Ok Everyone,
Time to do an update on how I'm getting on.
Well at first , I wasn't keen to do this, mainly because I didn't think I would have the time. I started up and run Green Door Printmaking Studio (now with the help of Pandora, my multi-talented daughter). Thats it..doesn't sound much does it? but take a look at our website, and you might have to change your mind. Theres's only the two of us doing everything. Pan designed and made the website too. www.greendoor-printmaking.co.uk.
Anyway, Aine persuaded me I must do this brief as well! and now I'm enjoying it a lot. So thank you Aine.
I am now in process of putting my Blurb book back together, after taking it apart, and have decided to collaborate with my friend and associate , Fine artist and Bookbinder Matt Edwards on the project. The book is the result of roughly ten years of work on the subject of 'Nothing' and honing in on death as a major part of it. The prints reproduced in the book are just a few of the body of work done during this time, and hopefully form a readable story in images. All of the prints are made using innovatory techniques formulated during the 'printmaking revolution' which took place after the advent of the computer age, and adopted by me in Green Door as a part of our more environmentally sound studio, even though I originally trained as a traditional printmaker.
After a lot of discussion with Matt, I have decided to screen print a new cover which will also have little wings. I am inserting very fine japanese paper interleaves with planned screenprints on each which will figure in front of each of the reproduced prints, a nod to old books of etchings which have tissues to protect them. I am also inserting an etching at the end of the book which will fold out when the book is stood on end to display. All the work is combined using natural colours, hand made Japanese papers which I love to use in my prints, and earth toned silk embroidery threads to sew the book together. The print at the end is giving me a headache, being not firm enough to origami, so I have to experiment with this....photos to follow. Anna
Anna, I am looking forward to seeing your new book, the interleaf pages sound wonderful and I'm sure your screened prints will be terrific. I'm curious, are you thinking about an edition for your book? Now that I've created the artwork with text, I'm thinking I will make my book again without the BLURB print on demand book being a part of the mix. In my case I think the results are not as satisfying as I would hope.. that said I learned a lot about WHAT NOT TO DO.
ReplyDeleteHi Mary,
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry not to have answered sooner, I wasn't being ignorant, I have been in hospital for an operation.Hence no photos yet either.
In answer to your question, I have thought about this, although the Blurb book is very much an integral part of it.
If I did go on to make an edition it would truly be an edition in a limited sense. I would have to totally re-make and re-size the etching and litho plates from scratch to produce the Blurb part of the book.This would involve re-making the acetates for the photopolymer etchings as well as developing them and then hand printing them.The text too would have to be produced by hand using small photopolymer plates and printing them. All do-able but it would take a very long time, and time I do not have!
As it is ,it was very time effective to be able to digitally scan my prints, re-size them in Photoshop and then design the Blurb book...the only snag in my mind is the paper the prints are printed on. Of course you lose the tactile beauty of the originals and the texture too, but scanned at high Res. its not too bad a swop for the time saved, and I have tried to compensate by using very tactile papers as additions. It has been a very thought provoking exercise...but then I am not your regular Fine Art printmaker, because my second degree was in Illustration, so I am a queer mix. Thank you Aine for giving us this interesting puzzle to sort out!! Anna
I do very much that fold out piece in the book with the wings - its very endearing !!
ReplyDeleteThe original copper etching plate is huge. I made the plate 2 weeks after my husband's death. It has photopolymer images on both sides of the insides of the corporeal body of man, in anatomical detail, and the spirit ( lift ground and aquatints /Acrylic Resist etching) is central- rising upwards. It is the spirit of my husband, visually released.My studies became fused with life in an uncanny way.
ReplyDelete