Thanksgiving

Art Cornucopia Holiday Show in Frank Lloyd Wright's Wyoming Valley School!

12 strong, unique artists star in

the first Holiday Show 

held in this unique building.

The opening was terrific.
A visually exciting show, well worth visiting!

Open through December 7th...

Thursdays & Fridays...3-5pm and Saturdays & Sundays 10am-5pm.

Come see the show, 

and wander about this wonderful school

that kids were once very lucky to attend.

(It's just a wonderful site.

It glows

when the sun goes down.)

Dodgeville

Finally I'm feeling like a working routine is trying to develop.

I've been so busy this year. 

I drew up hundreds of BurgerGuys for

The Weber Grill Big Book of Burgers, 

and then drew for the Exhibit Labels book, 

which I just completed for Beverly Serrell.

There was intense preparation for teaching 

whiteline woodblock and collagraphy classes at the Peninsula School of Art.

FINALLY I am getting to print some of the plates I made in some stolen times.

Right now I'm printing "Dodgeville"

which I did sitting on the Schurmans Cheese picnic table,

while waiting for brakes to be put into the car.

This is a cell phone pic of print #2

which I just taped up to dry.

I hope to get three more from the plate.

Drypoints in aluminum allows for about 5 good prints.

I'll have them out for the Fall Art Tour.

cricket & bull

Wipe...wipe...wipe....print....print....print....

My printing is improving.  

Not yet ready to set up for acid etching,

I'm still doing collagraphy but have begun to tackle drypoints.

My drypoint guidance is coming from E.S. Lumsden's The Art of Etching,

paper suggestions from knowledgeable someones 

at McClains Printmaking Supplies and at Takach,

and some very fine advice from the LinkedIn Engraving/drypoint group.

The rest of is just trial and error.

It's only a cell phone picture, but had to show it.

I'll replace all the cell phone pictures with real photos when I've got time.

Here's an up close and personal drypoint

of a neighborhood bull.
(I'll eventually get all the plates printed and posted)

Rockets Collagraph 1st State

1st state

I got this far and needed to see how it was doing.

Watercolors sometimes tell me where I should go.
(remember...this is not etching)

Bent plate

I couldn't stop myself. 
I was just messing around....experimenting.

I should have known better.

I grabbed a too thin aluminum plate that was lumpy...

Bent, not straight...yes, lumpy. 

I got carried away....on a lumpy plate.

I'll work to get a good print of it...

and never, ever use a lumpy, bent plate again!!

First collagraphs!

Pirate Island

SO excited!

Etching press squared up and working great!

These ARE the first proofs from the press in the new studio...

and with NEW blankets!

No, not the best photos, but they have to dry before I flatten them...

and I just didn't want to wait til then.

SO good to see this!

More later!

(View from the bed at the Best Western)

Collagraphy at Peninsula School of Art

These are a few of my collagraphs, some of which I've hand colored.  THIS is what I'll be teaching in the collagraph class at the Peninsula School of Art.

I'll be instructing how I do this 

at the Peninsula School of Art in July.

I follow the safety-first collagraphy system of 

Carol Robertson and Robert Adam's book 

INTAGLIO.

Gallery 2000 Solo Fine Art Show

I've got a solo show at Gallery 2000

I am deeply involved in a big job, so, not having a lot of time to pull it together properly, it's a little loose around the edges,
but you will see few of the Mahjong Ladies, some of the Religionator's world, several on my
drypoints

 
















collagraphs 
and some fine chasing/repousse work.

Gallery and Contact information

2100 Bristol St, 

Middleton, WI

The Gallery 2000 is open to the public Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM -3:30 PM, 

Tuesday 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM 
(through early January)

or by appointment. 

Please email Robin Kourakis, rkourakis at mcpasd.k12.wi.us to schedule an appointment.

The Etching Press

The etching press, purchased from a professor at the Art Institute of Chicago somewhere around 1970,

and was moved twice in one piece finally landing here last week.

I understand it to be from France.

 There are no identifying markings that I can see,

short of the #s1,2,3,4 on the bushings, two of which are upside down.

It is 37.5" from the floor to the bottom of the 1.75" bed.

The bed is 19" x 33".

The top roller is 6.5" in diameter.

Is there anyone out there

who has seen a press like this, 

another of it's kind,

know anything about it's assembly, workings,

how the bushings are supposed to be,

if the bed is to roll smoothly from one side to the other,

being held up by the bars at either end,

or land on the bars at either end as a teeter tauter (which I doubt),

Right now, in this photo it is centered on the big roller below and the two smaller bars at either end.

Someone out there suggested it might be from the 

 Ledeuil Workshop in the 19th century in Paris...

some Googling led me to  Polymetaal

where I found this Ledeuil press.

But then I found their photo of a Krause press:

THIS next print, 

Nude and Etching Press by John Sloan (1931)

found on the William P. Carl Fine Prints

looks very similar to mine.

I want to fine tune this press.

I think hoping for any original paperwork on it is wishful thinking,

but perhaps I might find someone who knows something real about it,

or one of it's kind.

Please contact me if you do!

a

should the bushings be looking the same?

the one about, #4, is pushed in more than the one below#1? 

Bushing #2 on the bottom, and #3 above, are upside down, does that make a difference?