Susanna and The Voyeurs (2)

When I posted Susanna the other day I somehow neglected to send the photo which could be enlarged. I hope I've corrected that this time. Susanna has been a big hit and was sold at the First Friday Art Walk. This state was printed 11" x 17" and hand color with watercolor & color pencil. The paper is Digital Media archival with Epson Archival inks. Once again, that wide format printer has paid off, by golly.

Cinderella Fence Post

To the left is the fence post before its trip to the beauty shop. Actually it was replaced with a new one of the same family as the carpenter ants had about devoured the old one. Several years ago I purchased the ceramic tiles with our address numbers while on a trip to Italy. The numbers have been hanging around the studio, quietly waiting their turn for attention. Last week I had reached critical mass in the procrastination department and set about the beautification of the fence post which had been leaning in one corner taking up space. I received a new tool for Christmas which has an attachment that made cutting the trough for the tile a very easy matter. The cut had to be about 3/8" deep as these were thick tiles. The tiles were then seated with mastic and grouted with a tan sanded grout (left over from another tile project). Then some scroll and floral motifs were carved and the whole thing stained with a Rosewood/Cherry stain (left over from the kitchen). My darling son was gracious enough to bribe a friend to come out with him and set the new post for me. I'm so pleased with it, I wonder why I didn't do it years ago and now have plans to do one for the other end of the driveway. (It is a semi-circle drive with two entrances.) I haven't told the son of the latest plan, yet. ;-)

Susanna and The Voyeurs

Susanna is a composite image (worked in Photoshop) — the forest, a group of men, and Susanna in her bath. It is based on the biblical story of beautiful young Susanna who has dismissed her servants for the day and gone out to her tub for a nice relaxing bath. Some old men take advantage of the chance to watch her and then manage to get into her bath area, accost her and demand sex. She refuses, so to punish her they accuse her of hanky-panky with her lover. But, during the trial, Daniel surfaces and cross examines the men and they have conflicting accounts. Instead of Susanna being stoned to death, the two accusing liars lose their lives for bearing false witness. The moral of the story, I'm sure, is a lofty one about truth & innocence trimphing over lies & false accusations , however I choose to believe that it is if you are going to bathe outdoors do so with a watch-dog on duty. In the biblical story the accusers are pillars of the community, well respected elders. In my version they are a group of church men who have been on some sort of religious retreat. They are more the lookie-loos, than men who would do any harm. The print is digital with watercolor and color pencil. It was printed on a wide format printer with Epson Archival inks on Digital Media paper from Daniel Smith.

Year of the Ox

Finally, my herd of oxen are leaving the premises.  To tell you the truth I was beginning to think they would never leave.  The mess they have left behind will have to be dealt with now.

Many images of bulls, oxen, buffaloes, you name it, have danced in my head since last Fall, but none stayed there long enough to make it onto a block.  Ferdinand has always been a sentimental favorite, but in the end this fellow won out.  There was a fabulous mosaic bull in Cadiz, but the thought of cutting all those little lines for the mosaic idea was more than I could handle, especially since I have two more urgent projects waiting in the wings.

So, here we have Spiral Ox.  That sounds like it could be contagious - some kind of new virus, but he is really a tame and good natured fellow.  He is a reduction print, just one block of precious cherry wood has been sacrificed for this print.  Originally I had planned for him to be lime green, but try as I might, all I could get was brown once the orange body had been printed.  That kind of thing just does not work with reduction methods and transparent ink - surprise! one gets brown every time, which I knew  of course, but for some reason thought I could overcome if I printed it often enough.  Other than that, things went pretty much as planned.  

And now I am off to release the herd at the PO.  I hope they are ready for this!  Hooves away —

Easter in Cadiz

It is good to be home again, but we had an absolutely wonderful time in Spain. I wish we could have seen more, but on the other hand, it was a very restful and relaxing time. We met our daughter, Yvette, her husband, Steve and our two grand- daughters, Grace (10) and Camille (4). They have been living in Norway since January (teaching at American College of Norway) and were ready for someplace warm and sunny with a beach. Cadiz is a magical place - we were in the old town and felt like we had gone back in time to the middle ages with a few modern conveniences, like washer & dryer and indoor plumbing. We rented a 2 bedroom apartment La Casa Cadiz a short walk from the beach. Every day we walked to a new destination: the Museum of Cadiz, the Cathedral, a small church with some early Goyas, the Castle Santa Catalina, the fortress San Sebastian, etc. You can only expect kids to endure so much of the cultural heritage when what they really want to do is go to the beach or the playground ;-) There are pictures of our sightseeing at our sight on Shutterfly. Cadiz, as legend has it, was founded by Hercules and supposedly the Pillars of Hercules are here somewhere. Archeology shows that it was first settled by the Phoenicians, followed by the Carthagenians, the Romans, the Moors, and finally the Christians. It is also the port from which Columbus' second and third voyages departed, however, the locals don't make much noise about that. And, it is where the Constitution of Spain was drawn up and ratified. There are also the University of Cadiz, and the Academy of Art here. Cadiz claims to be the oldest continually inhabited city in Western Europe. Being there Easter Week we were treated to a street procession per night with a different float being carried down the street each night. I could never get close enough to see how they managed to propel these huge, heavy things down the street, but they did it purely with manpower, no horses of any kind employed. I have to admit it is nice to be home to my own bathroom where the paper used can be flushed and not deposited in a can next to the toilet. The apartment we were in is a 17th century building and the plumbing must be nearly that old. ;-) Anyway, the paper does not go down the potty - if you forget you fish it out and put it in the can. A few times of that tends to improve the memory exponentially. Fortunately, the garbage is picked up daily. The streets were more like alleys to us - very narrow, but inhabited by cars, motorbikes, dogs and people. Grace was continually watching out for Grandma's keester. So, now that we are home it is time to get started on that Ox New Year's card - the year is marching on at an amazing pace. I am off to get started on it as we speak!

Foot Bridge With Hand Rail

My last post had to do with the April exhibition at North Bank Gallery, Maps and Bridges.  Since I had a Maps piece I thought I would do a Bridge piece, too.  Naturally, as it would to anyone, my first thought was to do a Foot Bridge with Hand Rail.  This is a color intaglio print.  The green texture is printed on both sides of a very thin mulberry paper and the white foot and hands are chine collé with another mulberry paper.  Both of these, after their run through the press, are put through the press one more time to laminate them to a sheet of Somerset Satin and emboss the plate mark.  You just gotta love a language that allows you play with it so freely, don't you?  Some other ideas, which unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, depending  upon your viewpoint, were: Bridge hand,  Bridge game, Bridge rubber (now that one I thought had great possibilities), from there on they went steadily down hill...  I think I will quit while I'm ahead.