Pigsqueak Linocut: Tiger Lily Press Calendar

 

INSPIRATION

When we moved into our house almost twenty years ago we inherited a GIANT garden full of plants that had been carefully tended by the previous owners, both full-time gardeners.  To give you an idea of the attention to detail, we received a map of the garden and almost all of the hostas had little metal labels pushed into the ground next to them with their names handwritten on tiny placards.  I have to admit we neglected the yard for a couple years and when I finally turned my attention towards it, it was quite a jungle.  Many of the plants, to their credit, managed to survive behind and under the weeds.

One plant, in particular, always caught my attention. Even though I never tended to it, a beautiful sprig of pink blossoms would push its way out of lettuce-like foliage each spring.  I always thought the leaves left a little to be desired with their thick, vegetable-type appearance, but the plant slowly made its way into my heart.  And each spring I became more and more enamored with the flowers.  After maybe fifteen years I finally asked my friend from Finland if she knew what it was and she said it was "Bergenia."  When I looked it up, I found it's scientific name is Bergenia cordifolia...cordifolia meaning heart-shaped leaves.   The plant is commonly called "Pigsqueak" because the leaves "squeak" when rubbed between thumb and finger.  It has also been described as "tough as nails."  

“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly our whole life would change.”
– Buddha

So when Tiger Lily Press asked if I would make a linocut print for their annual calendar, the hardy plant with the funny name and beautiful pink blossoms called out to me.  

SKETCH AND TRANSFER

I always begin each print by making a pencil sketch of my subject.  I also planned to make a circular "chop" signature which I lightly drew in the bottom right-hand corner of the sketch.  Below you can see my sketch and the sketch transferred to the block.

I almost always use Safety-Kut for my carving material, but this time I used "real" linoleum because I was going to be printing at Tiger Lily with one of the presses (Safety-Kut mushes on a press).  I normally transfer my sketch onto Safety-Kut by flipping the pencil sketch over and rubbing.  However, I wasn't sure it would transfer as well onto real linoleum so I ended up using carbon paper (shown below).  This detail will become important later!

CARVING

Once the image is transferred to the plate it is time to carve!  Carving is my favorite part of the process and I LOVE how the plate looks during the carving process...so bear with me for showing so many photos.

In this video I show how to make perfect circular holes in linocut using a drill bit.

You have to be careful when you leave the room for any amount of time.  Their are lurkers who try and steal your seat.

I thought the plate looked especially pretty at this stage.

This video shows the entire carving process from start to finish.  Turn on your volume!

Below you can see the photo, sketch and carving all together.  An experienced printmaker might notice a problem when looking at this photo.  When I took the photo I was still in ignorant bliss.

TEST PRINT

The following one-minute video shows me inking the plate for the first time and pulling a test print.  Again, turn on your volume!

As you can see below, I discovered I'd made a rookie mistake and forgot to flip my image when I transferred it to the plate.  Because I used carbon paper, the image was a direct transfer.  Hence the print is backwards.  Normally with a flower it wouldn't matter too much.  But if you remember, I had wanted to put a "chop" signature in the bottom right-hand corner...and that was not going to work anymore. 

“…this is the way reality appears in this moment,
and we do not want to argue with reality any longer,
for to do so only increases our struggle.”
― Matt Licata, A Healing Space

I fretted over what to do for a couple days.  Should I put the chop in the lower left-hand corner?  Not do the chop?  Re-carve?

In the end I decided to re-carve the whole piece.  Since I was re-doing it, I made a few improvements.  I usually like for the lines of my subject to break the border and I forgot to do that the first time around.  So, maybe in the end I was meant to carve it again.  Below you can see the new carving on the left and the old on the right.

PRINTING

In late May I went to Tiger Lily Press to print the calendar with studio manager, Susan Naylor.  Susan is a genius when it comes to making jigs to print on the Vandercook Proof Press. Below you can see Susan placing a calendar page onto the plate and how the plate fits perfectly snug in its jig.

The above photo was taken about midway through printing before our printing woes began.  Our goal was to print at least 120 prints, and at around 108 we started to have a problem with blurry prints.  We struggled and fussed with the jig for about an hour before we decided to call it quits.  I figured I would hand-burnish the rest at home.  Below you can see the problem.  After a while the plate can get warped which causes movement in the press and hence blurry prints.

Because I had been having some shoulder issues, I enlisted the help of my best-burnisher husband George.  He helped me print the remaining calendar prints plus a handful more that will eventually be available at NessyPress.com.

HAND-TINTING

The calendar is typically printed in one color (usually black) and from the very beginning I knew I might be disappointed to make a black-and-white print of such a colorful flower.  I figured once they were printed I would time myself hand-tinting one with watercolor to help me decide if I really could paint all 120 prints.  My test print only took me less than 5 minutes so I did the math and figured that 120 prints would take me 10 hours.  Little did I know that as I went along I would spend longer and longer on each one.  In the end it took me weeks to finish them all.  This video shows a sped-up painting of one of the prints.  Turn your volume on!

"To be entirely present to each thing that crosses our consciousness, to our most banal and repetitive experiences, is the door to awakening." 
— Daniel Odier, Tantric Quest: An Encounter with Absolute Love

CHOP SIGNATURE

After finishing the hand-tinting I started thinking about the "chop" signature.  I love the way Japanese prints are often signed with a red "chop" in the lower right hand corner.  I decided to make a butterfly chop for two reasons:  1) because my name, "Vanessa," is the genus of a butterfly, and 2) because a butterfly is appropriate for a flower print.  I also ended up hiding my initials in the body of the butterfly.  Below I highlighted the vertical "V", "A", and "S" in black and grey so you can see the hidden letters.

Originally I thought I would use Safety-Kut to carve the chop.  After two failed attempts at getting enough detail I thought I would try carving out of wood.  A quick trip to Michaels and I came home with some thin wood circles.  I was able to get more detail from the wood and ended up gluing the wood disc to a small dowel rod.  The results were OK, but still not as crisp as I would have liked.

I got attached to the idea that my initials were hidden in the chop and really wanted it to be legible.  So I ended up having a rubber stamp made at Hathaway Stamp in downtown Cincinnati.  

The photo below show all of my attempts at carving the chop, plus the rubber stamp.

If I could go back in time I would tell myself to stamp the prints first before I hand-tinted them.  I ended up ruining about twenty hand-tinted prints with poor stamps.  I rolled ink onto the stamp, blotted it once on paper, and then pressed the stamp onto the calendar prints.  Some were blurry, some were half there, and some were perfect.  The day I stamped them I wanted to cry because I knew I had ruined enough that I was going to have to print (and hand-tint) more "Pigsqueaks".  I don't recall now how many I had to re-print now, but in the end I had exactly 121.

 
DRYING

When Susan and I printed the black and white "Pigsqueak" we added a cobalt siccative that hastens the drying time.  She told me I should also add it to the chop when I stamped the prints.  I even have cobalt siccative here at the studio, but the day I stamped the prints I didn't end up using it.  I figured I had almost a month until the prints were due and I didn't feel like wearing gloves (you really shouldn't get cobalt on your hands).  In hindsight "I SHOULD HAVE USED THE SICCATIVE!!!"  
 

After three weeks I started blotting the chop signatures and they were not coming up clean.  I could blot the same chop twenty times in a row and it would just keep showing a faint red outline (shown above).  Daily I would go down to the studio and blot 30 at a time.  Eventually I did a little research and found that red, oil-based Charbonnel, in particular, takes a very long time to dry, but that heat helps.  So I started taking about 20 prints out to the car to "bake" for a day or two.  Each day I would bring a group in, test them, and put another batch out.  Some prints probably "baked" 3-4 times!

At first I kept the prints in my drying rack but I eventually moved them all out to the table so I could easily take them outside.

After about two months (and LOTS of blotting and "baking") the red chops were finally dry!  

"Slowness is a divine thing.  We have lost the habit of it.  With slow, regular, harmonious movement, the consciousness immediately finds its place.  The body begins to enjoy the smallest thing.  Attention is heightened.  We take in the world’s full freshness."  

— Daniel Odier, Tantric Quest: An Encounter with Absolute Love

CALENDAR

Below you can see the final hand-tinted, chopped and signed calendar print.
  

The Tiger Lily Press calendar includes the work of 13 Cincinnati printmakers (cover artist included).  Each print can be trimmed free of the grid when that month is over, matted in a standard 11×14 inch mat (with 8×10 cutout) and framed, making it very easy to hang these wonderful pieces on your wall.  You can purchase your calendar online here:

BUY CALENDAR ONLINE

It will also be for sale at  "Local Ink", the14th Annual Print Market held Nov. 13 from 11-4 at 4222 Hamilton Ave.

All calendars are hand-tinted pink: the Tiger Lily photo was taken before painting.

CONCLUSION

 If you include the writing of this blog, the "Pigqueak" project spanned a period of six months.  It is easy for me to get frustrated by how long it took.  But I like to look back at a project and ask myself "What did I learn?"  The first thing that comes to mind is that the universe was trying to teach me patience.  A project like this often takes on a life of its own and between my mistakes, printing issues, my decision to hand-tint, and a crazy long drying time, I certainly learned that setbacks happen and the best way to proceed is by focusing on the next baby step.

I also learned that it can be extremely rewarding and difficult to stick to my vision.  At numerous points along this path I could have decided to print it backwards or without the chop signature or just leave it black and white.  Every time I chose to stick to my original idea it made the project longer.  I often struggle with this idea of perfectionism.  Is this need to make it perfect killing me?  Do I need to let things go in order to be easier on myself?  I don't know.  But I do know that I am very happy with the way this print turned out.  When I look at it I feel happy and proud and a big sense of accomplishment.  It turned out exactly the way I wanted and that is a rare thing in printmaking. 

Perhaps I am learning to honor both my vision AND my time, body, and mental health.  These needs often appear to be in opposition, but navigating this push and pull is the very play of life.  I am learning that being willful, persistent and tenacious also requires me to slow down, relax and remain flexible.  In other words, if I am the ocean, my waves can't always push forward and break on the beach.  They also have to recede.  It is a constant ebb and flow...a constant push and pull.  This journey between opposites is our life and I am slowly but surely learning to stop resisting the rhythm but to move with it. And when I do, I dance with heart-shaped leaves that squeak and pink stalks push out of the ground to catch my attention. 

“Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes.
If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed.
Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding,
the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds' wings.”

― Jelaluddin Rumi , The Essential Rumi

ADDENDUM 

The Pigsqueak prints are now available on my website HERE!