Friday, December 30, 2011

Art vs. Craft


Another year, another Art vs. Craft! Art vs. Craft is an independent craft fair held annually in Milwaukee. I love this event because I usually create small-scale, quick, fun work. This year I sold block printed tea towels and some chipboard prints. I always share my booth with the talented Erin Paisley-Stueber.

My stuff:

Erin's merch:

In Progress:


STEAMROLLER

And update from this past summer:

On June 25th, I got to help coordinate and particpate in an event called Steamroller, a joint fundraiser for Danceworks and RedLine Milwaukee. Particpating artists did large scale woodblocks that were inked-up and printed in the street with a steamroller! The prints were then auctioned of in the RedLine gallery.

Here are some images from the event:

My block, in progress. 48 x 48", this was the largest woodcut I have ever done!

Detail:

Blocks, lined up to print:

Steamroller:

Pulling giant prints:

My finished print in the gallery "Three Hares":

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Pulp Possibilities

Pulp Possibilities opens this weekend at RedLine Milwaukee. The reception is Friday March 4th 6-8pm and will feature demos and hands-on paper making activities. I will also be helping coordinate a drop-in workshop the next day involving creating and printing on handmade papers .

This is a group show of RedLine resident artists and staff/community members (that's me!), and each piece involves handmade paper elements created in our paper making studio, which opened last year. The show was curated by RedLine mentor artists Tori Tasch and Dara Larson . It is a BEAUTIFUL show and I can't wait to share some images of the work, but I'm waiting until after the opening. For now, here is a sneak peak of my piece in the show titled "Bag Worm".




A bag worm is a type of moth that forms a case from it's surrounding vegetation. Most varieties of female bag worms never leave their cases.



For this piece I used relief print on handmade paper, and some of the pieces of paper were cast wet directly into the relief block creating an embossed effect.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Art of the Table

Some shots from Art of the Table -an event hosted by the Milwaukee Art Museum ithis past November. Artists and designers were asked to create tabletop displays inspired by different rooms in the permanent collection. Tera and myself did a table for Anthro and were assigned the Renaissance Treasury.


Handmade Meaning

In December I installed this piece for a show called "Handmade Meaning - the value of craft in Victorian and contemporary culture" at the James Waltrous Gallery in Madison, WI. The show showcased many contemporary Wisconsin artists and crafters interspersed with Victorian arts and craft pieces. My piece was from the "Rat King" trypdych that I first installed in 2008 at Paper Boat Boutique and Gallery in Milwaukee.






The piece is a collage of relief printed cut-outs. The rats on the wall had to be re-printed for the installation. So much has changed in the past three years. In 2008, because of my studio circumstances the rats had to each be hand printed with a barren using water based inks. Now I get to use the facilities at RedLine- printing with a press with so many inks to choose from (I still had to use water-based to emulated the look of the original framed piece.)



The original Installation at Paper Boat:




Handmade Meaning runs until February 6th.

(Handmade Meaning photos by Monica Gorko)