Jona8than Green Art and Other Things

I have recently acquired an etching press. So recent that it's not even on my property yet. But will be very soon, through some combination of rigging, three young men power, and a possible me pushing a press down the main street in my town.

It came to me through the great Michael of St. Michael's Printshop, whom forwarded me an email from a woman looking to unload a press. She wanted it out of a building she was selling and wanted to see if they wanted it, if not then the scrap yard with it. So fee taking.The amazing part of it is that is in my hometown, where I am currently splitting my time between.

It is even more to my amazement that only a two months ago I had heard that a friend of mine had recently received a free for taking press with other paraphernalia. My GF C had said “Maybe one day I would get a free press” to which I had my doubts.

Yet now I have a press. From some research and a quick email to Perry Tymeson, press engineer and of Suitcase Press, turns out to be a early model Praga, perhaps pre production. Late 60's early 70's. Established in 1963, Praga was based in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. Good quality press but the company folded sometime in 2005 or 6. It is about 2ft wide approx. The bed looks to be 18" x 36".

There is some rust on the cylinders, little on the sides and the inside of the big wheel. But it spins smoothly as do the cylinders. The bed is in good condition, some rust on the bottom. Going to take some sanding and polishing to get in ship shape. But besides that I think that is all that needs to be done, a bit of lube here or there, probably a paint job on the wheel and base. Definitive putting some casters on the base for easier transportation.

I have put some thought to customizing it. Paint wise at the max. Maybe a red stand and wheel? That mint green I like so much? Purple? Too pop? Maybe a dark blue, metallic? Thought about spinners like on car wheels, or getting some kind of steering wheel grip for it. Pimp it.

Perhaps there is something wrong with me. It would be fly tho.

Going to be a long term project. Storing it next door in my aunt's garage. Might be a bit cold working on metal in the next few months. I'm excited about it even though I know it will be a while before I can set up my own shop. I got one of the biggest pieces to start with when I do.

Dark green?

the rules ... should you decide to play along and are one for rules ...

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen Artists who've influenced you and that will ALWAYS STICK WITH YOU. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Tag fifteen friends, including me, because I'm interested in seeing what artists my friends choose. (To do this, go to your Notes tab on your profile page, paste rules in a new note, cast your fifteen picks, and tag people in the note.) Quickly, and in no particular order:

1. Ed Pien

2. Giacometti, Alberto

3. Marcel Dzama

4. Rembrandt

5. Max Beckmann

6. Peter Doig

7. Ian Francis

8. Oliver Lutz

9. Will Gill

10. Larry Rivers

11. Kiki Smith

12. Robert Rauschenberg (especially erased DeKooning Drawing)

13. Joseph Beuys

14. Rachel Whiteread

15. William Kentridge

16. Phillip Guston

A bit of a sausage fest...

I have recently gotten some instructional videos for a variety of subjects. Mostly for woodworking like cutting dovetails, planing wood, furniture making, etc. Also one on Painting by Daniel Greene.

Daniel Greene is a pastel and oil painter in America. I have known about his work for a while from some art magazines. Very realistic academic painting, mostly portraiture. I like the work for what it is, and definitely think he is a proficient painter.

Funny enough I used to scorn these videos years ago. Thought they are overcharging and just aren't that useful to the beginner. Most beginners will get one expecting to watch the videos and get instant results. They are fairly expensive as well. They can be quite helpful in some cases and I feel one can use them to good effect. Especially if one has had some art training and can process the information the way they want to.

So why did I get this video?

I want to get back in to painting. I did a fair bit of painting in art school but have yet to do any painting since leaving school. Not a big deal as I have been doing my drawings and printmaking, achieving some success with it. There are some things I am unable to achieve with intaglio, I could possibly do it with lithography-but I don't like to suffer.

I learned a lot about painting in Grenfell, good instructors. The type of painting was classified as modern, perhaps under the term of alla prima. I would of liked to learn some more traditional types, more academic painting. It just didn't happen.

Not that I want to be creating highly realistic or academic paintings, but rather I want to use some of these techniques. I really enjoy the paintings of Ian Francis. British artist, very interesting paintings. Interplay between abstraction and figurative work. I feel my work is realistic and flirts with semi abstract elements in my work. I want to push this but I need to hone both – figurative and abstract.

Thus the video. Then of course, the practice.

I have always been caught between dualities. I like very minimal architeture and design but also very cluttered vernacular Newfoundland architecture, sleek fashion but then also plaid. I want an old wooden desk and only my Mac on it. Instead of fighting these dualities I figure I should stride both of them.

Going to try this painting video out. I'll post whatever results I create here later on.

The woodworking videos I have watched already, just waiting on getting a new saw and as well as a space to start attempting some dovetails.

And I think Gaia's work above inspired my own thoughts on doing something like this in Newfoundland.

What I would like to do is large scale woodcuts and lino on paper, pasting them. No different than what they're doing. My subject matter would be the ghosts and supernatural that are so plentiful in Newfoundland. There are numerous accounts of the strange in St. John's and around the bays. Such vivid imagery in some. Post them near where they happened; the streets, houses, harbours ,etc. These ephemeral beings hiding out waiting to be seen. Life size or larger than life to create an impact.

I think the subject matter and the materiality would work very well together. Same vein as Swoons and Armsrock work, but giving shape to what has no shape. Yet only then for a while.

There is the issue of it being graffiti. Not a big issue for me as I think it is art, bu more just a decision of whether or not I want this work being traced back to me. Like would I sign it? Would I work under anonymity incase of legal matters? Can one actually be anonymous in St. John's/Newfoundland?

Not big problems, and not one I am going to let stop me doing what I want to do. Deal with it when I need to.

I would like to do the Springheel Jack story first. Great imagery in terms of the costume. Be superb even to post him on top of buildings.

I see this as a fun project, not really serious work though it will be hard work carving the blocks and printing. I don't see it going any farther than what is stated here. I can't see it being in the gallery. Just a project. Like I would never do paintings of this subject, but I wouldn't do a mural for the city either. I just want it to be this.

Finding time for it now might be something else...

A series of objectives

I am trying to refocus myself as of late. I have been a little distracted, not really sure of where I should be going or doing. Lost sight perhaps. Not entirely sure why, a variety of different factors that have added up.

While I was at the Banff Centre I had to make a list of short term and long term learning objective, goal, to achieve as part of the program there. I think everybody has had to do one of these because of some high school class or university. I felt at Banff Centre that this was flakey, but they insisted on it, and I did find by doing it I was able to shape my activities better and achieve more. Just nice being able to scratch something off the list. Even just writing it out helped.

Then how to achieve these goals can be figured out.

Short term

Finish the three chests by November

Finish the dresser's top and bottom rail, clean up by November

Start three paintings by December

Large etching by November 1^st for Arts and Letters Awards

Six etchings by December [or more]

Long term

Learn how to cut dovetail joints

Ship in a bottle

Prepare for solo show in May 2011 – 20+ pieces [drawings, prints, paintings]

Apply for residencies

Studio space

Trip to Europe

Posted this for myself but also maybe give people some insight to how I work. It can't be all good news, it has to be the inner workings.

It's been a foul day. Sorry, not foul. But frustrating. Probably not in the most positive mindset.

Went to Winefest Thursday night with my beautiful C. Had a great time with her, tried many wines with her which we kept tally of, ran into some nice people, and got dressed up.

I like getting dressed up. So much I actually try to do it everyday if I can. I don't always when working at shop work, but I have when printing at the printshop. It just makes me feel good. I feel comfortable in these clothes.

There are few occasions in St. John's or anywhere really to get dressed up. New Years or a wedding, and even then it's not always a definite. When given a chance it's great to take it.

But I do always believe you should be comfortable, but I do know a lot of guys say they don't like dress shirts because it constricts their neck and they aren't comfortable. To a lot of these guys I say your shirt is too tight, get one that actually fits, get your neck measured. A lot of times that is the case. Right measures and sizes make a difference.

I wore a bow tie Thursday night. Finally got the tying of it down pat, took some practice. The best instruction video was this one, so good. And the guy's name is “Lucky”, like really, can' get no better.

I didn't wear my bowler/derby. Thought of it, but I was going to be inside so no need. Might have been a bit too much and too hot. I love it though. Very unique. I got in Vancouver, my friend Rodney Koonapki brought me there. Was hesitant at first but now I would never part with it.

The bowler gets interesting comments. When asked how I was doing once I said “Well”, to which the man said “I can tell by your hat you're doing well.” It's a hat very much associated with the well to do, the bankers and upper management. An old episode of “Are you Being Served” revolved around an employee wearing a bowler, which was above his pay grade.

It's a hat with an interesting history, first being designed for men – gamekeepers -while riding horses in hunting in England. Then later it was the most popular hat in the Wild West, not the stetsons and cowboys hats as usually figured. Hell, Butch Cassidy wore one.Then you have Oddjob's razor lined bowler in the Bond movies and Alex wearing one in a Clockwork Orange. From gamekeepers to cowboys to bankers and henchman and Droog. And now on some artiste type in Newfoundland.

Need to start figuring out a creative space for myself. Might need some creative ideas about income.

After all written about dressing up above, I will say sometimes I feel like Antonio Banderas's character in “The Other Man” with Liam Neelson. The wife’s lover, who is a janitor but manages to seem much better off. I sometimes I seem like I'm projecting an appearance only to come back to my small house around the bay. This is my bad mood coming out.

Due to using rabbet joints or what some call “half lap” joints on the wood, I needed to use fasteners. Which is fine, usually nails are used in these situations – preferably square head nails or cut nails. Which are hard to come by but are less prone to splitting. I was nervous about splitting the wood with regular nails. Also my nailing can be a bit off sometimes. So i used screws countersunk in the wood. They work, don't move so well with wood movement but work. They are what I would of changed though due to the difficulty in covering up the screw holes. Wood filler never looks very good.

Newfoundland vernacular furniture has a history of being painted. From some of my reading this was the style of time, the appreciation of natural wood not as keen as now, or least not in the lesser woods like pine, spruce, etc. Easier also to refresh from time to time in more of a practical sense. Maybe also easier to cover up mistakes perhaps?

For an example I have an antique dresser I bought a few months ago. Up to a hundred years old, made in Newfoundland by a local furniture maker. Was covered in a dark brown paint. I scrapped it off and underneath 18 inch wide panels of mahogany. Nice looking dresser, solid construction.

But will I paint them?

I don't think, though the bottom chest was model after my Pop's chest which was painted battleship grey, I would rather stain them. Maybe a reddish stain for the bottom two, something different for the one on top.

I started writing this in an attempt to figure out why I keep making these chests. In a world where plastic storage totes and units are so accessible why am I making these? Hell, even much lighter. I made this one when I was in Banff, based on a design for a sea chest. Took a lot of work and I learned a lot from it.

But's just one chest, now I'm on to four and I kind of want to keep making more. I just don' know for what purpose besides an outlet for improving my skills. Is that it? I don't have an intention to sell them, nor do I think they're sellable. Not yet, need to be a little better.

Is it just the urge to make things? The same motivation that keeps me making prints perhaps?

I do think about using them for an installation one day, though what form that would take doesn't come to me. The idea that they're not tied to my art at all doesn't seem true though. I still have a few length of boards outside as well I mean to use before winter hopefully. More boxes certainly. There are other projects as well like a desk and some wooden cover books or gothic books if you will.

Going to St. John's tomorrow to see C and go to Winefest on Thursday. Then I'm off to Englee, my Mom's hometown at the top of the Northern Peninsula this coming Sunday for a while. Be nice for a change of scenery.

It went well I thought, a few hiccups, but nothing too big. A small class of four. I showed how an etching is printed first through the use of one of my plates, then my portfolio, discussed techniques and then in to the basics. I had the plates filed on two sides to make it go easier and faster, degreased and then hard ground rolled on.

Two people in the class were regulars to workshops, and the other two brand new to it. Everyone got a print done. The experienced two wanted to aquatint so I showed them my method of using spray paint to do it.

Good work there.

I also showed them how to ink and wipe the plate. While there are many ways to do everything in etching of which I made no claims mine were the best, I was adamant about how I value my way when inking and wiping a plate.

Silkscreen is very popular because of the speed of constructing an image and printing. Lithography is relatively quick at printing as well compared to etching. I think that the inking and printing of the plates is what steer some people away from etching due to the time consumed in doing it. [That and the etching chemicals needed for intaglio perhaps...] I'm not an instant gratification dude either, I understand that things take time to be done right. But taking a long time in wiping because it is not done right is what gets me.

It's funny how my opinions coincide with another printer from almost 80 years ago. In the book The Art of Etching by Ernest S. Lumsden is a very complete book on etching and its history, covering many areas. One of those areas is that of inking and printing, and the over elaborate wiping of plates. Rembrandt did one plate of leaving a lot of ink on the plate in place of actually etching the darks in. Whistler than took it to hell, playing with the ink on the plate for different effects and in Lumsden's eye often printing poor or inconsistent images and starting a bad trend.

“Etch for your darks and wipe for your whites” is a saying I remember my etching Prof. Kent Jones saying. Instead of leaving a lot of ink on your plate, etch your darks in the plate and it works out so much better. Especially for getting your whites on the plate. People will spend so much time on their plates, leaving lots of ink to get their darks but then fiddling with q tips in an attempt to get their whites. The ink on the surface keeps getting in the way.

I have seen people spend 30, 45+ minutes on a small plate. I am not trying to knock someone if they're happy doing this. But I have encountered many who complained about the time of wiping or how hard it is. When if they spent the extra time in working on their plate, more crosshatching for the tones or aquatint, burnishing, scraping, etc. They'd spend less time on the wiping.

The first problem is usually putting too much ink on their plates, frosting it if you will and then starting in to wipe. The tarlatan sticks due to all the ink, hard to wipe. So what you do is take a piece of mat card and haula bunch of ink off the surface my running the card across. You need very little ink on the surface. The ink should be in the grooves, you need very little for plate tone.

The thing is I hardly ever use anything more than tarlatan. Very rare will I need to use some scrim/telephone book pages to get to my light areas. Never mind hand wiping, even rarer. Unless it is particularly sensitive work. I work quick, a medium size plate in about 15 minutes. A big pad of tarlatan, quick long and circular strokes across the centre of the plate. At the end lighter pressure, and maybe a little scrim. That's it. On the press bed and print. Quick and consistent.

I think some people would be less frustrated if they did this. People were still fiddling in my class after I explained this to them. Habits can be hard to change and some don't want to rework a plate.

To paraphrase Lumdsen “Great wiping will make a good plate better. But a poor plate will never be better no matter the wiping.”

I am not a professional printer or master printer, though I think I could be one day. I read a lot of books on intaglio and what not. Printed a good few plates as well, not as prolific as I would like but I do O.K. Not even sure why I wrote this other than to get my thoughts down, just to get it out there. Not a instruction but more of a tirade I suppose.

“The Newfoundland and Labrador Arts and Letters Awards” is too long of a title as well as being cumbersome with conjunctions. The deadline of November 26, 2010 is also a lot sooner than previous year's of January. About six weeks away. Shit.

It's funny, I haven't entered it since I went to art school. A visual arts awards and I stop entering when I finally start learning about art. To my defence, I also was broke. Haven't been able to afford the framing requirements in many years. Still not sure if I can this year, but going to enter either way. They also have a requirement it be original and made this year as well as not being shown anywhere. Gallery, exhibition, not even facebook or blog. Can't post it anywhere till after 26th deadline.

Details are here for the Newfoundland residents. Some good prizes in the senior division – 15 awards of $1000 dollars. That's a grand, a g-note, I could make it rain for a bit with that. Least drizzle.

I just feel this year I should. I feel I have a good chance at it. I am making good, solid work. At the least formally. Conceptually I'm O.K. Can expand that as time goes by. I just feel confident in what I am making right now. I know you can never tell what the jury will pick, but I have no chance if I don't enter.

I have an image I want to do. A slight departure from the Arctic landscape, no far, it's of a ship in ice entering a city street. Maybe some water flowing up the street. The street scene was shot in Montreal, near the Old Port area, the buildings being beautiful and brick. Very shadowy. Great lines. I can show the city reference. I think.

Great photo. My wonderful lady shot it. It's nice on its own. I think that I can make it great with my alterations. I believe the movie Inception might have influenced me a little bit on it as well, the architecture has that feel along with having a big friggin ship pushing through.

Debating whether I want to do the image in a drypoint or etching/aquatint print. Would be a full plate print 24” x 18” approx.

I like the idea of drypoint. All the line work, the drawings straight on the plate, the richness, the labour even. If I do right it's great. The other side is drypoint is fickle, even in it's wiping never mind making your lines right. It does get major props from those in the know.

An image like this size and subject is still a lot of work in etching as well. I can still do the line work, even do some drypoint in the shadows. It would still turn out to be great but I wonder if as good as the drypoint. But I have been looking at a drypoint master Mikael Kihlman.I think deep down I would like to do it in drypoint but my head says it's more practical for the etching.

Hoping to start soon. Like to get it done as quick as possible, though I do still have some editioning coming up. I hate editioning at times- maybe all the time. I like printing. It must be the idea of having to print so many that gets me. Expanded my editions up to twenty this year due to advice from colleagues. Why did I do that?

Listening to Big Boi's new album, Sir Luscious Leftfoot. Very good.

Haven't wrote here in a long time. The usual from me. Never great with keeping in touch.

Instead of trying to catch up on the past few months, I think I rather just write of my current position. Which is sitting in my studio at The Banff Centre. Waiting for the refractory on my wax cast of a light bulb, it will eventually have the wax melted out and cast in bronze. A bronze lightbulb. It was intended for the ballast of a killick. Unsure if it will end up that way now. Going to slip cast a bunch of lightbulbs in porcelain and use them for the killick now I believe.

I have some other bronze pieces that I would like to do while here. I wonder if I will get them done or not. Always complications and delays. I would like to make a compass dial in bronze, but with its centre being of “North” orientation. A compass for the North Pole. I could make it in wood, but the significance of bronze seems better suited for it. Be a simple relief mould casting.

My wooden sextant is almost done, it has taken some time now and needs a few more little things to complete it. I have to complete the scope, do some more sanding and then stain it. It's not as big as I originally wanted, but it is sizeable. Could of been better made, but not bad for an amateur. It seems my work has been focused on items of anchoring and items of navigation. Holding and wanting to go somewhere. That seems about right.

I have a residency for September at St. Michael's Printshop. The ol'haunting grounds. I think it will be nice to get back there for a while, just churn out a bunch of etchings. Been aching for etchings lately. I have thought of putting in for a grant so I can do 2 months before my residency at St. Michael's – 3 months in total. That would be swell. I have to write a proposal soon. I have to pass in a final report even sooner.

Started a ship in a bottle, that is going slow. Haven't been spending as much time on it as I should. Hopefully will find some time to just work on it, when the sextant is out of the way.

You can see a theme emerging of course, a using and revisiting of nautical objects. I am unsure what the final outcome will be when it is done. As you have read, there are lot of things that will combine. Will try to write some more soon.