The Dangers of Auto Pilot

 

For the Kids

etching on paper, ©2011 Elana Goren 

12" x 18"

Above is the second state of an etching that I had been working on for months (not continuously but I started this back in April). I decided that the shadows under the truck needed deepening and I figured this would be a quick finale to a long process of working on this plate.

Since I don't have an etching set up in my studio, I need to etch at one of the several printmaking studio/workshops that I use in New York City. To prepare ahead of time, I applied the resist directly to the plate at my studio so that I could bring it to the etching workshop to coat with rosin for aquatint and then, etch. It was a great time-saving plan, except that it's not the way I usually work. I almost always coat the plate with rosin first and then cover it with resist.

So, I went to the workshop, saw the usual crowd and chatted with my fellow printmaking buddies and then did several rounds of etching the plate in the nitric acid (zinc plate). But at some point I realized that there was something very, very wrong with the plate. It wasn't until it was way too late that I realized that I had neglected the crucial step of coating the plate with rosin for aquatinting. I had disastrously ruined my plate by not paying attention to what I was doing and relying on my own little auto pilot who was used to applying resist-coating to plates that are already pre-coated with rosin, ready for aquatinting and acid.

This mishap happened a week ago and I'm still kicking myself for it. Months of work down the drain because I zoned out and missed a crucial step. So this is my word to the wise, don't rely on your habitual way of working to such a degree that you stop paying attention to what you are doing. I suppose there are much worse accidents that can happen beyond a ruined plate since we etchers work with toxic substances, so my advice is focus and avoid a printmaking disaster or worse, a personal tragedy.

Russian Constructivism

As someone who has worked as a graphic designer I've seen how the Constructivist and succeeding Bauhaus movements influenced designers tremendously in the 20th century. My work has also been inspired and greatly influenced by these masters of graphic communication and I am always eager to see more from this genre.

So, I thought I'd share some info on this show in NY at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery of Russian Constructivist posters plus a model for the Monument to the Third International by constructivist artist, Vladimir Tatlin.

It's listed at NY Artbeat:
"Revolutionary Film Posters: Aesthetic Experiments of Russian Constructivism (1929-33)" Exhibition
Venue: Tony Shafrazi Gallery 
Schedule: From 2011-05-06 To 2011-07-30 
Address: 544 W 26th St., New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-274-9300 Fax: 212-334-9499

If you can't make it to the show, there is another website that has featured some of these great movie posters at Flavorpill.com. Enjoy.

Successful openings

Why?

aquatint etching on paper, ©2011 Elana Goren

Well, I had a two openings this past week, back-to-back on Thursday and Friday nights. They both had great turnouts and the artwork in both of these group shows was first-rate, really great work.

It was great to see many of my fellow artists (and friends) and their incredible work. If you can make it to either of these shows (listed in the calendar section here), I highly recommend you check them out. Especially if you are a printmaker or someone interested in prints and works on paper, as there is a lot to see in these exhibitions.

The exhibition at the NY Coo Gallery was curated by Bruce Waldman and I think he did an incredible job pulling this show together.

Reverse Graffiti

I just discovered this new art form and I think it's pretty fabulous. It's reminiscent of reductive monotyping and it also draws attention to environmental concerns. The "graffiti" is created by cleaning dirty walls in strategic ways to create art reductively.

Though the police are seen harassing these artists in the video, I can't see anything illegal about cleaning a wall. Even so, it seems the powers-that-be saw fit to wash off the work before it even got an extended viewing. Luckily there was a videographer on hand to document the piece before it was washed away.

And here is a link to the Reverse Graffiti Project which shows another video using stencils and a powerwasher: http://www.reversegraffitiproject.com/. This time, the artist got obvious sponsorship. Again, the technique is pretty cool, though I find the prominent product advertising, unfortunate.

Best Blogs by Printmakers

Spider Ink Studio blog has been listed as one of the 50 Best Blogs by Printmakers. Please go to http://www.interior-design-degree-online.org/printmakers and see all the great listings they've got for all you printmakers out there.

Thanks to Tracy for including this blog in the top 50.

Non-Toxic Etching Update

I just received an e-mail from someone who read my non-toxic etching post from last year. I realized after rereading the post that the information there needs to be updated. It was written after just one test with a copper sulfate solution and I erroneously reported that the etching time for zinc in copper sulfate was the same as with nitric acid. This is definitely not the case. The copper sulfate solution etches zinc much, much faster and the bite is much harsher than etching with nitric acid.

I also have not had much luck aquatinting with copper sulfate since I work with subtle variations in tone. And since the bite is much harsher and quicker, it's very difficult to get subtle or delicate effects. Though if someone has had better results with this I'd love to know about it.

If you include thick, bold lines in your etchings, I would say that copper sulfate will give you that more quickly than nitric acid. But I need to do more experiments with copper sulfate before I can give advice about how to create delicate work. So far my attempts at this have been unsuccessful.

If you have had a lot of experience with copper sulfate and zinc, I would very much appreciate hearing from you about your experience.

Life

It's been a rough couple of months with my husband being very sick requiring frequent trips to the ER, surgeries and quite a few hospital stays, but I'm hoping that we're coming out on the other side of all of this. Though we just spent the weekend in the ER yet again and I'm sitting next to his hospital bed as I type this.

I know my postings have continued to be few and far between. I'm not going to make any promises about when I'll post the next one, just know that I haven't stopped thinking about this blog and what I'd like to further relate about my experiences with printmaking.

And just a heads up, I'll be posting info on some upcoming shows that I'll be part of this summer in NYC. As soon as I have the specifics, I'll put them in my calendar section. But for now, I'll be in the Carrier Pigeon show at the Sacred Gallery in Soho (NYC). The opening for the show is March 18, 8-10PM.