Lately

Ayin Es2 Comments

What’s been doin’ lately? Things are moving along, but slowly. I’ve been doing a lot of resting, but I’ve been getting some art done slowly here and there too. Not as much as I’d like to, but that’s never the case, so what else is new?

I managed to finally print those etchings last week with Master Printer Poli Marichal. We actually used my old studio in Highland Park, which now belongs to Stephanie Mercado and she has an etching press there. She gave us the key and allowed us to use it. It took us a couple days, but we gotter done and the prints look great.

Before that, one of my best friends, Yolanda Gonzalez and I were hanging out and somehow she managed to talk me into going back to her studio with her after breakfast one morning to mess with ceramics. Now I usually hate ceramics, but she somehow made it so much fun! Maybe when I tried it before I had a shitty instructor. I took a class at the local community college a few years ago when I was living in San Pedro. Actually, I didn’t even take a ceramics class. I took an open-ended, self-instructed arts term and the Chair made me do ceramics. I was totally reluctant about it, but I did what he said because I figured he was the “professional.” I wound up hating every minute of it and the potters’ wheels were designated for the men.

Anyway, Yoli and I wound up having a great time and she helped me to make Fire Dan!

I’ve also been doing this strange thing where I am taking paintings that I have already painted and doing miniature renditions of them. here is the first one of Danarama. the original is 36 x 36 inches, but this one is just 6 x 6 inches. I have a briefcase that fits about 10 small canvases and I am going to make them all mini versions of my bigger paintings so they can travel with me. It’s a silly little promotional idea I had, like old timey salesmen used to have smaller versions of furniture and pianos they would take with them in order to try to sell the real deal when they were out in the field. Crazy, I know. me and my silly ideas.

The rest of time time has actually been eaten up with helping out my best friend Tracey. She is finally moving back to SoCal from Pennsylvania after being out there for nearly nine years now. I found her a house in Joshua Tree that she is about to move into and I have been taking care of the whole organization of the thing. It’s been a little bit of work, but I must say I like doing it and I am so excited about her coming back and being just a couple hours away from me, that I jumped at the chance to do it all. She actually just left on the road today and is making her way west now. I’m going to the new house early next week to spiff it up and let the movers in and get it all ready for her. All I can say is I fucking hope she likes it!

Back from Joshua Tree

Ayin Es1 Comment

I just got back from my little trip to Joshua Tree where I worked on a little project for Art House Co-op called The Fiction Project (the site is being revamped at this very moment, so the info may not be there when you click on the link, as they are also promoting their next sketchbook project…), which I posted a little preview of on my website here.

The book is called Inside/Outside. It’s a 40 page lined sketchbook that is mostly handwritten text with some art in it. I did it all in five days in a beautiful rented vacation house right near the west entrance of Joshua Tree National Park called the Skylark House. This was all made possible from a grant provided by the National Arts and Disability Center, or else I would not had been able to stay in such a great place for that length of time. The book was a documentation of my stay out there, so it wasn’t exactly a work of fiction, but more like creative non-fiction. Well, 99% of it anyway. Dan appears in the story a little bit, but in many ways, he has become real.

I was also looking for a rental for my friend Tracey there because she may be moving there from Pennsylvania. She is moving back to Southern California after being away for nearly nine years now. I have been scoping places out for here in various locations and JT was one of them. I kinda found the perfect place for her there, but I’m not sure if she is taking it. There might be other options, it all depends on where she feels most comfortable since she has been living in quite the rural situation for the past many years.

When I got back I found out that I did not win the People’s Choice Award for the Artist’s Wanted contest. I feel bad making all these people vote for me daily. I thought I was really close to getting it, but I guess I was not close enough. Of the first 100 people who entered I was at least 500 votes beyond any of those artists, but I had no way of knowing how many votes the rest of the artists were racking up – apparently a lot. I wound up with roughly 1200 in the end. Not enough to win. *Sigh* …but I am so very very appreciative for everyone who wanted me to win and tried so hard and voted for me so loyally. I have learned, however, not to enter such contests like this again.

I am constantly applying for things, and that’s fine. I get rejected from most everything I apply for, but this is something that winds up disappointing all the people that were trying to help me too. Plus I had to hound people to vote for me, and that was like panhandling in front of a 7-11 for change or something. I know I was a such a nuisance and I hated it. I’d much rather apply for things the regular way without bringing the whole world into the process.

Now that that’s over, I’m moving onto other things. I got my letterpress pages back for my Houses book today and they look marvelous! I still need to print those plates I made and start the watercolor pages now that I got these letterpress pages back. There’s much to do, plus I have to make a miniature version of Danarama for strategic purposes… Install my dolls and The Deal at 18th Street for the “Los Angeles-Instanbul Connection” show on Tuesday morning and get to work on a painting that’s been in my head for the last month! I will tell you that it involves a stuffed snake! 🙂

Plus, did I mention that I’m going to be in a show called TEL-ART-PHONE, curated by Mat Gleason? Here is the weird painting I made that will make more sense if you see it in the show:

Please help me win!

Ayin Es1 Comment

I’m trying to win The People’s Choice Award on Artist’s Wanted, and as far as I can tell I have a pretty good shot!

If you could be so kind as to VOTE FOR ME HERE and click the 5th star all the way to the right – I would be so grateful!

You can vote every 26 hours or so. Bookmark the page and vote as much as you can. Voting ends on the 20th.

I’m counting on my peeps! HELP!!!

Etching Plates

Ayin Es3 Comments

I finally got my plates done. It only took forever.

I made two 4×6 inch copper etching plates, which are for the little Artists’ book I am making called Houses. I figured I’d take you through the process. I meant to take images of the process while I was doing it, but I failed to do that. I’m a big dummy. That would have been much more exciting, huh? Yeah, I know. Instead, I will just have to explain it and fake it out for you.

I started with buying the plates from Daniel Smith. Luckily, I already have etching tools.

I began by filing the edges of the plate. You have to round them off, otherwise the sharp, blunt edges will cut through the paper when you later print them on the press.

Once that’s done you have to clean the shit out of the plate. First I used a little Bar Keeper’s cleanser, some water and very fine grit sandpaper and scrubbed it up in little tiny circular motions on both sides. This removes all the fine scratches and bumps and cleans it thoroughly.

Then I polished it with Brasso. It got nice and shiny!

After that, I used a de-greaser. You can’t have ANY residue on this thing for the next step…

After it was dried off, I used contact shelf paper to stick to the back and removed all the air bubbles, which took a looong time. I turned it over and used an Exacto knife to cut exactly at the edges so the whole back was fully covered. This is so the acid wouldn’t eat at the back of the plate. Then I made a long tail with the contact paper as well so I could later dunk it into the acid bin without touching the plate at all.

Now it was time to apply the hard ground. This crap is toxic and will get you high! I poured some into a small bowl and used one of those small, foamy padded paint brushes to apply a moderate coat. I wound up letting the pad dry up and threw away inside a plastic zip-lock bag. I didn’t know what else to do with it, but I’m glad I used all that I poured.

Once the ground was dry I sketched a bunch of drawings to figure out what would be best to go with the poem in the book on the pages that correspond for these prints. Once I got them right, I drew them on tracing paper, cut out a piece of carbon, and transferred them backwards on top of the dried ground.

Then the fun part comes: scratching into the plate with the tools. The hard ground keeps the acid from biting, so whatever you scratch off if what the acid will bite into. Using the tools, I scratched along my carbon pencil marks to reveal the copper and make my drawing. I did it on both plates and it with all the deciding and sketching, then scratching, that took all day. The next day I made the acid bath.

I found the perfect little vessel at Target, but I still had to use almost 60 ounces of Ferric Chloride. This stuff is not as toxic as the etching acid of the olden days, but it is still toxic and will still burn the shit out of your skin if you touch it, so you have to wear protective gloves. I am paranoid, so I bought PVC gloves, wore a little mask and glasses.

I left those plates in there for about an hour and a half, checking on them every 20 minutes or so, until I could see a pretty good bite where ink would lay into the plate, but not so deep that it would pool up – you don’t want that. That would saturate the paper, and the paper I am using is pretty light. So once I felt satisfied, I pulled them out and placed them into a bin of clean water. I dried them off with a clean cloth, and with another I started rubbing off the ground with orderless mineral spirits.

Then I went through the whole whole rig-a-ma-roll again with polishing and degreasing the plate again, after removing the shelf paper and had myself a couple of plates I can now go to Self Help Graphics and print with!

Now I need Poli’s help because the really hard part of inking the plates begin. And she is the Master.

Thanks for reading!

Middle of the Week Already

Ayin Es3 Comments

Can you fricken believe that I am STILL sick?? I can’t either. I am going absolutely insane. Every time I think I’m getting better, it’s like it’s two steps backward. Overall, however, I AM getting better. If I compare it to how I was doing weeks ago, I am better for sure. I just don’t have the energy I want to have. I’m tried and run down. I am still coughing a bit, but nothing like I was. So I guess really, I should shut up and stop complaining.

I guess you can say I have been making a lot of plans, but not creating anything physical. I am on the computer here and there, doing a bit of sketching in the ole moleskin sketchbook, but nothing very substantial. Those etching plates are sitting in my garage just waiting to be scraped into. The hard ground was applied on one of my good days. I don’t think I can deal with the ferric chloride dip until I’m 100% healthy. So that artists’ book is on hold.

Something nifty though is that Bottle of Smoke Press produced these really cool bookmarks for me, which will now come free in my artists books. I am also offering a small edition of them that will be signed and numbered (just 30 of them) for 4 bucks, and that includes shipping!

bookmark

 

Also, in addition to winning the logo contest for the National Arts and Disability Center, I just so happen to be awarded a small grant from them to help fund my contribution to The Fiction Project for the Brooklyn Museum’s library. My book is called Inside/Outside and i will be creating it in Joshua Tree National Park from this house. This is a fusion of text and visual art that will be available online and also be traveling in exhibition across the USA.

Tomorrow, artist Arzu Arda Kosar is coming to pick out work for a group show she is curating at 18th Street in May. It includes three artists from Los Angeles and three from Turkey. She is curating this show from another artist who helped curate the Istanbul Biennial. I am very excited to be in this show.

Then Saturday I get to see my good friends from Chance Press, Jordan and Justine Hurder, who are coming down from El Cerrito in Northern Cali. It’s always wonderful to see them.

Plus this week I still have to ship off an All Done But None for a book show I am participating in in Denver.

So I am keeping somewhat busy, even though I am “taking it easy.”