365 Day 171

Shaqe Kalaj's relief printmaking class at Art & Ideas -- class #4

I am having such a blast at this class -- I am SO glad I gathered my nerve and signed up for it. I generally don't take a class unless I have a pal/accomplice to sign up with. I LOVE this class!
I look forward to Monday nights like you wouldn't even believe...it is hard to get through the day until it is time to leave for class...that's how much I look forward to it.

And it is HARD work. I am an old out-of-shape woman with lots of aches and pains and physical complaints. This class is giving me muscles in my right hand and forearm from carving into the lino material. And tonight Carla and I got to try out the wood carving tools. MAN -- THAT takes some effort and you really need to stand the whole time to get leverage on the tools. It was really fun. I don't think I am quite ready for that yet, but I really liked it. All the tools make such different marks in the wood. Carla and I both took turns trying out each tool. Carla made a "deer bird" and I made some sort of creature standing in front of water.

Then we went back to working on our stiffer golden lino material that we started working on last week. Believe me...after trying out the wood carving, the lino material felt as easy as the gray easy cut stuff! LOL

Carla and I get to submit a piece of work we are doing in this class to the Student Show at Art & Ideas. It is an all age show -- this will be really cool.

Carla's piece is an amazing self portrait with really intricate designs and textures. There are elephants on her face, elements of Turkish tiles and an Egyptian eye among some of the really neat stuff. Shaqe and Carla helped me choose the print I will make. We all chose my bearish creature with the white arms.

We worked on printing our show piece tonight towards the end of class. I think I was just physically worn out because I could not make a single good print to save my life. Something went wrong with each one. Shaqe had me make notes to myself on each of the failed prints and bring them home so I could study what went wrong. Good idea. One was too inky, one slipped when I was re-inking parts of it, one was too sticky in spots and then slipped with too much ink in another area...Shaqe is very patient...thank goodness.

I am going to get some good paper at Utrecht tomorrow and I will eventually get a good print during the week. We need to deliver our framed pieces next Monday. I am really excited to be included in this Student Show. I think it will be really cool to have it be all ages, too.

Here are some photos from tonight's class:



this is the continuation of my fox woman creature golden lino block -- last week I only had the creature and part of the moon behind her done. Shaqe really kept pushing me all during class to keep adding more and more elements and texture and lines to the piece...just as an exercise in learning how to let go and be more intuitive and fluid instead of being so controlled and patterny and orderly...it was a really good lesson














detail of the swirly wind parts in the sky...I had just the swirls and Shaqe had me add more lines, then showed me how to add more motion and texture














Shaqe's wood working tools














piece of Baltic birch that Carla and I got to practice on -- this is Carla's "deer bird"















My (much smaller) creature in front of some water -- we both used all of the tools to see what sort of lines/marks they would make


















Carla working some finishing touches on her golden lino block



















Carla still working

















Carla's print of her self portrait -- you should see it in person -- it is really amazing
















taa-daa...show the class your work, Carla!


















results of my labors tonight...this still needs more work. it is basically an exercise in textures and lines and learning the new material.

















block and print













detail













Shaqe in the brainstorming-about-titles-for-our-show-piece part of the class

















Shaqe patiently cutting me one more piece of the good paper to try and print my piece for the show while we were still in class...I was just too worn out -- but I did learn a lot















Whew! I am going to sleep well tonight! I am looking forward to going to Utrecht tomorrow to choose some nice papers for printing. And I am JUST going to make my midnight deadline for posting this blog entry!