Starving artist.

I promised to chat about screen printing for this post. Though I graduated art school, I have taken screen printing class twice more. Each time I have learned more technique, improved my skills, and experimented with new approaches. It’s been good, but no more classes!

Looking back over my first class while in undergraduate school, the registration (image alignment when printing 2 or more layers) was wildly off. Surprisingly, I really liked some of the images. Perhaps not knowing what I was doing led to non-standard compositions. That class was taught by Mark Patsfall, who also owns Clay Street Press in Cinn.

Final collage to be made as a screen print.

The 2nd class was all about technique,and was taught by Kate Ball. She really showed us how to do pinhole registration well. She also is a fantastically good screen print artist. It is indeed her passion. I like the combination of technique and creativity that I attained.

 

Abstract1

Interior Landscape

 

This 3rd and final time, Kate again is the teacher. It looks as though she may not return next school year, which is UC DAAP’s loss.

My technique is pretty good (finally), but not expert. I have done lots of experimenting, using canvas and colored paper as printing surfaces. I found that for canvas, I prefer natural canvas over both gessoed and blessoed canvas. That is probably due to my liking texture in the images I make. Much of my current project effort is reproducing prior work in colored pencil, collage, etc as screen prints. So, not a lot of new work, with a resulting feeling of lack of creativity. Needed to do it, but want to make something new! The screen prints below are based on a collage that I made 10 years ago. Each is either a 2 layer or 3 layer, hand-pulled print. (The color of the paper can eliminate the need for 1 layer.)

Tygrr/white

Tygrr/l. gray

Tygrr/cofee

During the last few weeks, I (with the help of my daughter Carin) have set up an online store. The goal is to take art out of the museum and put it in people’s hands. Making it affordable does this and supports the artist. Once you see the website, you’ll probably say something like, “Jeesh, FINALLY someone has art good enough to wear!”

Here’s a screenshot of the shop:

danvanceart.com/shop

2017

Well, I established my studio, painted, did some screen printing, had some health issues, got well, and am focused on an art career. There are no manuals for this, so you have to figure it out for yourself. Art interests, income, where to live, and friends & family make the challenge different for each of us. Here are 3 totally different examples of what works!

Our daughter Samantha became an art teacher, which is a wonderful thing. She is free of money worries, but probably doesn’t get to do as much art as she would like. Sam’s made time for painting and jewelry making, and working daily in art is a gift. With summers off, I expect she’s do even more.

Justin (he and Sammy married last autumn) is an architect and working at an international firm. Obviously he has found a way to make a living in the arts. I’m pretty sure he would like more free time to do those projects that architects always dream of doing. I’m sure that will happen.

My daughter Carin is a well-known web designer. Doing design as well as development of sites, plus her own projects, such as jewelry boxes covered in pieces of CDs gives her an opportunity to express her creative side. She also opened an online store for tees, mugs, etc featuring Edwardian images.

Compared to these three, I’m on the slow side. I completed several paintings. The brightly painted Drongo let me do a fun project in acrylics. Greg’s jacket warranted the use of interference oils. They go on over a dark base layer and interfere with light passing through and back. If you can get it right, they appear different from different angles.

Drongo

Greg with the Extraordinary Jacket

Using a different approach, I completed “Bicycle Boys”, which was the largest and most time consuming. That was oil over acrylic. Days of Death was minimal use of oil on an acrylic background.

Bicycle Boys

Days of Death

I’m currently in a show at the Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati as well as doing screen printing. It always wears me out because it is so exacting. I am getting better at it, but still….

Meanwhile, with the invaluable help of Carin, as well as advice from Sam and friends, I have created an online store to sell Fine Art and Fun Art.

Check it out: danvanceart.com

My next post will be about screen printing, so if you’re interested, turn on, tune in, and space out!