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 You have arrived at your destination. "Motel DeSoto II" 9"X7" 12-color reduction woodcut, using Renaissance Graphics oil inks and Shina plywood on machine made sulfite paper.

This building has been demolished to make way for another vacant lot in Olean, NY. We we're lucky enough to see her shortly before a Buffalo development company bought her.  When I printed "Motel DeSoto" in 2013, I'd expressed hope that she'd be saved. No luck. She has a sister in Bradford PA of similar design, though the sign has been modernized.

 

This is actually the third time I've tried to do this scene. I originally started with blocks of bold color, and stopped after two colors because it wasn't my vision. The second try was more my vision, but not quite there. This latest pass, while much closer, still misses for me. So, we'll see where I am with it in 7 years!

There's much I like in MDII, and I've learned a great deal, which I'm excited to put into the next print.👃

Year End Cavalcade of Cartoons

Night Lights

"Sans Furniture" Reduction woodcut print, 8 colors, printed on Masa paper from single shina plywood block using Renaissance Graphic oil ink on an antique cast iron book press with additional burnishing via wooden spoon. Edition TBD. First print of 2018.

I love this print. Folks familiar with Hamburg know Sans Furniture, which has occupied a mid century modern building in the heart of the Village for my entire life time and beyond. While their bold storefront dominates on Buffalo Street, the rear Pine Street entrance, seen here, is cosier and more inviting. I pass by often at night on weary walks home from the bus stop, peering into the windows warm with the golden glow of artificial homescapes.

As a color mixer by trade, I'm most proud of the colors here. The sky, yellow gray with the aura of street light, the warm interior. The ceiling was a crap shoot -- I left it unfinished in my drawing, unsure how to execute.

It may be my most favorite print yet.

Well, This Is Awkward

I've talked about this in past posts: awkward stages. They usually involve the need to print a light color over a dark color, sometimes as a buffer against a bold color like red, sometimes because I forgot a color, sometimes because the second to last color just seems lighter. This color, a yellow gray, had to appear now for structural reasons -- applying ink is easier in the later states if you have more relief scattered around the block.

But it also offered a happy accident. I intended to have the sky be black, but I like this color for the sky. I think it captures the glow of sodium arc lamps in heavy humid air. I'll think about it.

The thing with awkward stages, in art and life, is just to remember that there is purpose to them, and surprises await.

Floored

For most of my formative years, up until the last decade or so, I was a night owl. You could find me at 2:00 am walking the quiet streets. A favorite place to go was the village shopping center. I loved to wander up and down the concrete walks, looking in the empty shops, quiet and cozy, with only a few lights left on. Woolworths, Pleasures & Pastimes, Ulbrich's Stationers. I can't say why I was drawn to these vacant night scenes, or why I still occasionally wander over there (P&P is now a Tuesday Morning, Woolworths is a closed tanning salon, and Ulbrich's was long ago demolished to become a Rite Aid parking lot). But a few things around there stand up against time....

Pop the Cork!

Happy New Year, folks.  I'm starting a little late on my first print of '18 -- I decided that it was time for a new brayer and new knives. Now that they're here, I've begun. Feels very good.

I want this print to be revealed as I go. As you see it develop, I'll add some observations and insight into this print, which I hope will lead to a larger exploration of the subject.

I live in the town I grew up in, a small pretty village South of Buffalo. I spent many late nights as a kid walking the streets in the wee hours, watching the business district change over the years. I saw it bustle with shoe stores and grocery stores and liquor stores, dissolve into vacant shopfronts and demolished buildings, rouse again with offices and new structures, empty out again as the economy collapsed, then surge back to life with an infusion of hipsters.

Through it all, though, there have been a few constants.....

Back & Forth

Years ago I worked in a shop with a talented printmaker who had studied under Frasconi. He showed me a number of his large portrait woodcuts, intricate and beautiful. The backgrounds, however, were just a series of scribbles made with a Steel. He commented that after the portrait was complete, he got bored. I get that, and the struggle with background is real.

I have struggled with background since I was in grade school. How tedious to detail what's BEHIND your subject. And too much detail camouflages the subject.

Luckily, I also study cartooning, and that has helped me immensely. Take any cartoon, and you will see most are not detailed, and instead they use spare symbols to impress upon a viewer the IDEA of what the symbols represent. Three rectangles in a blank field is a wall. A squiggle represents water, a few jagged spikes may be grass.

To that sensibility, I added an old technique I learned in kindergarten, but I've found traces it's roots to the surrealists: scribble drawings. I used the same technique with the Newt print, and found that it gives much depth. I imagine you will see more of this as I go.

This print was more an exercise than a work, but I'm quite happy with it. I'm very happy with the colors. I'm obsessed with photographing flowers, but I still haven't developed that as a skill for printmaking, thus the more abstract impression seen here.

Let's Have Fun, Guy!

The first print of 2017 is well underway and following close on the heels of this accomplishment is the first problem of 2017! But it was easily resolved and I'm back at it.

First, the print is a redo of a print I first began back in 2014, then tackled a couple more times. This was the last one:

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't quite what I'd wanted. It had some whimsy, and I liked the cartoony nature of it. But I felt I could have done better -- I was using lousy birch plywood, and I don't think I'd yet learned to properly sharpen my knives. Additionally, as evidenced here, I was still a long way from finding the cure for the ink problems I was having. The entire background should have been deep black, but the ink pulled back into tiny pools on the print after pulling it from the block.

All of those problems are gone now, and here is the print with two colors:

You can see the contrast really well between the light and dark colors of the mushroom. I was very, very happy with this. I hung the prints up to dry. The next morning, I went to do my next color and found this:

I photographed this so that you could still see the image, but in straight light, it looked like a brown square. The ink had dried to almost the exact color of the first color. Anyone who has painted a room or furniture knows this effect. As an ink tech for a printing company, I was extremely surprised, as I have never witnessed this with ink. I don't do a lot of tones, so it's not a huge problem, but it sure was disappointing. Luckily, I was able to print over this with a lighter version, and it looked awesome. 

Pretty As A Picture

With the addition of black, this print is complete. I would say that I have enjoyed this print more than about any since my very first prints 14 years ago.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the intention was to set this print in New Mexico. I have been through several times, and love it. However, don't go looking for this place out west - the model I used for the gas station is actually an old service station onbBuffalo's East Side. The tree is also an invention, a small homage to Gustave Baumann, the great printmaker. The blue Chevy is a tribute to my dad. The camper color is a nod to my wife.

I have done two other little camper prints, and I plan many more.

As per usual, I can only see the things I would change, little mistakes here and there. That's how I learn. But overall, it's exactly what I had pictured, and I am thrilled with the result.

Going to take some time to plan the next print, so please stay tuned!

The River's End

I'm not sure if I'm done yet. I was considering one last color, a very dark purple/black, which would mostly be the trees and the river wall. But I don't know if it will really add much to the print.

I'm very happy with this print, so happy that I've worked out the ink that has plagued my work for so long. Had I known how well this would print, I would have taken a few more risks with detail. But, that's how it goes.

I confess that it's a bit safe for a competitive piece. It doesn't have the color of "Sunflower Farm" (2014) or the light-play of "Sweet Breeze" (2015). But it conveys a mood I often feel around Buffalo's big old industrial buildings.

I'm proud of the piece, mostly because of the registration. For a decade I've used a jig that often caused me problems while printing, and sometimes moved the register n mid print. I've gotten rid of all that in favor of a kento system, which has been a pleasure to work with.  To illustrate how dead-on the register is, look at the doorway of the silo on the bottom left. Inside the doorway is a little lite -- this little spot has held through 7 colors. I usually lose at least a quarter of my prints due to register. This time, I only lost one.

I will post it when it's all dressed up in a frame and ready for the Fair.

Wind At My Back

Every year my wife and I enter various competitions in the creative arts building at the Erie County Fair (Hamburg, NY). We've been doing it for close to 15 years now, and love it every year. It's a pleasure to see such great art and craft work by our neighbors, and I'd be lying if it isn't a thrill to see a ribbon on your work. This year our craft work didn't collect any ribbons, but I was pretty surprised to find that not only did "Sweet Breeze" breeze into port flying a bright blue flag, but a green one as well. The green denotes a special prize, usually from one of the sponsors of the competition ("Autumn Camper" from a few years ago received a green from Hyatt's art supplies). And a first for me was a ribbon -- blue no less -- (AND a green) for a photograph taken at the Fair last year.

If you get a chance to attend the Fair this year, please stop by and see all of the great work from your friends and neighbors, and if you have a creative bent, PLEASE pledge to participate next year. You'll be glad you did!!!

Friday Night's All Right For Artin'

This Friday night, you may want to jaunt into the city to attend the opening of Dorothy Markert's show at the Western New York Artist's Group gallery at One Linwood Avenue in Buffalo Friday, June 5, 2015 at 7:30 pm.

I wrote about Dorothy on this blog last summer as part of my salute to artistic heroes and mentors (http://www.nappingcat.blogspot.com/2014/03/hall-of-heroes-dorothy-markert.html). She is highly regarded in the Western New York printmaking community and, as a Roycroft Master Artisan (emeritus), she commands quite a level of respect in the Arts & Crafts community nationally, if not globally.

See you there!

Maroon Loon

The second color, the eponymous maroon, went down nicely.The foundation colors are important, but you can't really see much going on until the dark colors go down. Usually, the darker colors go on way down the line, but since this is a night picture, the dark comes on quickly.

I'm still getting used to the linoleum. It cuts wonderfully, but it's easy to dent the block around the lines, so I have to keep the tools sharp. I also don't need to cut as deep as with the wood. I also need to refine the jig I use to print, as it's causing crimping of the paper in the corners. These are pretty easy issues to resolve, I think. Right now, I am just having fun doing the work, something I've been missing for a while. It's good to be back.

Erase The Past

Well, it's been a long winter in Western New York. I have a nice basement in which to work, but from December through April it barely gets above 60 degrees, which makes it pretty uncomfortable (though in July, that's exactly the temp I'd like it to be).

And, as the weather breaks and the heat rises, I get the pull to be down in the studio again. It's always a difficult start. Things run a little rough. I have to rearrange everything that got knocked out of the way during the mad rush to find Christmas decorations.

This year I have a little help. Back in January, when I was dreaming of the end of the most recent Ice Age (we've been 10 days snow free!), I signed up for a print exchange through an online printmakers group I've belonged to for the last dozen years. The deadline is today.

The print above is the third color of an as-yet-untitled print, one of the smallest I've done (not counting the Christmas ornaments from last November) (2.5x3" on a 5x7" piece of paper). The theme for the exchange was "Freedom of Expression." I batted around a few ideas, one which was pretty funny, but risque, and I have an odd sense of humor, so I went safe.

Hmmm. In creating a piece to celebrate freedom of expression, I chose to censor myself. That's very interesting.

Well, don't think too much on it, as I will be tackling that one at some point down the road. Still, the print I have is a pretty important departure for me in many ways. One, it's a pretty full concept piece, something I've attempted only a few times before (The print at right, conceived as a powerful anti-war print, remains unfinished; a planned 16-color beast  from around 2005 that I really wish I'd stuck with, though the little girl in the corner gives me the willies!).

The print above -- my very own left hand, by the way, immortalized in ink! -- demonstrates an artist removing the bars of injustice with an eraser. Pretty simple, gets the point across, I suppose. But wait til you see the naughty one!

Too Cool

February in Buffalo, New York is special. There usually aren't any big blustery storms like we had back in November. The festive twinkling lights of December have long been unplugged. The echoes of holiday warmth have died out over the course of snowy January.

February. It's the shortest month of the year. But it's really the longest month, if you know what I mean. It's the deep freeze month, when all of the snow that has fallen turns into a browning gray block of rock hard ice. Tempers are short, you start climbing the walls. One of the best depictions of winter in my opinion is "Valley Winter Song" by Fountains of Wayne, which features the verse:

 And late December

Can drag a man down
You feel it deep in your gut
Short days and afternoons spent pottering around
In a dark house with the windows painted shut

Late December? Mmmm, not here. No, this verse perfectly matches up with February.

But, when you're an artist, you always got sunshine in a bag, right? Well, sorta. I mean, assuming you can force the clouds out of your head and get to whatever media you use. I'm lucky in that I have a large space to work in, a clean, dry basement. I went down there this weekend to get things straightened up. This is how my wife found me:

While the basement is great in the summer, at a near constant 68 degrees, right now it's about 58. But I'm pressing on. I'll have to bring the ink upstairs to warm up and grab a sweatshirt, but I have to do something to beat the winter doldrums away!

Sale Ends Sunday!

CHRISTMAS SALE ENDS SUNDAY 12/21/2014
Click on the press at the top of the page to get the great holiday deal! Order now for Christmas delivery!

More Pressing Issues

Sorry for the lack of updates. Weather's been a little wild here in western New York. This was day one.

Day 2.

Then it got nice!

Then it got bad again. The mound in the middle is where my mailbox used to be.

Etsy Review: Candy Canes Ornament

Welcome to Shameless Promotion Week here at Napping Cat Press. All this week I will be enticing you to pop over to the www.etsy.com/shop/nappingcatpress site to take a look-see at all the new merch.

Starting off is this piece, a collaboration between Amy and I. I, of course, made the print, a two color job in an edition of six. Amy handled the framing and adornments. I do anticipate making this a tradition, so start your collection today!

The piece is 4"x4".. The frame is black plastic with plate glass, and can be hung with the attached cord on a wall or your Christmas tree, or you can use the attached easel-back to set on a table.

Ships within 24 hours, US Priority Mail.

Back In The Saddle

Had a great time at the Nature's Gathering event for Reinstein Woods. It was my first showing in about 5 years. Thank you to Amy for all of her hard work in putting the display together and keeping me sane.

I'm taking a day off to clean up the house and get some rest, but I'll be updating the etsy site. Please check back here, go to www.etsy.com/shop/nappingcatpress or follow me at www.facebook.com/pages/Napping-Cat-Press/262140577451.

Oh, and one of my favorite things about shows is learning new things from people, things you may never otherwise find out. For example, you all know my print of the Desoto Motel in Olean. Well, a visitor from the Bradford, PA area clued me into a similar looking piece of real estate down there. Awesome!

My Ship Came In

Here's a  terrible picture of a pretty nice print. I had been planning a different print altogether, but that one needs more drawing out. To keep my printing muscles limber, I decided to do a fairly simple print. Clocking it at a mere 5 colors, it was a fun weekend job.

Boats and water are a recurring subject in my work. This is an irony, since I get terribly, awfully, horribly seasick. Honestly, I have no idea how my family came to America back in the day. But I love the idea of water, and boats, and the whole nautical image.

The palette here is blues and grays, which works very well for this print. I am planning a companion piece featuring the windmills along the Lake Erie shore. That's going to be down the road a bit. Right now I want to jump on something with some bright colors. Any requests?