workshops and actual MANOEUVRING. MY major complaint about Canzine this year was the lack of space. It was incredibly difficult to get around some of the rooms, and I admit that I did skip looking at some artists' work simply because I didn't want to fight my way into their tiny aisle, and then have to fight my way out again. I feel bad, but it is the unfortunate truth.
On another note, I know it's been a while since my last post. That isn't to say that I haven't been productive. I'm currently working on a couple of different projects, of which the most exciting is Whodunit, the annual mystery art sale fundraiser. I've finished two pieces for that show, out of a hopeful five. However, given the nature of the sale, I feel like I ought to withhold photos of the work until after the sale takes place.
Instead, I have a painting and a couple of drawings that are well on their way to becoming a screen print.



It is my hope that you will be able to recognize the famous gentlemen I've depicted in the drawings. The painting is acrylic on canvas with pen and ink drawing over top.

My, haven't we been productive?

So this week has been fairly productive.
I'd better rephrase that. This week has seen the results of the past few weeks of work get to a point I am reasonably happy with. Basically, it means the "Fatale" prints are finished, I got my lithographs printed last night, and on Monday I finished a two week life study in my sculpture class.

Two new paintings

Hello there all, and happy October! Not only that, but it's a Friday night. What more could you ask for? Anyways, it's been a little while since I've posted up here, so I think it's high time that was remedied.
I have some fun stuff for you today. Some paintings, some print stages, and perhaps even some sculpture. Combined with a little rant. So it should be a good day.
First, paintings! These are two works that I finished within the first week of school. I'm reasonably happy with the results. They're kind of an extension of a painting I did during the summer, meant to show the natural world overcoming the man-made. They were quite fun to do. Started with an Unbleached Titanium base, taped off sections, and blocked out straight colours. Medium is acrylics, ink, and conté.


I've started running the second version of the Fatale prints. Unfortunately, the registration got a little messed up when i drew the ink across the screen for the second colour. I'm hoping I'll be able to fix that as much as possible in the final stages of working on the print. I also did another colour earlier today, but there aren't any photos of that yet.

I also have a touch of sculpture to show this week. This was a three hour study of a live model, done in clay.

And now, for those of you who are still with us, a small rant.
I will try to be brief.
I feel like artists should really respect each other. It can be challenging sometimes what with visual art being such an opinion-based field of study; however, simple differentiation of opinion should not permit an artist to downright bash another artist's work. I don't mean criticizing, as often that can be constructive when done with the proper degree of care and respect. I mean statements such as 'my piece is so much better than yours'. While you're free to enjoy your own work and be proud of what you've done, saying this really yields zero constructive advice for the artist who is the butt of the comment. This applies all the more if it is that artist's first experimentation working with a brand new medium.
Frankly, it will gain you no friends to talk like that to other artists, and help you to lose some instead. Instead, construct. Point out what you don't think is working in the image, what could be touched up, or elements you think are working and could be built on.
So just give your fellow artists the respect that they deserve, and you'll receive the same respect in turn.
Thanks for reading, sorry that this has been such a lengthy post! I hope to have new work going up within the next week.
Have a good one!