Red Fish Swimming

I have to admit I like a lot of the names I give my prints because they are often just off the top of my head and relate very directly to the print. So Red Fish Swimming really is about red fish swimming. You've got the fish, you've got the water - they have to be swimming - right?. And unless you are colourblind, yes they are red.

Blue Horse Running

Another 'cobbled' together print.

The sky is from another reject block. What was I thinking at the time? It is a great block. Good thing I didn't throw it out. I learned that lesson a few years ago when I came across a proof of a print that I thought, at the time, was a lousy image, but years later saw that it was actually quite good. Did I still have the blocks? Nope. Too bad - so sad. I still have the proof though. The colours are a bit wishy washy, but the image definitely had potential. Sigh.

The landform is from a print that never made it through the proofing stage, but by this time I knew better and I saved the blocks and lo and behold this block is actually quite useful. I think I may have to make a few more blocks like this for more variety.

And the horse. Ah, that little horse block has been around for a long time now. When I first cut the block, I didn't have any real use for him. It was only a couple of years later in 1999 that I editioned him up in a print called Running Horse. And now he is continuing to run through all sorts of one-of-a-kind prints.

More Holland Willows

I have been on a bit of a printing binge lately and have been experimenting with a series of small one of a kind prints using a combination of existing and purpose cut blocks.

This print is made from two of my recent pollarded willow trees. The waves come from a block I made in 1995 (!) and the land under the trees comes from an envelope of blocks that never were completed as prints (it was fun going through those rejected blocks - not all of them were bad at all). The background block is one that I tend to use over and over and is the inspiration for the name of this print - Misty Day 2 (the first Misty Day sold too quickly for me to blog about it).

All in all, I like the freedom this random method gives me and I have made about 30 or so of these prints so far. Not all of them are willow trees!

Hassium

Hassium was synthesized in 1984 in Darmstadt Germany by Peter Armbruster, Gottfried Munzenberg et al. Atoms of lead were bombarded with ions of iron with a linear accelerator to produce Hassium. It is classified as a transition metal and its appearnce is unknown, but assumed to be silvery white or metallic grey. It is highly radioactive. The name Hassium comes from the Latin for the German State of Hesse where Darmstadt is located.

This information was not a lot to go on, but as you can see I managed. By combining the (old) symbol for radioactivity, with a portion of the Hesse Coat of Arms (rampant lion) and a Gothic style font (Germanic in feel) I came up with my version of the element Hassium for the Periodic Table Printmaking Project.

Periodic Table Printmaking Project

This is a print of one of my blocks for the Periodic Table Printmaking Project started by azuregrackle from Etsy.

I chose Hassium which, as it turns out, is one of those completely unknown elements. It was created in 1984, but there does not seem to be any use for it - maybe because it is radioactive!. It is a transition metal (hmmm - transitioning from something else or to something else?) and it might be a silvery colour. Not too much to go on visually.

So my starting point was the word Hassium, which is Latin for Hesse, the state in Germany where Hassium was discovered. This lion is part of the Hesse coat of arms. I am going to work in the notion of radioactivity as well. For my text (we have to show the periodic symbol and number on the print) I am going to use a Gothic font which could be considered Germanic.

Holland Willows

Staying true to the tree theme.

I like the look of pollarded trees with their thick knotted stumps. I suppose I like them because of the interesting shapes that are created by this style of pruning. It is the polar opposite of pruning a tree to enhance its natural form. And it is a form of pruning rarely seen in North America. The Getty Museum in California has pollarded trees as part of its landscape design and I have seen individual pollarded trees here in Toronto, usually on people's front lawns. But not as part of a designed urban landscape. Maybe it would cost too much to prune the trees all the time.

These prints are willow trees in Holland which are pruned every few years to create a crop of supple willow branches. I believe they are pruned just high enough so that the branches aren't eaten, but low enough for easy harvest. Though I wonder if the willow branches are still harvested at all. These small prints are available in my Etsy shop (magprint.etsy.com). I would like to make a larger print with a number of pollarded willows receding into the distance in a marshy landscape.

Cloud Pine

I am staying simple for the moment and concentrating on trees.

This is a cloud pruned pine tree and is my print for Print Zero Studios' Print Exchange V. So far there are two confirmed exhibitions - the Florida Printmakers hosting at the University of Florida and the Sev Shoon Art Center/ BallardWorks who are hosting in Seattle. Their last exchange had 285 participants from from 18 countries and the show travelled to four states in the US.

Winter Trees

Simplicity achieved.

A simple rendition of winter trees against a snowy furrowed field. The starkness is just what I need in my printmaking life at the moment. Clean and cool and refreshing.