Waterbased Inks

I'm sitting in the printmaking studio, trying to finish up my Non Toxic Workbook... It's all been laid out and designed but I want to redo some of the prints. (Have to make it Sparkle!) I dropped off John at the airport last night, he's on his way to Atlanta; Scott took off to Philly, while Eddie C. is going to Australia. I will be here, working away in the studio It'll be great and I'll probably get together with Maasa and other international students for Thanksgiving. We were at Keith's for dinner on Friday, Susan Rostow came down from New York City to demonstrate Akua for a conference nearby. It was great to finally meet her, I've been using her inks since they came with blue lids, and have helped research them when I began here in 2002; they have come a long way! I remember never seeing them around, but they have since gained popularity and people are starting to except them. I would put my Non Toxic and Waterbased work up against any traditional form of Printmaking any day. She gave me some tips on using the Silver color inks so I am eager to begin experimenting with them again! We had salmon with broccoli, potatoes, squash, and some great wine of coarse... Keith said you can win over a lady with this prepared dish Lol. Friedhard is also coming down from Chicago in January, so we'll be working on more of our etching techniques then. Art Basel is just around the corner, Miami here we come!

Seul-Gi was just accepted into the Lester, UK small print exhibition I'm really happy for her... she's in Indiana for the break but I'll be right here when she gets back; time will tell.

Over the Looking Glass

Of All the Things I've ever Been

Last night I was working in the studio and remembered that I had been starring at one of my transparencies from the transfer technique the previous night; I finally realized the reason why I had sat there looking at it for so long. The DASS film has a glue coating, and with my vector or drawn lines having been worked out after the transfer, there remains a frosted coat left on the film. This coat acts as a piece of one sided mylar and can be reworked into using toner, eraser, charcoal... and then exposed to ImagOn. The color that is left behind on the DASS film surface at first seems too light to do anything with, but in actuality it can then again be used as a stencil itself and prints a reversal which can also be reworked. I still have many tests to do, but there is something about it that caught my eye. The process has only been taught and developed at RIT for the last two years by Alan Singer; Keith has yet to try the process himself. As far as I know, when I approached Bernice with my experiment, she said I was the first to have done this new transfer-intaglio technique; the potential I see in it is that the transparency can be used for at least three different processes.

I had dinner last night at Keith's with John, Kevin, and Henrik... We had arrived around 7:30 and were there for a little over four hours, it was a long night of funny and amusing conversation, wine, and art talk. Keith's house is filled with artwork from various visitors and and past travels; he is leaving on sabbatical after winter quarter and we are already taking lead of the four-color studio II class; we will work in teams to create weekly work and have a competition to print chosen work done in the class by the students. Kevin, John, and I will be the team leaders; I've also been managing and reworking ideas for the studio and redoing signage while looking into some processes. Susan Rostow is coming to Rochester next weekend, there is an artist from Japan coming in December but I'll be in Miami for Art Basel with the guys, we've taken off the first week of classes. John and I entered into the Au Naturel international competition last night, I'm not sure how my processes will sit with the jurors... I wonder what people think about when they see my work. I've been drawing from a live figure model, which has helped me get out of a slump; I'll have John's model tomorrow morning since he'll be busy. Everyone is over at Amy's tonight but I had to write a paper for tomorrow and I need Sundays to work out some things. I saw one of Alan's watercolors at Keith's, I'm going to try to buy some more materials on Tuesday for the transfer process. I'll probably as Alan to be on my thesis committee, along with Keith who is my main advisor; I'm thinking of also approaching Michael Amy with at least some of my ideas.

I'm between hybridization and street art, some ideas... but only ideas so far. We went to ROCO the other night with Aspa and Dimitri, I think I'm going to take her stone cutting class along with Eddie, she'll sign me in. I have a lot more writing to do for my thesis, even though I don't start officially until next fall. I went to the Psychedelic show over at MAG, it was ok; I liked the robot and monitors attached to lights and sound machines. I'm feeling a lot better these days, I'm hoping Katie will stop around Rochester when she comes back... And I have a show in the works alongside my good friend Christina for Shawn Dunwoody's Four Walls Gallery, it will be up for two months and there was just an article on 1975 and a few others in the D&C... I should really put out my work rather than letting it sit under my bed, there's more than just the process; this I am now realizing. So no promises, but I just need to keep experimenting and working. I miss Nesh, she is in Beijing... I have to email her soon so that we can collaborate on some things.

I will be working in the studio during Thanksgiving break... my portfolio book is coming along well, I have a lot of prints to do.