A Medical Print

In June 2017, I made a print for St. Luke's Hospital as part of a Blackstack Studio exhibition at the hospital.  We had an open brief but at the end of it, after the prints were submitted, they were adjudicated by a panel from the hospital to ensure that they were suitable for the location.

After the exhibition, the prints were kept by the hospital and dispersed to various locations and mine ended up over the main reception desk.  I must go in and have a look and get a photograph in situ but for now, here's the print and the process.  I called it This Is That II and took the opportunity to produce a large scale (70 cm x 50 cm) rice monoprint with wood block additions.

 

  

Gaspard

I bought a very small printing press recently and printed a an old drypoint plate yesterday.  The smudged printing ink around the plate gave me the idea for this digital development.  Apparently this fellow is called Gaspard.  I scratched the name into the plate when I originally drew it.

Twenty Five Years Later

Twenty five years ago I worked in a textile factory laboratory and office.  In the spare time at the office, I often used to doodle.  I made one particular doodle that I particularly liked and copied it.  It remains, an A4 sheet of paper with a small doddle copied many times on it.  It is dog eared now but I'm glad I still have it. 

Recently I decided to immortalise it in print and while I was printing it I thought back to working in the office and how stifled and trapped I felt.  I would never have imagined, when drawing this doodle, that one day I would be in a print studio in Kilkenny, twenty five years later printing it.

Like Hummingbird Wings

I was in the print studio and shot 10 minutes of video. 

I condensed 6 minutes of it into 1. 

The paper sounds like hummingbird wings (she said fancifully)

Origami Printing

For Christmas I got some origami paper.  It was beautiful and as I've never tried anything like this before, I followed some online instructions to make a few origami pieces.  I found it very addictive to the point where every day I try and learn a new piece or practice making ones I've already learned.  My memory is shocking and I frequently forget after a few days how each one is made if I don't keep practicing.

So then, looking at the flat origami shapes, I thought about making larger versions and printing from them.  It worked after a little trial and error and here are the results.

(It is only a coincedence that I am posting this now, so close to Valentines Day as I am not sentimental, nor into any of that gushy, once a year, lovey-dove fest.)

I thought that the ghost print of the origami would be the best and I tried it in gold.  It was NOT GOOD.  There was no detail and the sewing on the paper origami 'plate' didn't help.

The actual print from the origami itself was better.

So I tried it in black ink against a roughly inked up background to contrast with the lines and precision of the origami

The different levels of ink on the origami give different results but what was really nice and intriguing were the ghost prints from the back of the origami

Then I printed a star.  The origami has to be flat so I need to learn a few more to continue this series.

Crane*

*Not suitable for printing!

An Occasional Print

Printing has become an occasion rather than something I do regularly.  I have to give myself a day, get change for the toll, then drive for a leisurely hour up the M9 past Mullinavat and Knocktopher and then find money to park the car on Horse Barracks Lane, right next to the Smithwick's brewery in the centre of Kilkenny. 

In summer I often park outside the very lovely St. Kieran's College because it is free and walk through the city and although this takes about 15 minutes, it is worth it because Kilkenny City is a wonderful place with narrow Kilkenny marble pavements and groups of tourists and hustle and bustle and charity shops to divert the footsteps, unless I'm carrying paper or heavy rollers in which case I am too tired and sweaty to be diverted until I reach the studio, put down my load, turn on the radio and begin.

This drypoint print is based upon drawings I have been making somewhat obsessively of late and is for the Blackstack Studio 2016 box set.

Piggies

I have been printing piggies for a friend.  These photos show the prints and the plates and the things in between.

Rothe House Recce

My next exhibition is another group show, again with Blackstack Studio at Rothe House in Kilkenny.  Rothe House is a medieval merchant's town house, right across the road from Blackstack and our exhibition will be a response to the building, history, gardens and artefacts there.

I took my camera and had a slow wander around.  It is a fantastic place but what inspired me the most were the some of the artefacts there and the recreated medieval garden, which even in early Spring, bare and without much growth was like an oasis in the middle of the city.  Inside the walls there wasn't another soul to be seen but you could hear traffic, someone playing music, the voices and footsteps of people walking past.  I collected lots of dead leaves and plant material as potential collagraphs and I will possibly layer these with drypoints of some of the artefacts, all topped off with a bit of monoprinting for good measure!