Sixth Sense: ghost

"The Ghost of Mrs. Schmidt" is the title of these prints. First I made some plates from the materials in our packet, string, glue and masking tape. Then I got some printers ink and inked them. I soaked the rives paper in the bathtub and used my car as the press. It was pretty funny! They didn't come out as well as the ones we did in class but I was beginning to get the hang of using my car by the third one. They are not quite straight but I think a few more and I might get it right. It takes a sixth sense to sense a ghost and the story of Mrs. Schmidt made my hair stand up. I'll tell it the next time the group is all together! Note to Andrea: I thought of using a Walmart shopping cart but couldn't get one!

Singing bowls

The singing bowls seemed to produce different work in all of us but it certainly did for me. These two made the most interesting of my prints in style and technique from the week, in my opinion. The first print is a ghost after a collaboration print with Juliet. The second print was made with red ink on top of the plate after the collaboration. All three colors had been used for the collaboration, followed by the ghost print, then red ink applied to the plate again. I plan to try some more prints with this plate on my own. The exciting thing I learned in printmaking was the idea that I can apply these techniques to my botanical classes. This was the first printmaking class for me so its use in my botanical classes is an eye-opener. With the final project this week, I intend to try out the possibility of print in botanicals.

collaboration print

Aluminum foil made an ascetically pleasing print on its own but in collaboration, it almost completely overpowered the form underneath. Voiding the effect in a collaboration defeats the purpose. In future collaborations, aluminum foil would not be an option. However, the foil on its own made for many different forms and ridges for ink to adhere to. Experimentation with foil on botanical subjects would be an avenue to pursue in botanical art. The plant could perhaps be flattened onto the foil, then printed. Whether or not, this could become a possible future exploration for my classes deserves some investigation.

first print

This simple line drawing print was quite effective for me in working with ink and line quality. The print is solely concerned with the beauty of line as composition. How the ink changed the original drawing made the marks come alive and take on an energetic quality. From this print, the beauty of line was carried into the next prints. In my teaching of botanical painting, frottage can become an excellent tool for use in the detail of the veins in a leaf and similar fine structural details. Printmaking would become an essential part of a botanical program.