Mid Michigan Art Guild Show
My Moku Hanga print, Tranquility, was accepted into the MMAG show, Why art? Why Not?. in the Hope Borbas Okemos Library, Okemos, Michgan, Dec. 7 - 31. The judge was Arthur J. Martin, Collections Manager & Assistant Curator at Muskegon Museum of Art.
Owosso High School Print
The 12 students in the advanced art class printed their self portrait blocks yesterday. Each block was approx. 4" square. They were glued down with nori paste to mat board to make a 24" long block. It was a big block!
Using sumi, each student printed their own print of the whole block. They did a great job. Several commented on what hard work it was! It does take some strength to do Moku Hanga prints. (Which is why I lift weights and go to the gym!)
Thanks to this great group of young adults for doing this project with me and to teacher, Marti Liddle-Lameti for asking me to do this.
Printmaking: Always Learning
I have been very fortunate in my life to have some excellant art teachers. Printmaking instructors, I have found, are the most open and free with their knowledge and are EXCITED to have someone eager to learn printmaking techniques.
Last weekend I had the opportunity to spend in an advanced Moku Hanga workshop with Mary Brodbeck in Kalamazoo. (I also spent a week with her this past summer at Kendall School of Art and Design and couldn't learn enough!) I could have spent this past weekend just studying her work! She is an extraordinary Japanese woodblock printmaker & teacher and I would sit at her feet for a year if I could. She also shares my love of our great state of Michigan and we talked about places of beauty and adventure that we have and would like to visit.
Yesterday I spent the day with the art students of Owosso High School. Printmaking is not something usually taught in school art programs, beyond basic linoprints, because of the expense. So I gave them an overview of printmaking techniques - etching, collograph, drypoint, monoprints, reduction and Japanese woodblock. For the advanced class I demonstrated the basics of Japanese woodblock printmaking.
If you are in class there has to be an assignment, right? I gave them all a small block of shina, generously donated by McClain's Printmaking Supply. We are going to do a "puzzle" print: self portrait, eyes only, in their own style, printed with black sumi.
They are very excited about this project and I will post their print here when it is done the week after Thanksgiving.
Owosso Art Walk
I will be showing my UP Town Owosso prints at the Owosso Art Walk on Friday, Sept. 19 from 5:30 - 8:30 p.m. There will be over 30 artists showing their work inside the stores of downtown Owosso. I will be in Treasurers on Washington St.
Shiawassee River Woodblock Series
The first set of 8 woodblocks all cut and ready to print.
I was raised in a house on the banks of the Shiawassee River. (The area is now the Curwood Castle Park and home of the Shiawassee Art Center.)
The sound of the river is one of my earliest memories and a sound that still brings peace to my soul.
The Shiawassee River has important ecoregional significance. It has been identified as the best remaining example of a warm-water river system within the western Lake Huron basin. From the headwater wetlands in Oakland County, with its prairie fens, wet meadows and swamps that support a diverse assemblage of rare plants and animals, to the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge, which is a globally significant stopover habitat for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds, the Shiawassee River is important to restore, maintain and appreciate. Locally as well as globally.
Cities and towns were built along the Shiawassee and each one is full of history because the river was their original highway. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said, "Rivers define the context that gives us our sense of community. They link us to our history, to our past and to the landscapes, which are the source, ultimately, of our values and virtues and characters as people. And they are also just magical places."
There is so much talk now about the environment. There is much to do. This woodblock series of prints will, I hope, draw attention to the importance of our rivers.
UP Town - Owosso
A Series of Drypoint Prints
This series came about because of a fire. Actually, two fires. Two fires that devastated downtown Owosso. One resulted in the loss of the Lebowsky Center - home of the Owosso Community Players and the other a fire that resulted in the loss of a young man's life. Neither fire has been solved.
I had long planned to do a series on the architecture of the building of Owosso and with these two fires it just seemed time to do it. I already had a catalog of photos I had taken of the upper portions of many of the buildings in town. Some showed features now gone. After the second fire, I spent a few weeks getting the rest of the photos I wanted.
I have 7 prints finished from what will eventually be 20.
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