Inky Fingers

After about four weeks of teaching, exhibiting, and showing outside of Wishi Washi Studio (I called it Outreach October) I have a couple of glorious weekends off  and am able to play and prepare for workshops in my studio

I used to do a lot of block carving and printmaking but haven't done so in about 10 years. Since I'm teaching a block carving and printing workshop in November I figured it was about time to get my fingers inky again.

 

Out came some of my old printing blocks, some uncarved blocks, my dried up inks (time to buy some new) and I started playing.

Boy, did it feel good to roll out that ink and apply it to my blocks - if you've ever done printmaking you know the feeling, the sound and the smell!

combining old and new

I had some old uncarved blocks so carved some new, very simple images. I wanted to show my students some examples of how very simple shapes can be just as successful (even more so?) than complex images. I used to carve much more complex images but am currently gravitating toward simple, primitive shapes that convey a sophisticated design.

Some of my inspirations of late have been Skinny laMinx, Lotta Jansdotter and Marimekko.

one of my new blocks

I'm continuing to play with different inks, papers, and fabrics and am documenting my results for my students but I also think this may be part of a new direction in my own art. Who knows?

my experimentation resulted in composition notebooks

November brings workshops starting up in my studio again with guest instructors and myself teaching as well as installing and an opening reception for an exhibit that I am thrilled to be a part of:

 

More information about the exhibit here.

Hope to see you there!