I am pleased to announce that I am an 11 Month Affiliate Artist at the Center. So…
Join me Friday, April 16 from 6-9pm for a reception at McColl Center for Visual Art. Visit with me in my studio, meet the other Affiliate Artists and see the humorous and probing exhibition in the main gallery: Fried by Franco Mondini Ruiz. The Center is located at 721 N. Tryon St. in Charlotte, NC.

“McColl Center for Visual Art is recognized as one of the nation’s top three artist-in-residence programs by the Andy Warhol Foundation for Visual Art in New York City. The Center provides everything contemporary artists need to explore creative possibilities while examining the intersection of their work with the community. The Center’s unique approach allows artists and non-artists to gain insight into the creative process and foster meaningful conversations that educate and transform.”

I finally went out to the garage to mix up some ink and print. I was starting to hem and haw over various possibilities: printing flats behind the main block, cutting another simple background block, etc. After a few wasted piles of ink, I finally arrived a nice dark brown. It keeps it simple and warm and takes away that black on white starkness. As it worked it out, I think it’s cool to have this singular object floating on the page rather than sitting in a defined rectangular print area. It took me 4 cds (about 3 hours?) to mix and print.
When it comes to mixing ink, I always procrastinate. I enjoy it, but it always seems to take so long. Especially last night, it took me a while to get moving efficiently because I haven’t been working out there in my inking and printing space lately. Typically, I draw and cut blocks in my dining room or office/studio room, but then I go out to the garage to do the messy/smelly stuff. If I go for a while without working out there I fall out of all my little routines and rhythms for paper prep, ink mixing, printing and clean up. When you have limited time to work on stuff in a day, it can be frustrating to spend all that time on the less glamorous parts of the process. It would be nice to be able to just draw, cut and print. Maybe when I get rich and famous Ill hire assistants to tear paper, mix ink and clean up. Until then, I need to work out there regularly to maintain those routines so my time out there is well spent. Plus I should probably put a little more thought into the layout of my workspace. I’m sure that would speed things up as well. I want to streamline the technical things as much as possible so that I don’t lose momentum on the creative things.
 
Here’s the latest on my first ever basswood carving. I have it marked up for the next level of refinement. The process is starting to slow down now. I need to be careful not to go too deep anywhere. I also need to start making some final decisions about proportions in certain areas. The head/face could really break this piece if I’m not careful. I’m starting to think about what I want to do with the surface. I bought another tool, a wide Flexicut gouge similar to the v-tool I bought before. I recommend these tools to anyone cutting wood on this scale. I also bought another block of basswood.

When I went to the woodworking store the the other day I got distracted by all the cool wood carving tools and books they had. I have always wanted to try to carve something in the round. I ended up buying a block of basswood as an impulse item in addition to my new tool. Why not, the wood was only $4. So yesterday I was supposed to be printing up a storm but instead I got sucked into gouging and hacking away at this chunk of wood. It really is quite addictive and shares a lot in common with cutting a wood block for print in terms of the rhythm and mindset that you end up in. Here is state 0 and state 1. Ill post as it progresses, but first I need to refocus on the motorcycle print.

As for the question of “What should I do do with the background of this print?” I think the answer is not to come in after the block is cut and contrive a background, but to plan better when I start the next one. At most, I’ll print a flat behind the main image. I’ve been looking at a lot of imagery lately with this problem in mind and now Im ready to start trying some of this stuff. Hopefully Ill have motorcycle prints to post this week.

Yesterday, I went to Borders to see if they had a good Rembrandt book of drawings and etchings so I could cop some of his tricks. They didn’t, bit they did have a lot of books on graffiti art. I don’t see a lot of great graffiti on buildings here in Charlotte, NC, so I always enjoy watching trains go by with all of their cool out-of-town graffiti. Anyway, I got a lot of great ideas for things to try from this book in particular: Grafitti World.

I should thank my friend Ashley Lathe for leading by suggestion and example. Check out his frequently updated blog, The Picture Mill.