Sustained Investigation 2

Artist Statement

This is the second piece of my four piece sustained investigation in which I am focusing on one subject, a bookshelf in my home that holds many memories to me, and how I can express the emotions the subject evokes through different mediums. For this piece, I wanted to play around with the playfulness of toys that sit on the shelf, so the dice, the marbles, the spin tops, the marble game, and the chessboard. These are little objects that very strongly represent some of my childhood memories and how I never really individualized the stateliness of a painting on the wall or a chessboard and rather saw it all as a part of this shelf. About five years ago we moved, yet somehow this idea of the shelf that has been with me all my life remained, even as more books were added and the shelf itself was changed it still holds the same value and emotions. When sketching out the design I knew I did not want to take the perspective or realistic aspect of it too seriously as I did in the first piece, so I let the harsh corners of the painting, the chessboard, and the marble game flow naturally with the movement of the marbles and dice. To add emphasis and an playful aspect I added a pop of red ink trailing the toys.

For this piece, I knew fairly certain what the composition would be, so I almost immediately began sketching on the linoleum blocks. Once I had a basic sketch, I started carving with the linoleum cutter, creating a deeper groove where I was going to use a different color ink. I wanted to add emphasis to the part of the piece that moves, which is the marbles, dice, and spin tops, so using an exacto knife I cut out the pieces that I would later be able to ink those parts red. With a marker I also went through and circled areas that needed to be carved out completely, so as to leave no trace of ink. I also wanted to create some stark contrast as well as shadows so that the details of the frame and chess board would not get lost. Using different tips on the linoleum cutter, I was able to use different methods like etching and cross-hatching to create texture. When I had carved both blocks, I used a soft brayer and red and black printing ink and started the process of printing onto paper. As I wanted to print part of the block red and the other part black, this whole process took very long, and I encountered the problem that my black ink had dried before I was even done with the red. For this piece, my original intent was to print the blocks on to a paper like a typical linoleum print. However, when I tried to print on paper, very little of the ink transferred, and I was not at all happy with the way it turned out. When I turned over my linoleum blocks, I found that I liked the way the blocks looked with the ink on them better than the way it looked on paper. So, I initially decided that I would simply use the blocks as the final piece, and glued them down on a posterboard to stay in place.

With every new print that I have been doing, each time I learn a new technique or a better way to approach the carving. This piece was a very new process to me however as I was printing on a much larger scale and also with two different colors. The whole piece was constantly evolving, whether it be printing techniques for paper or me initially deciding to not use a print at all. Moving forward, I would like to experiment more with just carving and not printing, because I really like the contrast and the color that the brown of the linoleum block creates in relation to the ink. If I were to do such a carving again, however, I would like to spend more time ensuring that I am carving clear lines, as once you put ink on every line and scratch shows.