Salon Show

I recently traveled home to accept a Merit Award at South Shore Arts' annual Salon Show for my lithograph of my grandfather titled Grip.  He was positively beaming at the opening.

The show runs through Oct. 28 at South Shore Arts in Munster, IN http://www.southshoreartsonline.org/exhibits/exhibits.htm

Chicago Beach

To all my NYC area friends and supporters: if you're out and about tonight, come check out Manhattan Graphics Center's Juried Show opening! My print Chicago Beach will be on display.

Manhattan Graphics Center
Reception: July 14, 6:30-8:30pm
250 W. 40th St., 5th floor
NYC 10018

On view through August 31st.

Chicago Beach, etching, 2011

New studies

I'm experimenting with some new surfaces. I bought a sheet of dibond aluminum panel and am sanding it and painting directly on it. I love how the metal shines and changes depending on how it is lit.  

 Bethlehem study

Oil on aluminum, 4x8 in

I have also been experimenting with collagraph, which is a form of printmaking where you print from a raised surface on a plate. I paint the image on the plate with matte medium mixed with carborundum (grit). It dries quickly leaving a raised textured surface which holds ink and produces a beautiful embossed image.

Collagraph print study

12x12 in

I love successful printmaking days

The print below was inspired by a blurry iphone pic I snapped awhile back, while rushing past an industrial complex off the highway. It is an image which I have seen many times before in my native Northwest Indiana ('the Region') as well as central Jersey and Pennsylvania. The places change, but the image keeps appearing in my work. 

 Untitled XIV (Bethlehem)

monotype, 17x24 in

Almost four hours I worked on the plate for this print, which is longer than I would normally spend on a monotype. I rolled out the ink, created one image, obliterated it, re-inked the plate, roughed in the new image, wiped off the plate tone in the negative space, then went back in with stiff brushes to draw the details. I wanted to achieve a balance between flat and three-dimensional forms while maintaining the essential mood of the image. 

Untitled XV (Bethlehem)

monotype, 17x24 in

Untitled XV (Bethlehem) - detail

These are two more paintings I had created on-site at Bethlehem Steel. I found some of the outer buildings had great character and color. 

Untitled I (Bethlehem)

oil on canvas, 7x5 in

Untitled IV (Bethlehem)

oil on linen mounted on panel, 8x6 in

Some new Bethlehem prints.. I'm painting directly on the plate and experimenting with varying the ink viscosity to layer color.

Untitled XII (Bethlehem)

monotype, 4 3/4 x 2 1/2 in

Untitled IX (Bethlehem)

monotype, 2 1/2 x 4 3/4 in

New prints

These are some new monotypes inspired by Bethlehem Steel. I'm really getting into these industrial landscapes which are partially based on the steel mill, but also morphing into new imagery. 

Untitled VI (Bethlehem)

monotype, 7 3/4 x 5 3/4 in

In the two prints below, I printed the first one from a copper plate matrix and then went back into the ghost image left on the plate to rework and draw back into it before printing again. It's a process I love to use because each consecutive image comes out of the one before it, and there's a whole progression and layering that happens. I also need a certain degree of unpredictability, which is one reason why I love printmaking so much.

Untitled VII (Bethlehem)

monotype, 2 1/2 x 4 3/4 in

Untitled VIII (Bethlehem)

monotype, 2 1/2 x 4 3/4 in

I was very excited to learn a new lithography technique called 'maniere noire' - or the 'dark method.' Beautiful, tactile, almost like a lithographer's way of making a mezzotint. Love it.

Untitled

Stone lithograph, 7x11 in