Silkscreen Experiments

Silkscreening has been for me much like music is for non-musicians. You know it when you hear it, or see it in this case, but have not a clue as to how it's made. In our last class that was cleared up for me, or at least to a very fundamental degree. We screen with one color of ink, and Eva made the screens for us, so there are still fathoms of depth to screening that I haven't even yet been informed of, let alone that I have explored.

But I still cannot help but feel like I did when I first figured out what a power chord was on a guitar. Although nine years later, playing just about any chord is as unchallenging as blinking an eye, I remember where I started. Who knows what kind of screening I will be doing nine years from now.

I really wanted to make the paper what was fun about these prints since they are all the same graphic. The graphic itself is a drawing I did this semester for a Graphic Design project. The final for this was actually a completely different drawing, but I'm still really proud of this one. I had some reservations about using such a detailed image, but even though some details were lost, I was impressed by how faithful of a recreation the screen made. These were printed on an old watercolor test sheet, lined notebook paper, and a paper towel, respectively. The loss of black on the lined paper was accidental but produced an interesting outlined effect.

Tank Man for the Environment

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
Nothing is going to get better. It's not.

-The Lorax, Dr. Seuss

Brett Cook: A Creative Person

To begin, I am a rabid appreciator of painting. To be more precise, I wear thousands of paintings on my psyche at all times, Like a bodysuit of tattoos within the skin. My favorites include old masters like Caravaggio and modern day artists like Leonid Afremov. Paintings and drawings are symphonies to me, while posters, ads, and so forth, are catchy jingles. Brett Cook is a composer of the highest measure, and yet in the video he showed us about his community project in Durham, NC, he was labeled as a Creative Person. It seemed very peculiar and provoked a few restrained laughs last night when this appeared on screen. I can only assume that this is his title for himself, because the production company that made the video would almost definitely prefer something more streamlined like artist. But this title speaks volumes to what Brett is really climbing toward in his work and in his life. It's simply him talking the talk to support the walking the walk he does so well. I am biased by the fact that I have long worked toward perfecting a style that is similar to the work of artists' like Brett and Lucien Freud. If I were him, you can wager your life I would call myself an artist. But Brett truly understands what he wanted us all to define; Community and Soul. Every human being is a creative person. There is not one man, or woman, or even infant who has not created something, even if it simply a thought. Brett is not a creative black person, a creative man, a creative teacher, just a creative person. He is more than the sum of his parts because painting is something he does, (Very, very well, for sure) but a creator in communion with all of the people he surrounds himself with is what he is.

Doug Bucci Lecture

Last week, Doug Bucci, from the metals and jewelery department talked to us about his method of using CAD(Computer Aided Design)/Virtual programming to create his tangible and very visceral artwork and jewelery. What interested me even more about Doug, although I enjoyed his work very much, was the story of how he got to where he is now in his work. He did not begin his work with the intention of working exclusively in CAD. I can relate very much, because I feel each new semester of art classes I have taken at Temple and at Tyler have bombarded my senses with new ideas about how I should be expressing myself. In the past, I have worked solely in traditional forms; drawing, painting, building, but now, having had a semester of four out of five classes being rooted in computer based work, I often feel frazzled. This is not because I am not handling the transition, but because I am handling it very well. The ability to make complex, clean, and professional looking work is strangely alluring to me. I find it harder and harder to simply draw for the love of the process, while my schoolwork demands so much technology-based attention. The jury is still out as to whether our arts and technology lecture series has exacerbated or alleviated the pangs of this dilemma. What I am sure of, is that I still wish to pursue a career of traditional illustration. My love will always lie with watercolors and ink, but I think the lesson that Doug has to teach is that the accesibility of technology is a beast of burden more than willing to make our lives easier as creators. I'll try to learn it well.