I wanted to share another piece of mine from my printmaking days. This was from a show I did with a body of work where I focused on the female form in history.
This is a cropped version for the thumbnail:
And here is the entire piece:
As is often the case with me, this image contained a chair. My obsession and work with chairs and interiors and the female form was my expression of Women's greater history, which for hundreds of years was the domain of the home. Women's history was writ in the home and with no 'good or bad' placed upon it, I simply wanted to show an expressive form of women in sometimes solitary roles in interiors.
This piece is called "Companions" playing on the fact that she and the decorative interiors were old friends.
I started this piece by using an old piece of printed wallpaper (I had a stack of old wallpapers) and affixed it to a heavier bond paper for strength and then re cut it. After that I sorted through my cut out chair/furniture silhouettes.
This piece contains a 'ghost image' of one of my silhouettes. I have/had a shoe box full of these as I would draw out furniture outlines and then meticulously cut them out with X-acto knives. It would sometimes take hours, but it was very Zen. I would have my music on and the quiet of the studio and I'd just play. I have always loved dollhouses and miniatures so I think my little collection of 2d cut out furniture silhouettes were sort of a way to make my painting into a doll's house that I could decorate with my imaginings.
Now, I had my newly strenthened freshly cut antique wallpaper and I took my hand cut furniture silhouette and placed it on the paper where I felt it would compliment the figure I was going to make. Then I carefully rolled a mixture of three colored inks onto my roller and rolled over the entire thing and then carefully lifting the cut out sillhouette, which left the 'ghost image' of where the chair had been. Showing the old wallpaper through.
The figure is printed from two screens. I mentioned how I made screens in this post and it is a bit of a process. I have to make a negative by deciding which bits of the figure to highlight and then make it all black, it gets printed on clear acetate. That negative is then used on the screen to make it for printing.
As sometimes happens in printing on paper is there can be a bit of bleed. This cannot be controlled 100% but if you do want it you can 'aim' for it, which I did here. You can see the bit of thinner ink showing the texture of the paper around the figures chin and hairline.
I love this affect on really textured paper as it has an almost fractal quality.
The figure is actually two screens. One was used with the dark deep purple to make her features and the the outline of the patterning on her dress. Underneath that is another screen with the negative space around the dress. So, in reality, that screen with the negative dress shape was first put down and I used a mixture of inks close to the pinks of the wallpaper, as I wanted the figure to feel a part of the furnishings and the wallpaper. Then the second screen with the outline is CAREFULLY placed over that to try and line up the flower pattern and then printed, again with more push around the head to get the desired 'bleed'.
The overall affect was meant to be that in a very neutral way the female form was both part of the decorative environment of chair and wall-coverings, but also they were old friends and in a way had a relationship as I felt many women of the past did have with their homes in which they created a lot of the history of women. I didn't really want as I say a good or bad quality as I feel there is much of women's history with the home and domesticity that is actually a positive part as well. I just wanted to celebrate the past of we women and the joy we did find in what was our dominions.
Since I mainly do digital paitning and drawing these days, the steps I take are much different. Although I am very much a painter of 'process' and the process has always been a very important part to me in my art. The joy of planning and playing with layers and layers of work is really half the fun. And in away, like the women of the past, my domain is the home in that I do work from home, so am very good friends with my chairs and wall coverings.
If you like my work, I certianly appreciate upvotes and resteems and I LOVE to read comments.
Here are two other pieces of my Printmaking that were part of that same show.
Really great post @donnadavisart, you write about your work beautifully! So interesting your concept of using chairs, or furniture to make a connection with women throughout history in their "solitary roles" in their interiors - really moving to me.
Thank you so much. I guess as I am fairly solitary as well (as often artists can be) I might project that a bit, but I mean art is a projection of our own experience too, I suppose.
As I mentioned to you, your wonderful post about your studio really has me thinking about taking up 'steemit' as my printmaking 'client' just for the fun of getting dirty again to share it and with no intention of it even being a piece for sale but merely the joy of the piece! Steemit really gives us this opprotunity really.
What a thought-provoking post. I love how in-depth you write about your process and your thoughts behind your creations.
The idea of women being so connected with their furniture and homes rings quite true, good or bad. I know that even in this day & age, I feel a certain fondness for my home and my curated furniture & decorative pieces. I like to have everything just so. It drives @mstafford crazy haha
I am glad you liked it. I really do believe that there is a lot of our (women's) history tied into the house and home. Today for some reason this can only be seen as a negative as it is always equated with a sort of servitude, but I really believe that good or bad, our history is tied up with the home quite a bit and we can find the good and important bits in that history. I think women, being rulers of their dominion in the home, had a lot of say and control in the venue and as it shaped them, so too was the home and concept of home shaped by women. In many ways it IS a woman's story and I think it is worth telling in any form.
Having things 'just so' see you are just giving your eternal woman cry of power "here is my domain, I rule this roost" ;)
Beautiful @donnadavisart. I worked with silk screening for a bit but it's very hard to get just right. I think you did a fantastic job with all the textures and the colours. Happy to be following you and keep up the good work :)
It is a bit fiddly. I know there were days when I had a bit of swearing, but then I always heard the voice of all my art teachers in unison chanting "There are no mistakes only happy accidents". This is why I am a fine artist and not a mass producing tshirt printer, there you can NOT have mistakes ;)
Wow - More awesome work. I need to go back and try Printmaking - I did it many many years ago. Never looked this good.
Thanks. I really enjoyed it. I am thinking of doing a Steemit project of possibly setting up a mini printmaking studio again, just to do works to share here. I still LOVE digital and the ease of my desk being my entire studio, but there is something to be said for the tactile.
Beautiful post. Following you and your work for sure!
Well, thank you. I shall check out yours as well and give you a follow.
Very impressive! It reminds me of Art Nouveau style posters.
That is one of my favourite periods and I was heavily influenced by poster and graphic arts of the art nouveau and deco period. I studied Art History so more work is always highly reflective of the past but with, I Hope, a modern sensibility.
Hello, your post was nominated for an upvote by a fellow within the Sndbox incubator. Thanks for sharing your beautiful art @donnadavisart. Steem on :D
Thank you. You guys area great!