Bare Hands Gallery presents...

Greetings, gentle readers! Sorry to have been away so long. I've been back in L.A. for a few weeks now, but after pushing so hard to get the show done I've been too burned out to blog.

Thanks to everyone who's been so supportive of this blog and to everyone who helped me pull this show off. It was a group effort and I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

The show has been very well received and sold fairly well. Hopefully we'll sell a few more (since I just found out today that the show is going to remain up for another month! Thanks, Wendy!). The opening reception was very well attended. The 'Hollywood Icons' theme really came together with elements like a retro tv sculpture (pictured below), tv theme songs and movie soundtracks for music and even a popcorn machine. I saw many old friends and met some new ones. The evening was a wonderful, frenetic blur. I intended to take pictures of the reception, but again - blur. Luckily, pictures were taken at the reception and as soon as I get some of them I'll post them for your amusement. In the meantime, here's a few pics from the gallery.

Thanks again to everyone.

view from the front of the gallery


loose prints clipped to super-slick wiring system (thanks, Rashid!)


giant Kermit print


retro tv sculpture (thanks, UAB Theatre Dept. and OzWorks!)


woodblocks on display


Bandit detail


Raiders... bathed in gallery light

Kermit the Frog & Fozzie Bear

Kermit the Frog 29 x 41" collograph print
Fozzie Bear 29 x 41" collograph print

I'm leaving for Birmingham in a few hours for the Hollywood Icons show, so here's one more blog post for the road. Muppets!! I was a huge fan of the Muppet Show as a kid and dabbled in puppetry for most of my youth and throughout college. So when I was trying to come up with icons that I could print large, bold and simple - these two came to mind.

Printed on oversize Arches cover paper, these are the flagship prints of the show - very BIG!

These prints are a type of relief print made by cutting out shapes of vinyl, inking them, then laying them out puzzle-like directly on the press bed, laying the paper on top of the whole mess and running it through the press. There is no plate or block in the traditional sense. I'll do a post in the future where I go into this technique in greater detail.



Kermit hot off the press (for a sense of scale)


Kermit (detail)


Fozzie (detail)


"This print better turn out good, Kermit."


Cut vinyl pieces inked and reassembled on the press bed ready to print


Fozzie fur and vinyl pieces on the press bed after printing.

Kirk & Spock

Kirk & Spock 5 x 7" linocut print with watercolor


Today's Hollywood Icons entry goes out to my good friends Colin & Christopher.


Kirk & Spock two-color linocut print (blue)


Kirk & Spock two-color linocut print (purple)


linoblock during inking


linoblock detail


Live long & prosper.

Indiana Jones

Raiders of the Lost Ark 12 x 18" original linocut print artist's proof


The Hollywood icons show is closing in fast, and I'm happy to say the prints are finished (whew!). Everything went to the frame shop on Monday, and the handful of prints I'm framing myself are finished (Thanks, B!). Now the real fun (not) begins: address lists, frame labels, packing and shipping, etc.

Today's Indy post is rather fortuitous. As I type this the new Indy flick, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is about an hour from premiering here on the west coast (and already open on the east coast).

I didn't really appreciate Raiders until I was an adult. As a child I wanted Han Solo to fight Darth Vader, not Nazis... but I digress.

These images are a little wonky, because at 12 x 18" the prints are too large to scan, so I had to photograph them.

Raiders of the Lost Ark detail


Carving the linoleum block in process

This is about two thirds of the way through the carving process. The white stuff is baby powder. By pushing the powder into the areas that have been cut away, it creates a nice contrast allowing 'the image' to be seen much more easily ( a simple solution and very handy).


inking the block during the printing process


Raiders framed and ready for the show

At 12 x 18" (approx. 20 x 25" framed) this is certainly one of the largest pieces of the show.

Stay tuned. More to come.

Hollywood Icons

As many of you may know, all these Hollywood prints I've been working on these past months are for my upcoming show at Bare Hands Gallery in Birmingham, Alabama. I was the first artist to show at Bare Hands twelve years ago, and am excited to be returning as the artist for the 12th anniversary show. I'm currently finishing up the last few prints, signing and numbering prints, and getting everything off to the frame shop so it can be shipped to Birmingham for the show. I'll continue to post previews of the show here on the blog up until I go to Birmingham.

But this post is really to show off the official invitation for the show, and to thank graphic designer Christopher Davis for the awesome job he did designing this postcard. It's exactly what I wanted: simple, graphic, retro & hollywood. Thanks, Christopher!

Superman

Superman 6x8" six-color woodblock print

The year is 1978 and Christopher Reeve is the Man of Steel in ... Superman.

The tagline for the film was "The movie that makes a legend come to life" and that was pretty accurate. Superman was already one of the most recognizable icons in American culture, and this movie (and the fact that it was a good movie) served to make Superman even more indelible. I was seven years old when I saw this movie in the theater, and it certainly made an impression on me.


This is the most ambitious woodcut I've done to date with four blocks totaling a six-color print. The layout was tricky, having to make sure each block was going to line up with the next block and so on. The printing was tricky too, registering each block carefully to line up the colors on every print. Above are the first three blocks cut awaiting printing.


A print (with the yellow already printed) being pulled from the 2nd (red) block.


The third (blue) block on the inking table during printing.


The final (black) block in the process of being carved.


And with the printing of the fourth and final block, the print is complete.


The iconic (and patriotic) fruits of my labor

Bo Derek

Bo Derek 6x8" collograph print w/ a la poupée and watercolor


Bo Derek 6x8" collograph print w/ transparent top roll and watercolor




Construction of collograph plate - this is the layout stage, cutting out all the pieces of construction paper, making sure it all fits, before adhering and sealing to the substrate. Modeling paste was later added to create the texture of the water and waves.



a big inky mess - the palette for the prints mixed up and laid out.


the inked collograph plate



fresh print being pulled from the plate