Printing in the Coastal Bend

Here are some shots from a printmaking workshop I taught at the Rockport Center for the Arts in Texas. I had a blast working with the community in the beautiful Coastal Bend.

Many workshop participants had never done printmaking before but they quickly picked up the techniques and made some amazing work. I taught additive/reductive monotype and then discussed ways to combine monotype with drypoint, collograph, and chine colle.

Monotype plate and print with chine colle

Success!

Monotype print with chine colle and plate

CAC residency - new work

I have been working now for about a week at the CAC. The residency is in a beautiful church built in the 1880s which has been restored and converted into an artist workspace and exhibition space. The detail is truly amazing in these buildings, not to mention all the windows are stained glass.

I have been able to focus on developing new pieces; mostly printmaking (linocuts), sculpture, and watercolors. I am experimenting with layering different media and building on my current work focused on the internal body. Here's an example of one of the linocuts. 

detail of the block in progress

Branch Study - 6 x 12" on Japanese Mulberry paper

detail

I decided to mix a very pale blue for the print because I want to play with subtle tones. The CAC doesn't have a press so I've been learning how to print by hand using a baren (a flat disc with a handle on top). It's labor intensive but allows me to have an even more direct connection with the production of my prints, which I love. 

CAC residency

Day two complete at the beautiful CAC Woodside residency.. This space has so much character and history. I've never made work in a restored church before. There is a calmness and peace which is conducive to contemplation and making art. 

Contemporary Artists Center Woodside, NY

View of my studio, loving all the stained glass

The Bad Bohemians

Hey there, I just started a new collaborative blog with my partners Elena Rodz and Liz Misitano. We spiced up our name to The Bad Bohemians from ALE Curators. Check out my new post reviewing the Art on Paper show last weekend in NYC.

Art All Day

Last month, I participated in an open studios event in Trenton called Art All Day, organized by ArtWorks, Trenton's community art center. Since I don't have a studio in Trenton, I was connected with Segal LaBate Real Estate, a local business which opened its doors to local artists for the day. We had at least 100 visitors, and I enjoyed meeting everyone and discussing my prints. ArtWorks also organized an exhibit of one piece from each of the participating artists (see pics below).

Hanging my prints the night before

I showed my newest prints from my Look Inside series

The day of!

Powerful installation at the Art All Day exhibit by my friend Jamaila Hernandez

My framed print at the exhibition

Human Brevity opening

Opening night! A great group came out to the Jersey shore yesterday to see our show, curated by ALE Curators (a collaboration of Liz Misitano, Elena Rodz and myself).

On view through Sept. 27th, 3-7pm Saturdays and Sundays.
More info at facebook.com/TheALECurators

Human Brevity — opening Saturday Sept. 6

I am excited to announce that I have co-curated a show along with Elizabeth Misitano and Elena Rodz called Human Brevity, opening September 6th from 7-9pm at The Collective Art Tank in Asbury Park, NJ. The three of us had discussed curating a show together and out of many ideas, we decided on Human Brevity as the most intriguing and relevant. 

Below is an excerpt from our press release. Everyone is welcome to join us at the opening. All of the work shown will be available for purchase. 

ALE Curators is pleased to present Human Brevity: Contemplating Longevity in a World of Internet Memes, a group exhibition on view at The Collective Art Tank in Asbury Park, NJ from September 6 through September 27, 2014.

In the age of instantaneous messaging, constant updates on news feeds, disposable anything and everything, lives broken down into shorter and shorter segments, catering to our waning attention spans - the works in Human Brevity question whether the soul or the internet is the path to immortality.

Technology races forward, leaving the monuments of industrialization to wither as ironic shrines to greatness. Andrea Williams reinvigorates these ruins in her graphic prints. Her subject matter, the now defunct factories of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, ruminates on a geriatric America, its industrial strength like the atrophied muscles of an aging bodybuilder. In a similar vein, her newest series explores irregularities in the body. Her boldly colored linoleum prints ponder our physicality and its complex relationship as both protector and jailer of the soul.

...

Participating Artists:

Charis Carmichael Braun, Diana Corvelle, L.E. Doughtie, Benjamin Martins, Quentin McCaffrey, Michael Meadors, Liz Misitano, Kyrre Mogster, Elena Rodz, Rabecca Signoriello, Andrea M. Williams, Shawn Yu 

Opening September 6^th at The Collective Art Tank, 529 Bangs Ave, Asbury Park, New Jersey 07712

On view Saturdays and Sundays 3-7pm, and by appointment, through September 27^th

Contact:

ALE.Curators@gmail.com

https://www.facebook.com/TheALECurators

Creating The Heart

Since learning how to make linocuts, I have begun developing a new body of work of prints and sculptures. It is about the interior space of the body, its function and fragility. These images stem from some medical issues I went through last year that made me think hard about the functioning of the body and its inevitable deterioration.

This work is experimental for me in many ways. I am carving and printing monotypes using multiple plates/colors to create many layers. I am using bold colors in a break from my usual palette. The mark-making is very satisfying; the physical act of carving an image is very different from painting. In the sculptures, I am building up and carving down into objects that are at once amorphous and defined.

I am representing something from inside that I know is there but cannot see, which in itself is a break from how I learned to make art.. through observation. I have been asking myself many questions.. how do we measure what we cannot see? How do we fight or accept the frailty of the body? How do we translate trauma?

Relief printing

I took a fantastic class yesterday on relief printing taught by Justin Sanz at the Blackburn printshop in NYC. Relief prints are made by using sharp tools to cut into the surface of a block, generally wood or linoleum. When the surface of the block is inked and printed, the cuts print white/blank. The result is a graphic, striking image.

I'm definitely going to continue experimenting with relief printing. The physicality of carving and cutting feels very sculptural, in a reductive way of course. I feel a similar thread to my monotypes since I frequently work in a reductive method where I reveal an image from a dark field of ink.

Check out my first attempt at linocut..

Tribeca Ball and Open Studios

I recently did lithography printmaking demonstrations at two events hosted by my alma mater, the New York Academy of Art: Tribeca Ball and Open Studios. Tribeca Ball is an annual fundraiser to fund the school's scholarships and programs. Open Studios is a chance for anyone interested in the school to check out the fantastic work being created by students and alumni.

The Academy's printmaking facility enables students to work in Intaglio, Lithography, Relief, and Monotype printmaking. I fell in love with printmaking, particularly Lithography and Monotype, when I was studying there.

At the events last week, I met many patrons and artists. I demonstrated the process of printing a lithograph from the rolling up the plate, to working the press, and registering and pulling a print.

 Rolling up the plate with ink

 Preparing to print

Lowering the pressure bar

A successful print on the press 

I had quite a crowd at Open Studios

The reveal!

Tiny art at Single Fare 3

Single Fare 3 opened to a crowd last night at RH Gallery in Tribeca showcasing works of art made on/with/of used Metrocards.. Here's some great press: http://animalnewyork.com/2013/single-fare-3/

My Metrocard paintings are on display along with nearly 2500 other witty and well-crafted works of sculpture, painting, drawing and printmaking. All of the work is available for purchase at http://www.shop-single-fare.com/

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