"Fireflies" (Paper Lantern)

8" x 8" x 8" paper lantern with linoleum cut printing on Japanese rice paper with an electric candle inside.

Here is the my first paper lantern all finished. The posted about making the linocut print for it here, and I also did a version of it as a hand-colored mandala, posted here.

This piece will be in the Waiting In Hades exhibition at the University City Arts League. The opening is February 8 from 6-8pm.

Proof of "Fireflies"

Linocut
8" x 8" (image)
Oil-based ink on Subi paper

Last year I made a couple 1" x 1" stamps to print in a circular pattern such as this (view those attempts here and here), but they weren't really going anywhere, so I moved on.

Last week I heard about a call for entries into a show at the University City Arts League where I teach. The exhibit is called "Waiting in Hades" and is open to all ages. The only requirement is that the works of art emit or reflect light. The lights will be turned out in the gallery for the opening on February 8 from 6-8pm.

This opportunity sounded like great fun, especially since my two daughters can enter their own pieces in along with mine. My eldest has created a Sharpie drawing on glow-in-the-dark coated paper. My youngest is creating a ceramic candle holder. I mulled the idea over in my head for a while since there was initially a flood of ideas, but as I'm mainly a printmaker, I decided to make a paper lantern with relief printing. It is going to be a small, square, box lantern, and this is a proof of the print I made for it. I like it quite a bit. I'll post more images when the piece is finished and after the exhibition opening.

Student Linocuts Over Monotypes

My 2D mixed media class just finished a 3 week project where the kids:


1. First drew on a 4" x 6" piece of paper with pencil, then put the drawing under plexiglass and made monotypes, focusing on filling in the major areas with color.

2. Transferred the drawing to a linoblock and carved. NOTE: If you do this, be sure to transfer the drawing onto the block in a way so that when it is printed it will be the same orientation as the monotype prints. Otherwise the linocut print image will be backwards compared with the colored portion, as can be seen in the wild cat print below (which, incidentally, still turned out rather cool looking.)

3.) Print the carved linoblocks in black over the color monotypes.

I get a big kick out the fact that the most impressive prints were done by the littlest kid - a 6-year-old girl who did a print of her doll "Sophia".

Relief Monotypes of Animals by Kids

These are scratch foam relief prints with the water-based block printing ink that the kids painted on with paint brushes. They then printed on paper just by rubbing. They were made by my K-2nd grade Animal Kingdom art class at the University City Arts League.

Winter and Summer Animal Prints Put Into Collages

This week in my K-2nd grade Animal Kingdom after school class at the University City Arts League I had the kids create summer and winter scenes with oil pastels and watercolor, then cut out their prints from last week of animals that change the color of their coats based on the season and place them in the scenes. I think the results are pretty wonderful.

Children's Scratchfoam Animal Prints

This week in my University City Arts League after school class for K-2nd graders we made prints of animals whose coats change from brown to white in the winter. The kids drew directly on scratch foam and then printed on both brown and white paper. Next week we'll turn these into mixed media pieces with collage. I just love these drawings of a weasel, fox, hares, and caribou printed on the brown paper.

"Long Eared Owl" on Display at UCAL Block Party Exhibition

I feel proud and honored to be exhibiting this woodcut alongside that of many of my colleagues at the University City Arts League this month. This version of Long Eared Owl, from my 12 Owls series, is printed in oil-based black ink on paper I made myself from cotton and local plants. The Block Party exhibition will be on view through January 3rd.

Kids' Relief Print Fish with Chine Colle

Last week I subbed a class at the University City Arts League and worked with a group of adorable mostly Kindergarten and 1st grade students. I had the kids rip up tissue paper and glue it to a paper as a "water" background. Then they each took a fish shape cut out of Scratch Art Scratchfoam, drew into it, and printed their fish onto the collages. It got sort of chaoic in class and at one point they started printing on each  others' collages, with wonderful results.

K-2nd Grade Dinocuts Collages

These are relief prints of dinosaurs that were then cut out and integrated into collages by K-2nd graders at the University City Arts League for my Art and the Animal Kingdom class. Students took some of their inspiration from Matisse's The Parakeet and the Mermaid, and a picturebook by the same name written by Veronique Massenot and illustrated by Vanessa Hie.

Because why should I be the only one having fun making dinosaur art?

Linocuts by 2nd and 3rd Graders at UCAL

More linoleum cuts from my wonderful 2D Mixed Media after school class at the University City Arts League. These are by 2nd and 3rd graders. None had carved linoleum blocks before. The first image here is by Audra (who works fast and always finishes before everyone else), who got creative with tissue paper chine colle and printing the block multiple times on the same piece of paper.

Student Monotypes with Watercolor and Sharpie Drawing

I taught a new monotype lesson for my 2nd-6th grade students in 2D Mixed Media class at the University City Arts League. I had the student make pencil drawings, then slip those drawings under a piece of plexiglass, paint it in with watercolors, the print. After the prints completely dried the kids took Sharpie markers and re-drew over top the monotypes, sometimes choosing to radically change the drawing in response to the colors and textures on the paper. I love how these turned out and I'm definitely doing this project again in the future.