Printmaking Workshop Part II

Posted on July 8, 2014 by lksukany

I made it to Romania with my suitcase full of supplies.

In Printmaking Workshop Part I, I talked about the supplies needed for the printmaking/artisan card making workshop. Now I had arrived, and I was ready to teach how to make prints, and had willing and eager participants. I even had some guys in my class, which was a great surprise!

I (and my assistant Barbara Jones) handed out everyone’s aprons (courtesy of Sara Bowyer, Stephanie Sue McDonald Baker, Beckie Sudduth, Maryann Baroody, Anita Davis, Mindy Clark, and Denise Nesbitt), drawing pencils (2b), erasers, pencil sharpeners, transfer pencils (6b), sharpie markers, drawing paper, tracing paper, linoleum blocks, and linoleum cutters.

I instructed participants to draw the outline of the linoleum block and to draw an image inside of the block outline on their drawing paper. For those who were not comfortable drawing, I had some drawings made up that they could trace.

Once they drew their images, they transferred them to tracing paper.

They flipped the drawing on the tracing paper to transfer the pencil marks onto the linoleum block.

Once the image was backwards on the linoleum block, they went over their image using a sharpie marker.

At this point I demonstrated the proper way to cut (away from your hand and yourself at all times). I assisted in cutting.

Once everyone’s blocks were cut, we cleaned up our work space and stored the finished blocks for the next session (the printing).

Photos: Courtesy of Jessica Zimmerman Belote

Art Romance

Posted on June 5, 2014 by lksukany

What do you think of when I say “hot date night” or “a night out on the town?”

M took me out for one of these. We went and looked at rows and rows – touching every corner of smooth and toothy – cream, white, and toned – thick and thin – pages of sketchbook paper.

M bought me a Canson Sketchbook – 7 x 10 – 98lb and a 12 pack of Derwent Inktense pencils. $$$$

Well, I did say it was a date!

Of course when we got home, I immediately went to my studio to see what these Inktense pencils were all about. Which is probably the downside for M of taking me on an art date.

The Inktense pencils are ink based, so after applying water, the ink dries and another layer of ink pencil can be added. Something else I think is really great about the Inktense pencils – and this is for the printmakers out there – the inktense pencils blend well when working with water based ink. This means that if you print and some parts of your print comes out grainy, you can cover that up with the Inktense pencils.

Pretty cool stuff!

I sketched an owl because I have been looking at the owls from Raptor Rehab of Central Arkansas.

I have been drawing this circle pattern for weeks now at work meetings and at Grace Church on Sundays – so I put it in with the owl sketch.

Art Competitions

Posted on May 6, 2014 by lksukany

One of the responsibilities I take on as an artist is competing.

Why do artist compete in art competitions? What, you mean besides the eternal glory! Many artists compete to win the prize, the glory, and recognition by an official art community. To get discovered. To be published. To slowly turn into a career artist. To make their artist CV more professional. To feed their personal needs for affirmation as an artist. To be a part of the art community. To experience the heights of glory and the lows of despair. I compete for most of these reasons as well. I have been a competing artist for 15 years.

What is the last competition you won? I was chosen for publication and exhibition in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) Equinox April 2013 for “Large Canvas Figure Study.” However, I did not win Best in Show.

How does it feel to win? Winning is like a group hug! At first, it is great. I feel proud of myself, that I am accepted as an artist in that particular community. I feel like my art is really good, of course it won! This feeling dwindles with time. Other thoughts start to creep in, like, “the competition must have not been too great, that’s why I won” or “ya, I won, but it was only this small competition” and so on. By the end, I just put it on my CV and until I win the next competition, it was my little victory.

Winning is like a group hug!

What is the last competition you lost? I participated in the Arkansas Arts Center “Face Off: A Portraiture Competition” 2014. I didn’t even make it past the first round. However, I did make it in the Sunday newspaper Arkansas Democrat Gazette!

How does it feel to lose? I would love to say that I am a gracious loser and that I say things like , “There were so many talented artists competing, so I’m just thankful I got to be a part of this whole thing.” Instead of this ideal response, I sulk and leave and cry about how I’m a loser.

What was the last competition you entered? My most recent competition experience was the Individual Fellowship with the Arkansas Arts Council. I initially knew I would enter this competition because the prize is eternal glory in Arkansas and $4,000. I thought I would work on a series of gouache paintings to meet the requirements of “works on paper.”

Then I started thinking about how I didn’t win this competition the previous year. I had competed with my thesis work, and if my thesis work didn’t win, why would I expect some little gouache paintings to win.

I got really discouraged and psyched myself out – not finishing any of the paintings I wanted to create – with this competition in mind. I just kept procrastinating and working on other things first. Eventually, the deadline was approaching the week of, and I just took the whole thing off of my to-do list. I decided I didn’t want to be stressed out and I didn’t want to deal with any more failures, etc. This was my attitude until the deadline day.

On the deadline day, I was feeling great – like God-inspired hope and joy. I thought, I can do this!

This is how I felt on the inside – the day I entered the competition.

The thing is, I am an artist, so I have hundreds of pieces to pick from as well as already photographed and documented work on my hand dandy flash drive. All I had to do was put it together in a package for this competition.

I put all of my materials in this envelope and decorated it!

So, I made a quick to-do list of everything I would need to do to enter this competition by lunch, and then I walked it over on my lunch break.

It felt really good to enter the Individual Fellowship competition rather than accepting defeat!

Art Night for Projects

Posted on April 24, 2014 by lksukany

The Art Night for April 2014 met and I am thinking this group needs a name – like Crunch and Create, Munch and Make, or Snack and Scheme. The night serves dinner and then space and time to work on a creative project.

M made chicken and vegetable fried rice and then baked chocolate chip cookies.

Mariel was the first arrival and continued her puppet making project for the Man and Bear musical puppet show by the Damsels in Distress.

J brought a Darth Vader coat rack that she wanted to touch up paint.

M.M. brought her beautiful beads and worked on a bracelet.

K and A came together, sat together, and worked on their projects together! K worked on a felt billfold, and A worked on sewing an image for her trading card group.

I worked on printing cards to send to Lucy Luton in England. I was one of the first three to email her for a contest, and she sent me some of her cards – so I wanted to send her some of my cards.