"La Alegría" - Variations on a theme

For the past four years I have participated in a show called, "Think Square."  The show features local artists and the premise is that all artwork must be five inches by five inches.  The first year I carved a "Cat and Mouse" linocut, the next year a "Blue Corn" linocut, and the third year was the "Medicine Buddha" linocut printed on a stone woven into a hanging basket.

This year I knew I wanted to explore an idea I've had for a while which was simply painting a folk design onto wood.  Because I have never done this before, I wanted to work the design out completely beforehand.  I picked three flowers from one of my favorite books, "Decorative Flower and Leaf Designs" by Richard Hofmann.  These black and white images are free for use and the "designs were originally intended for a wide range of uses, from hand and machine stitching to stenciling, on materials such as leather, silk, and lace."  

I probably went through about ten to fifteen iterations playing with my design.  Below you can see I started with a leaf-edge border...but when I printed the design out, I felt the flowers were too small.  In order to make the flowers larger I dropped the leaf border.  In the end, I added a green line border.

Working digitally also allowed me to play with color options.  I may eventually try printing a green version.

My original idea was to ask my friend Mark if he could cut me a scallop-edged five inch square.  He has an amazing array of woodworking tools in his basement and has helped me in the past with my crazy projects.  I sent him the file and he said he thought he could do it with his shaper tool, but asked me what was the latest date I needed it.  I told him I would need it a week before it was due.  Little did I know a family emergency would take me out of town for most of the next month.  About 10 days before the project was due I decided I just needed to make something and have it done while I had a few days at home.  So I decided to change plans and transfer my design to a linocut.

LINOCUT

Below you can see the design carved into "Safety-Kut."  

I used a drill bit to make most of the small circles.  

After carving the design, the final step was to cut out the scallop edge.  My trusty helper Bubo was always there to help.

Below is a video of me pulling a quick test print using a stamp pad.  I don't always do this, but it is helpful to get a quick peak to see what needs further carving.

The actual printing went amazingly well.  Working with a small plate like this is so much easier than my usual large plates.  Below you can see my setup.

The video below shows me inking the plate, hand-burnishing, and pulling a print.

I knew I only needed one good print for the show, so I only printed 8.  I may go back and make more at some point...maybe in another color.

Once the prints were dry I pulled out my watercolors to paint the flowers.

This print is now available on my website, NessyPress.com.

WOOD

The day after I finished my linocut my friend Mark told me he finished cutting my scallop-edged wood.  When I saw it, I couldn't believe how perfect it was!  It seemed like a work of art all by itself.

In a way, I hated to paint it.  In the very beginning I had toyed with the idea of carving the design and I did stop to re-consider that option, but I knew that would take me a long time so I proceeded to paint.

As you can see from above, I didn't like my first color.  The blue above was straight out of the tube.  For my second coat I added a little black to produce a more muted navy color. 

To transfer my design to the dark surface I used white Saral paper.

Here you can see the painting about halfway through.

And here you can see the piece mostly finished.  I used acrylic paint that I have had for twenty years.  It worked amazingly well, but the yellow/orange color was a little thick and left a lot of lines.  If I had to do it again I would buy new acrylic paint that comes in the short squeeze bottles that would be a thinner consistency.

“It relaxes my mind to paint flowers." — Pierre-Auguste Renoir

I thought about calling this piece "La Diversión" which technically means "fun" or "hobby, pastime,"  but also references the idea of a diversion.  I painted this piece while under a great deal of stress and the activity of painting was a life-saver.  The act of focusing my concentration on making precise brush strokes forced me to be in the present moment.  And when you are in the present, the mind cannot be thinking about the past or worrying about the future. 

It also occurred to me later, that the idea of being present could help me in the longer term.  I realized after the immediate crisis was over and I returned home, that I was carrying the weight of the situation around with me all the time...it felt like carrying very heavy mental luggage 24/7.  Once I saw this, I tried to ask myself the question, "What is happening right now in this moment?"  This helped me see how my mental luggage was preventing me from feeling the sun and breeze on my skin while sitting on the back porch, or feeling the soft fur of my cat.  It reminds me of a story Rick Archer sometimes tells on his podcast about a person who gets on a train carrying heavy luggage on each arm.  Once they are on the train, they keep holding it tight until someone says, "You know you can put that luggage down and let the train carry that weight?"  Somehow, holding tight to that luggage makes one feel in control, but in reality only wearies the holder.  Plus, it is harder to enjoy the view while holding all that luggage.  I am slowly learning to let life help me carry that weight... I am learning to put down those heavy, controlling, worrisome thoughts that pull me away from the present moment.  I am certainly no expert, but I can see how liberating it can be and how joy is often waiting for me on other side.

“Your life situation may be full of problems — most life situations are — but find out if you have any problem at this moment. Not tomorrow or in ten minutes, but now. Do you have a problem now?”

― Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

Below is a photo of the final piece.

If you would like to come to the show, the opening reception is Friday, September 16th from 4-8 pm at the Think Shop in Newport, KY.  The show is also up from September 16th through November 18th.  The show has been known to sell every piece so it is a good idea to go early!

I loved how the shadows of the scallops and the frame emphasized the depth of the piece.  Overall, I think this foray into folk painting on wood was a success and I hope to do more in the future.  

A big thank you to my friend Mark for cutting my wood and always supporting me in my artistic endeavors.  Also a big thank you to George for listening to me debate everything and for feeding me delicious food throughout.  It takes a village!

"Emu Boy" Linocut

“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man.”

― Charles Darwin

My friends Tiffany and Brian are always up to some interesting mischief.  Whenever I talk to them Brian has some new piece of farm machinery and Tiffany is diving into a new glass-blowing, CNC, or programming project.  I would describe them both as "makers." 

I met Tiffany at a local gathering of creatives and immediately knew I wanted to be her friend.  She is funny, whip-smart and always tinkering with things I don't totally understand, like arduino and rasberry pi (and no, I don't mean the kind you eat.)  One of her interests is 3-D printing and this spring she sent me the most thoughtful gift.  She 3-D printed me a mini-press!  So for her birthday last week I thought I should make her a print using the press she made me.

When I was thinking of ideas of what to print I scrolled through our WhatsApp conversations and came across this photo of Brian.  Brian loves animals and this photo of him holding a baby emu shows him in his element.

“I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.”
– James M. Barrie

I started by sketching the photo.  On the left below you can see my first sketch.  I liked it because it really looks like Brian.  But I was worried about my ability to carve the tiny details in his face.  So I decided to stylize his face a bit and enlarge it.

Below you can see my sketch transferred to my plate.  I used "Safety-Kut" as my carving material.

It only took me half an hour or so to carve the image.

Below you can see my first test print on a piece of scrap paper.

"The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face."

— William Makepeace Thackeray

I kept tinkering with tiny details and made a few more test prints.

I knew when I started carving that the "Safety-Kut" material might mush under the pressure of the press.  Usually, if I am going to use a press I use wood or linoleum.  But I have always thought that if you had the pressure just right, maybe you could use a soft-carve material like Safety-Kut.  I decided now was the time to test it.  Below you can see the plate on the press. 

I pulled quite a number of prints trying to get the pressure just right.

I came pretty close to pulling a good print but I finally gave up when I ran out of paper.  I think if I had spent more time I probably could have gotten the pressure just right.  By the end, it was just a little light on the left side.

Luckily, I hand-pressed a couple good ones in the beginning, so I packaged one up and sent it off to the birthday girl.  Although my experiment didn't turn out the way I wanted I am so in love with this baby press (next time I use the press I will use real linoleum.).  If you are interested in purchasing or printing one of your own, you can visit OpenPressProject.com. 

A BIG thank you to Tiffany for my little press.  I wish you a year filled with joy, abundance, curious projects and emus, cats, dogs, bears, and mustelids.  A big hug to you and the "Emu Boy". 

“Delight is all around us you know, from the food we eat, to the night sky, to the dreams we have. It surrounds us with every moment, you just have to stop and take it in whenever you can.”

― Jonathan Maas, Horsemen 

Stone House Watercolor Portrait - Cincinnati

“Attention is the most basic form of love.
By paying attention we let ourselves be touched by life,
and our hearts naturally become more open and engaged.”

― Tara Brach

After posting photos of my last house portrait in our neighborhood Facebook group, I received a message from a neighbor asking if I would paint their house too.  He told me his address and when I looked it up I was so excited to see this was the house!  This is one of my favorite houses in the neighborhood.  I have always loved the massive stone facade and the gorgeous arches.  I also particularly like the aqua-blue verdigris color of the exposed rafters and gabled window.  The combination of that color with the orange-red of the tile roof makes me swoon. 

I asked my architect friends what the style of the house was and they said that "the house has some Mediterranean influences, but is basically an eclectic expression, typical to the pretty free-flowing fashions of the 1890s/early 1900s" and it could be described as a "rustic country villa."  

Below you can see some progress photos.  I always start by inking in my pencil sketch with a Micron pen and then slowly build up my color layers.

Once all the colors are laid in, the fun begins.  I keep darkening the colors until the house starts to pop.

If I have the time, I like to tinker with it for a couple days.  I work on it, then take a break, and when I come back I see something that needs more work.  I keep returning until I don't see anything that needs touching up.  It is best to give it time and go slowly until finally, it doesn't need anything else.  

Now, when I am on my walks I am starting to feel like I really know the houses in my neighborhood.  When I pass one that I have drawn, I feel like I am passing by an old friend who I used to know very well.  A friend who I have studied very closely and my eyes have taken in their every nook and cranny.  Perhaps, an old lover would be a better analogy.  Because, when I think about it, drawing these old homes (or anything for that matter) is an act of love.  Giving something your full attention and spending time with an object (or person) is certainly devotion.  And this kind of appreciation most certainly precipitates love in the case of me and these old homes.  I didn't think I could love my neighborhood more, but painting these portraits has shown me a deeper way...a delightfully slow and observant way. 

“When I slow down, I can dive deeper—and that’s how I prefer to live.”
— Cait Flanders  

“In an age of speed, I began to think,
nothing could be more invigorating than going slow.
In an age of distraction,
nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention.”
— Pico Iyer

American Foursquare House Portrait- Cincinnati

 

Whenever I draw a house it's hard not to fall in love with it.  And that was certainly the case with this stunning American Foursquare home in the middle of my neighborhood.  When I looked the house up to find more details I was surprised that it was categorized as American Foursquare.  I thought it might be a Craftsman-style Victorian...Craftsman because of the amazing stone front porch, and Victorian due to the curved, leaded windows.  But when I looked up American Foursquare, I understood why.  The definition of American Foursquare is "a two-story house with a rectangular footprint and a front porch that runs along the full width of the house." (source)   

For this house sketch I hired my next door neighbor to take aerial photos with his drone (his photos are stunning...check our his website here).  I ended up using a combination of his photos with a couple I took from the house across the street.  After I completed my pencil sketch I transferred it to my watercolor paper and then inked it in.  Below you can see the finished black and white drawing.

And here you can see the very beginning color on the house and plants.

I like to work sitting in front of the computer so I can Zoom in on details from the photos.  It was really helpful to have aerial photos from above to see certain elements from different angles.  This was especially the case for this drawing because the actual house was obscured by lots of trees and I had to make up the parts of the house I couldn't see. 

Below you can see a close-up of the stone porch.  I absolutely love this element of the house and how round the stones are.

I am normally kind-of slow when I do a house portrait.  But I was forced to work even slower because one of our cats attacked the other and we've had to keep them separate.  Plus George has been out-of-town for two weeks...forcing me to grab an hour here and there.  In some ways I think it has been good to slow down even further.  Each day I would look at it and I could see "this need darkening or that needs more color."  It was like the painting would tell me what it needed every day.  I was happy when it finally stopped needing anything and then I knew it was done. 

I deliver the painting to the owner tomorrow.  I told her it has been the only thing keeping me sane in this crazy time of cat fights and separations.  And I truly am thankful to this house for taking my mind off of cat gates and vet appointments and researching feline aggression and hours of YouTube cat behaviorists.  I think work can be a kind of salve for me.  I can lose myself in it and be truly present in the moment...just the painting talking to me and my brush responding. 

“The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey
is the step that you are taking at this moment.
That’s all there ever is.”
—Eckhart Tolle 

Magnolia Woodcut: Final Print

“Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.”
—Heart Sutra

INSPIRATION

Aside from literally finding magnolia seed pods underfoot while on a walk (and loving their shapes), there are several reasons this subject appealed to me.  The themes of emptiness, the feminine, creativity and motherhood were interwoven throughout in deep, surprising, and sometimes hilarious ways. 

When I submitted my application for the BIG INK in January 2022, I wrote the following summary of my inspiration for this print:

"The form of the seed pod is exquisite, and the body is composed of numerous individual spoked pods with cavernous spaces from which the red seeds emerged.  The seed heads on the ground were in various states of decay.  Some still had seeds protruding from the pods, but some only had empty voids.  When I examined the individual pods, I could see each also contained paper-thin tissue that I assume had covered the seeds.  The shape of these wrinkled coverings fascinated me, and I could see each spoke contained a leaf of tissue that when put together with its neighbor completed each other, forming a protective covering for the seed while also creating the space from which the seed emerged.  

When I first saw these pods, I thought I wanted to make a print that included the red seeds.  But after studying the seed heads close-up I realized the decaying pods told a story all their own.  The empty spaces were created by the growing seeds and the growing seeds came from the empty space.  These pods reminded me of the heart sutra, 'Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.'  And when I think about this, plus the incredible shape of the pods, it seems to me the magnolia pod is like a gorgeous celebration of creativity itself."

Also when I began this print, I showed my friend Tiffany the sketch and she exclaimed, "You are a Vagartist!"  I had never heard that term before and it made me laugh so hard.  It got me thinking about plants and reproduction and I realized you can't be a lover of seed pods without appreciating this form.  If you think about it, the feminine form is spacious...and it has to be!  Life emerges from this spacious emptiness.  In this sense "Mother" equals "Space" equals "Creativity".  

The fundamental reality of “emptiness” is nothing at all.
But that nothing is infinitely fecund,
and marvelously healing to the human heart.”
—Henry Shukman

FINAL CARVING

At the BIG INK we printed three magnolia prints, which I signed as "Artist Proofs."  When I returned home I studied the prints and decided to thin a couple lines down.  And when I say thin, I mean I was shaving about half the width of a pencil line off some of the tendrils!

Otus kept me company while I made my changes.

"Creativity — like human life itself — begins in darkness."

—Julia Cameron

HAND-BURNISHING PRINTS

My goal was to print six hand-burnished prints on Stonehenge paper the weekend after the BIG INK.  Saturday morning, George and I began printing.

Below you can see the plate with a shiny coat of ink on it.

“Emptiness is the pregnant void out of which all creation springs.” —Wayne Muller

That first Saturday, I was disappointed we ran out of ink after pulling three prints.  But my arms and hands were done by that point anyway.  So I ordered more ink and we printed three more the following weekend.  Below you can see me holding my favorite spoon, which George cracked while burnishing.

This video shows George and me inking, burnishing and pulling a print.  It condenses an hour of work into 48 seconds. When I added this epic music to the video, the drama of it made me laugh out loud.  But it really was an epic moment for us to finish printing these. (Music: Epic Cinematic by Scott Holmes)

DRYING

The day of printing I could hardly take in the whole print.  Once it was off the plate, we whisked it right over to the drying rack.  A couple of days later I went down to check on them and was relieved to see six gorgeous prints.  I pulled three of the prints out to try and get a photo of them all together.  I had to put a ruler under one of them for support because they barely fit on my table!

"Small things done with great love will change the world."

—Mother Teresa

SIGNING, NUMBERING, TITLING  AND CHOPPING 

Don't let my smile fool you... I completely dread all aspects of this stage.  You would think this would be the easy part, but I worry I will write crooked or I won't like my handwriting or I will mess up the numbering.  Which have all happened...but at least you can erase the pencil (although I hate to do it).

The REALLY stressful part is adding the chop signature.  If you smear the stamp you have ruined the whole print.  It is an awful pressure to get it right and you really have to push all stray thoughts out of your head.  Luckily I had no smearing... just a tiny red stray dot that I was able to get off with my sandpaper eraser after it dried.

FINAL PRINT

The journey to get to this point has been long.  As I sit here writing this blog and looking at the print, I feel so thankful.  I have poured myself into this work and there is nothing I would rather be doing.  I hope I have created a piece that brings joy and one that honors this amazing plant.
  

One of my favorite things to do is photograph the print from all angles.
It is so fun to see the individual personalities of each tendril up close.

My original sketch didn't have the "shadow" tendrils.
I am so happy I added them later because I think they add so much to the piece skulking around back there.

"Love is the Divine Mother's arms; when those arms are spread, every Soul falls Into them."

—Hazrat Inayat Khan

This tendril looked like the Virgin Mary to me.

"All forms are the Mother.  The Divine Mother has the whole universe in her."
—Adilakshmi quoted in Hidden Journey by Andrew Harvey

CONCLUSION

The whole time I was working on this print I assumed I would title the print "Magnolia."  But one day the thought occurred to me that I should call it "MA".  We grew up with a magnolia tree in our front yard and the tree always reminds me of my Mom.  One year I even photographed the tree and made a book of photos for her for Mother's Day.  The tree recently died and she had to have it taken down.  Giving the print the title "MA" seemed the perfect way to honor my Mom and the tree.     

The name also worked on other levels.  By the looks of it, this beautiful pod was quite the creatrix and probably produced quite a number of red seeds.  Plus the letters were perfect.  My Mom's name is Mary, I call her "Ma" and it is the first two letters of "Magnolia".  And you can't ignore the appearance of the Virgin Mary!  One musn't ignore the Divine Feminine when she goes out of her way to send you a message.  So for all of these reasons, I named the print, "MA."

"I bow before this empty husk

To marvel at her drying form

I worship in her empty temples

Filled with dark creativity

Her entire body...

Hands in prayer

Devoted to the sun"
—Vanessa Sorensen

If you would like to purchase a print, please visit

NessyPress.com

"Emptiness is bound to bloom, like hundreds of grasses blossoming." 

—Dogen

  A big thank you to my husband George.  This print was made possible with your love and support and burnishing and cooking and proof-reading and more burnishing.  Thank you.

Previous Magnolia blog posts:

Magnolia Woodcut: Carving

Magnolia Woodcut: BIG INK