Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if not. This blog has been shamefully neglected of late and I, for one, am sorry about that. I've missed writing and experimenting. The usual excuses apply, and I also have that problem where once something has become "a thing," I feel way more pressure to do it up right. Trying to let go of that. I also took a break from reading much about printing on the internet, my own writing included. I've cleared my head, however, and I'm back, if any of you want to come on back, you can hold me to it.
One member of my household has printed lately, but it wasn't me. You may remember that Glendon and I were experimenting with using laser cut wood blocks on the Pearl last summer, and I have more to report on that soon, but Glendon has continued his testing on his own. Over the last year, he's gotten much more experience using the laser cutter, and last week he cut an enormous woodcut. If you can't tell, it's a deconstructed half tone screen image of the Raft of the Medusa, using a dot pattern extrapolated from a medieval woodcut of the beast of the apocalypse. As before, if you've got questions about the process, email me and I'll pass it on to Glendon.
Last year he did a small, 1x3 inch, half-tone block from this painting for me to test on the Pearl, but this is a much more stylized version. Glendon printed it on a Vandercook in his university's printshop. I think he was pretty pressed for time anyway, but he inked with a brayer, not with the Vandercook's rollers. Apparently they rarely actually ink up the press there, which is a pity (I think). Most of the printmaking students focus on other printing methods, so the Vandercook isn't actually used that much, and getting the students used to cleaning the press isn't worth the trouble. That's a topic for another conversation, but I wanted to show-off the fact that I'm slowly drawing the people around me into the letterpress web, and say "hi! let's talk again soon."
This woodcut is so, so rad! Also, glad to see you're back. c:
Posted by: Chelcie Blackmun | Saturday, July 03, 2010 at 08:19 PM