Faculty Show 2021

Judy and I drove to Valencia today to see a faculty show. I have four paintings in the exhibition but hadn’t gotten a chance to see them on site.

Mine hung together on two walls near a corner. When I saw them, I had the usual reaction: pieces I considered somewhat weak looked stronger than previously favored paintings; I wished that I could take them down and rework passages that now looked awkward. Judy reassured me that they looked fine and said that the largest oil appealed to her now that it hung in a larger space.

The show featured a wide range of media including prints, sculpture, conceptual photography, painting, and ceramics. Artists working in the same medium exercised their talents in opposing styles. I saw abstract, semi-abstract, and realistic paintings and drawings.

Some works had a conceptual bent. They featured imagery that repeated with variations in grid compositions.

The ceramicists made bowls and plates decorated by shell forms and nature imagery (a bird, leaves on stems).

Two sculptors exhibited shallow relief wall pieces featuring layered forms. A third showed ceramics that looked like mineralized fossils or the fragmented remnants of geological events.

The arrangement of the show felt harmonious despite the varied styles and media. The curator took time to find formal connections between separate bodies of work. And low-level lighting created a subdued mood throughout the exhibition.

As we walked back to our car, I felt an urge to see more work by individual artists in the show. I’d only gotten quick tastes of each exhibitor’s work. However, one-person shows of a faculty member’s work have rarely graced the gallery. Internal conflicts would ensue if some professors received the opportunity while others did not.

The curator wisely bestows solo shows only to outside artists. If I want to see more, I’ll have to go elsewhere.

Harpy’s Pets and An Ogre Beset

Harpy’s Pets

I’ve been working the last month on linocut and woodcut prints. A Valencia College curator wants ten prints by March 1. She’ll make a selection for a group printmaking show in June.

“Harpy’s Pets” is a three-color reduction print. Reductions involve printing white and the lightest color first, cutting out block so that areas designated for a second and third color remain, then removing everything but raised sections for the final color. “Harpy” started with white and yellow, followed by red, followed by black.

I had problems getting a clean, properly aligned print: sometimes I rolled the ink too thickly and filled in shallow, narrow cuts; sometimes odd protuberances unintentionally printed in areas intended to be bare; sometimes I failed to line up ragged edges of rice paper properly with registration marks on my printing guide.

An Ogre Beset

I grumped as I studied the flaws in “Harpy’s Pets”. But frustration led to a desire to do better. So, I started a new print. Took a stick of charcoal, made random marks on a wooden board and waited for images to emerge. The horned ogre arrived first followed by the dragon, followed by the foot (upper left), followed eventually by the flying elephant (upper right). I fixed the charcoal to the board with hairspray, began to cut.

The light areas have already been cut. I’ll gouge away the tan areas leaving raised black lines and dark patches. There’ll be nothing but black and white tones in this print. Keep it simple, stupid.

My older prints centered around domestic dramas and human conflicts. Now I’m starting to notice a fairy tale, mythological trend in latest images. Animals, monsters, human/animal hybrids keep emerging out of clouds and tangles of marks. Perhaps my unconscious mind is drifting toward magical thinking.

No Need To Panic

Don’t Panic! Don’t Panic! Provincetown white line woodcut

I began this print by making random pencil marks on a wooden plank. The marks evolved into a line drawing of a duck, a snake, a man-rabbit, and a hobble-skirted woman running away from an unseen threat. I incised the drawing onto the plank and began to print.

The Provincetown style of making woodcuts involves painting watercolor in the left over raised areas. I used my fingers and the wooden handle of a carving tool to rub against the back side of the paper to impress the wet paint. I had only a rough idea about the color design and improvised as I progressed from one section to another. The texture of the wood varied from fine grained to rough giving additional surprises as I printed.

My kids were eight and ten the last time I did a Provincetown print. (I made Christmas cards of a gator wearing a Santa hat.) The simple shapes and bright colors of Don’t Panic remind me of illustrations in children’s books. Perhaps my granddaughter Ava’s recent arrival has stirred up memories.

Blanche Lazzell, an little-known printmaker and painter from the first half of the 20th century, helped develop the white line print. She used much more subtle colors in her townscapes and florals. She was a master of arranging flat shapes in elegant designs.

The Red Scow, Blanche Lazell, 1931