dzeny

Final Day- Nick's Before and After (with hard-ground lines) and some Roswell sights

A Day Off (and a trip to another world)
We headed out to White Sands National Monument today, to take a break from our endless toil and see some of the cool otherworldly landscapes that New Mexico has to offer. This spot exceeded what I thought possible: miles and miles of gypsum dunes to hike over! No, folks, this is not Minneapolis...the sun was hot and the views spectacular! Don't worry, we weren't just slackin' though- we also photographed some cool trees that reminded us of Brueghel and will surely make it into our projects at one point.

Labels: Brueghel, White Sands National Monument

Are We Done Yet? Just 4,000 More Hours To Go!

Nick and I worked most of the day today on our etchings. We made proofs of our soft ground etchings last night (10 minutes in the acid, 38 baume ferric), coated our plates with asphaltum and started drawing into them. We spent most of the day listening to This American Life, laughing and toiling away at our images.

We are both super excited about our projects but (once again) facing the reality that printmaking takes forever- damn! My proof and plate, me working and Nick's proof below:

Nick seems unaware that his daughter is witnessing her first UFO landing

Labels: U.F.O.

So WHAT is the Conbere-Schmid Method, you ask?













At the U of Minnesota, I taught students how to develop an etching using Charbonnel paste soft ground which is very sensitive but has very little foul biting. You can apply it on a 200F hotplate with a plain old speedball brayer (and some finesse), lay newsprint or tracing paper over it and draw into it with any H pencil (Jenny) or ball-point pens (Nick). Nick and I both also work a lot with digital applications, so we both figured out a way to use photoshop, scanned in drawings and borrowed imagery and to print out our compositions on tracing paper. It makes flipping the image very easy and you can also make complex compositions with a variety of drawings and scans.

Labels: etching, printmaking

Etching Madness in Roswell (No UFOs, yet)

This is the compound where Nick Conbere has a residency for the year. It is a cool, laid-back place and Nick, his lady Sarah and their baby decided to come down here after getting his MFA a the University of Minnesota because it is a residency that gives artists funding and allows you to bring your family.

Nick Conbere and I have started working on our projects. Both of us have independently developed a technique which we will call the Conbere-Schmid Method, which evolved from a way of working that I learned from Teresa James of White Wings Press.

Labels: printmaking, roswell

I have decided to start blogging a bit and thought I would start with HQ:
bikini press international

This is my studio in Minneapolis and that is my bike, with I have started riding with more frequency, despite the weather. That's Mike, who is my sometimes-assistant as is Rebekah.

I have etching, litho, screen and digital capabilities and have been recently working on some big work that combines ink jet and litho.