Posts Tagged ‘ woodcuts ’
Everything is up on the walls and we’re ready to rock n roll (so to speak).
I even got a nice bit of coverage on page 9 in today’s daily newspaper The Courier Mail.
And I should mention that where as the exhibition is running for the next few weeks, the limited hand-made artist books and the vinyl I have made (scroll down the page to see them) will only be available from me tonight at the opening. So if you come along, hit me up!
Thanks and I’ll see you later on!
The trick to doing something repeatedly is to make it easier the subsequent times you do it. The fun part of making things for me is the challenges I need to problem solve. Those two things don’t always happen at the same time which means it is often interesting how different the outcome usually is to the initial motivating thought.
Making small-run handmade books is really fun. All it is (no joke) is some paper, sticky tape, scissors and sometimes a needle and thread! This latest book has been made specifically to go with my solo exhibition next week and it was supposed to be a piece of cake! At least that’s what I was thinking a month ago.
The not to uncommon scenario occurred where the book kept getting slicker and fancier with each new design step but hey I’m not complaining, I love how much like an actual small book this one looks like. I’ve covered some copies in metallic grey Japanese parer and some in metallic blue Japanese Paper. I’ve built the Obi strip into the front cover and hand-bound the spine.
Inside the book are some of the newest woodcuts I’ve completed over the last 12 months. While I’d love them all to be original prints, the variance in size and shape of my woodcuts means that high-quality reproductions was the most practical way to showcase the works. 
Of course though It wouldn’t be right to not include an original print so you can see and feel the tactile nature of the image. The roughness, the embossing of the wood into the paper. A hand printed image is always far superior to something spat out of a machine. This print is in an edition of 20 and will only be made available with the book (which is obviously also an edition of 20). For those with good memories (or search skills of this blog), this little bird came to exist on a skateboard last year but seeing as that was a one off creation and I loved how the bird turned out, I’m using this book as an excuse to bring him back and one for myself to keep.
I will have all these at the opening night of my exhibition, next Thursday night 23rd from 6pm. I will also have the last three copies of THIS book available on the night. More details have been put up on the Mild Manners site and of course there’s stuff on Facebook too.
I’ve got to say it is both fun and a lot of pressure doing artwork for albums or singles or any music to be released. Trying to match the sounds to images and translate other people’s thoughts on the music they have made is not always a seemless process. Luckily for me, my latest project has been my own. By that I mean I’ve been calling the shots which has made the final outcome that much more important to me.
The back story is late last year, one of my closest friends and I made some music together of which I thought it was good and decided to make it something more than just a few jams in a room. From there I got more friends to help me extract what I heard in my head and even went so far as to learn a new instrument (the musical saw no less). Now I am happy to be in possession of the 10-inch record below. It’s a little country, a little heavy and kinda weird but I dig it!
Now that might have next to nothing to do with printmaking or woodcuts. But you see, I get no greater pleasure than when I’m creating something out of nothing. Playing drums, playing instruments that belong in a hardware store, carving a woodblock or making a book – when you step back and look at what you’ve made, it’s pretty cool.
So apart from the 100 copies of the record that I hope to eventually send out into the world, I decided to spend the last few days making a single copy of the record that had all my creative loves fused into one artifact. I am really proud of what I finished off today, to me it’s an artist book, it’s a record, it’s some of my best woodcuts to date and as someone who also likes collecting records, it’s the most deluxe release I could come up with (with some ink, paper, tape and scissors).
It is hardcover and adorned with four original woodcuts and I’ve even put the test-pressing of the record in there. This one-off creation will be on show (and available) at my exhibition opening on the 23rd May (see the invite below) even though I really would like to keep this one for myself!
Front and back cover
Inside gatefold
Back cover
Front Cover
Inside 
Mild Manners Presents
Opening Thursday 23 May 6pm
Showing until Sunday 30 June
Upstairs at Ksubi
Shop 2/30 James St,
Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
QLD 4006 Australia
It’s been a few years between solo art shows but thankfully due to that, I have a few years of artwork that I will be showing as part of this show.
More details will be coming along in the next few days but until then you will find a portion of what’s on display over on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/againstthewoodgrain
So I’ve been hinting through facebook and updating the site here over the past few days (check out the new Artist Book page in the top right corner) about my latest creation/distraction – I’ve made another artist book!
This one was the most fun of the five I’ve made so far and the easiest (a good thing to finally be able to say). Creatively different from my previous books but also looking back over my shoulder a bit and giving a nod to two recurring themes that are now impossible for me to miss with my woodcuts.
This book is officially called a ‘Do-Si-Do’ book. I’m just calling it a double sided book because there’s a front book and a back book…
The front is showcasing many of the portraits I’ve done over the last four plus years. I love doing portraits and they are still the hardest of all the subject matter I’ve tried my hand at. I hope to do hundreds more over the coming years.
Speaking of trying my hand… The second side is filled with woodcuts themed around hands. I still don’t know why I do woodcuts of hands so much but it is fascinating to me. This is how we physically touch the world we see and how we give and take so much of what’s around us. The hands are so many different things and I guess I’m exploring just some of what those things might be.
The book itself incorporates 27 woodcuts produced between 2008 and 2013. Entirely designed, compiled and hand-bound by me – I’ve decided to limit it to only 20 hand-numbered copies.
Because I’m addicted to making things as special as I can, I’ve also carved out an exclusive woodcut that is in the back of the book. I have no plans to make this original print available elsewhere so I like to think it’s a pretty nice way to either introduce people to what I do or for those who already know – collect together some of my art that I’m really quite proud of.
The images that make up this book can be encapsulated in a quote I’ve paraphrased from elsewhere and adorned on the back cover of the book “The people you never quite know. They’re the places you wanted to go.”
Most importantly, you can get your hands on this book two ways. You can go to my ETSY SHOP and buy it there and I’ll send it to you or if you go into the bookstore in the Gallery Of Modern Art at southbank, you can have a look through it and buy it there!
Thanks.
Too much working on art… not enough blogging about art. Oh well, thanks for keeping up with my periodical updates about what I’m up to.
Christmas time means more time spent at home which doesn’t equate to lying around relaxing. No it has meant more time to do more carving and printing of which I’ve been trying new things and resurrecting old favourites.
This is a close up of a piece I finished last week. I’d show you the whole print but I don’t want to do that just yet – some things need to be kept secret, at least for a little while. This print (which I’ve titled ‘Balancing Act’) was a large and challenging print for me at a metre squared. From trying to capture fine detail on Marine plywood to creating a mottled and vivid coloured background – which has turned into a series of monoprint styled inkings - what I planned to do and what I ended up doing has changed constantly. I wanted to add fine text to the print too, 3mm lettering to be exact. I tried my letterpress – didn’t work. I tried writing the text on – didn’t work. I tried alphabet stickers – didn’t work. Nothing gave me the effect I wanted. Then I remembered the ancient technology of Letraset. No stationary stores had any anymore. The fellow at Officeworks said he’d not ever heard of the stuff. My outdated technology was proving elusive. Finally at a discount art supplies store I found several packets of what I was looking for. 10 hours and several sessions later and the print now had its text. So far it’s an edition of two, we’ll see if that number increases anytime in 2013.
With the delays in the previous print, I spent a few days getting distracted with this one. When in doubt of what to do next… do another print of my Currawongs! Well, they’re not mine but they do come and sing and sit in the tree over the back deck every day and I’ve grown fond of their visits. Here are some that I have previously done of them. It is a two block print (20 x 30cm) with the branch hand coloured in gouache. This one is not editioned as I pretty much did it for myself so it’s a one-off.
Back in 2011 I did some Mexican themed woodcuts. Recently the original print of the one below left me to go to a new home. Leaving me with the task of re-printing and painting some new prints. I made two and spent a good few hours again battling with the gouache to get the colours I wanted – mint green being a real bugger to nail down. Still I got it and am happy with how they’ve turned out!
And going way, way back. In 2009 I surprised even myself with my attempt at creating a realistic woodcut of two owls. I originally wanted it to be full colour and I even tried once with watercolours (my first attempt at hand-painting a woodcut) but I ruined the paper and it didn’t work out – and so the owls stayed black and white. A few weeks ago, out of the blue, I decided I wanted to try to have a seconds shot at the owls. Now armed with a much better knowledge of paper, gouache and printing techniques, it was a lot less ominous a task and with a four-hour painting session one morning - I completed my two owls just as I had originally intended. Somehow though I think this print is still not finished… only time will tell on that one though.
So that’s how I’ve ended my year. Apart from two small group shows it has been me and my carving tools at the kitchen table. I do think that I now almost have enough to have a solo art show in 2013. Putting on art shows is way harder than making art if you ask me so it still could be months away. I’ll start the wheels in motion though for something in at least Brisbane and Melbourne.
Also, if you’re like me and don’t check the blogs as reguarly as you’d like, you will also find photos, updates and snippets of what I’m doing on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/againstthewoodgrain is where I hide so if you like anything here, you can go like it there as well.
Thanks to everyone who has bought, looked at or gave me feedback on my woodcuts over the last year.
So this is a strange and funny story (as far as I’m concerned) but one with a great ending…
So quite a few years ago (I can’t actually remember which year or when. Maybe a decade ago?) I decided on a tattoo idea but I didn’t have the design, just a bunch of ideas. I talked to the fellow who, at the time, did my tattoos and he gave me some suggestions and showed me some tattoo flash and anyway… what we ended up with a few months later is what you see below. There’s more to it as it curls around and under my arm but you get the general idea of it all…
So fast forward a bunch of years to late last year and the always brilliant Outre Gallery in Melbourne releases a book called Tattoo Parlour which I swiftly buy because artists like Mike Giant and Thomas Hooper are featured. So right up the front of the book I discover the woodcuts of British tattooist Alex Binnie. We’re talking large scale portraits that are really striking. Basically we’re talking ‘new favourite artist’ here.
So I do what most of us do these days, I read what’s in the book and then head straight to the internet to find out more about this brilliant artist. I find his website easily enough http://alexbinnie.com and after looking at his woodcuts I start to look though his tattoo work, what he’s done and his tattoo flash art. Then I come across this in amongst a series of 23 sleeve designs he did.
Now, sure it’s not identical to my sleeve tattoo but I’m telling you, it’s the same basic tattoo design. The wave, the curves, the ship masts, the red glow in the distance is all what’s on my arm. Basically what I discovered was that I’d been walking around with an updated Alex Binnie tattoo design on my upper arm without ever knowing that this man existed let alone that he made woodcuts as well as tattoo art.
A few months passed and eventually I decided to get in contact with Alex Binnie. Tell him my story and my quirky series of discoveries. A few emails were exchanged and the woodcut circle grew a bit wider for me.
At the start of this year on my next trip to Outre in Melbourne, I bought one of his original prints titled ‘Chrisaki’. The style used to detail the facial features is not like anything I’ve seen in any other woodcuts. The whole thing as far as I’m concerned is brilliant.
Recently we decided to do an art swap. I sent him some woodcuts of mine, he did the same. And just last week this arrived on my doorstep. It’s huge and I really can’t get over how it is one distinct idea executed perfectly! Next I will frame it and give it a good home.
Alex has also recently released this book. My copy hasn’t arrived yet but sure enough it will soon. I find these works inspiring and the great side effect of that is being pushed to do and try new things and try uncomfortable things. Finding art is as much fun as finding music… things that show you a world you don’t know!
And so a bunch of happy coincidences (I guess) and I’m left with even more pretty pictures in my life… more than just the one on my arm that I’d been walking around with all these years.
Go check out more at Alex’s website: www.alexbinnie.com or google ‘Alex Binnie’ to see his art and some more of his great tattoos.
Well.. opening myself up to sell my woodcut prints.
Seeing as I haven’t, up until now had much of an outlet for my prints to go to new homes and new walls outside of my somewhat infrequent art shows, I finally got around to setting up an online store. I’ve used the crafty, handmade website Etsy to house my little shop. All prints are sold unframed and posted to the person buying.
I’ve just started putting prints up in the shop. 16 or so for the moment but I will be adding more prints to the shop over the coming weeks and months. I’ll also be putting up little projects that take my fancy like artist books, calenders and whatever crazy idea makes it through to fruition.
At this point in time It looks like the second half of 2013 will be the next time I will have a solo show in Brisbane of new prints. Last week in the lead up to opening my online store I did a small stocktake of what I had spread across numerous art folders. I’ve discovered that between May 2008 and August 2012 I have carved 109 woodcuts and printed several hundred prints. That’s virtually a new woodcut every fortnight for the last four years.
So if there is anything that you have previously seen of mine that you have liked and considered adding to your home, well now could be the time to look into it. Thankfully because there are no gallery commission fees and no framing costs, the prints are quite a bit cheaper than they have been in the past.
Anyway, click on the Etsy logo and have a look around but be warned, there are lots of pretty things on Etsy and you can easily get both lost and distracted!
These are the initial proofs for a series of woodcuts I’ve recently finished – a series that I’ve titled ‘Thanatos’. Three images that I thought came from the same place. I’ve spent more time than usual labouring over these woodcuts, not because they were difficult or easy or created for a specific outcome but due to the way they came to be and why they came, left and came back in disguise…
Sometime ago, I awoke from a very vivid dream, one that had a linear narrative to it and it left a series of specific images in my mind. I then went on to visualise parts of that dream into the woodcuts you see here. As you might be aware, many hours go into making a woodcut and I spent a considerable number of days working on these three images, watching them appear and take shape. The thing that struck me as I worked away was that while they were inspired by one nights brain activity they actually came about much earlier than that…
Part 1.
Recently I adorned a skateboard with a woodcut of two birds. Birds are a favourite of mine when it comes to subject matter for woodcuts. I also listen to a lot of classical music when I carve, two bands in particular being Godspeed You! Black Emperor and A Silver Mt.Zion. As I carved away at this image which was a distinct part of the aforementioned dream – I came to realise I was already familiar with this scene finding a parallel visual narrative inside the sleeve of a Silver Mt.Zion album. Thankfully I like to think I’ve taken my own slant and made it my own.
Part 2.
The final part of that skateboard I mentioned was a single bird feather. I’ve had a different design project going on for the last few months that I’ve put hundreds of hours into and early on I had wanted to incorporate this symbolic use of feathers but I couldn’t make it work so I ditched the idea and went with something else. However fast forward two months later and here is that design image I was searching for. It also looks like I might still be able to put it into my other project. Maybe it was that thing of walking away from an idea to find it.
Part 3.
This lady was the protagonist in the dream, I still don’t know where she came from, I don’t automatically recognise her. Maybe I will at a later date. Still she is the third part of that dream narrative about death, how you define those around you that you love and how you prioritise who and what you love.
I don’t spend much time thinking about inspiration when it comes to what I carve but I have found this a curious series of events where these images have changed their meanings. It is nice to know that while my conscious brain might not know what it’s doing and why, my unconscious brain seems to know exactly what’s going on and is not afraid to tell me.
