The Order of Things

The not-so-good news is that the care center called today and Lee has tested positive for Covid. He has been taken to a different area with four others who tested positive. He is still eating but has a cough. He has had his vaccine and booster so there is no way to know what happens next and how severe it is.  Omicron seems to get in anywhere. Even where there are strict controls. I did notice this morning at the dentist office only I wore a mask in the waiting room. It was sad enough before with all the self-educated-through-the-internet who became anti-vaxxers, but now add those into the mix who are just so tired of the Covid alterations to our lives, and you have a perfect storm for more infections. It especially hurts the very vulnerable but god forbid we think of anyone but ourselves and the inconveniences of caring for others. It is the most selfish of times I can remember in my lifetime and the most willfully ignorant.

On a better note I have my art work to take my mind off things. I especially love this barred owl in the Bird Stories Book.

And another double page of bird feet.

Following up on my wood block of the grey owl, my new brayer arrived.

I got the block all lined up yesterday and rolled the ink on.

I am starting out using a lama li paper with some fibrous inclusions. The first one had not enough ink but the second one was better. It took some getting used to the new beautiful brayer and loading up the ink.

Looking at this print I decided that the feathers over the feet were too straight across…sort of like a fifties boys haircut administered by his mother and a bowl. So I cut them into a more realistic angle toward the tail.

See what I mean? The third print I used a chine colle techniques to add contrast between the owl and tree and background.

I used my not-so-good contact leaf prints on tai kozo for the background hill and a Lokta paper for the tree. I also stuck on a white lace paper over the face. To get chine colle to work I had to make up a corn starch paste to carefully brush over the backs of the added papers to the block. That way those papers will stick to the sheet they are being printed to. It is a bit messy as the papers want to stick to the brush and shift in their positions. I was so much better at this in under graduate school in the nineties. But I persevered and did a fourth print using added papers only on the tree.

What happened on this one was too much paste and too much rubbing so that I lost some of the lights in the trunk. I don’t mind it though and may use it as one to stitch into. Right now I have to wait for the ink to dry. But here they all are laying across the board shear.

You can see on the one with the “hill” that it was not a good idea to add the lacy white paper to the face. It only captured more ink and made the space between his eyes darker. I don’t mind it though. When I look at these and other prints of mine, I am careful not to be too critical. And I think of an elderly poetry teacher I had, Gene Hirsch, who said, “There is no such thing as a bad poem.” My prints are “poems” that need looking at in a different light and maybe, just maybe, need a bit of touch up. I will make more prints of this owl just to improve my technique, and because I love the sound of that big fat soft brayer rolling over the ink and then the wood.

I meant to mention in my last blog that the other day at the gym near my new house, I walked into the court area pulling on my boxing gloves. I wanted to just knock the crap out of something. There was a big man off by himself singing. Closer to me and my punching bag was a man with a cap on his head that had a spinning propeller on top. I asked him why he wore it. He grinned and said it was to make people smile. I smiled and said that I was glad it was not to acquire some super natural intelligence. He smiled back and asked how my punching was going and if I could put more punch into it. I said I’d like to knock the bag way across the room. He smiled, in fact he never stopped, and asked if I would like to try using his racquet to join in a game of pickle ball (a game like tennis but easier). I told him no, but thanks, I just was not much of a team player. He turned away and I called him back to thank him for wearing his hat. I hope he is a regular, and I hope the singing man is too.

Til later….

 

I am sitting in my new office chair. It is quite comfortable. Thankfully there was someone to put it together for me. It arrived late in a large carton with not two pieces put together. Too big a job for me but so nice to have a chair the right height.

The full moon was lovely the other morning when I went out to feed the deer.

This second one looks more like a rich collograph print than a photograph.

Speaking of prints I think I am through carving on the grey owl until my new brayer arrives this weekend. More blacks were taken away from his face and some of the tree. The carving becomes much like sketching but without the benefit of an eraser to remove mistakes. It is a very appealing pastime.

I am thinking that it might be fun to use some of my tai kozo paper with faded botanical prints to set the owl apart from the tree. The dull greys are about right. But I promised myself no printing until the new brayer arrives.

The owl inspired another one in my bird stories book. A screech owl.

Today I went to the framer with the three large male figures.

 

                   

Somehow I got it into my head that an inner thin mat line in the blood red of the heart would look good just inside an ecru mat with a thin black frame. BUT the red took away from the heart so we went with a thin black just beyond the black stitching with an inch and a half of ecru matting with the thin black frame. It looked good that way. Each will be about 17″ wide by 24″ tall. So now in the hands of the framer. The three of them will hang close together over the wooden mantle that Patrick made from a wood Lee sourced. Seems perfect.

Last night I made a potato leek soup. Believe them when they say PEEL the potatoes. The good intention of added fiber resulted in floating bits of thin brown skin with no flavor that clung to the surface of my teeth. I strained the soup and I must say it is delicious and so easy. I will have it for dinner again tonight with a toasted asiago bagel.

I will sign off now with a view of last night’s sunset out the dining room window.

Til later….

The weather reports keep pushing the start of snow here out by an hour at a time. I hope it misses altogether. So far just intermittent drizzly rain. The other day I walked the dam. It was lovely to be out there after a workout at the gym.

Near the car park.

At the place I turn around to head back.

And the downed trees cleared off the path.

Lots of time to draw in the Bird Stories book.

A rock pigeon. Lots of them under the pier at the dam.

And a starling to finish off the four sides of rusted pages.

I think I should do a whole page of bird legs and feet to get more practice in. I did all the carving on the owl wood block. At least I think this is all.

I am intentionally leaving some vertical marks in the background to add atmosphere.

Looking at these photos I think a bit more black carved away on his face.

Yes, definitely, now that I am looking at this full view. His face and a bit more of his body needs lightened. The knot in the wood will have to be ground out because it resists my carving tool. Later this afternoon I might go back to it.

When I got this far I decided not to do an inking up to test it until I invested in a new brayer. All the other ones I have are cheap ones and no wider than four inches. Which means I have to roll over several times in different directions to cover the block. I went online to McClains printmaking supply and ordered a new Japanese brayer that is a bit over eight inches wide. Nothing quite like Japanese printmaking tools for wood blocks.

I just now spent the last half hour or more looking at wood block printmaking online. Some blocks took three years to carve and it is reflected in the finished print. I am not at that place where the perfection is most important. What appeals to me about the wood cut over wood engraving and linoleum block printing is the mark of the wood itself. It is a less perfected image and more obviously made by taking tools to wood. There is a simplicity and direct communication from a pine board and carving tool. The images I saw were either extremely well done or super simplistic. Not much in that in-between range of wood cuts associated with early printmakers. But not Japanese…those are beyond perfection.

I got my confidence back up before going back at it by typing in “white line printmaking”. I felt chuffed seeing my name come up fairly often in that category of block printing. I can do this. I can get this owl right….or at least right enough.

Til later…

Very cold this morning. I tried going for my walk at the river but turned back about a third of the way upstream. The river is rising slowly.

On the way back to the car the sun broke the horizon. But I was committed to getting a latte to take home by then and checking in with the cleaning lady.

I also wanted to do a catch up on my grey owl woodcut. The drawing was finished and then transferred to the block.

Lots of pencil work on each side of the kozo paper. Then using a felt tip marker to put the blacks in. I need to do this to actually see how it might look and give me a clear idea of where to carve.

Then a start on the carving. Getting the whites cut first on the face.

I use a baby powder to sprinkle over the cut marks so it shows up white and gives me more information. Then I just keep going. It is hard to stop once I  begin. It is the hypnotic sound of the wood being rolled up and away ahead of the cutting tools. I end up saying, “Just a little bit more.” Then I stop long enough to take the block over to where it can be partially inked up with a roller.

Now I see where more delicate carving needs to be done on his face. All the wood will be carved away to the right of the owl and below the branch he is sitting on. I wonder if a bough of pine needles need to come in from the top. No. I don’t think so. So I let him sit and hope the ink dries up quickly after blotting it off the block.

I am not displeased with the body and tail of the owl but think the face needs to be lighter. It gets problematic at this point because once the wood is removed, it is gone and that area will show up white in the print. How much white? His face needs to be lighter than his body but not as light as his beak and lower cheek areas. So he sits for a couple of days.

And at three this morning I awake with the idea of doing the owl in chine colle. This way I can add a lighter grey tissue type paper for his face and a slightly darker grey for the body/tail areas. That way he will stand out from the tree he is in. Of course when you might see these birds in real life they are hard to distinguish from their perches. But I don’t want that in this print.

I want it more like this block print I did of the front yard that is not only chine colle’d, but has added fabric bits in key areas.

I won’t add fabric but do like the idea of colored papers setting the owl apart. So even though the block is a bit sticky, I will go about lightening up his face and searching for the right greys in my mostly packed up papers.

One thing I have learned is that the Great Horned Owl is a more popular subject for wood blocks because he has interesting tufts up top and much larger more expressive eyes. Plus he has more of a contrast in coloration of his feathers.

Here are two prints by Fannie Mennen that I bought from the Southern Highland Craft Guild several years ago. I had them framed together. Her owl was irresistible! And the Christopher Morley quote is constantly inspiring.

In my new house there will be several wood block prints in the main living area. There is such a mark of the hand in these type prints. Most of my favorite pieces have that carved, hammered, manipulated by hand look. Hand built pottery over turned on a wheel. Gouged with hand tools and strength rather than machines. The physical effort is so evident in the work I most appreciate and like living with.

Anyway, I am off to do a bit of carving….

Til later…