Mt. Katahdin in Winter

Since the beginning of this semester I decided I wanted to do the Mt. Katahdin winter hike through  Maine Bound, the outdoor adventure center on campus which offers awesome trips!

 I would have done it no matter what, but fortunately four of my friends joined me, as well as 5 great people from Maine Bound ! It was quite cold and very challenging, but incredible! 

I loved every minute except for about 40 on the way back from the summit because there were some serious winds making the temperatures at least -20. The area is so beautiful!

The group outside the lean-to we spent the night in before the climb

Tyler and Wil hiking up Abol slide - crampons and ice axes were handy! And helmets!

Cold at the top, face frozen so I got windburn

Excited to make it! Didn't hang out long though

Ryan on the hike back down, the summit already looking distant

Skiing before the trip

Fjord Features

This image was done for our "mapping assignment". I like finding similarities between people and our environment, so I was inspired by the beauty of fjords (an aerial view), steep glacial carved valleys, and the permanence of these features, which are akin to the way our lives are carved by events and forever changed, or scarred. 

I decided to try polyester plate lithography in printmaking last semester. I have always loved the look of many litho prints, the way you can get carefully rendered images, like those of M.C. Escher.  Polyester plate is a newer technique, where you can "simply" just draw onto the plate with litho crayons, light and water fast markers (like micron, sharpie) and then put the polyester plate onto a hot plate to fuse the crayon or maker to it.  

The trickiest part is printing this plate. It works based on the opposing relationship of oil and water. Whatever you drew attracts the oil in the litho inks, so you sponge the plate withwater (and some gum arabic, won't go into) and then roll out your ink, and it should only stick where you drew! It should also  stick more or less depending on how dark you drew, so shading should come out. I had a ton of trouble with my light shading being removed, and had to re-draw the plate with the face on it (I had 3 plates, one for each color) 5 times, and the gradation still did not come out nearly as nicely as I would have liked!

Had to make a bunch!

Two color layers: some light brown and light blue

My drawing with litho crayon on the polyester plate

The result... Not quite what I drew

Result after re-drawing many times, about as good as I could get

Yay, kinda decent prints finally!

Ghost print of the face plate

Portraits of Threatened Species

Last semester is Printmaking 2, I chose to try monoprinting for my final project (we could chose any print technique, and any idea). I had gotten very frustrated doing polyester plate lithography for my previous project (will post about soon!) and wanted to try something new! 

Monoprinting can be refreshingly straightforward for a print technique, it would appeal to someone who loves to paint (like me!), however you of course get only one print out of each go! I only used black ink, so I simply rolled it over my piece of plexiglass then took it off to bring out whites! The ink was water based which means it can be more easily removed. I used Q-tips to draw each of these animals because for some reason that fluffy tip is perfect for picking the ink up (and they can be dipped in water to get a really nice white). It is tricky to not remove too much ink too soon!

I chose to do prints of four large North-American animals that have been in trouble recently: threatened, endangered, etc. I did them in portrait-style with their eyes meeting the viewers so it would seem both more confrontational and accusative, and also more akin to a portrait of a person. This is supposed to send the message that it is our fault these animals are struggling, and we should value the health of their species more highly (as we value our own species). 

The four animals I chose

Working on the bighorn sheep!

The wolf

The mountain lion in progress

Bison in progress 

Toned paper

I really enjoy working on toned paper; it is nice to not have white as a base, because then it can be used as a strong highlight. The portrait above is just a sketch I did this past semester while at art club. Little stars surround her and she begins to become one with the sky

Longboard

Most days I longboard to get around the UMaine campus. This summer I decided to decorate the bottom with markers, pen, and acrylic paint. Before doing this, I sanded the surface, and then afterwards put a clear finish back over. 

Relief Printing multi-color

The second linoleum relief print we made was done multi-colored in what is called the "suicide" style because you cannot fix a mistake (un-carve something) in the very particular process. In order to make sure we understood how to go about this our professor had us sketch each color layer on a sheet of tracing paper.

These are some prep sketches of for my idea. The theme of this assignment was ephemeral, so I was thinking about the way we consider time. We often consider rock as permanent, while in reality it weathers and crumbles, as did the Old Man of the Mountain. 

It all depends on the timeline being considered, there is no one way to define a short or long amount of time; So, I compared the life of a human compared to the lifespan of a cliff.

I made 8 prints trying out different color combinations. Each color is one layer of linoleum that I carved away after printing.

 

We had the option of waxing some of our prints if we chose, after the ink completely dries. 

This print is my favorite

I tried printing the purple shadows and green trees before the blue background was dry enough (it takes closer to 2 days to try between ink layers) so the ink of the sky lifted up a bit.

The second project in printmaking is relief printing. We had to do two linoleum carvings.

The first project we could only use black ink, and the purpose was to show a sense of light.

I chose to do an image of my sister Megan and I that had great lighting.

 I used carbon paper to transfer the outline of the areas I wanted to cut away onto the linoleum.
Our faces reminded me of two glowing moons in this early stage!

I did some more detail for a mix of marks and gradation on Megan's face. I used all little horizontal marks for her face.

I tried running the linoleum through the press a second time without applying more ink and I like the grey tone

More marks, I used all small vertical marks on myself

One of my final prints - I had a lot!

I waxed some of them... makes light go through them, although this paper is pretty thick. However you DON'T want to to keep this out in sun because the wax can melt 

I waxed this final print as well.. it is a thinner paper with threads