Rory – or the Wheat’n Greet’n

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WheatenGreetnweb

Rory – “Wheat’n Greet’n”  6X8″, 2 color Linolium Cut Print

Rory, is our second SCWT or Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier. He is a rescue (check out the SCWT Rescue site) , as all of our menagerie of cats, dogs, and ferrets have been. The print started out as a demonstration of how to transfer the ‘key” or black block to a new block for the color. This was for the Printmaking class that I teach where I was also being evaluated by a colleague for the Post-Tenure Review process. The demo went fine but I was way too busy to complete the print during the semester. Imagine that…

But in May, I was able to work on him and really think about the distribution of color vs black vs the white of the paper. It is a small block, only 6 X 8 inches, which is small for the way I usually work. I also had a chance to work with the Ternes-Burton registration system which is slick-as-snot (a phrase of praise borrowed from my father-in-law.) While working on the image, news of a dog being shot and a “Go Fund Me” campaign to help defray vet costs came across my local radio station. The family and the campaign were able to cover the vet surgery and care. But there are so many cases of animals being hurt, sick or abandoned and people not being able to pay, etc…  And then the tough decisions that a vet office has to make.

I don’t have lots of ready cash but I do have lots of art material and began wondered about offering the image of Rory as a fund raiser for our vet clinic with silent bids for the matted and framed image. Well, it did garner bids (I was a little nervous) and sold! The money now goes to the emergency fund at Hometown Vet Care. I’d love to keep doing this – exploring other dog images, cats, birds…. and keep this print bid going.

 

  • “A lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me.” – Barack Obama (President of the United States)
  • “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.”– Josh Billings (humourist)
  • “Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.” – Dean Koontz (Author, False Memory)

 

Crow, Crone & Grace

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Some prints – are easier than others. The process doesn’t overwhelm the image and the path seems clear. Other prints, like this one below, aches to be made but doesn’t come with easy resolution. I’ve had others like this too. The work, while madding with its starts, stops and restarts, is its own balm. Its own solace. This print was 3 years in the making. If you are curious, the beginning was documented in July 2014.

The title of the print isn’t important but what you bring to the image is more important. The title will come in it’s own time.

CrowsCroneFull

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One of the cool things that I get to do, is print on a Wesel Press at Printers’ Hall at Midwest Old Threshers. It is a grand old press.

Enjoy the video – a little bit of Printers’ Hall & the Print.

Still Mari

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My name is Mari Joyce.

I had a massive stroke 3 days before our wedding in 2006.

I have Aphasia and PBA*. I can read and write sometimes with help with my husband.

My stroke took away things I loved: I was confident, strong-willed, independent, intelligent and passionate.

I am still Mari and I have faith. I know in my heart that God has a plan for me. I may never know what that is, but whatever it is, I will run with what I have.

*PBA is “uncontrollable outbursts of crying or laughing in people with certain neuro conditions or brain injuries.

I am still Mari.

Mari and I signed our prints out – about 30+ images made up the run. Another story to share in the Aphasia project – Mari’s story, her image and her dog Caesar. I appreciate how patient and supportive she and Wes have been in helping this print come into being.

 

It’s a wrap

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It has been a long time from concept to completion. From idea to a physical form. Here are a few images of that most recent work. So much thanks to Bob, Erin, Dawn, Don, Lori and Lori and so many others who have cheered this project on in spirit, in coffee, in to Erin who understands much more about the “tenacity of the Rat Terrier” analogy of doing it until it is right.

I want to note that this idea “Faces of Aphasia” will be an on-going project. Bob and I are going to “Aphasia Camp” in northern Wisconsin this week. It was at this retreat that the project was verbalized and affirmed first at the Care Partner’s mini retreat. Sometimes, things take on a life of their own –

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Aphasia – Words and Image

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“I am still …… Bob.” The refrain of this sentence is profound in its declaration of self. And so it is in a larger point size than other phrases and sentences: facts and personal truths. “I am still Bob.”

The setting of the type by my hand is also a circle that I didn’t expect. I mean, yes, I understand how to set type. Yes, I have had to become voice for Bob in almost every facet of his life and, for his life. And that was a role that was reluctantly automatic in the days following his stroke. To answer for each other – never happened in our relationship. Even in all of the pre-Cana, pre-marriage  workshops – opinions were sought from each other and answers were never assumed. But the stroke has now necessitated that I answer or ask for Bob – or state his preferences. And this print has also necessitated that I work collaboratively with Bob to best express his thoughts and feelings about “Bob.”

So to set type in moveable lead type of Bernhard MT italic & Gothic Bold is also to complete a circle of words – chosen, fixed and inked and printed. To tell about Aphasia and Stroke and Bob is like a story going full circle.

I will post the finished print as it comes off the press in the next week or so.

 

 

 

 

Aphasia Island-

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http://www.aphasia.org/aphasia-definitions/

 

“Aphasia is an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write. Aphasia is always due to injury to the brain-most commonly from a stroke, particularly in older individuals. But brain injuries resulting in aphasia may also arise from head trauma, from brain tumors, or from infections.”

 

Dealing with Aphasia as a diagnosis, as a lifestyle, or as a defining point is not for the faint of heart. Our family has lived in Stroke World and on Aphasia Island for 14 years. Besides the professionals – the fantastic speech pathologists and retired speech paths and friends who pitched in when insurance ran out (and who are still there,) there is a strong and hearty group of people who join us at our kitchen table to break bread and enjoy some wine, who have been part of this journey. And being surrounded by educators and being one myself, I thought that I could tell in a visual way, something about Aphasia and some of the folks on Aphasia Island.

 

I thought that I might do this by portraiture – oil paintings of the person who drew the short straw and has Aphasia. I thought I’d ask our friends Mari and her husband Wes to participate – or the little 3 year old busy boy and his folks but I just couldn’t (at least yet.)Then I thought about the whole support group – then I thought better – I’m not geared to do portrait painting that are remotely photographic or closely representational. So – instead nothing happened. It all seemed great in my head but not on paper. The visual images are elusive. The explanation of Aphasia is scientific but the Aphasia experience is deeply personal.

 

So, gripped by a feeling which is how most of my work starts, I started to draw. Draw big. Draw from blurry memories and old photos of Bob and Erin. Draw from significant memories of walking the portable Chartres labyrinth in my stocking feet – and thinking how it is sort of like a brain with all of the folds. Remembering how we fell apart and came together and kept on going. Remembering how Bob’s dad and I planted 300 daffodil bulbs that fall because we knew something had to spring from all this tumult.

 

This is just the beginning of the story – I think I have to start with the story I know best and then maybe help others make their own story. It isn’t about the skill, or the technical wizardry of art; it is the making that matters.

 

 

– “Sentries”

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Unnamed-Crow2016web copy

February – the gray month. The month of love. The month of monumental loss. A month of endurance until the spring comes.

This image has been unfinished for at least 4 years. It is reductive so there isn’t an undo button if you screw up. It began as a lino cut – and I printed it with too dark. I was in a hurry, anxious to finish, almost there – almost – and the reality hit – too, too dark a value for the image to make any sense.

Image redone – printing along, aware of the value of my inks – about half way through the edition and the layers of ink – and Bitchzilla – (the press) decided to slip. It is a Dickerson style of press. Although all of my press experience helped, it didn’t set things right and the edition died.

The printed image laid fallow – next to its stillborn twin (the one where the press slipped) in the flat file.

2 Winters came and went.

I returned. I do have the tenacity of a Terrier. This time on wood. This time on my press (Little John). This time, with time. With a resolve to honor a memory. After all, that’s a large part of the image; the memory of that which I lost, misplaced, was taken or abandoned, cared for by the crows.

So, the memories are protected by those sentries, the crows: the string “too short to save”, the missing mending, the lost and broken rosary, the gear wheel that kept things going.

And it is done and the print has been named, Sentries.

Tomorrow it heads to a national exhibit of work focusing on Fairy Tales –

ONCE UPON A TIME:

 Fairy Tales, Fables and Myths,

March 24 – April 16, 2016

At The Arts Council Fayetteville/Cumberland County

Fayetteville, North Carolina

 

 

 

Reminder, New mono & Susie’s Converse

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A gentle reminder:

Spark

I missed photographing a couple of runs on the monotype (Conjurer / Alchemist ?) – but here is what I was able to get.

Susie’s Converse

The Kelsey is up and running!

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This sweet little press was found at an auction – bought by a friend for a song – and given to me. What an awesome gift. So, she (my presses seem to have names and genders) is up and running and we are ready to start of my Printmaking class with letterpress. It is a small portable press unlike the big presses at Printers’ Hall. Hopefully in April, it will be warm enough to print on some seriously wonderful letter presses. Keep your fingers crossed and out of the gears. BTW – I ordered 1000 coasters so there may be a printing format theme happening here. Kelsey 5X8

Cat and Mouse

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Today – worked more on the lino block – always a game of cat and mouse with pencils, markers, glasses and

“Oh, where did the coffee cup go?”

The block is 18 X 24 – not small and not large. Just the right size. Maybe. The image is NOT a simple translation from the drawing – it changes. Presently considering it as a black and white. My painters’ eye may convince me otherwise. Right now all of my design considerations are being imagined through the power of ink or no ink, black and paper.

I use lots of notes on my blocks, just simply to keep track of the thought process. That also can be a game of cat and mouse. Sometimes I find myself asking, “What was the plan here?” So, I also draw on the block – or redraw over the transferred image. There are many ways to transfer but today I used what was available – pencils, graphite powder, a printer/copier and tape.

It isn’t real high tech – First I trace the key points of the photocopied image on the reverse side. A light table or the front door works pretty well. Then powdered graphite on the front of the drawing (remember it is a photocopy so no drawings were harmed) and draw over the key lines. That’s what I start with on the block. It is a flipped image so it helps to be one of those kids who were diagnosed as Dyslexic.

So here are some images from today. I have started to cut but again, the image evolves over the time of cutting. It is really sort of like a dialogue you might have with a new friend.