Portfolio Proof
October 17, 2011
Every other year Two Rivers Printmaking Studio publishes a portfolio of prints by artist members and faculty. This year marks the 10th anniversary of TRPS and the third portfolio I have participated in. Here are my previous two prints from the 2006 and 2008 portfolios.
The print on the left, Isle, was in the 2006 portfolio. It is an intaglio print with hardground etching and drypoint. The colored shape was a relief roll. That was when I got really into rainbow rolls (you put two or more colors and blend them with the roller–I still think it’s pretty cool.) The print on the right is Tethered and is part of the 2008 portfolio. The key image is also intaglio, mostly hardground etching with some drypoint. The brownish color was from a polyester plate lithograph. I had recently taken a workshop with Rebekah Tolley and was inspired to use that method as a second plate rather than wiping another intaglio. The orange cloud was a rainbow relief roll.
This time around I was determined not to do an intaglio plate. The size of the edition is 37 with 6 artist proofs. I knew I wanted to do a multi-color print so I figured that printing a single color 43 times (really it was about 50 to give some wiggle room) would be much easier with a roller than with the tarleton. Prior to creating the image I also decided it would be a bleed print (no border) and that I would use Rives BFK gray paper just because I liked the color.
Lately I have been interested in the notion of creating fascimiles of three dimensional forms with woodblock printing. The facets of these geometric forms use shapes cut from thin plywood that could conceivably be used to construct boxes but are instead coated with ink and printed. The darker gray in this print illustrates what I’m talking about.
For the portfolio piece I chose a fairly simple cubic form with two radiating “arms” I wanted one facet of the form where every color overlapped with one other color and then one area of overlap with all three colors. I cut three pieces out with my jigsaw.
Then came the difficult task of choosing colors. I felt like I could have proofed indefinitely. Of course I was at a disadvantage because I started proofing before my gray paper arrived. The luminescence of the background white was not going to be possible with the gray. I wanted the color of the open arms of the form to resonate or glow against the gray paper. Here are some of the test runs. (If you like any of these better than the final proof–please don’t tell me.)
This one used only two woodblocks–the third color was a spraypaint stencil. I immediately rejected this one because Ididn’t like the way it looked and I didn’t want to have to engage with the unpredictability of spraypainting.
These two are on Rives BFK buff. While I really liked the one with the pink, I knew I would have to try something different with the gray paper. For the image on the right I was trying to use the white as a luminescent contrast to the buff paper. But I decided I wanted a color that would relate more to the colors on the base of the form.
The following two prints are my attempts with the gray paper. The one on the right finally got me where I wanted to be. I had originally printed a very saturated green blue for the dark facet but I printed over it with the maroon color so you can see a litte of the blue peaking out. I actually like the way that looks color-wise though it compromises the way the grain of the wood looks and ultimately would be too labor intensive.
And here is the final version. I did struggle with the notion of signing the print on the back. I opted for signing at the bottom using a silver pencil. If I were exhibiting a series of prints like this I would have signed on the back but in the context of the edition I preferred to incorporate the standard convention of signing on the front.
Ten of these portfolios will be for sale at TRPS. The portfolio in its entirety will be exhibited at TRPS during the month of December, opening December 2. Individual artist proofs will also be for sale.
