Latest Projects, Grandson's First Relief Print, Year of the Dragon Cards & Baren Forum Exchange #51

This is the first printing plate of 2012 for me; a 6x4" piece of battleship linoleum.  I've yet to print it.  Its said to be Quetzalcoatle, this bas relief is from the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico.  Full size photo can be seen at: http://www.mesoweb.com/features/jpl/34.html.

This detail of a 10x15" woodcut printing plate I'm currently carving is Mayan.  Its Lady Xloc Lintel #25 at the British Museum.  I used an image from http://www.ancientsites.com/aw/Post/1229630.  There is a cool video about Mayan bloodletting ceremony at: http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2004/maya/womenatcourt-p2.htm

This is a scan of my grandson Austin's first relief print.  He carved an "Easy Cut" plate, its a soft rubber material much like the smaller white drafting erasures.  The image is 5.75x6" on 8.25x8.5" cotton rag paper.

Well I've blogged long enough, I'm behind on the making of my American Dragons...They're both due 1st of February and I've barely begun the carving of the larger woodblock and school starts next week!

Sierra College Ridley Gallery Holiday Sale

I've got the following artworks available for purchase in the above show.

 Drop Some Breadcrumbs, a multi color block print

 Nora's Daffodils: a silkscreen print

Looking for Trouble Buster?  A two color block print

Some brand new hand pulled pochoir enhanced block printed cards:

this block print was inspired by a photo I took of my grandson back when he was only 2 years old.  I stamped a holiday greeting inside so the cards can be used for Christmas cards.

A few reproductions of recently done ACEOs I sold on ebay last week:

These reproductions were printed onto cardstock for blank greeting cards then folded and cello packed with matching envelopes.

Last but not least I included several of my little one page wonders books.

They are all blank sketchbooks made from fine art paper of various sizes. Each 62 page accordion book is made from one sheet of folded, cut and folded paper and slipped into a book cover made from decorative papers.  I brought one large book with flocked cat on the cover cello packed.  I also cello packed a variety of 3 packs of matching books.

NibbleFest Art Contest

Today I listed the following artworks on ebay for a monthly art themed exhibit/contest titled "NibbleFest Art Contest."  (NFAC)

Many artist participate in this online exhibit/auction by listing artworks based on a new theme each month.  All of the works have to be listed using the auction style with an opening bid of 99 cents.  There are no reserve prices or additional fees other than shipping.  I've yet to see any of the participating artists try to make money by padding the shipping.  I've only seen shipping fees that are reasonable for careful packaging and postal costs.  

I find these kinds of art challenges a fun way to step outside of my usual and experiment with materials and subject matter.  The theme for November 2011 is Penguins.  Click the following link to see an EBay search for this month's "NFAC" challenge:  http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=NFAC+Art+&_trksid=p5197.c0.m627

This artwork is a 2.5" x 2.3" mixed media collage ACEO (Artist's Card Edition or Original).  You can learn more about ACEOs at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artist_trading_cards

I got the idea for this image by googling "penguin" images.  I saw this pic of two penguins and thought they look like they're snowboarding.  So I created a digital collage on my laptop using that image.  Then I made this miniature paper collage based on the digital collage.  I used fun decorative papers pasted to a scrap of Stonehenge printmaking paper.

This one is an original 9" x 12" charcoal sketch on Canson drawing paper.  I saw this cute screen saver of a photoshopped photo on the computer in the Sierra College classroom where I'm a teaching assistant.  I mentally cropped it then sketched my idea and yesterday I created an open edition woodcut print from my sketch.

This is the open edition miniature woodcut print I created based on the above sketch.  Its a 2.5" x 3.5" ACEO on vellum Bristol board.