Now What...

Did my final review for the MFA (master's in fine art degree) in December. The degree was awarded. I presented the following 8 cards and several recent derivative works.

Buzzed 36x48" Mixed Media Encaustic Painting (unfinished)

Calaca 2009 8.5x8.5" Collagraph Plate

Magus II 16x20" Mixed Media Encaustic Painting

Foolish Mandala 36x48" Mixed Media Acrylic Painting

this is by no means the end. I intended this project to be the beginning of a life work. Really -- there are 78 cards in a tarot deck, there is no way I could complete that in a year and a half! I do intend to complete 10 editions of 78 cards! In the next few month I plan to re-work the fool and the magus while I research and design the rest of the major arcana. I also plan to continue creating derivative works. And of course its time to start looking for my first teaching position...

And just to reassure you followers of this project -- the design for strength and a quicky sketch of my first visualization of the hermit...

lovers popes and strange fruit for exchange 42

The Pope Card has been editioned

I'm currently printing the Lovers edition. This is a proof. A proof is a test print pulled to make sure my registration is correct and checking to see if any changes need to be made to the plates before I print an edition.

I'm currently carving the Chariot Keyline block

Just finished designing the Strength Card. The next digital collage will be The Hermit.

Baren 42 exchange participants may not want to go beyond this point!

the linoleum cut moons

printing paper moons

printed paper moons

paper moon with paste placed on plexi

substrate place over paper moon

plexiglass with substrate and paper moon being run through an etching press; in a process called Chine Colle the moons will be fused to the substrate with great pressure.

paper moon fused to substrate

a plethera of chine colle paper moons drying

inking up the linoleum cut strange fruit plate

the freshly inked linoleum plate will be run through the etching press with the chine colle paper moon substrate atop it.

the linoleum plate with a freshly pulled print

Strange Fruit, size 3" x 9", mixed media relief print, edition: 38
The above is 3 prints out of an edition of 38 prints. This means that 38 prints were close enough to being exactly the same.

Lovers, Choppers and a Community Painting

Bursts of Activity

The community painting created at the Alley Arts Festival this weekend. At first it was hard to get someone to pick up a brush and contribute to this painting but once the first person started dabbing others started painting into it as well.

Visitors age 2-92 at the Alley Arts Festival took part and made their marks.

"Strange Fruit" the digital sketch for a mixed media print project. I'll relief print the treeline and skeleton atop the chine colle'd moon that will be fused to dark blue fine art printmaking paper.

The Keyline for The Lovers. The next step is to transfer the keyline to 3 or 4 "Shina" plywood for the color plates.

This is my digital sketch for the next card in the series The Chariot.

Video of the Alley Arts Community Painting. Can you spot the chicken in the brush?


The photo above is from my other blog about my biggest distractions to art making:

Life Outside the Studio Window

The Lovers Keyline is Complete

The Lovers Keyline block is complete

This is a photoshop phake proof. This is what I hope the printing of this will look like tomorrow when I proof then transfer this keyline to the woodblocks I will use to carve the color plates.

The Lovers Keyline in Progress

The lovers keyline block in progress. You can click on the image to see the original file and see details better. Click your browser's back icon to get back to this blog.

Below are photos taken by Rachel Stonecipher of Carol Wagner, my mentor and fellow barenforum.org member. The photos were taken about a month before Carol passed away.

In the above photo Carol is binding one of an edition of books we collaborated on. You can see the pages I created for the book in the following blogs:

Autmn Follies The first five spreads and Autmn Follies

In the photo above Carol and I were visiting an retrospective exhibit of our friend Alice Fong's life works at the museum of the Chinese Historical Society of America in San Francisco.

Yeah that's me looking coy...
The acordian book behind me was made by Alice Fong also that is not wallpaper on the wall behind me, its one of Alice's works, I believe its a large monoprint. Let me check the catalog...
...actually it's a 30" x 72" acrylic painting on canvas titled "Late Late Bloomers."

The book is 9"x36"x6." It's titled Chinese Zodiac Animals and is Serigraphy (silkscreen) and collage on Rives BFK fine art paper.

Hierophant Proofs

Finished State

Hierophant Blue Block and Lovers Key Block

The blue block for the Hierophant is carved

These are the printed proofs of the adjusted keyline for the Hierophant.

I've started carving the Keyline block for the Lovers

Here is the lovers with changes I made to the design. I made the figures larger. I changed the bouquet the bride carries and I put lotus blossoms in the pool of the unconscious.

The 4 Finals

Completed all four paintings for finals in my "Composition in Abstract Painting" class.

Still Life with Japanese Doll

Diana with Friend

La Luna

La Luna Zen

The Reference Photo for "Still Life With Japanese Doll"













The reference photo for "Diana and Friend." Photo by Karin Jurick






Reference photo for "La Luna" taken by hubby Merlyn J. Camp










Scan of .5" x 1.5" inch section of an 18x24" drip painting used to create "La Luna Zen"