What's in your head.

 

KELEN prints in Madison's Gallery Night...October 4th

I am excited to announce that I will be one of the

AMERICAN FERAL GALLERY Artists

showing October 4th

in Madison's acclaimed Gallery Night!!

AMERICAN FERAL GALLERY2150 East WashingtonMadison.

5PM to 9PM....

and probably will be open a bit later than that

due to the nature of us artists.

ALSO!

The Gallery would be open for viewing until October 12th

for those who would 

like to make appointments.

.

They have three of my woodprints.

That's one of them.

(I've got a really elderly iMac that overheats and shuts down...so I can only add one at a time,

every now and then....

sit tight...I'll get the others up today.)

Prices:

The Swamp...$350 unframed~$425 framed

(Children)......$350 unframed~$425 framed

Early Man......$300 unframed~$375 framed

Betty's Nightclub....$200 unframed~$300 framed.

(Betty's Nightclub hangs at Artist Craftsman Supply during Gallery Night/month)

                       

Warped woodblock

I should have photographed the block in it's most warped state. 

It would rock on a table as a shallow bowl.

It never was the best piece of wood,

I was only testing out sharpness of my knives,

and I just got carried away.

A couple weeks ago I started my attempt to flatten the block.

It's cherry, about an inch thick. 

Yes, I'll take a photo of the block so you can see.

I should do that.

I put it in a plastic bag, put a towel over it, 

sprayed it with water and sealed the bag, 

and put two thick copper sheets,
 one really heavy big solid rubber block,

and about a 40+ pound anvil on top.

And, crossed my fingers.

Yesterday I upwrapped it.

It was flat enough to print.

Not fun, but I got 8 beautiful prints!

I got some good first prints on Kitakata paper.

This year I discovered what Torinoko did with my blocks.

Luscious, is the only word I can use to describe what the prints are now.

You can see this and more

 at this years Fall Art Tour...I'm #stop25.

KELEN woodprint, "Early Man" wins Purchase Award

On December 9th,
I was able to post:
So, I'm happy to announce,
my print, 
“Early Man,” 
has been accepted for inclusion in the Minot University 
Northwest Arts Center’s Americas 2018: Paperworks exhibition. 
 The juror was Linda Whitney.

 

 

 

And then, on February 14th, 2018

I posted:

 

"I'm REALLY HAPPY to announce 

that this print has won their purchase award!! 

I just found out!!!"

Out of the Woods... Contemporary Woodblock Prints Show

I'm just back from teaching WhiteLine Woodblock Printing 
at the Peninsula School of Art...
I'll post pictures from that later.

Their "Out of the Woods" 

Contemporary Woodblock Prints show is up!

August 22 through October  18, 2014

Kay McKinley, their gallery director did a terrific job of showing the wide range of wood printing 

through work of 

Mary Azarian, 

Betsy Bowen, 

Charles Woodruff Coates, 

Ellen Heck, 

Emily Hoisington, 

Carl Homstad, 

Brian McCormick, 

Andrea Rich, 

Nick Wroblewski, 

me, Linda Kelen , (also my blog of woodprints only)

and Richard Steiner, who will be there in person Sept 5-10, lecturing on the 9th.
I took photos, 

but the Peninsula School of Art link is great and ready right now!

And THEN....

On September 20th

In conjunction with the Guenzel Gallery exhibition, Out of the Woods, 

join us for a free print fair with participating artist Linda Kelen 

and create a small woodblock print. 

All materials provided.

Ex Libris

Ex Libris.  

Bookplate.

Never did one before,

but thought it might be fun to do a few to generate

some thinking in the minds of those who will try their hand 

at woodblock cutting and printing

in Door County during a public session I expect to be heading up.

More about this later.

I'll finish the block and print it while I work on the next one.

I will post better photos of these, once things settle down a bit.

DogFish...whiteline woodprint

The beginning is the tricky part, 

finding what I cut...always a bit scary 

as I usually get going with the knife, 

cutting more and differently than I intended....

so there will be surprizes....

good surprizes, bad surprizes, 

and always at least one "what was I thinking".

It's a new block, larger block, and of poplar, a wood I've not used before.

It's done.

I'll be teaching at the Peninsula School of Art, in Door County.

woodblock printing update

I've been cutting the last major block for the "Strong, Brave, & Handsome" set...

and printing 6-7 prints from each of the blocks,

I'm readying for a solo show in Shorewood, Wisconsin.

I used to hate printing,

never able to get all that I believed I had cut into a block,

and eventually wrote myself off as just a crappy printer.

Barbara Mason, a solarplate wizard I met at a Japanese printing bootcamp some years back,

and a couple others on the Baren Forum,

suggested I try the Japanese Kitakata.

Alex Prentis, of iMcClains Printmaking Supplies, supported the Kitakata choice,

and suggested I try the Gamblin Relief ink.

The combination of the two for my blocks changed everything.

I'm seeing a delicacy showing up that I knew was there, but couldn't get.

These now are unmistakeably WOOD prints....and they are wonderful.

Landscape- woodprint

Once it's flattened, I'll get a better photo of it,

and the correct dimensions...it's about 26 or 27 inches wide.

I Live Here...

Woodblock proof, work in progress

I am finally doing the last bit of cutting on this block.
I've cut more since this proof..................
I need to print again to see where I'm at.

The idea of having to clean up after proofing was too much for me yesterday...
so I slapped on the snow shoes and took off for the afternoon.

Perserverance and the WoodBlock Print

It was a couple years ago, right after I attended a Japanese Printmaking "bootcamp"
that Gravity finally got the better of the architecture which carries me about....
rudely interrupting an intense arting wave I was riding.

A year later, a tendon traffic jam forced the Right hand to retire....
not expected to be re-activated until this month...

I won't accept NO arting....
so the Left was drafted..

Early this year I started pushing things...
between the exercises for my back...
and those for my wrist...
I opened my notes,
and began "bootcamp" again...
spending the good part of this year
working on that tricky balance between water, paper, rice paste and color....

I'm floored by what I'm looking at...

color quality that can only be achieved by woodblocks printing watercolor on paper.

There's no way to repair a bad print....
I've tried...

there 's no short-cut to a good print,
except by printing...printing...printing...printing...printing...printing...printing....printing....

OK...I can cut wood....
and yeh, I could get a print from that wood....
but, it was a so-what result....
I wanted more....
I wanted thrill and carbonation I know I get from arting....
I know it's there...it has to be...
or this process could not have lasted all these years.
The first time I got it right...
that first time I knew I was printing well enough...consistantly...
to maybe get a head nod from my instructor of 2 years ago....
..HA!....I was carbonated.
Now...I'm hooked....
this whole process is so intensely addictive....for me...

It's probably the most difficult thing I've ever attempted...

it will be years before I can say I'm good at this.....
but, it's the challenge...
...I love the challenge....

Some FallArtTour visitors might think I've changed directions a bit....
it's only me picking up where I left off two years ago....
when LittleEve was next....

well....
LittleEve needs one more color....
one more printing...
and then I move on to the next one.